Bored World

by Andy Weir

Original Fiction, Short Story, Science Fiction

He lay prone, his eyes fluttering open.
Near-darkness granted the sky a dark blue hue. Was it early morning? Late evening? He didn't know. Gentle winds rustled the tall grass surrounding him. Slowly sitting up, he took in his surroundings. There was nothing. Just tall grass all the way to the dark horizon.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal, Audiobook, Ebooks

7 pages, ebook

First published April 20, 2013

About the author

ANDY WEIR built a career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, THE MARTIAN, allowed him to live out his dream of writing fulltime. He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects such as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail. He lives in California. Andy’s next book, ARTEMIS, is available now.

Reviews

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear Andy (Can I call you Andy? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can):

I realize you have like a gajillion fangirls and fanboys who are all creaming their jeans in anticipation for the release of The Martian movie this holiday season. However, when it comes to your short stories . . .



They aren't nearly as clever as you probably think. I don't believe you are someone who is only going to experience 15 minutes of fame so stop trying so hard. You are like the MOST POPULAR AUTHOR ON THE PLANET at the moment. Bask in your own glory for a bit . . . and then write something else that is awesome.

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.

this is the FIFTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your 2020 reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards, because i have not compiled as many as usual this year.

IN ADDITION, this may be the last year i do this project since GR has already deleted the pages for several of the stories i've read in previous years without warning, leaving me with a bunch of missing reviews and broken links, which makes me feel shitty. because i don't have a lot of time to waste, i'm not going to bother writing much in the way of reviews for these, in case gr decides to scrap 'em again. 2020 has left me utterly wrung out and i apologize for what's left of me. i am doing my best.

DECEMBER 6: BORED WORLD - ANDY WEIR

i have read a few of andy weir's online stories, and they have two things going for them, as far as my advent calendar goes: they are super short, and gr has not—as far as i know—deleted any of them...yet. but they're all kind of the same. the writing is ok-not-great, and their whole raison d'être is the "gotcha" zing of their endings. some zings are better than others (and some zings' mothers are better than other zings' mothers), and i liked this zing a lot, until i realized that it wasn't the story that i liked so much as thinking about how THAT SITUATION would work and what it could mean, and i was kind of doing weir's job for him. so if you appreciate a story that inspires you to chew over the situation beyond what's written, you may well enjoy this one. as far as the actual words on the page, they're kind of meh; the married couple's dialogue is particularly stilted and bad, and if weir was angling for a specific kind of stylized dialogue FOR REASONS, he didn't quite bullseye it and it just comes across as amateurish writing. but it's a story and i read it and THAT WAS DAY SIX.

read it for free here

DECEMBER 1: PG - COURTNEY SUMMERS
DECEMBER 2: THE JUMPING MONKEY HILL - CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
DECEMBER 3: ORIGIN STORY - T. KINGFISHER
DECEMBER 4: THE GREAT SILENCE - TED CHIANG
DECEMBER 5: A CLEAN SWEEP WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS
DECEMBER 7: VAMPIRE - ROBERT COOVER
DECEMBER 8: A STATEMENT IN THE CASE - THEODORA GOSS
DECEMBER 9: STET - SARAH GAILEY
DECEMBER 10: MARGOT'S ROOM: EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 11: HORROR STORY - CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
DECEMBER 12: TERRAIN - GENEVIEVE VALENTINE
DECEMBER 13: IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN - ZEN CHO
DECEMBER 14: GHOUL - GEORGE SAUNDERS
DECEMBER 15: DURING THE DANCE - MARK LAWRENCE
DECEMBER 16: CLEARING THE BONES - CELESTE NG
DECEMBER 17: THE WAITER'S WIFE - ZADIE SMITH
DECEMBER 18: DEMOLITION - FIONA MCFARLANE
DECEMBER 19: NO PERIOD - HARRY TURTLEDOVE
DECEMBER 20: DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE - GG
DECEMBER 21: RUB-A-DUB-DUB - TONY MILLIONAIRE
DECEMBER 22: HANSA AND GRETYL AND PIECE OF SHIT - REBECCA CURTIS
DECEMBER 23: BRIDESICLE - WILL MCINTOSH
DECEMBER 24: I, CTHULHU, OR, WHAT'S A TENTACLE-FACED THING LIKE ME DOING IN A SUNKEN CITY LIKE THIS (LATITUDE 47° 9' S, LONGITUDE 126° 43' W)? - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 25: CHRISTMAS TALE - MARK LAWRENCE
DECEMBER 26: THE MONSTERS OF HEAVEN - NATHAN BALLINGRUD
DECEMBER 27: TWO DREAMS ON TRAINS - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 28: THE MARTIANS CLAIM CANADA - MARGARET ATWOOD
DECEMBER 29: UNDER THE WAVE - LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 30: MR. SALARY - SALLY ROONEY
DECEMBER 31: A/S/L - EMMA CLINE

come to my blog!

