Ray Wood (4) (1990–)

More like a 4.5, this story had an almost flawless noir-style voice from the first-person narrator coupled with straightforward world-building, though it's difficul to determine what kind of society this is taking place in (it reminds me a lot of Brandon Sanderson's recent novella Snapshot, where there's one science fiction element in an otherwise contemporary time period). It stayed consistent and we discover about the narrator's heisen implant in a variety of ways as though to make sure we show more understand the quantum physics behind it (which is sometimes repetitive). Add to this that the mystery plot was well-structured enough to be a taut fit to the format of a short story, and you've got one bomb short-story. show less

I thought this was a great concept, and the writing was very good. I suppose the only reason I didn't rate it higher is because I wasn't completely happy with the story itself. The background stuff about the Detective's ex and child seemed sort of forced in there. And I am often skeptical of Schrodinger's Cat references that don't acknowledge the fact that Schrodinger himself never intended this thought experiment to represent a real possibility. But. I do think the way the potential show more universes are represented in this story is good. That's just my personal weird pet peeve. This was definitely a good story. show less

Maybe I'm too dumb to get the ending. Or maybe I'm just not convinced of the theory that there are alternate universes out there where different versions of us live. I'll read about that someday and maybe come back to this. Until then, I'm giving this short story three stars.

(Anyone is welcome to explain the ending to me...)

This was very good. On plot and characterization alone, I probably would have given it four stars, but the writing is absolutely wonderful.