Lou Antonelli (1957–2021)

Hugo nomination 2015 for best short story.

This was a simple tale that drove home one person's conclusion upon learning that the spirit of a dead man can linger and have interactions with anyone on this particular planet. The dead remain for all of the alien natives, too. Unfortunately, the conclusion we receive from the narrator was rather one sided. The problem faced by the dead was between lingering among aliens or complete annihilation. The ghost chose true death, and it seemed unforced and welcome. The short story ends immediately after the second death occurs among the human crew.

The fact that the chaplain politely rebuffed the help of the alien spiritual advisor, this time, leaves us all in a silent question as to what will become of the second dead. No answered questions, just an ongoing curiosity that had nothing to do with the chaplain's beliefs, but we only have the question as to what he will do with the new dead. Will he council him to haunt the crew? Stay among the natives? Find his oblivion?

"I know the way," can be interpreted in so many ways.

Unfortunately, while the story is crafted fairly well, it's fully "up to you, the reader," interpretation seems kind of weak, as if we're meant to copy and paste our own beliefs upon the chaplain and call it a day well served.

Meh. I don't mind strong opinions in the characters I eventually inhabit. Maybe the story could have benefitted from a little choice.

… (altro)

I read the abbreviated version I received as part of the Hugo award packet which contains the first 5 of the 17 chapters. I enjoyed the first couple of chapters and the last couple of chapters were OK. I am sure some people will find this to be a useful book. Antonelli is clearly able to write. His message is that nothing gets handed to someone on a silver platter and writers need to learn from feedback. My only caveat is that sometimes it is better for a writer to abandon a story instead of trying to rewrite it until it works - maybe something along those lines are in the book. I would have preferred if the content skipped around a bit to give me a better overall sense of the book. While I have bought some of the Hugo nominated books, I don't feel compelled to buy this one. On the other hand, I think this has encouraged me to get King's book On Writing out of the library (Letters from Gardner is not available from my library).… (altro)