John Chu’s Hugo Award (2014) winning short story is somewhat unusual. It seems that rain has decided to fall on anyone caught in a lie. Wow, would that straighten out politics, or what? Can you imagine the President fielding and answering questions at a press conference? Anyway, the rain could be a drizzle or a downpour to match the severity of the lie. How this phenomenon started or what caused it to begin in the first place doesn’t seem important to the populace in this Tor.com original story. It was tested and found to be safe distilled water. Enough said...what? There are a lot of unanswered questions about this occurrence, but apparently not important, since this story is about a Chinese/American man coming out of the closet.
Matt, the above mentioned gentleman, is in love with Gus, a large Adonis type man. One day Gus says to Matt, “You know.” Gus’s voice is surprisingly steady given how his teeth chatter. “Now that we know how we feel about each other, how about we solemnize the relationship? Make it official.” Matt says, “Lets visit my family this Christmas. The two of us.” Gus says, “Are you sure? I can wait years if that’s what you want.” I smell trouble, especially with all the downpours that that meeting can produce (I finally got to use Mieville’s that that sequence). When they arrive at Matt’s sister Michele’s mansion for the holiday, Michele senses trouble and takes Matt into her office and says, '“How dare you?” She slams the door behind her and I remind myself that I’m bigger than her now and it’d be harder for her to beat me up. “Are you trying to kill Mom and Dad?”'
The story gets interesting from here on because Matt’s parents (not speaking English since they retired) want a grandson to carry on the family’s name and bloodline. Michele’s husband Kevin’s parents only speak Cantonese and Mandarin. Will they understand? Will Matt chicken out and say nothing? And the big question is: will it drizzle or downpour on this home? I thought that this story was astute and well thought out. It reminded me of Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles (see my review of 3/28/13). Both stories had amazing events happening to Earth, but the incidents took a backseat to the human interest part of the story. I do recommend this short story (and I mean short).
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: This award has been won by the heavyweights of science fiction: Larry Niven, Philip Jose Farmer, Poul Anderson, Edgar Rice Burroughs, George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, John Varley, and Isaac Asimov. Is that some lineup or what? The problem is since these are short stories, they are mostly out of print. What I suggest is simple... try to buy these great writers in short story collections, such as:
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke: The Star, Volume III (Arthur C. Clarke Collection: Short Stories Book 3) by Arthur C. Clarke.
Amazon.com says of Clarke’s Hugo Short Story winner (1956), The Star: “In the title story of this outstanding collection, a group of cosmonauts discovers the remains of an advanced civilization in a remote star system-destroyed when their sun went supernova. They find that the civilization was very similar to Earth's-and that its people knew of their coming doom centuries before it occurred. What they find leads their chief astrophysicist-also a Jesuit priest-into a deep crisis of faith, sparked by a shocking revelation that has implications not just for history-but for religion."
"This collection of short stories demonstrates not only Clarke's technological imagination-but also a deep poetic sensibility that led him to ponder the philosophical and moral implications of technological advances. These stories demonstrate the range of his vision as an author-based on both our scientific potential and the deeper aspects of the human condition.”
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