As told in the last post (right below, in Portuguese), I´ll be doing a series of short reviews of the Hugo and Nebula finalists in the next weeks, as time and circumstances allow me to do so.
The first one is Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?, by Ken MacLeod (The New Space Opera, ed. Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, HarperCollins/Eos). This short story is slightly reminiscent of Theodore Sturgeon´s The Skills of Xanadu, with an even madder twisted ending. MacLeod tells us the apparently simple story of a virtually immortal man (or, as he tells us himself in the very beginning of the story, maybe not, maybe his implanted memories are to blame on the fact that he really believes it), a gallant, gallivanting rogue who is caught with the wife of a powerful man and is force to face a very singular punishment: travel to the distant world of Wolf 359 and bring back anything that might have survived the collapse of civilization there. But he does find a civilization there, after all - it´s his reaction to the beings he finds in Wolf 359 that will be essential to a successful completion of his mission. That´s where MacLeod and Sturgeon goes their separate ways -- the space trigger-happy cowboy Bril of Kit Carson resists any kind of involvement with the inhabitantes of Xanadu, only to be slowly wooed by their gentle ways. Not so with MacLeod´s protagonist, which only wants to make a profit - any profit he can. It´s a short, curt story - and a funny one, which makes all the difference.
The first one is Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?, de Ken MacLeod.
Nem nos english drops o português dá um tempo a você, Fábio.
Hauheuaheuahau.
He got you on that one, Fábio.:D
Porra, man, I just forgot to switch back to inglês! :-D
Huauhahuahu!