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Schrödinger's Gun
Of all the crime scenes in all the timelines in all the multiverse, Detective O'Harren walks into the basement on West 21st. In every possible universe, Johnny Rivers is dead. But the questions that need answering--who killed him and why--are still a matter of uncertainty.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
26 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 18, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 27, 2019
In every crime scene every one of me was looking at, he lay face-down on the floor with two bullets in his back.
this is a neat little futuristic sci-fi noir story in which crimes can be solved by accessing any number of possible timelines by a detective with a heisen implant stuck in their brain. in this story, we have detective o'harren, a woman working in future-chicago, confronted with a corpse of a bootlegger and mobster called johnny rivers.
the story is full of the language of your typical noir:
It was one of those drab Chicago winters, the kind where every sunrise brings fresh bodies on the sidewalks.
but also full of those brain-boggles that occur when authors get a little frisky with the quantum physics:
Other universes closed around me. I clung to the possibility thread that I had plucked out from the throng, visualizing it as a literal rope clutched in my fist. I felt like I was falling—the walls lurched briefly into the ceiling—then all at once I stopped, and I was standing in the basement—just one of them—listening to the faint wash of traffic on the street outside.
it's an interesting and thought-provoking little story that playfully subverts the noir genre and also inserts a little emotional drama about the consequences of being able to see not only the future, but a variety of different futures, and how that can really put a strain on a marriage. and it's also got a nice pop of an ending.
the whole schrödinger's cat thing is always a fun little mindgame, and can be a fun physical game if you have one of these things that i bought for greg.
and while most of the comments on the thread following the story on the tor site seem mind = blown by one of the cool lines in the story, i preferred this one:
That’s one thing they don’t tell you about Schrödinger’s cat: you leave the lid on the box too long and the damn thing starves regardless. No quantum possibilities required.
but you make up your own mind.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/stories/2015/02/sc...
come to my blog!
this is a neat little futuristic sci-fi noir story in which crimes can be solved by accessing any number of possible timelines by a detective with a heisen implant stuck in their brain. in this story, we have detective o'harren, a woman working in future-chicago, confronted with a corpse of a bootlegger and mobster called johnny rivers.
the story is full of the language of your typical noir:
It was one of those drab Chicago winters, the kind where every sunrise brings fresh bodies on the sidewalks.
but also full of those brain-boggles that occur when authors get a little frisky with the quantum physics:
Other universes closed around me. I clung to the possibility thread that I had plucked out from the throng, visualizing it as a literal rope clutched in my fist. I felt like I was falling—the walls lurched briefly into the ceiling—then all at once I stopped, and I was standing in the basement—just one of them—listening to the faint wash of traffic on the street outside.
it's an interesting and thought-provoking little story that playfully subverts the noir genre and also inserts a little emotional drama about the consequences of being able to see not only the future, but a variety of different futures, and how that can really put a strain on a marriage. and it's also got a nice pop of an ending.
the whole schrödinger's cat thing is always a fun little mindgame, and can be a fun physical game if you have one of these things that i bought for greg.
and while most of the comments on the thread following the story on the tor site seem mind = blown by one of the cool lines in the story, i preferred this one:
That’s one thing they don’t tell you about Schrödinger’s cat: you leave the lid on the box too long and the damn thing starves regardless. No quantum possibilities required.
but you make up your own mind.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/stories/2015/02/sc...
come to my blog!
April 27, 2023
When Erwin Schrödinger came up with his catchy mockery of the absurdist implications of some quantum mechanics interpretations he likely never even imagined that in the collective mind his memorable example of a cat simultaneously dead and alive¹ until the possibilities are collapsed into a single state by the power of observation would forever become the definite "that's it!" quantum theory postulate.
It's a determinedly noir story set in the 1930s-feel Chicago full of gangsters and cold crime and moonshine - and also somehow equipped with technology that allows the implantation of a heisen device (immediately leading to the thought of Heisenberg uncertainty principle) into a person's brain, allowing that person to see the endless possibilities spreading out from any event and to grab onto whichever of those possibilities you would like to see happen.
