Quite a few comments last Sunday expressed confusion over Zhaim. I thought I’d explain something and give a snippet from Tourist Trap, my now-published book and winner of the Garcia Award for best fiction book of the year.
The R’il’nai and some of the R’il’noids in my fiction are able to strip memories from their minds into computer storage. All but Roi have done this in fairness to the “new” Zhaim, so Roi alone has the memory of Zhaim before Marna imposed an artificial conscience on him. He also seems to be the only one who has retained the memory that Marna said the treatment should be repeated every quarter century. The snippet below was well over 200 years before Rescue Operation in story time, when Roi was only 18.
The woods lightened ahead of them, and the mist lifted as they entered a clearing. Roi glanced around quickly, looking for something they could use as shelter. Nothing but grass and sodden wildflowers. He checked the compass and headed straight across, hoping the Mastodon River wasn’t too far away.
He heard a thunderclap behind him when he was halfway across the clearing and spun to face it, fearful he knew what it was. Zhaim stood before him, a triumphant leer on his handsome face and a beamer swinging toward the party.
If you want to see other bits from both Tourist Trap and Rescue Operation, click Index above and then Six Sentence Sunday.
There are lots of other great authors on Six Sentence Sunday. Click on the logo to find them. They’d all love your comments.
Intriguing premise! And great descriptive 6!
Intriguing six. I wonder what will happen next!
I think I’m actually more confused now, but that could be because I haven’t had much caffeine yet this morning. Love the six though! Great descriptions!
You’ve done some seriouis world-building Sue, which is a good thing. Your writing is clear enough (and I’ve read enough Science Fiction to make the “mind leaps”) so I usually have a good sense of what is going on. Good six today.
I’m already freaked out about the “artificial conscience!” Good God!
Great description, really liked the “sodden wildflowers” detail. Terrific six!
Everythings’s soaked after a day of stumbling through the wilderness in the rain, and our hero is catching the first cold of his life.
Yikes! Zhaim sounds like bad news!
Interesting six, and very descriptive.