1jjmcgaffey
Posting with permission from a friend on another site:
"Quoting my Facebook post:
I want to find out information about a short story I read a few decades ago and I'm afraid my description is going to turn into one of those tales Librarians tell when explaining why they drink.
I forget the author, the plot, and almost everything about the characters. I do believe the main character was male and generally normal except for one ability. That is, any time he did some thing for the last time, he knew with complete certainty that it *was* the last time. I don't remember whether that extended beyond personal actions.
The story was fairly likely to have been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and perhaps in the first half of the 1990s...eh, maybe.
Anyone else remember it? Any facts or extra details?"
I'll pass on any suggestions to the original poster.
"Quoting my Facebook post:
I want to find out information about a short story I read a few decades ago and I'm afraid my description is going to turn into one of those tales Librarians tell when explaining why they drink.
I forget the author, the plot, and almost everything about the characters. I do believe the main character was male and generally normal except for one ability. That is, any time he did some thing for the last time, he knew with complete certainty that it *was* the last time. I don't remember whether that extended beyond personal actions.
The story was fairly likely to have been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and perhaps in the first half of the 1990s...eh, maybe.
Anyone else remember it? Any facts or extra details?"
I'll pass on any suggestions to the original poster.
2dukedom_enough
I'm sure I've read this and am trying to think where/when. I do subscribe to F&SF, so maybe there.
3DisassemblyOfReason
The 'knowing the last time he did things' is something that happens in Three Days to Never by Tim Powers.
Example: The man in question knows at one point (it gives him cold chills, not surprisingly) that he's just heard the name 'John Wayne' spoken for the last time. (Hearing anything famous or otherwise common for the last time is really bad, in this context...)
Three Days to Never is a full-length book, but it could have been reviewed / excerpted / etc. for the magazine.
I should add - this man isn't *the* main character - the story has something of an ensemble cast. It features time travel with various changes being made to history and has various spies / agents running around. (The character who knows the last time he did things is a Mossad agent, I believe.)
One thing I remember is that there is a creepy silent film featured in the storyline that is I think an extremely obscure Charlie Chaplin work (not at all a comedy).
Example: The man in question knows at one point (it gives him cold chills, not surprisingly) that he's just heard the name 'John Wayne' spoken for the last time. (Hearing anything famous or otherwise common for the last time is really bad, in this context...)
Three Days to Never is a full-length book, but it could have been reviewed / excerpted / etc. for the magazine.
I should add - this man isn't *the* main character - the story has something of an ensemble cast. It features time travel with various changes being made to history and has various spies / agents running around. (The character who knows the last time he did things is a Mossad agent, I believe.)
One thing I remember is that there is a creepy silent film featured in the storyline that is I think an extremely obscure Charlie Chaplin work (not at all a comedy).
4jjmcgaffey
Huh. I'll pass that on - maybe "minor character" produced enough distance to make it feel like an old magazine story? I'll see what they say.
5dukedom_enough
>3 DisassemblyOfReason: Aha, I did read Three Days to Never, so this is likely what I'm remembering.
6jjmcgaffey
They say they did read it once but don't really remember, so will go look it up. It's one of the few Tim Powers books I haven't read, maybe I'll take a look myself.
7dukedom_enough
>6 jjmcgaffey: Not his best.
8jjmcgaffey
I've just realized scenes from The Drawing of the Dark have popped up in my head five or six times in the last week. Guess it's time for a reread of that one...