¹The principle was then realistically expanded in Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies:But the idea of the many possibilities just waiting to be collapsed into one remains catching and, unlike the poor cat, definitely alive, and that's what the short Tor.com story Schrödinger’s Gun capitalizes on - the instant recognition of the principle.
"Technically, a cat locked in a box may be alive or it may be dead. You never know until you look. In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious."
It's a determinedly noir story set in the 1930s-feel Chicago full of gangsters and cold crime and moonshine - and also somehow equipped with technology that allows the implantation of a heisen device (immediately leading to the thought of Heisenberg uncertainty principle) into a person's brain, allowing that person to see the endless possibilities spreading out from any event and to grab onto whichever of those possibilities you would like to see happen.
"Shadows of those possibilities stretched out on either side of us, rows of doppelgangers interviewing and being interviewed, as though Kitty and I were caught between two mirrors."It seems like a great aid to a grim noir detective (who, in the defiance of the noir conventions, is a woman - but after all, it's sci-fi noir with a little less gender biases). It may even seem like a worthy enough personal sacrifice to solve crime - even if it is only in one of the endless possibilities.
“Why bother?” he had asked me once. “Even if you bring this guy down now there’s gonna be about a million other universes where he gets away scot free, right?”[...]And personal sacrifice it is indeed. In parallel with the main storyline of the novella focusing on the murder of a Chicago mobster and an accidentally dropped titular gun in the middle of a grim unfriendly winter and the black-and-white film feel of the story there is another narrative line highlighting the isolation of living with a possibilities generation that has become a permanent part of you.
“Because if I don’t bother,” I said, “he gets away in a million and one.”
"My baby girl, my joy, my Sarah—for those first few weeks I couldn’t look at her. Not without seeing a spectrum of all that she could or might or would never be, every glorious and terrifying possibility fanning out around her. I brushed against universes in which I slipped and dropped her off the balcony, or accidentally smothered her beneath a blanket. They were outside chances, but they followed me like specters. Rick was no better. He was suddenly a million different people—Rick if I said this, Rick if I said that; Rick who could fall out or back in love with me a thousand different ways—and I withdrew, not knowing which of him I loved."This story is definitely memorable with its stark contrast between the black-and-white smoke-filled noir tone and the existence of the possibilities-bending technology, wholly unexplained and therefore even more interesting. It's the mixture of vintage and futuristic, and this improbable mixture works improbably exactly like the mass-appealing idea of a cat both alive and dead, leading to the ending that us both frustrating and, of course, completely logically inevitable.
"That’s one thing they don’t tell you about Schrödinger’s cat: you leave the lid on the box too long and the damn thing starves regardless. No quantum possibilities required."
March 10, 2017
As the title had indicated, there is multi-universe possibilities theme. The story showed it beautifully how to use a technology based on the Erwin Schrödinger's paradox. Without spoiler to the plot, I can only say the ending is great, the strong point of this short story.
There is a big potential to enhance the theme into full length novel. Maybe in a universe that already happened. I pity the universes where this story has not been written or published.
There is a big potential to enhance the theme into full length novel. Maybe in a universe that already happened. I pity the universes where this story has not been written or published.
July 10, 2015
A 1930's film noir type of detective gets an implant in her head (called a heisen) and the universe explodes for her with different possibilities.
She can view the same scene in different universes, choose which possibilities to explore, see what clues show up in which universes, and pull a particular universe option into her own reality. This can be a great for solving crimes--even when it's just one more dead mobster--but can wreak havoc with your personal life:
- In one universe I was entranced by the imaginative prose in this story: "Shadows of those possibilities stretched out on either side of us, rows of doppelgangers interviewing and being interviewed, as though Kitty and I were caught between two mirrors."
- In one universe I was distracted by trying to figure out how a futuristic surgical implant technology and procedure made its way into 1930's Chicago.
- In one universe I was getting a kick out of the application of the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment to this story.
- In one universe I was intrigued by the ambiguous ending. In another I was disappointed by it.
- In none of these universes did I regret reading this short story.
Free online Tor.com story here.
