Sighted

by Iain Rowan

Before the war Peter had lived an ordinary life, teaching in a university, falling in love. Then the war came, and nothing was ordinary again. Now he is a war hero who lies still for hours among the rubble and snow and dead bodies, killing the enemy one by one each time they stray in front of the sights of his rifle.

But one day, in this city where the living are just dead men walking, Peter comes across a target he cannot kill.

Sighted is a short story first published in the Stoker-nominated and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated anthology At Ease With The Dead.

Iain Rowan's short fiction has been reprinted in anthologies, won awards, and been the basis for a novel shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger award.

"Iain Rowan is both a meticulous and a passionate writer, and these stories showcase his ample talent wonderfully well. You owe it to yourself to discover Rowan's fiction if you haven't already had the pleasure." (Jeff Vandermeer, author of Finch, Afterword, City of Saints and Madmen; two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award)

15 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 10, 2011

About the author

Iain Rowan writes weird fiction, literary horror, crime fiction, and stories that are just stories. His short fiction has won second place in the Costa Short Story Award and the Dinesh Allirajah Short Fiction Prize, and he is a Northern Writers Award winner. Over thirty of his stories have been published in venues including Supernatural Tales, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and Black Gate, and his work has been reprinted in Stephen Jones's Best New Horror and in Stoker-nominated anthologies. One of his stories was used in an inspiration collection for one of the biggest-selling UK games of recent years.
His novel-length work has been shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger and the Bath Novel Awards.
Earlier collections include Ice Age (stories of the strange and the chilling, including work from Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated anthologies) and Nowhere to Go (crime fiction, featuring the Derringer Award-winning One Step Closer), both published by Infinity Plus. His YA novel Sea Change draws on the England of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper.
He is also the creator of Maps of the Lost, a microfiction and photography project exploring the places that fall off the edge of the map: mapsofthelost.substack.com
He lives by the sea in the north-east of England.

Reviews

[James Everington]

I came across this story after reading the fabulous Lilies by the same author. Both short stories have a similar feel and setting, being set in an unamed city in an unknown war. Like Lilies there is a supernatural element to the story, but here the effect is more ambiguous, leaving the reader unlcear how much of what is happening is real and how much is in the protagonist's mind.

This is one of those stories where everything works together - the build up, the ending, the theme even the title - for the desired affect. The writing is sparse and clean, and the setting of a city ruined by ongoing war vividly realised.

Recommended.