The woman narrates her own story, telling us how she took this job operating an avatar to lessen the pain of having discovered the infidelity of her husband. The solitary work distances her from others and allows her to be alone with her thoughts. This one has a bit of an unexpected ending that’s foreshadowed by another mysterious millipede mutation: the creatures have grown lobster-like claws, and their purpose is revealed in spectacular fashion.
“Neuro-Dancer” by Tom Sweterlitsch
Interestingly, several of the Avatars Inc authors envisioned situations involving people in hospice care, and not all of them use the avatars as a means of escaping a dying body. “Neuro-Dancer” occupies a sort of space in between with the story of Murray, an Alzheimer’s patient who is visited by his daughter, identified in his deteriorating narrator’s mind as “the Woman.”
It sounds bleak, but actually the experimental use of an avatar to heal Murray’s mind brings a couple of interesting facts about his earlier life to light, and seeing the story through the eyes of someone coming in and out of dementia provides a unique perspective. Readers should keep an eye on the pen Murray keeps searching for, and the beautifully conceived ending will leave their heads swimming.
“Thirty-three” by Tade Thompson
Every collection of stories on a theme deserves one tale that twists readers’ minds into knots. “Thirty-three” manages to do just that while still amusing us with witty dialogue and a very British, understated way of solving a world-ending criss. Dr. William Bari, as an expert in cybernetics, is conscripted to help the government with a unique problem: they must penetrate a plasma field as hot as the sun in order to stop it from consuming everything.
There’s actually a lot more to it than that, including interesting consequences for Bari’s love life, but suffice it to say only a very specific way of using avatars can get them through that kind of heat. The mind-bending part of the story involves the fact that there’s a phone signal coming from inside the plasma field, and it’s originating from someone who enjoys a nice round of an addictive game called Stacked.