She can view the same scene in different universes, choose which possibilities to explore, see what clues show up in which universes, and pull a particular universe option into her own reality. This can be a great for solving crimes--even when it's just one more dead mobster--but can wreak havoc with your personal life:
My baby girl, my joy, my Sarah—for those first few weeks I couldn’t look at her. Not without seeing a spectrum of all that she could or might or would never be, every glorious and terrifying possibility fanning out around her. I brushed against universes in which I slipped and dropped her off the balcony, or accidentally smothered her beneath a blanket. They were outside chances, but they followed me like specters. Rick was no better. He was suddenly a million different people—Rick if I said this, Rick if I said that; Rick who could fall out or back in love with me a thousand different ways—and I withdrew, not knowing which of him I loved.I experienced my own personal multiverse of possibilities while I was reading this short story:
- In one universe I was entranced by the imaginative prose in this story: "Shadows of those possibilities stretched out on either side of us, rows of doppelgangers interviewing and being interviewed, as though Kitty and I were caught between two mirrors."
- In one universe I was distracted by trying to figure out how a futuristic surgical implant technology and procedure made its way into 1930's Chicago.
- In one universe I was getting a kick out of the application of the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment to this story.
- In one universe I was intrigued by the ambiguous ending. In another I was disappointed by it.
- In none of these universes did I regret reading this short story.
Free online Tor.com story here.
March 13, 2017
A detective story, set in Chicago, full of cliches. The only interesting part in it was the 'heisen' implant which provided access to all the possible universes at the same time and see the alternatives in an investigation. It also provided insight and multiple choices in the detective's personal life but this thread was not developed enough. The ending was the worst of all the viable endings in all the viable universes...
http://www.tor.com/2015/02/18/schroed...
http://www.tor.com/2015/02/18/schroed...
May 5, 2015
Description: Of all the crime scenes in all the timelines in all the multiverse, Detective O’Harren walks into the basement on West 21st. In every possible universe, Johnny Rivers is dead. But the questions that need answering--who killed him and why--are still a matter of uncertainty.
http://www.tor.com/stories/2015/02/sc...Opening: I could reach no possibilities in which Johnny Rivers—wise guy, bootlegger, crook with his eye on the big time—still clung to life. In every crime scene every one of me was looking at, he lay face-down on the floor with two bullets in his back. It was a pity. Not because Chicago was particularly the worse off for one more dead mobster, but because murders are murders, and solving Johnny’s would have been a whole lot easier if he’d lived long enough to tell me who had pulled the trigger. Maybe, in another universe, another me had shown up sooner and had gotten something out of him.
March 19, 2015
Of all the crime scenes in all the timelines in all the multiverse, Detective O’Harren walks into the basement on West 21st. In every possible universe, Johnny Rivers is dead. But the questions that need answering—who killed him and why—are still a matter of uncertainty..
I could reach no possibilities in which Johnny Rivers—wise guy, bootlegger, crook with his eye on the big time—still clung to life. In every crime scene every one of me was looking at, he lay face-down on the floor with two bullets in his back. It was a pity. Not because Chicago was particularly the worse off for one more dead mobster, but because murders are murders, and solving Johnny’s would have been a whole lot easier if he’d lived long enough to tell me who had pulled the trigger. Maybe, in another universe, another me had shown up sooner and had gotten something out of him.
An interesting noir-sort of scifi- type story.. the concept of an implant that shows you dozens of possibilities at a crime scene was a fun one.
While I loved the idea, at times I had trouble believing it... wondering how it worked exactly and what happens with the other possibilities in the other timelines/realities. Did solving Johnny's murder in one prevent the crime from happening in the others, or was it still going on?
That didn't come exactly how I had it in my head but that's the general idea.
The personal stuff about Detective O’Harren felt like an interruption to the flow of the story, I sympathized a little with her... can't imagine how an implant like that would screw with your personal life.
The ending was a twist I didn't see coming, intriguing surprise. Makes you wonder what Detective O’Harren would have done.
Overall, a well done story... I would recommend it :).
Read the story here
I could reach no possibilities in which Johnny Rivers—wise guy, bootlegger, crook with his eye on the big time—still clung to life. In every crime scene every one of me was looking at, he lay face-down on the floor with two bullets in his back. It was a pity. Not because Chicago was particularly the worse off for one more dead mobster, but because murders are murders, and solving Johnny’s would have been a whole lot easier if he’d lived long enough to tell me who had pulled the trigger. Maybe, in another universe, another me had shown up sooner and had gotten something out of him.
An interesting noir-sort of scifi- type story.. the concept of an implant that shows you dozens of possibilities at a crime scene was a fun one.
While I loved the idea, at times I had trouble believing it... wondering how it worked exactly and what happens with the other possibilities in the other timelines/realities. Did solving Johnny's murder in one prevent the crime from happening in the others, or was it still going on?
That didn't come exactly how I had it in my head but that's the general idea.
The personal stuff about Detective O’Harren felt like an interruption to the flow of the story, I sympathized a little with her... can't imagine how an implant like that would screw with your personal life.
The ending was a twist I didn't see coming, intriguing surprise. Makes you wonder what Detective O’Harren would have done.
Overall, a well done story... I would recommend it :).
Read the story here
April 9, 2018
That was an incredible story! Loved it.
February 18, 2015
Riveting play on Schrödinger's cat. If a detective can see all potential universes, does it make her job easier? The twist at the end was a complete surprise.
January 24, 2022
Of all the crime scenes in all the timelines in all the multiverse, Detective O’Harren walks into the basement on West 21st. In every possible universe, Johnny Rivers is dead. But the questions that need answering—who killed him and why—are still a matter of uncertainty.
Schrödinger’s Gun by author Ray Wood is a short 1930s crime noir with a futuristic twist you can read for free on the Tor.com site https://www.tor.com/2015/02/18/schroe...
It helps if your life’s already in pieces when you get the heisen implant. Less to adapt to, that way.
A very interesting take on a murder investigation when millions of possibilities in millions of alternative universes are presented to you and you have to pick the right one. I liked the ending and I would know what to chose ;-)
Themes: Chicago, heisen implant, a high price to pay.
4 Stars
Schrödinger’s Gun by author Ray Wood is a short 1930s crime noir with a futuristic twist you can read for free on the Tor.com site https://www.tor.com/2015/02/18/schroe...
It helps if your life’s already in pieces when you get the heisen implant. Less to adapt to, that way.
A very interesting take on a murder investigation when millions of possibilities in millions of alternative universes are presented to you and you have to pick the right one. I liked the ending and I would know what to chose ;-)
Themes: Chicago, heisen implant, a high price to pay.
4 Stars
May 8, 2019
"That’s one thing they don’t tell you about Schrödinger’s cat: you leave the lid on the box too long and the damn thing starves regardless. No quantum possibilities required."
April 21, 2015
Interesting in an almost headache inducing way. I love the blending of genres, and ideas in this story. Short, but it feels fully explored, and complete.
Read
May 23, 2024DNF like halfway through. Interesting but the SFF/speculative + noir combo is a hard balancing act and this isn’t quite pulling it off. As always tho, I appreciate the attempt.
May 16, 2015
4 Stars
This is a great novella that is a great combination of detective noir and a hard physics concept. The Detective O'Harren is likable and she gives us just enough background information to understand what us going on. This is clearly a noir novel, steeped in black and white and smoke. The novel is of course told in the first person.
This is a fun read with a cool concept that would make a wonderful full length novel.
This is a great novella that is a great combination of detective noir and a hard physics concept. The Detective O'Harren is likable and she gives us just enough background information to understand what us going on. This is clearly a noir novel, steeped in black and white and smoke. The novel is of course told in the first person.
This is a fun read with a cool concept that would make a wonderful full length novel.
April 15, 2015
Interesting, but the ending didn't really wow me.
September 24, 2021
Schrödinger's Gun (Khẩu súng của Schrödinger): Trong mọi dòng thời gian của đa vũ trụ, thám tử O'Harren bước xuống hiện trường vụ án và thấy Johnny Rivers nằm dưới sàn tầng hầm ở số nhà 21 phố West. Cái chết của gã là tất định, nhưng kẻ nào đã giết gã - và tại sao - vẫn còn là những khả năng để ngỏ.
