an alien heresy, and a room of lost souls
May. 20th, 2008 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sergebroomMy favorite stories in Asimov's April/May 2008 issue are S.P.Somtow's An Alien Heresy, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch's The Room of Lost Souls.
Somtow's story is about Guillaume, an Inquisitor for the Bishop of Nantes. Guillaume began his career as a scribe, taking down the confessions of the guilty, some so lurid that he was sometimes requested to remove some of the details.
He has been sent on a mission to put to the Question a being who is neither female nor male and who admits to having fallen from the heavens. That of course is taken to mean that the creature is a Fallen Angel, and nothing will stop Guillaume from getting the Truth out of it, not even his illegitimate son, who has the voice of an angel.
Rusch's The Room of Lost Souls introduces us to a woman who used to dive and hunt for wrecks. They're not the wrecks at the bottom of Earth's seas, but those in deep space, those of human technology which is so old that nobody understands how it works anymore. She was the best diver, but she stopped when she lost most of her crew on a dangerous dive. Since then, she's been trying to forget. One day, someone shows up who won't take no for an answer, and she takes on the job, one more dive, one that may allow her to put the Past behind her. Not just the recent Past, but also the Past of her childhood, even if it means going back to the Room of Lost Souls, an ancient structure in space inside of which her mother disappeared.
Somtow's story is about Guillaume, an Inquisitor for the Bishop of Nantes. Guillaume began his career as a scribe, taking down the confessions of the guilty, some so lurid that he was sometimes requested to remove some of the details.
What was torn from the pages, however, could not be expunged from our souls. We were scarred by it, and it still gives us nightmares.
He has been sent on a mission to put to the Question a being who is neither female nor male and who admits to having fallen from the heavens. That of course is taken to mean that the creature is a Fallen Angel, and nothing will stop Guillaume from getting the Truth out of it, not even his illegitimate son, who has the voice of an angel.
Rusch's The Room of Lost Souls introduces us to a woman who used to dive and hunt for wrecks. They're not the wrecks at the bottom of Earth's seas, but those in deep space, those of human technology which is so old that nobody understands how it works anymore. She was the best diver, but she stopped when she lost most of her crew on a dangerous dive. Since then, she's been trying to forget. One day, someone shows up who won't take no for an answer, and she takes on the job, one more dive, one that may allow her to put the Past behind her. Not just the recent Past, but also the Past of her childhood, even if it means going back to the Room of Lost Souls, an ancient structure in space inside of which her mother disappeared.
"Pilgrimages have religious connotations, yes," Odette says from her post in the back. The time, the dive team looks at her as if they haven't really noticed her before. "But a pilgrimage is also a mission to a special place, not just a sacred place. One could say this is a pilgrimage."
