Cryptic - the Best Short Fiction of Jack Mcdevitt (2015)
“I was twelve years old, in grade school, home for lunch, and still in my Lone Ranger phase. I’d discovered science fiction eight years earlier, watching stunned as Flash Gordon piloted his magnificent rocket ship in circles above the sterile landscapes of Mongo. So I was already a lifelong fan, captivated by John Carter and Dejah Thoris, by Conan and the Legion of Space.
But “Helen O’Loy” packed a different kind of punch from anything I’d seen earlier. Not that it was necessarily better. Ju...st different. A man in love with a beautiful robot. (I don’t think the term ‘android’ was in use yet.) Ultimately, we learn that, after a glorious lifetime, the husband dies, as humans inevitably do. And Helen’s note to a friend arrives, of course, at the climax: “He died in my arms just before sunrise… Don’t grieve too much for us, for we have had a happy life together…” She will turn herself off and be buried with him. No one is ever to know the truth.MoreLess
But “Helen O’Loy” packed a different kind of punch from anything I’d seen earlier. Not that it was necessarily better. Ju...st different. A man in love with a beautiful robot. (I don’t think the term ‘android’ was in use yet.) Ultimately, we learn that, after a glorious lifetime, the husband dies, as humans inevitably do. And Helen’s note to a friend arrives, of course, at the climax: “He died in my arms just before sunrise… Don’t grieve too much for us, for we have had a happy life together…” She will turn herself off and be buried with him. No one is ever to know the truth.MoreLess
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