Doorways
Nov 2016 · Lucky Bat Books
5.0star
1 reviewreport
Ebook
56
Pages
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About this ebook
Aurora Award Finalist story from a multi-award winning author.
The House promised Jack wealth, fame, and revenge...if it didn’t kill him first.
~~~
Dr. Lucius Rainer, head of research at GenTech, is dead. But to Jack, it seems that his old mentor still lives on through his house. Certainly, Rainer’s strange island retreat exudes the personality of its late owner: isolated and eccentric, brooding and uninviting. But when GenTech learns that the house holds a working model of Rainer’s final project, Jack discovers that the house shares one other trait with its former owner.
Dangerous.
The house will open only to Jack’s biometrics, and will only allow two very specific people to accompany him: Wendy, Jack’s now ex-wife, and Deak Sanderson, Wendy’s new lover and Jack’s former rival at GenTech. As the three of them explore the house and its secrets, Jack discovers that some doors—in this house and in life—should never be opened.
“A couple months ago I was introduced to Douglas Smith by way of his collected short stories, Impossibilia. So I was looking forward to his story 'Doorways' and was not disappointed. ... This story has a cunningly satisfying conclusion. I find a good short story falls into two categories: There is the complete story, the novel miniaturised, which is a nearly perfect art form. These are hard to capture but constantly illustrated by such writers as Douglas Smith.” —SF Crowsnest Book Reviews
“...is based on an interesting concept ... The puzzles [in the story] and the final invention that they hint at are intriguing ... Smith ties [the story's] denouement’s metaphorical significance in well with the technological concept at the center of the plot.” —The Fix
The House promised Jack wealth, fame, and revenge...if it didn’t kill him first.
~~~
Dr. Lucius Rainer, head of research at GenTech, is dead. But to Jack, it seems that his old mentor still lives on through his house. Certainly, Rainer’s strange island retreat exudes the personality of its late owner: isolated and eccentric, brooding and uninviting. But when GenTech learns that the house holds a working model of Rainer’s final project, Jack discovers that the house shares one other trait with its former owner.
Dangerous.
The house will open only to Jack’s biometrics, and will only allow two very specific people to accompany him: Wendy, Jack’s now ex-wife, and Deak Sanderson, Wendy’s new lover and Jack’s former rival at GenTech. As the three of them explore the house and its secrets, Jack discovers that some doors—in this house and in life—should never be opened.
“A couple months ago I was introduced to Douglas Smith by way of his collected short stories, Impossibilia. So I was looking forward to his story 'Doorways' and was not disappointed. ... This story has a cunningly satisfying conclusion. I find a good short story falls into two categories: There is the complete story, the novel miniaturised, which is a nearly perfect art form. These are hard to capture but constantly illustrated by such writers as Douglas Smith.” —SF Crowsnest Book Reviews
“...is based on an interesting concept ... The puzzles [in the story] and the final invention that they hint at are intriguing ... Smith ties [the story's] denouement’s metaphorical significance in well with the technological concept at the center of the plot.” —The Fix
Ratings and reviews
5.0
1 review
Chris Wells
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November 18, 2021
Whenever I read a new Douglas Smith story two thoughts always come to my mind. Firstly, what an imagination this writer has to come up with so many new and different settings and stories. Secondly, how each story feels so alive as if it’s part of a much wider world. By this point, having read so much of his work, I shouldn’t be surprised and I guess I’m not but I am impressed and certainly in awe. This particular story starts with a mouse, features some people, in awkward relationship situations, and has a very technologically advanced house at it’s centre. Where will it go? I kept wondering just that but won’t ruin it for future readers by explaining that here. As I always say with a Douglas Smith story, either short or long, just start reading it, don’t look for the blurb and reviews, just read it, he never disappoints. Simply, an excellent, brilliantly imaginative short story fgrom the masterful storyteller. .
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