Free Connie Willis story!
Just finished reading Inside Job by Connie Willis (it's free online right now because it's up for a Hugo). It's about two reporters for a "debunker" magazine in a near future wherein spiritualism, mediums, auras and tarot cards have made a comeback in popularity to beat the Victorian era. It's funny, clever, and told with Willis's effortless skill.
I have decided that this story is made of win. At first I wasn't sure, because it peripherally involves a couple topics that tend to make me splutter incoherently due to incredibly mixed feelings (namely H.L. Mencken and the Scopes trial*). But even when I was most annoyed at the apparent slant being given to Mencken and Scopes in the story, I asked myself "Do I think this is just the author proselytizing via fiction?" and I found that my answer was "No, Connie Willis is too awesome to do that, and anyway she wrote an incredibly complex, delicate and honest depiction of Christianity into Doomsday Book. I think I trust her enough to keep reading." In a striking parallel, I had this little conversation with myself just as the main character of the story was having a debate with himself over whether or not he could trust another character. Hm. Thankfully, my trust in Willis was not abused, and the story did, indeed, turn out to be made of win. You'll have to read it yourself to find out if the main character also decided in favor of trust, and whether or not it worked out well.
Not to spoil you, but I adore the ending.
* My initial impulse when these names come up is to give my opinion loud and clear. Unfortunately, I have about fifteen different opinions on Scopes, some of them contradictory. Thus the spluttering.
I have decided that this story is made of win. At first I wasn't sure, because it peripherally involves a couple topics that tend to make me splutter incoherently due to incredibly mixed feelings (namely H.L. Mencken and the Scopes trial*). But even when I was most annoyed at the apparent slant being given to Mencken and Scopes in the story, I asked myself "Do I think this is just the author proselytizing via fiction?" and I found that my answer was "No, Connie Willis is too awesome to do that, and anyway she wrote an incredibly complex, delicate and honest depiction of Christianity into Doomsday Book. I think I trust her enough to keep reading." In a striking parallel, I had this little conversation with myself just as the main character of the story was having a debate with himself over whether or not he could trust another character. Hm. Thankfully, my trust in Willis was not abused, and the story did, indeed, turn out to be made of win. You'll have to read it yourself to find out if the main character also decided in favor of trust, and whether or not it worked out well.
Not to spoil you, but I adore the ending.
* My initial impulse when these names come up is to give my opinion loud and clear. Unfortunately, I have about fifteen different opinions on Scopes, some of them contradictory. Thus the spluttering.