I just finished reading this short story that was included in the 2005 Volume of “The Year’s Best Science Fiction”. Has anyone else read this story, because I’m seriously at the end of the story. Alright, I can deal with fantastical elements and proper nouns and objects that make no sense whatsoever. But the entire story is this post-modern mindfuck that never makes more sense as the story goes along. It was as if a flying saucer carrying the latest SciFi nerd convention crashed into the MoMa and gave birth to grotesque and terrifying children.
Can anyone help shed some light, ANY light, on what the story was about?
It’s been several years since I read it, but my take-away was that the hero and his colleagues in Kentucky (“The Volunteer State” is Kentucky’s nickname) had developed an artificial intelligence that could design and build weird creatures and brainwash people, resulting in the weird society that you see in the start of the story - and the plot of the story had to do with agents from an area outside the control of the AI trying to capture the hero so that his knowledge could be used to defeat the AI.
Bestsf.net has reviews of short SF - if you search there, I’ll bet you find a review that gives some insight (I’m not looking now because I want to test my memory)
at the end of the story. Alright, I can deal with fantastical elements and proper nouns and objects that make no sense whatsoever. But the entire story is this post-modern mindfuck that never makes more sense as the story goes along. It was as if a flying saucer carrying the latest SciFi nerd convention crashed into the MoMa and gave birth to grotesque and terrifying children.