Short Story Sunday,
thirteenth edition, brings you rock ‘n’ roll dinosaurs, first contact with an
alien civilization, and murderous house. Let’s get started.
“At Budokan” by Alastair Reynolds
Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by
David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Originally published
in Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF
(2010), edited by Jetse de Vries
One of the tricky
things about reviewing short stories is that your enjoyment of some of them
depends on a twist or reveal toward the end of the story. It makes it difficult
to write about it in a critical way because part of your review is simply
dancing around the plot reveal. “At Budokan” is one of those stories. It’s good
enough that it will still be a good read upon rereading and that’s due to the
fact that the overall story and thematic elements are more important than the
plot twist. That’s something that lesser writers struggle with but Reynolds has
a firm grasp on his story from the very first page.