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.............Excellent!

Sci-fi lovers will definitely get a kick out of this one. Makes me want to revisit the zone.

Loving these short freebie reads from Weir!

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Rossy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story. I would have liked a second part or more development to see what other "adventures" they will have.

[Suhasa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Opet vrlo zabavan koncept ali dijalozi..... usi mi krvare. Steta sto nije potrosio koji minut vise da ispolira ovo.

[Nadin Doughem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't get it because it is related to some old show known as "Twlight Zone". Not to mention the conductor's name was Rod!

[Unsolved ☕︎ Mystery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lol, NICE!

I'm going to recommended this one to my husband. He loves The Twilight Zone
===================================
Now, I hear Golden Earring =)

Step into Bored World here.



Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would!
Would I read this author again? Yes, I would and I have:
The Martian
Prequel to The Martian
Midtown Butcher
Antihypoxiant
Meeting Sarah
Access
The Real Deal
The Chef
The Egg
Annie's Day

[Gina Gallo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. The entity was really interesting. The ending was amazing. The first thing that I thought was...I have to get my husband to read this. He loves that show.

[➸ Gwen de Sade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a huge fan of ... that thingy... conclusion? In the end but it's still creative and it could have been pretty cool if it was a bit longer!

[Todd Coburn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Short. Free. So, if you like reading, or are a little bored, then why not?

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent.
Seems like he’s having fun, like he’s his own audience.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Overton window can be easily shifted with the right conditioning.

[Mayank Agarwal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can't say i enjoyed anything in the story, nothing to tickle any emotion out of me, may be my expectations are too huge from Andy Weir.

[Gaby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE YOU, ANDY WEIR! Thank you, you are my hero! My heart! Is it possible for a heart to burst of happiness?!

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het verhaal van Bored World speelt zich af op aarde, maar ook weer niet. Het grootste gedeelte van het verhaal is een dialoog tussen twee personages. Het idee achter Bored World is interessant, maar het wist me niet te raken zoals The Egg dat wel deed. Desalniettemin is het wel een tof gedachte-experiment.

[Ankit Saxena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite a story with very creative plot but hanged in midway with no intro to the kidnapper. No image description, no face, no name; nothing. Atleast it could be done in the last but such over-plotted creativity makes it bored one.

[Glitterbomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

RTC

[Remo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ejercicio de estilo. El autor se mete en una situación extraña e intenta salir. POr el camino nos entretiene. La verdad es que me gusta cómo escribe este señor, me ha entretenido absolutamente todo lo que ha escrito (con, por supuesto, episodios de fascinación, como el marciano y Project Hail Mary).

[Pamala · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/bore...

[Marti Dolata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many short shorts, this is a simplistic set up for a one line twist. The most interesting thing about it is your own speculations afterward.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one. It is certainly not as good as some of the others he's written, but I enjoyed it a lot.

[Ken Mandap · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea...

[Kaylee · Rating 1 out of 5]

All of the human characters act in ways that show a stunning lack of understanding of human nature on the author's part. Humans don't think like that, and they don't act like that; none of the characters are the least bit believable.

But the worst part is that there is absolutely no point to this narrative. It ends with the main character naming the omnipotent being / plane of existence that kidnapped him. Okay, so what? I'm familiar with The Twilight Zone, but so what? The TV series presented many strange situations, but there was some point to them. This piece of writing has no point, so it doesn't even qualify as a story.

[Vansh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weir has a different perspective of the holy than I, it’s ironic because we both should have the exact opposite ones. Weir seems to think that god does things cause of boredom, I- a pagan think it’s for a reason above mine (and it’s) comprehension.

I wonder what I would do in such a situation though; what value does riches, fame or women have when everything is but an ask away? Buddha’s route of denial, some sort of technological or psychological transcending, or doubling down in the maya? It’s all fire- who cares ey?

[Jessica (JT) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A free short story available on Andy Weir's website.

This was so interesting! The only reason I am giving it four stars instead of five is because I wish he had decided to make a whole novel out of this rather than leaving it so short. The twist at the end is really a cool way of reinventing a person.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This little story entertained me. I liked the banter between the "entities." It has a bit of a nostalgic ring for me....and is a pleasant foray into science fiction. I never have been a huge fan of most sci-fi, but I'm thinking about reconsidering. I definitely would read something else by this author. It was fun! 2020 could use a little fun.

[Jo Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, wow... people who used to watch this particular TV series would get a kick out of this short story. Quite brilliant, actually.

Wouldn't it be interesting if this was really how Rod Serling got his idea in the first place?