An Evening with Severyn Grimes by Rich Larson

"An Evening With Severyn Grimes" by Rich Larson 

This story came out of the July/August 2017 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction.  The story was written by Rich Larson. 

This was an interesting story.  It had everything you could want in futuristic adventure stories.  Hackers abound in this story along with political activists and activism.  It had daring kidnapping, and sound wave hacking, along with a mother's love and a deal with the devil.  Somehow Rich Larson fit it all into this short read. 

A man, Pierce, wearing a Fawkes mask, and a woman, Girasol, are in a dank room with a single chair.  They talked as Girasol sat down in the silicone chair and opened her neural port at the top of her spine.  Pierce took out a vial of liquid called Hypnotic and shot it into Girasol vein.  Slowly, Girasol lowered her neural port to the plug beneath the chair.  After connecting the neural port and being in a deep sleep from the Hypnotic she merged onto the data stream of the world.  Riding the sound waves of the world and manipulating the data that commands everything in reality. 

Severyn Grimes was the second wealthiest man alive.  He was also living forever through volunteer bodies.  Volunteer bodies are people who allow other people to upload their data core and take over their body, but with their old thoughts and memories. 

Grimes was watching cage matches between puppets.  Soon he grew bored of watching the men pummel each other into a bloody pulp and decided to call it a night.  Grimes and his bodyguard, Finch, walked out of the fight and took his limo out on the town. 

As they were riding along, the limo malfunctioned.  Finch, accessing the system analysis through the optical dashboard visible with his eyes, announced it was just something with the exhaust pipe.  Pulling over, Finch jumped out to take care of whatever was wrong with the limo.  Then shit became real very fast. 

Finch was ambushed and taken by a group of men wearing Fawkes masks.  A voice came over the limo speakers and started talking to Grimes.  The voice was telling him that he was going to die.  That what he did was wrong.  Taking and using puppets to live forever was wrong and he abused the people he used for that purpose.  The voice made the threat that after that night he wouldn’t be using another person for a puppet. 

Soon Grimes was going to die, unless he could find a way out of this mess.  He also wondered who the voice was talking to him.  Was the voice someone he could manipulate?  Was the voice really planning on killing him, or was there an ulterior motive.  Soon Grimes was going to find out the answer to all the questions he had.  The question then became was it something he was going to like. 

I really dug this story.  It was action packed and never had a dull moment.  This story had me hooked from the first pages.  Already I was asking the question what is going on here, and what are they planning on doing.  I couldn't wait to find out.  

  

The story was futuristic and portrayed an interesting backdrop on how life could be after the singularity.  What would the future be like if people could live forever?  Would only the rich have access to this type of life, or would everyone have the ability if they so desired?  In this story only the rich had the ability because they had the money to pay people off for their bodies. 

Tension was from the get go.  The tension built and built, never letting you go.  The story was intense, but in a good way.  You just always had the feeling like the other shoe was going to drop any time, but you just weren't sure when, or what it would be. 

This is yet another story of why Rich Larson is fast becoming a well-known name in the SF community.  I have yet to read a story of his that I didn't love.  I can't wait to read another story he wrote. 

Overall, look for this story.  I highly recommend it if cyber-punk is your thing.  If cyber-punk is not your thing, I still recommend this story.  The story is more SF thriller than punk.  It's not hardcore cyber-punk, but it has that feel to it.  I don't think you will be disappointed in this story either way.

Prodigal by Gord Sellar

"Prodigal" by Gord Sellar 

Prodigal was originally published in Analog Magazine, December 2016 issue.  It was then published in the "The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Vol. 2" edited by Neil Clarke. 

As a dog lover I really enjoyed this story.  The premise of the story is actually something that I think about quite often, in fact I think most people who have had a dog have had these thoughts.  What if a dog could talk?  This story attempted to answer that question. 

A couple, Tim and Jennifer, who were having trouble conceiving a child decided to have a sentientization procedure done to their dog, Benji.  The procedure added vocal chords and changed the way Benji's brain was wired.  The procedure allowed Benji's brain to create neural pathways to think in more human terms and speak in human terms. 

The procedure wasn't instant and took time for the pathways in Benji's brain to be created and connected to the proper channels.  During this time Benji was learning how to speak and getting better with passing time as the pathways were created.  However, even with the procedure Benji's dog vocal chords made it hard to pronounce certain words so it would be hard to understand him sometimes. 

Eventually Benji started speaking, so much, sometimes Tim wished he could shut him up.  Just like a dog might, he would ask question after question and never fully understand the answer because he lacked the human experience.  Then one day Benji asked why dogs get euthanized for not having homes or families, but humans do not.  Tim couldn't come up with a good answer.  It wouldn't matter anyways because Benji was very much botherd by the euthanizing of dogs.  Benji's question raised an alarm for Tim though and he wondered were Benji was getting all these ideas from. 

The answer came one day when Tim walked into the room while Benji was watching TV.  There was a channel specifically for sentientized dogs, hosted by other sentient dogs.  They were talking about the politics of dogs vs humans.  How humans treat dogs like second class citizens when they were given intelligence just like humans.  Tim now knew where Benji was getting some of his ideas.  There was something else that bothered Tim as well. 

Benji was learning to read and speak much better than he ever should have been able.  He was rapidly progressing and Tim wasn't sure how that was possible.  Only really expensive procedures were supposed to give dogs the extra abilities.  Tim and Jennifer did not pick the expensive option so therefore Benji should not be smart enough to do some of the things he was doing. 

Benji was getting more and more agitated about the dogs vs human dilemma.  Tim wasn't sure what to do.  Soon Tim had other problems on his hands, bigger problems.  One day Benji ran away.  Tim searched everywhere for Benji, but could not find him.  Where could he have gone? 

This was a great animal story.  It brought into focus how animals are treated and how humans think about animals.  It also gave an idea of what might happen if dogs ever were given human intelligence.  The ability to speak and think as humans do. 

I think dog lover will love this story.  It will give them a pause to think about that age-old question every dog owner has wondered about.  What would life be like with a dog that could speak to you.  That could sense your emotions, hear a pin drop from 3 rooms away, where nothing you do is really a secret. 

Also what would the dogs do?  How would dogs take to the fact that they were confined in a house all day, or left in the backyard?  What if they started to vocalize their discontent at living a dogs life? 

This story overall is entertaining yet sobering.  The animal rights are at the forefront of this story.  It's not a pretty picture, but the author does a great job of making an entertaining story out of serious topic.