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And the Deep Blue Sea
Reminiscent of both "Damnation Alley" by Roger Zelazny and "The Postman" by David Brin, "And the Deep Blue Sea" offers almost three stories for the price of one.
19 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 27, 2012
47 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Bear
312 books2,463 followersWhat Goodreads really needs is a "currently WRITING" option for its default bookshelves...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 1, 2021
Sfârşitul lumii venise şi trecuse. Se dovedise că, pe termen lung, n‑avea cine ştie ce importanţă.
Corespondenţa trebuia să ajungă la destinaţie.
Harrie semnă hârtiile din ziua precedentă, verifică datele cu ajutorul calendarului, îşi contemplă o clipă semnătura şi închise stiloul. Cântări în mână butoiaşul metalic şi întâlni ochii decoloraţi ai lui Dispatch.
― Ce‑i atât de deosebit la călătoria asta?
El ridică din umeri şi răsuci mapa pe tejghea, verificând fiecare foaie ca să fie sigur că ea le completase aşa cum trebuia. Harrie nu se obosi să se uite. Nu greşea niciodată.
― Trebuie să fie ceva deosebit?
― Tu nu mă plăteşti niciodată dacă nu e ceva ieşit din comun, Patch.
Zâmbi când îl văzu săltând pe tejghea o casetă bine etanşată, de oţel.
― Asta trebuie să ajungă la Sacramento în opt ore, spuse el.
― Ce e înăuntru?
― Articole medicale. Culturi de celule stern fetale. Într‑un recipient cu climat controlat. Temperatura nu trebuie să fie prea ridicată sau prea scăzută, există o formulă secretă care spune cât timp pot supravieţui în această cantitate de mediu de cultură, iar clientul plăteşte o sumă foarte frumoasă să le vadă în California la ora optsprezece.
― Acum e aproape zece. Ce‑nseamnă temperatură prea ridicată sau prea scăzută? se interesă, cântărind în mână caseta.
Era mai uşoară decât părea; ar fi intrat fără efort în geanta de şa a motocicletei ei.
― Nu mai ridicată decât cea de acum, răspunse Dispatch, tamponându‑şi fruntea. Poţi face livrarea?
― Opt ore? De la Phoenix la Sacramento? făcu ea şi se lăsă pe spate să verifice poziţia soarelui. O s‑o iau prin Vegas. De la Marele Dezastru încoace drumurile din California nu mai fac nici două parale când vrei să călătoreşti în viteză.
― N-aş trimite pe nimeni altcineva. Drumul cel mai scurt e prin Reno.
― Din partea asta a barajului şi până la Tonopah nu se găseşte benzină pe nicăieri. Nici cardul meu de curier n‑o să‑mi fie de folos acolo…
― În Boulder City există un punct de control. Aia de acolo or să‑ţi dea combustibil.
― Un punct de control militar?
― Ţi‑am spus, clientul plăteşte foarte bine.
Ridică din umerii deja lucind de sudoare. Îi aştepta o zi toridă. Harrie presupuse că în Phoenix temperatura avea să atingă vreo cincizeci de grade.
Corespondenţa trebuia să ajungă la destinaţie.
Harrie semnă hârtiile din ziua precedentă, verifică datele cu ajutorul calendarului, îşi contemplă o clipă semnătura şi închise stiloul. Cântări în mână butoiaşul metalic şi întâlni ochii decoloraţi ai lui Dispatch.
― Ce‑i atât de deosebit la călătoria asta?
El ridică din umeri şi răsuci mapa pe tejghea, verificând fiecare foaie ca să fie sigur că ea le completase aşa cum trebuia. Harrie nu se obosi să se uite. Nu greşea niciodată.
― Trebuie să fie ceva deosebit?
― Tu nu mă plăteşti niciodată dacă nu e ceva ieşit din comun, Patch.
Zâmbi când îl văzu săltând pe tejghea o casetă bine etanşată, de oţel.
― Asta trebuie să ajungă la Sacramento în opt ore, spuse el.
― Ce e înăuntru?
― Articole medicale. Culturi de celule stern fetale. Într‑un recipient cu climat controlat. Temperatura nu trebuie să fie prea ridicată sau prea scăzută, există o formulă secretă care spune cât timp pot supravieţui în această cantitate de mediu de cultură, iar clientul plăteşte o sumă foarte frumoasă să le vadă în California la ora optsprezece.
― Acum e aproape zece. Ce‑nseamnă temperatură prea ridicată sau prea scăzută? se interesă, cântărind în mână caseta.
Era mai uşoară decât părea; ar fi intrat fără efort în geanta de şa a motocicletei ei.
― Nu mai ridicată decât cea de acum, răspunse Dispatch, tamponându‑şi fruntea. Poţi face livrarea?
― Opt ore? De la Phoenix la Sacramento? făcu ea şi se lăsă pe spate să verifice poziţia soarelui. O s‑o iau prin Vegas. De la Marele Dezastru încoace drumurile din California nu mai fac nici două parale când vrei să călătoreşti în viteză.
― N-aş trimite pe nimeni altcineva. Drumul cel mai scurt e prin Reno.
― Din partea asta a barajului şi până la Tonopah nu se găseşte benzină pe nicăieri. Nici cardul meu de curier n‑o să‑mi fie de folos acolo…
― În Boulder City există un punct de control. Aia de acolo or să‑ţi dea combustibil.
― Un punct de control militar?
― Ţi‑am spus, clientul plăteşte foarte bine.
