Truth: Hugo Award Nominee

by Robert Reed

A car crashes in Montana. This is just after 9/11, and the unconscious driver is trying to smuggle bomb-grade uranium into the United States. Weeks of hard interrogation yield nothing. The prisoner won't speak, much less break. And just as his torturers are about to give up, he asks for a pen and paper, making a list of celestial events that have not yet happened. Somehow, he knows the future. And the evidence, incredible as it sounds, leads to the conclusion that he came from the distant future with a group of time-traveling terrorists. Ramiro is the world's most important prisoner, and Carmen is his new interrogator. Years have passed since the car crash. Humanity has been transformed by war and by paranoia. A battered government, desperate to survive, gives Carmen total power to do whatever she needs to uncover the truth about Ramiro. "Twice each day, the prisoner was ushered into a long exercise yard built specifically for him. His gait was always relaxed, long arms swinging with a metronome’s precision and the elegant hands holding five-pound weights, shaped like dog bones and covered with soft red rubber. I thought of an aging fashion model marching on the runway, except he lacked a model’s wasted prettiness or the vacuous gaze. He was endlessly pleasant to whichever guard was standing at the locked door. I paid strict attention to his attempts at conversation, his words less important than his charming tone and the effortless, beguiling smiles." "Truth" was nominated for the Hugo Award in 2009. The novella was made into a movie entitled PRISONER X.

82 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 11, 2018

About the author

He has also been published as Robert Touzalin.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding.

This is a classic...or should be. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it. All his books are excellent.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent set-up and plot twist.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and somewhat clever, but the ending was a bit disappointing.
This is the second novella I've read this year, in an effort to start the year off with some shorter works.

[Margie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this story. It's good sci fi. Showing how and what humanity will do to and for themselves. Definitely worth a read.

[Gigio · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a perfect script for a short, smart sci-fi movie. There are only five actors (Ramiro, Carmen, Jefferson, the President, Jim) and five simple settings (the cell, the office, the garden, the limousine, and the room).