In a near future, Scott decides not to renew his marriage contract with Naomi and look for “Greener” pastures in the story by Josh Roseman. He does not find them. There were a few features of this story that showed it was the future, one of them being a renewable marriage contract, but not enough to make it all that science fictional. It told a very old, but very good story and was quite touching.
Josh Roseman’s ‘Greener’ is basically a relationship story and the pressures such things come under while both parties come under the pressure of showing they’re clean before they’re allowed to touch. I didn’t find this a particularly pleasant story to read either in its characters or in its assumptions about the society its set in.
He’s right. It’s not a particularly pleasant story. I don’t think any of the characters (except perhaps the kids and the escort) are ones you can really root for. But then, I wrote it that way on purpose.
Climate change brought on by an ‘event’ leads to a sort of Mad Max future, with nomaid communities of desert-adapted vehicles/ships forming, the better to protect themselves and to seek water. A tight drama is enacted, with a bit of backstory, and an ending offering the potential of a sequel. FWIW I’d vote for one.
Mark Watson of Best SF had the above to say on “Bring on the Rain”.
Josh Roseman. Bring on the Rain. (Asimovs July 2011) | Best SF
“Bring on the Rain” by Josh Roseman takes place sometime in the mid-22nd Century, years after Earth had been hit for two days by a solar flare, killing three-quarters of the population and rendering all the surface water undrinkable. William is part of a fleet of land ships that constitute Demetrius Colony, nomads that scour the desert surface, looking for big rain storms. He is in charge of computer models that predict when they will occur. It’s a nasty world in which competing colonies fight vicious battles over water and we get a taste of it in this well-written story.
I think I might like this one best. […] This is sort of a push-your-limits-triumph-over-adversity story, and I liked the protagonist’s struggle between pessimism–”I’m going to die”–and determination to try to survive–”I can do this”.
I recently found this review of my story “Survivor”. Thanks, closetpuritan, for your kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed the story.
“Oh crap… it’s the puppet episode.” Indeed. Read about how I changed my tune by clicking here.
“Smile Time”, or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Trust in Whedon”
My review of Joss Whedon: the Complete Companion, a compendium of articles and essays on all of Whedon’s creations (and I mean all), is now on Escape Pod. Read it here.
Several of my articles from January, February, and March are reprinted in Soundproof Digest #1. If you want to read them on your e-reading device, you can download ePub, PDF, or Mobi versions here.
Oh, and there’s a bunch of good stories in there too.
My “review” of the Deep Space Nine episode “Our Man Bashir” is now up on Escape Pod. Read it here.
I’m playing Mr. Cragg in “When the Black Bird Circles Back” by Greg van Eekhout. Listen here.
Journey #34 – When The Black Bird Circles Back by Greg van Eekhout
I’m reading David Carani’s “The Paradise Aperture” in this week’s StarShipSofa. The story is in this year’s Writers Of The Future anthology as well.
My review of Highlander 3 is up at Escape Pod.
This week on the Drabblecast, I’m narrating “Divorce in the House of Flies” by Dustin Reade. Click here to put it in your ears.
As of this writing, Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series has made her the best-selling Kindle author of all time. That’s quite an accomplishment. But even before that happened, it was inevitable that the Hunger Games phenomenon would become a film. After all, with the end of both Harry Potter and Twilight on the horizon, studios were looking for their next big book-to-movie hit.
Well, they found it, and on March 23, The Hunger Games was released to American audiences.
My short-story “Greener”, which I’m very proud of, is in the April/May 2012 issue of Asimov’s. Click here to put it in your eyeballs.
“Greener” in Asimov’s
I am performing “The Funeral”, by Christopher Munroe, in Issue 31 of “Journey Into”.
About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about how fast data storage technology is expanding. My example was my USB drive, which holds eight hundred times as much data in something the size of my finger than my very first hard drive, which was about the size of half a frozen dinner.
I vaguely remember seeing Return to Oz in theaters as a child and deciding that the movie was good, but scary. As an adult, I’m quite surprised at how creepy and disturbing the film’s imagery was. In Oz alone, we have the insane behavior of the Wheelers, the mirror-palace where Mombi resides, and even the Gump, who should’ve quit while he was a head.
I’m reading “The Speed of Time” by Jay Lake over at Escape Pod.
Josh Roseman: Writer, Voice Guy, Dad, Human 