Ridică din umerii deja lucind de sudoare. Îi aştepta o zi toridă. Harrie presupuse că în Phoenix temperatura avea să atingă vreo cincizeci de grade.
March 6, 2013
I have read a lot of good things about Elizabeth Bear, but I seems I made a very bad choice with Mammoth Books Presents and the Deep Blue Sea, a short story mistakenly advertised on Amazon.co.uk as a novel ("Print Length: 300 pages" see: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0...).
The "introduction" by Mike Ashley (all of about twelve Kindle-lines long ...) compares it to Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny and The Postman by David Brin. Now I have read and enjoyed many anthologies edited by Mike Ashley, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt and not further comment on that "introduction".
The short story is okay-ish, I guess. Since it is very short, giving a summary would inevitably spoil it, suffice to say it is about a young girl's one-day motorcycle journey in the Western part of the U.S.
I will most certainly give another Elizabeth Bear-book a try, but I simply can not recommend this story. Sorry.
The "introduction" by Mike Ashley (all of about twelve Kindle-lines long ...) compares it to Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny and The Postman by David Brin. Now I have read and enjoyed many anthologies edited by Mike Ashley, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt and not further comment on that "introduction".
The short story is okay-ish, I guess. Since it is very short, giving a summary would inevitably spoil it, suffice to say it is about a young girl's one-day motorcycle journey in the Western part of the U.S.
I will most certainly give another Elizabeth Bear-book a try, but I simply can not recommend this story. Sorry.
October 23, 2024
Read as part of “Wastelands” anthology. Copied from my review on that:
[A] good [story]. It has a Twilighy Zone-y vibe and I only recognized the weirdness after the halfway mark in the story. I’m not sure I quite get the point of it though. I get “the twist”, I think, but it’s rather superficial. It feels like there should be a deeper meaning to the story, but I didn’t find one. Could be I’m missing it.
#SPOILER ALERT#
In case someone is wondering what superficial twist I’m talking about - the way I understand it, Nick is the Devil and Harrie has a 10-year contract with him that postponed her death and ensured the success of her runs as a messenger. Her contract is about to expire, and Nick is tempting her with an offer to renegotiate, to extend the contract for another 7 years, since if she dies now, she is likely to go to Hell. The price of this is letting him mess with the package she was tasked to deliver on her current run. She refuses the offer, because messing with the package is going to cost a lot of people their lives, as Harrie guesses and Nick freely admits. As a result, Nick keeps putting obstacles on her way through an already devastated landscape of post-world-end USA, which is filled with ghost cities and covered in radiation. The obstacles take form of the worst disasters throughout human history (like Chernobyl or Bhopal toxic leak) materializing in place of the towns and gas stations that Harrie was planning to stop at. In a moment of weakness, when she’s considering changing her mind on Nick’s offer, Harrie opens the package and finds a note inside warning her that if she fails to deliver the package intact, the destination city (Sacramento) is going to be the next to be consumed by disaster, making it part of Nick’s hellscape. This seals the deal for Harrie, who decides to do the right thing. If Nick stops her, Sacramento will be lost to another catastrophe (the package contains stem cells, presumably for research of a cure to some disease - leukemia is mentioned in the story), but she will be free of him (and Hell). If he doesn’t, she will be his to torment once her contract expires, but Sacramento will be saved.
I’m not sure what Buddha had to do with anything though, and why he needed to be killed.
[A] good [story]. It has a Twilighy Zone-y vibe and I only recognized the weirdness after the halfway mark in the story. I’m not sure I quite get the point of it though. I get “the twist”, I think, but it’s rather superficial. It feels like there should be a deeper meaning to the story, but I didn’t find one. Could be I’m missing it.
#SPOILER ALERT#
In case someone is wondering what superficial twist I’m talking about - the way I understand it, Nick is the Devil and Harrie has a 10-year contract with him that postponed her death and ensured the success of her runs as a messenger. Her contract is about to expire, and Nick is tempting her with an offer to renegotiate, to extend the contract for another 7 years, since if she dies now, she is likely to go to Hell. The price of this is letting him mess with the package she was tasked to deliver on her current run. She refuses the offer, because messing with the package is going to cost a lot of people their lives, as Harrie guesses and Nick freely admits. As a result, Nick keeps putting obstacles on her way through an already devastated landscape of post-world-end USA, which is filled with ghost cities and covered in radiation. The obstacles take form of the worst disasters throughout human history (like Chernobyl or Bhopal toxic leak) materializing in place of the towns and gas stations that Harrie was planning to stop at. In a moment of weakness, when she’s considering changing her mind on Nick’s offer, Harrie opens the package and finds a note inside warning her that if she fails to deliver the package intact, the destination city (Sacramento) is going to be the next to be consumed by disaster, making it part of Nick’s hellscape. This seals the deal for Harrie, who decides to do the right thing. If Nick stops her, Sacramento will be lost to another catastrophe (the package contains stem cells, presumably for research of a cure to some disease - leukemia is mentioned in the story), but she will be free of him (and Hell). If he doesn’t, she will be his to torment once her contract expires, but Sacramento will be saved.
I’m not sure what Buddha had to do with anything though, and why he needed to be killed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 31, 2017
I read this for my interpreting literature class. I did not have a strong feeling towards the story. I found it to be well written, but I was not intrigued, and found it to be quite mundane for a dystopian story.
July 4, 2025
Made me want to know more. Hoping there is more, if not then it’s disappointing.
August 20, 2015
I didn't understand this story at all. It didn't make any sense to me.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews