This story starts with a man driving on a road in the woods at night where he hits and kills a dog. The owner is close by and they walk back to her house with the dead dog. Through small details and conversations we get to know that the man has been part of some strange government experiment involving a planet light years away, and he now has to take special medication to function “normally”.

Asimovs June 2003

Not much really happens in the story itself, as the meat is within the mysterious backstory and the rather dire personal consequences for the protagonist. It is beautifully written and I was fully engrossed from start to finish. It also covers one of my favorite story themes with a loss of identity and personality.

The story is not very long but Skillingstead manages to give a very detailed and interesting portrait of these two people, their background, their emotional state and make their connection seem real. Which all play well together with an unique science fiction concept, but it is not a story that provides answers or resolutions. It is open-ended and open for interpretation, which sometimes can be really frustration but I loved it here.

Read in Forever Magazine, December 2024
Originally published in Asimov’s June 2003
Rating: 4