Guest of Honor

by Robert Reed, Amy Bruce (Narrator)

Because space exploration was dangerous, near-immortals devised ways of making highly gifted, highly trained starship crews from their own bodies. With computers and genetic engineering, they created compilation humans.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

Audio Cassette

First published December 1, 1991

About the author

He has also been published as Robert Touzalin.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little story about making your journey through effectual immortality and the inevitability of stopping off that treadmill, of ennui and boredom and -- an end.

It feels very much in line with the Great Ship universe, far in the future and deep in well-established tech to be thoroughly abused.


Honestly, I felt like I was eating a bit of high-class sushi picked off a conveyor belt as I read this. Take that as you will.



Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to DM requests. I think it's about time I get some eyes on them.

Arctunn.com

[Talie · Rating 4 out of 5]

disarmingly disturbing... great short story

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent 1993 science fiction novelette , with a bit of a downer ending. Now available (print edition) online at
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/reed_...

Best SF review: http://bestsciencefictionstories.com/...

[Mack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unhappiness. I can't help thinking of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. No characters, just a juxtaposition of stereotypes, with a bit a didacticism thrown in to give readers an out. And beautifully written. This Guest is the same story in different clothes, without any purpose beyond contemplation; what would immortals do? Homer's pantheon had fun. Why not? They knew they weren't really immortal.