Ahhhhh I love finding an author where one story is SO good that I immediately acquire a new favorite author. In the span of a couple hours I’ve read his other short stories on Uncanny Mag, and started the audiobook for Someone You Can Build a Nest In.
This story in particular just hits squarely every mood I was in today. The dystopic multiverse with the MC doomscrolling all the infinite versions of himself. The bitter and then bittersweet and then outright sweet turns the story took. The AI mod villain(s). The hopeful twist into marine biology at the end.
It’s really what social media is, isn’t it? No multiverse needed. Encountering different facets of ourselves, good and bad, ad infinitum. In fact, if you take one of my favorite pet thought experiments, that we are all a compound organism in the universe, aspects of the same consciousness expressed in myriad different forms, that we cannot separate ourselves from the world around us, then every troll on the internet is ourself. Every influencer, every follower, every mod, every nobody. How would we treat each other then? What kind of care would we show ourselves?
Links and other stories, a list: ⚭
- I’ll Miss Myself, free to read here: https://reactormag.com/ill-miss-myself-john-wiswell/
- The Bottomless Martyr — a young demigod sacrifices herself over and over to produce miracles, but the miracles only bring more catastrophe — https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-bottomless-martyr/
- Five Answers to Questions You Probably Have, less than 1k words and emotionally devastating (“I am proud of you. We never met and I am so proud of you the ground caves in whenever I think about your tiny face.”) — https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/five-answers-to-questions-you-probably-have/
- The Coward Who Stole God’s Name — way more levels going on here than just some techbro hero worship justice, but hooboy that’s part of it — https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-coward-who-stole-gods-name/
- The Story That Isn’t The Story — https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/that-story-isnt-the-story/
- Bonus: interview on “The Story That Isn’t The Story” — https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/interview-john-wiswell/