Tuy không có một bối cảnh không thời gian cụ thể, "Schrödinger's Gun" mang âm hưởng của Chicago vào thập niên 30 với các nhóm găng-tơ tranh giành địa bàn buôn bán rượu lậu, khoa học hình sự hạn chế. Nhân vật chính, thám tử O'Harren, nắm trong tay một lợi thế so với các đồng nghiệp trong truyện trinh thám thuần: heisen - một thiết bị cấy trong não, cho phép người dùng nhìn thấy vô số khả năng nảy sinh từ một sự kiện và chọn lấy khả năng mà mình muốn. Kỳ diệu hơn, nó còn giúp người dùng chạy deadline cả đêm và ngủ đẫy giấc cùng một lúc :))
Mình rất khoái "Schrödinger's Gun" vì dù bị hạn chế về độ dài, truyện vẫn khai thác được cả ứng dụng của công nghệ mới lẫn ảnh hưởng của nó lên người dùng. Về cơ bản, heisen là một công cụ hỗ trợ lợi hại nhưng không toàn năng. Tùy vào sự khôn ngoan của người dùng mà nó trở nên hữu dụng đến đâu. Song con người vốn không có khả năng tiếp cận đa vũ trụ. Việc có thể nghe, nhìn và lựa chọn quá nhiều thực tại tác động trực tiếp đến tâm lý thám tử O'Harren và phá hoại cuộc sống riêng của cô (Một thám tử noir chịu ảnh hưởng của thiết bị cấy trong não thay vì chứng nghiện rượu quả là luồng gió mới). Tác giả viết thực sự chắc tay và biết cách bài trí hài hòa các chi tiết để tạo nên một tổng thể thỏa mãn. Recommended!
"Bận tâm làm gì?" có lần anh hỏi tôi. “Ngay cả khi bây giờ em hạ đo ván gã, vẫn còn khoảng một triệu vũ trụ khác mà gã được thả tự do cơ mà?”
“Nếu em không để tâm,” tôi đáp, “gã sẽ được tự do trong một triệu lẻ một vũ trụ.”
Tuy không có một bối cảnh không thời gian cụ thể, "Schrödinger's Gun" mang âm hưởng của Chicago vào thập niên 30 với các nhóm găng-tơ tranh giành địa bàn buôn bán rượu lậu, khoa học hình sự hạn chế. Nhân vật chính, thám tử O'Harren, nắm trong tay một lợi thế so với các đồng nghiệp trong truyện trinh thám thuần: heisen - một thiết bị cấy trong não, cho phép người dùng nhìn thấy vô số khả năng nảy sinh từ một sự kiện và chọn lấy khả năng mà mình muốn. Kỳ diệu hơn, nó còn giúp người dùng chạy deadline cả đêm và ngủ đẫy giấc cùng một lúc :))
Mình rất khoái "Schrödinger's Gun" vì dù bị hạn chế về độ dài, truyện vẫn khai thác được cả ứng dụng của công nghệ mới lẫn ảnh hưởng của nó lên người dùng. Về cơ bản, heisen là một công cụ hỗ trợ lợi hại nhưng không toàn năng. Tùy vào sự khôn ngoan của người dùng mà nó trở nên hữu dụng đến đâu. Song con người vốn không có khả năng tiếp cận đa vũ trụ. Việc có thể nghe, nhìn và lựa chọn quá nhiều thực tại tác động trực tiếp đến tâm lý thám tử O'Harren và phá hoại cuộc sống riêng của cô (Một thám tử noir chịu ảnh hưởng của thiết bị cấy trong não thay vì chứng nghiện rượu quả là luồng gió mới). Tác giả viết thực sự chắc tay và biết cách bài trí hài hòa các chi tiết để tạo nên một tổng thể thỏa mãn. Recommended!
"Bận tâm làm gì?" có lần anh hỏi tôi. “Ngay cả khi bây giờ em hạ đo ván gã, vẫn còn khoảng một triệu vũ trụ khác mà gã được thả tự do cơ mà?”
“Nếu em không để tâm,” tôi đáp, “gã sẽ được tự do trong một triệu lẻ một vũ trụ.”
May 3, 2020
Brilliant. It takes an idea and runs with it in the best tradition of sci-fi. I hope to see more of this.
