This story is both rather unique and very formulaic. The basic story follows a well known structure of someone getting kidnapped and having to escape, almost like a standard horror movie, but told with a bunch of gallows humor in a wisecracking jokey style.

Asimovs July/August 2024

Lyle discovers something weird in his DNA test, but before he can dive deeper into the matter, he finds himself in a horrible situation being kidnapped by a fanatic cult that tries to force him to impregnate a young girl, due to their belief that it will bring a holy child of some sort. Most of this story doesn’t really need to be science fiction, but the entertainment value is high as we follow Lyle’s attempts at escape and survival.

The story is formulaic in the sense that it went exactly where I expected it to, but the author adds a pretty funny and captivating writing style that makes it worth reading. It could have been one of the more experimental goofy episodes in the 6th X-Files season.

Read in Asimov’s July/August 2024
Rating: 3