To Receive Is Better

by Michael Marshall Smith

Inspiration for the novel SPARES...

10 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 3, 2012

About the author

Michael Marshall (Smith) is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. His first novel, ONLY FORWARD, won the August Derleth and Philip K. Dick awards. SPARES and ONE OF US were optioned for film by DreamWorks and Warner Brothers, and the Straw Men trilogy - THE STRAW MEN, THE LONELY DEAD and BLOOD OF ANGELS - were international bestsellers. His most recent novels are THE INTRUDERS, BAD THINGS and KILLER MOVE.

He is a four-time winner of the BFS Award for short fiction, and his stories are collected in two volumes - WHAT YOU MAKE IT and MORE TOMORROW AND OTHER STORIES (which won the International Horror Guild Award).

He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and son.

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dark vision of the future where clones are imprisoned and left feral on farms, to be used as spare body parts. This served as inspiration for Smith's novel Spares.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

An SF horror story about clones who learn that their whole purpose in live is to provide spare parts for their first born sibling. It’s told all in monologue, and works even if there’s really no action in the present. The voice is a bit hard to take, as the clones aren’t supposed to have been taught language, and that’s what the story hinges on, the empathy of one of the “keepers” and what that leads to.