Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes
2012 Nebula Award Nominee for Best Short Story
Our first piece of audio fiction for April is "Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes" written by Tom Crosshill and read by Kate Baker.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Crosshill's fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award, and has appeared in venues such as Intergalactic Medicine Show, Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Lightspeed. In 2009, he won the Writers of the Future contest. After many years spent in Oregon and New York, he currently lives in his native Latvia. He's a satellite member of the writers' group Altered Fluid. In the past, he has operated a nuclear reactor, translated books and worked in a zinc mine, among other things.
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ISSN 1937-7843 Clarkesworld Magazine © 2006-2020 Wyrm Publishing. Robot illustration by Serj Iulian.
Noel wrote on April 2nd, 2012 at 9:02 am:
I now need to go take a walk outside, get some daylight lift my sombre mood after that pod. I don’t think I could live in a world where it would be Impossible to mourn loved ones and let them live in your memories and stories. I think that’s one of the better sides to grief, the ability to tell your children, friends of the ones you have lost in tales so they become legend to you and are remembered for great things you did with them as a child or any other experience throughout your life.
Once again a pleasure to listen to the pod Kate does such an amazing job putting all that emotion into telling it. Really strikes up the emotion puts you right there. Thanks again for amazing pod.
Sam Hill wrote on April 20th, 2012 at 2:05 pm:
Wow. I was preparing, at the start, for some sort of pseudo-cyberpunk/augmented human tale. What a pleasant and thought provoking surprise this proved to be.
Crosshill's penetrating treatment of change, from within and without, is one of the more engaging pieces, for me, that Kate's read in a while.
Is it because my own mother is of an age where her transition weighs ever increasingly on my mind? Was it the thought of all the changes, personas, professions and positions I've gone through in the course of my more than half century on the planet that resonated? Perhaps it was the contemplation of the various people who stepped onto my life's stage, and their permutations.
For whatever reason, this is one of a handful of pieces I'll happily revisit again, just to see if I can squeeze a bit more from it.
Thanks to Neil for choosing it, the author for writing it and to Kate for giving the story voice.