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The Song
A powerful near future story about two people on a whale-processing rig: one a researcher, the other a worker—and the discovery they make by listening to whale song.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
29 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 13, 2019
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90 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
January 12, 2021
3.75 stars for this bleak ecological cautionary tale, free online here at Tor.com. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Dan is a welder on a repurposed oil rig floating in the ocean, now euphemistically called SeaRanch 18. It’s a floating slaughterhouse for whales. With animal-rights extremists bombing transports and killing the replacement staff, no one on the rig is currently being allowed to leave for a break. The rig is a depressing, awful place, and the sense of isolation is intensified in the case of Dan, whose wife died before the story begins and who seems to be marking time, not really living any longer. But then he meets Suzanne, an animal behaviorist who has been snuck onto the rig to study the whales’ song and some oddities in the whale pods’ actions, and life seems to be looking up slightly. But Suzanne is finding some disturbing things in her research, and the song of the whales seems to be worming its way into Dan’s inner soul.
“The Song” is heavy on setting and atmosphere, and scores some points about ecological concerns. The haunting whale song is echoed in the women carvers’ plaintive singing of “Oh Danny Boy” and the melancholy tunes hummed by Suzanne. I appreciated the reveal at the end on a literary level, though as a practical matter it struck me as far-fetched. It’s a fatalistic and seriously depressing story, but since that’s clearly the intent, I have to give Erinn L. Kemper props for effectively pulling me into this story and world.
Dan is a welder on a repurposed oil rig floating in the ocean, now euphemistically called SeaRanch 18. It’s a floating slaughterhouse for whales. With animal-rights extremists bombing transports and killing the replacement staff, no one on the rig is currently being allowed to leave for a break. The rig is a depressing, awful place, and the sense of isolation is intensified in the case of Dan, whose wife died before the story begins and who seems to be marking time, not really living any longer. But then he meets Suzanne, an animal behaviorist who has been snuck onto the rig to study the whales’ song and some oddities in the whale pods’ actions, and life seems to be looking up slightly. But Suzanne is finding some disturbing things in her research, and the song of the whales seems to be worming its way into Dan’s inner soul.
“The Song” is heavy on setting and atmosphere, and scores some points about ecological concerns. The haunting whale song is echoed in the women carvers’ plaintive singing of “Oh Danny Boy” and the melancholy tunes hummed by Suzanne. I appreciated the reveal at the end on a literary level, though as a practical matter it struck me as far-fetched. It’s a fatalistic and seriously depressing story, but since that’s clearly the intent, I have to give Erinn L. Kemper props for effectively pulling me into this story and world.
January 11, 2021
There was a reason staff were supposed to stay away from the kill floor. And a reason why all the butchers had to go for regular shrink visits.
another near-future/last gasp of nature kind of story that shows the toll of man's careless brutality not just on the creatures we were meant to have dominion over (in the protective-stewardship way, not the hunt-unto-destruction way), but also on humans themselves.
set on a whale-processing ship (a bloodless euphemism for 'slaughterhouse')—the kind of lonely far-from-home gig that attracts saturnine loners to begin with—this story follows the tentative unfurling of a friendship between a welder-poet and a behavioral scientist specializing in whalesongs who has arrived to decipher the meaning of some recent, unusual cetacean behavior.
it's a bleak one; full of desolation and death, bloody and suicide-saturated, in which every attempt at staving off loneliness seems destined to fail.
maybe not the best way to ring in 2021, but an affecting piece nonetheless.
read it for yourself here!!!
https://www.tor.com/2019/02/13/the-so...
come to my blog!
another near-future/last gasp of nature kind of story that shows the toll of man's careless brutality not just on the creatures we were meant to have dominion over (in the protective-stewardship way, not the hunt-unto-destruction way), but also on humans themselves.
set on a whale-processing ship (a bloodless euphemism for 'slaughterhouse')—the kind of lonely far-from-home gig that attracts saturnine loners to begin with—this story follows the tentative unfurling of a friendship between a welder-poet and a behavioral scientist specializing in whalesongs who has arrived to decipher the meaning of some recent, unusual cetacean behavior.
it's a bleak one; full of desolation and death, bloody and suicide-saturated, in which every attempt at staving off loneliness seems destined to fail.
maybe not the best way to ring in 2021, but an affecting piece nonetheless.
read it for yourself here!!!
https://www.tor.com/2019/02/13/the-so...
come to my blog!
August 9, 2021
I'll also put the name of the story here, in case Goodreads decides to merge it into some other work...
The Song by Erinn L. Kemper - 2/5★
This is supposed to be an emotional story about whale hunting, but it didn’t manage to touch the right cord for me..
The short story is found in Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2019 edition and can also be read on Tor.com.
The Song by Erinn L. Kemper - 2/5★
This is supposed to be an emotional story about whale hunting, but it didn’t manage to touch the right cord for me..
The short story is found in Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2019 edition and can also be read on Tor.com.
August 2, 2022
Thar she blues!
Look! If I want to get all depressed and stuff, I'll start watching the 6 o'clock news again.
Look! If I want to get all depressed and stuff, I'll start watching the 6 o'clock news again.
June 28, 2020
Tale of despair caused by human's greed. Makes you wonder how some countries still...Never mind. Bleakness aside, I wish it has a longer ending.
March 29, 2019
2 stars cuz well written. Only two because 1) completely unbelievable we would eat whales, EVER to the extent that they are in this story (ie-hunted and then butchered with other whales all around freaking out and hunted to almost extinction.) and 2) depressing AF. Not recommended.
