Peter Pan Is A Killer

PAN by Christopher Ruz is a dark version of the Peter Pan story, mixing folklore and mythology from more than one source. I absolutely love all the sinister secrets revealed through the POV of a Lost Boy named Jimmy. Once the narrator's identity is revealed, this short story became one of my all-time favorites.

This is only the second story I've read by this author (the other is a sci-fi short), but I wish Ruz would write more tales with this writing style and genre. I highly recommend this one to ALL readers.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Sci-Fi Saturday Short

The colony ship known as the Vale has been spiralling towards Epsilon Eridani for four millennia, and Barry - the semi-sentient AI set to guard its frozen human cargo - has had a long time to question the nature of his mission. There are too many gaps in his code, too many mistakes left unfixed.

Could Barry's programmers really have been so lax? Or does he have a greater purpose, some secret mission buried in his source code? He has another eighteen thousand years to find the answer. In the meantime, he's growing bored, and idle hands are the devil's playthings...

The Last Broadcast by Christopher Ruz is a science fiction short story, but the thought process the A.I., Barry, goes through is horrific. I found Barry's conspiracy theories about the Scrubbers intriguing and I wish the author had gone in that direction. Instead, Ruz chose to go with a theme which is overdone and in the sci-fi genre and result in a predictable ending.

I did enjoy the author's writing style. I'd love to read this same story, but from the Scrubbers POV and with a different ending.

As always,
AstraDaemon