Basically, as many reviewers have noted, and as the title hints at, it's about using quantum mechanics (the many worlds aspect of it) to solve crime. For the plot, anyway. Emotionally, though, it stems more from Sylvia Plath's fig tree. Unable to choose from the futures she sees (she wants all of them, or at least, doesn't want to let go of them by making any choice), she ends up losing all of them. Catatonic, she loses her husband and daughter and cuts herself off from all human relationships. She uses her ability only for her work because she is unwilling to allow criminals escape justice (and also to hustle gangsters at pool). Schrödinger's Gun follows Defective O'Harren as she investigates the murder of a philandering Prohibition-era Chicago gangster and if that piques, read this.
It's a great story. And it's free from Tor.com. So choose a universe where you read it.
Basically, as many reviewers have noted, and as the title hints at, it's about using quantum mechanics (the many worlds aspect of it) to solve crime. For the plot, anyway. Emotionally, though, it stems more from Sylvia Plath's fig tree. Unable to choose from the futures she sees (she wants all of them, or at least, doesn't want to let go of them by making any choice), she ends up losing all of them. Catatonic, she loses her husband and daughter and cuts herself off from all human relationships. She uses her ability only for her work because she is unwilling to allow criminals escape justice (and also to hustle gangsters at pool). Schrödinger's Gun follows Defective O'Harren as she investigates the murder of a philandering Prohibition-era Chicago gangster and if that piques, read this.
It's a great story. And it's free from Tor.com. So choose a universe where you read it.
May 11, 2015
You may read online at Tor.com
Opening lines:
I could reach no possibilities in which Johnny Rivers—wise guy, bootlegger, crook with his eye on the big time—still clung to life. In every crime scene every one of me was looking at, he lay face-down on the floor with two bullets in his back. It was a pity. Not because Chicago was particularly the worse off for one more dead mobster, but because murders are murders, and solving Johnny’s would have been a whole lot easier if he’d lived long enough to tell me who had pulled the trigger. Maybe, in another universe, another me had shown up sooner and had gotten something out of him.
Opening lines:
I could reach no possibilities in which Johnny Rivers—wise guy, bootlegger, crook with his eye on the big time—still clung to life. In every crime scene every one of me was looking at, he lay face-down on the floor with two bullets in his back. It was a pity. Not because Chicago was particularly the worse off for one more dead mobster, but because murders are murders, and solving Johnny’s would have been a whole lot easier if he’d lived long enough to tell me who had pulled the trigger. Maybe, in another universe, another me had shown up sooner and had gotten something out of him.
March 12, 2015
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 universes are represented in this story is good. That's just my personal weird pet peeve. This was definitely a good story.
March 21, 2015
Nice little noir short with biting prose, sharper wit, and a look at the aftermath of dwelling too much on what-ifs. Nice ending to boot.
Favorite quote: That’s one thing they don’t tell you about Schrödinger’s cat: you leave the lid on the box too long and the damn thing starves regardless. No quantum possibilities required.
Highly recommended. 7.5/10
Favorite quote: That’s one thing they don’t tell you about Schrödinger’s cat: you leave the lid on the box too long and the damn thing starves regardless. No quantum possibilities required.
Highly recommended. 7.5/10
December 16, 2020
I enjoyed this little short story. It was a compelling but not unique take on the noire genre.
What I liked
The story is well-written and engaging. With the blend of high-tech futuristic technology and black-and-white film noire, it has an interesting aesthetic.
The concept of the heisen was fascinating. It is a brain implant that apparently allows the user to see other possibilities or other realities. The implications of this technology are fleshed out a bit when we see the impact it has had on the family of the main character Detective O'harren. The small arc with her family was emotionally quite satisfying. We see how all of this impacted her work as a cop: she sees similarities between her daughter and the seemingly sweet and innocent ex-wife of the dead mobster.
Detective O'Harren says she opted to get the heisen implant because she wanted to be a better cop. Throughout the story I wondered how manipulating probabilities would help solve crimes. The ending answered this question in a weird and wonderful way. Seeing how Detective O'Harren must contend with all these different possibilities and how it impacted her personal life was a highlight of this story. The themes here - dealing with loss, for example - could easily be translated into a longer work. As it is, though, the story did a great job of telling a self-contained short story. It can be difficult for writers to take a high-tech concept, interesting characters, and a fresh plot and develop it into a short story that does not feel rushed, yet the author did admirably here.