It’s obvious the characters all know it’s wrong, because he butchers have a huge suicide rate. This is forced drama for effect and it didn’t work for me at all. Too forced.
It’s obvious the characters all know it’s wrong, because he butchers have a huge suicide rate. This is forced drama for effect and it didn’t work for me at all. Too forced.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 12, 2019
A pretentious, ponderous story that takes itself very seriously. Three stars because there were a couple of flashes of truly good characterization, such as the drunk women singing, and the scientist feeling connected to the scent of oranges. The suicides felt heavy-handed, though. People just sort of slipped away, and we're meant to conclude this was due to guilt over the killing of whales to feed the wealthy. The theme is, do individuals who work on a floating slaughterhouse deserve to live. It's a dark subject.
July 28, 2020
The best one in the Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2019 edition so far.
March 28, 2019
This was a fairly dark short story, set on a whale harvesting rig. The people who work on the rig are slowly being driven mad, even as the whales themselves are battling to stay alive. Both the whales and the humans begin committing suicide to escape the situation.
This is available on Tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2019/02/13/the-so...
This is available on Tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2019/02/13/the-so...
February 2, 2020
Excellent story but damn it was hard to read :/
July 19, 2019
This was well written, but ultimately depressing and kind of nihilistic. I didn't love it.
January 11, 2020
Brutal. Absolutely gutted. This story hit a nerve. Have a box of tissues handy.
February 24, 2019
Brilliant penmanship in creating the atmosphere of a futuristic whale slaughterhouse. Brought tears to my eyes.
September 26, 2020
The world is moving from beef to whale meat, expensive as it is, taking abandoned oil rigs and converting them to whale meat processing centers. As the ecowarriors grow increasingly violent, killing those involved in killing the whales, the people on SeaRanch 18 are stranded without relief personnel. One of the last new scientists to arrive is Suzanne who is staying the changes in communication patterns among the whales. She tells Dan, a deep sea diver and welder, of attacks by the whales, how humpbacks and blues were congregating for the first time ever seen and apparently communicating.
Whales and dolphins are so very intelligent, yet humans think they can do whatever they want to them. I don’t understand. Needless to say, I was primed for this story. I thought I was prepared, even hopeful. But the ending was beyond tragic. 4 out of 5.
Whales and dolphins are so very intelligent, yet humans think they can do whatever they want to them. I don’t understand. Needless to say, I was primed for this story. I thought I was prepared, even hopeful. But the ending was beyond tragic. 4 out of 5.
August 11, 2019
I found it difficult to follow this story. The little blurb attached to it said it was about two workers on a whale-processing rig becoming friends but it was more like a descent into madness as both the workers and the whales they were farming lost their minds.
It was quite horrific and kind of gross and surprisingly lacking in any commentary about the ethics surrounding whaling. I liked the prose for the most part - I don’t really get why the narrator felt the need to comment on Suzanne’s body shape so much though. I did find the setting helpful - a workplace doubling as a home and close camaraderie between the two main characters.
It was interesting to read but it wasn’t the kind of science fiction I’m looking for.
It was quite horrific and kind of gross and surprisingly lacking in any commentary about the ethics surrounding whaling. I liked the prose for the most part - I don’t really get why the narrator felt the need to comment on Suzanne’s body shape so much though. I did find the setting helpful - a workplace doubling as a home and close camaraderie between the two main characters.
It was interesting to read but it wasn’t the kind of science fiction I’m looking for.
December 17, 2021
The Song by Erinn L. Kemper is a powerful near future story about two people on a whale-processing rig: one a researcher, the other a worker—and the discovery they make by listening to whale song.
An emotional heavy hitter this one, but beautifully written.
I listened to it through Scribd, but you can also find it for free on the Tor.com site https://www.tor.com/2019/02/13/the-so...
Themes: dark, dystopian, whale song, suicide, slaughter, don’t look for uplifting here because humanity has failed.
4 Stars
An emotional heavy hitter this one, but beautifully written.
I listened to it through Scribd, but you can also find it for free on the Tor.com site https://www.tor.com/2019/02/13/the-so...
Themes: dark, dystopian, whale song, suicide, slaughter, don’t look for uplifting here because humanity has failed.
4 Stars
November 1, 2020
A compelling short story about the horror of killing animals for the human current definition of civilization and its spoils. On a whale killing platform, the questions that arise all lead to one inevitable question, namely if such humans deserve to live. The description and tension building are very masterfully dosed, so you do feel the horror when the suicides commence.
April 9, 2019
I read this because the premise sounded so interesting. Whale processing rig? Discovery of a whale song? But alas, to my disappointment this was not. I found it to be very BORING, didn't like the writing or the characters. Basically for me it lacked the likability factor in all aspects of its story-telling.
February 13, 2019
Well written, but dark.
February 14, 2019
So very very sad.
February 19, 2019
It wasn't bad so much as not my cup of tea.
February 20, 2019
Its a very short but moving story on whale killing. In a way the story will haunt you. Interesting tid bits provided on whales interstitially. Good read.
September 26, 2019
When i first started reading this I thought it was going to end up being inspirational but it ended up getting dark quickly and kept getting darker.
December 5, 2019
Very well written and profoundly sad. Not for the squeamish.
February 19, 2020
Interesting story about whale song.
March 16, 2020
A story about whales, their emotional songs and commercialized whale hunting. The story got under my skin but in a good way. I really like how the whale "fun" facts broke up the story.
January 11, 2021
CW: suicide (multiple triggers)
November 4, 2023
Sad, but beautifully written.
February 1, 2020
Very sad and poignant, but not my favorite.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews