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Flamedown
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
18 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
3 people want to read
About the author
H.B. Fyfe
94 books3 followersHorace Browne Fyfe (1918-1997) wrote several Science Fiction novels and short stories, spanning more than a decade.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 24, 2020
This easily could have been a 3-star story if the subtlety was toned down to a more obvious conclusion.
Don’t get me wrong. I love subtlety in my science fiction. It forces me to think deeply on the topic and come to a conclusion that the author wants us to explore on our own with our own creativity. Such examples are the Eight Keys to Eden that requires the reader to sit down and think on the limits of single-variable physics and ponder the real world applications of multi-variable physics. This short story, however, does not use subtlety to its advantage and merely creates a confusing and almost-ambiguous ending.
The theme of the story centers about how dreams could very easily become nightmares, a very solid theme with a beautiful exploration.
The main character, a space ship pilot suffering from slight amnesia, crashes on Mars and faces the reality that being a space ship pilot isn’t as fun as he had thought it would be. He consistently asks “why would I ever think of being a space ship pilot” and begins regretting his lifelong dream. As the Martian planet is dying and the native life are ready to rip him apart, it becomes obvious that his memories have been betraying him.
He was never a space ship pilot, he was a normal man who was crossing a street and got hit by a truck. It was his dream however to travel the stars as he was a science fiction reader. But because of his actions in life, he was now being punished to live out each of his dreams and feel them turn into nightmares.
This sounds like a great story, right? Writing it back makes me shiver with delight to imagine a more fleshed out novel using this idea as its basis; however, the story ruins itself with its subtlety. Everything I said is insinuated. The truth is that the majority of the story is spent running from the martians and waking up from the crash with no scratches or damage, he then takes the help of a Martian who tries to hide him. Then as they’re hiding the Martian says he died from a truck hitting him and that he’s excited to punish the character. The Martian then says that he’s excited because most people only have one dream but because of the persons past reading science fiction, he has an untold infinite number of space related dreams. Then the Martian takes the shape of a “horned creature”.
You have to assume the creature is a demon, this is a form of punishment or hell and that it will explore every single one of the persons dreams. If the reveal didn’t come so quickly and the ending be made so ambiguous then this easily would have been 3 stars and if the theme was explored deeper it would have been 4 stars.
Don’t get me wrong. I love subtlety in my science fiction. It forces me to think deeply on the topic and come to a conclusion that the author wants us to explore on our own with our own creativity. Such examples are the Eight Keys to Eden that requires the reader to sit down and think on the limits of single-variable physics and ponder the real world applications of multi-variable physics. This short story, however, does not use subtlety to its advantage and merely creates a confusing and almost-ambiguous ending.
The theme of the story centers about how dreams could very easily become nightmares, a very solid theme with a beautiful exploration.
The main character, a space ship pilot suffering from slight amnesia, crashes on Mars and faces the reality that being a space ship pilot isn’t as fun as he had thought it would be. He consistently asks “why would I ever think of being a space ship pilot” and begins regretting his lifelong dream. As the Martian planet is dying and the native life are ready to rip him apart, it becomes obvious that his memories have been betraying him.
He was never a space ship pilot, he was a normal man who was crossing a street and got hit by a truck. It was his dream however to travel the stars as he was a science fiction reader. But because of his actions in life, he was now being punished to live out each of his dreams and feel them turn into nightmares.
This sounds like a great story, right? Writing it back makes me shiver with delight to imagine a more fleshed out novel using this idea as its basis; however, the story ruins itself with its subtlety. Everything I said is insinuated. The truth is that the majority of the story is spent running from the martians and waking up from the crash with no scratches or damage, he then takes the help of a Martian who tries to hide him. Then as they’re hiding the Martian says he died from a truck hitting him and that he’s excited to punish the character. The Martian then says that he’s excited because most people only have one dream but because of the persons past reading science fiction, he has an untold infinite number of space related dreams. Then the Martian takes the shape of a “horned creature”.
You have to assume the creature is a demon, this is a form of punishment or hell and that it will explore every single one of the persons dreams. If the reveal didn’t come so quickly and the ending be made so ambiguous then this easily would have been 3 stars and if the theme was explored deeper it would have been 4 stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review