What I was ambivalent about
Does the heisen merely allow someone to see other possibilities? Are these "possibilities" actually other universes? The details are not hammered out, but in such a brief story, maybe less is more.
What I didn't like
The story, rife with tropes from the noire genre, veered into the cliche, so for that reason I deduct 1 star. I would have liked to have seen more of what makes this story and world so unique. But, over all, this story was a nice take on the noire genre.
What I liked
The story is well-written and engaging. With the blend of high-tech futuristic technology and black-and-white film noire, it has an interesting aesthetic.
The concept of the heisen was fascinating. It is a brain implant that apparently allows the user to see other possibilities or other realities. The implications of this technology are fleshed out a bit when we see the impact it has had on the family of the main character Detective O'harren. The small arc with her family was emotionally quite satisfying. We see how all of this impacted her work as a cop: she sees similarities between her daughter and the seemingly sweet and innocent ex-wife of the dead mobster.
Detective O'Harren says she opted to get the heisen implant because she wanted to be a better cop. Throughout the story I wondered how manipulating probabilities would help solve crimes. The ending answered this question in a weird and wonderful way. Seeing how Detective O'Harren must contend with all these different possibilities and how it impacted her personal life was a highlight of this story. The themes here - dealing with loss, for example - could easily be translated into a longer work. As it is, though, the story did a great job of telling a self-contained short story. It can be difficult for writers to take a high-tech concept, interesting characters, and a fresh plot and develop it into a short story that does not feel rushed, yet the author did admirably here.
What I was ambivalent about
Does the heisen merely allow someone to see other possibilities? Are these "possibilities" actually other universes? The details are not hammered out, but in such a brief story, maybe less is more.
What I didn't like
The story, rife with tropes from the noire genre, veered into the cliche, so for that reason I deduct 1 star. I would have liked to have seen more of what makes this story and world so unique. But, over all, this story was a nice take on the noire genre.
August 19, 2017
Un'accattivante commistione tra fantascienza, teoria dei molti mondi e giallo hard-boiled. Davvero godibile.
July 23, 2018
this was such a good read!
April 16, 2019
This was absolutely fantastic!
A fun blend of noir and sci-fi, I'd love to see this expanded into a longer novel or even series.
A fun blend of noir and sci-fi, I'd love to see this expanded into a longer novel or even series.
March 1, 2017
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 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.
February 7, 2017
I saw this pop up on my GR feed one weekend and thought it sounded good so I read it. I absolutely adored the setting--futuristic, but culturally 20s and 40s, although not dieselpunk. The characters were also enjoyable, if a little predictable; I'd love to read a novel with them, so I could get more background. Which was the main problem with this story. There was too much backstory alluded to that I felt was, but wasn't, explained... these tangents seemed pointless to the story, although they did play a big part in foreshadowing, so they were a bit purposeful. And the ending... just didn't do it for me, I'm sorry. There wasn't enough suspenseful build-up to have me surprised and knocked off guard. Despite these "issues", I'd still recommend it if you want a short, historical-dystopian sci-fi read.
coletâneas-coletados
January 10, 2025Li aqui, marquei lido aqui: Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2015 edition.
A idea de usar superposição de estados numa história de detetive é muito boa, mas eu queria ver mais disso. Não fiquei muito satisfeita porque queria mais, não porque a história foi ruim. Gostei do climão noir, mas teve detalhes científicos que não me convenceram muito.
A idea de usar superposição de estados numa história de detetive é muito boa, mas eu queria ver mais disso. Não fiquei muito satisfeita porque queria mais, não porque a história foi ruim. Gostei do climão noir, mas teve detalhes científicos que não me convenceram muito.
August 28, 2015
Second story by Wood I've read and I'm impressed again. In this one, a detective has a "heisen implant" that allows her to see how situations play out in different quantum universes. Useful for solving crime because if a person's story is consistent in all possible universes, they are likely telling the truth. Of course, the murder of a gangster isn't that simple.
July 6, 2015
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...)
(Anyone is welcome to explain the ending to me...)
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