Stone of Loneliness: A Bland Story Shoved into an Interesting Premise
For I Have Lain Me Down on the Stone of Loneliness and I’ll Not Be Back Again by Michael Swanwick
So I was in between books, and decided to dive back into the 29th edition of the Year’s Best Scifi. I swear I will finish this huge book one day. But the story I read this time around is For I Have Lain Me Down on The Stone of Loneliness and I’ll Not Be Back Again by Michael Swanwick.
What is it about? It’s about an American tourist who falls in love with a woman named Mary in Ireland. It’s a dream come true. But they have their differences. The world was been at war with an alien race in the past, but are now at peace. Our lead does not believe they are evil any more. Mary believes the opposite. And when he has to work on a satellite alongside these aliens, Mary asks him to do something terrible.
The good? I really liked the flow of this story. It essentially focuses on the charming love story and then opens up into something bigger. It focuses on the characters and not the epic world. We learned about this world as the story go along.
The bad? This story is very bland. It has some charm but it doesn’t do anything new. It’s so forgettable. For instance, I read at night because I trouble sleeping. Then I write the reviews the next day. But this story was erased from my memory come morning. I knew I read it but couldn’t remember it at all. So I had to read it again and write this quickly after. It literally does feel like its fading again as I write these words down.
Overall, this story is fine. It has some charm but remains to be one of the most forgettable tales I ever read. It’s not good or bad. It’s just very meh. If you stumble across it, give it a read if it sounds like your thing.. But it’s not worth hunting down.
2 smoothies out of Four
Overall Rating: A Bland Story Shoved into an Interesting Promise.
