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When Seattle insurance investigator Sarah Pinsker is invited to SarahCon, an interdimensional convention for Sarah Pinskers from various timelines, she gets involved in a murder mystery when one of the Sarahs is murdered. Did I mention that SarahCon is held on a tiny island off Canada, and due to a storm no one can get on or off?
On the far side of the room, four folding tables covered with velveteen tablecloths. A printed sign hung on the wall behind them: Sarah Pinsker Hall of Fame.
If the list of occupations had made me feel like an underachiever, this display reinforced it. A Grammy for Best Folk Album 2013, a framed photo of a Sarah in the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle, a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, a stack of novels, a Nebula Award for science fiction writing, an issue of Quantology Today containing an article with a seventy word title that I guessed amounted to “Other Realities! I Found Them!”
Even apart from the cleverest title in the multiverse, this is a great story. A lot of times a story has a good concept but fails to live up to it, or goes off on some tangent that has nothing to do with the concept. “And Then There Were (N-One)” did everything I wanted with the premise and more, exploring variations on choice and identity, delving into the bittersweetness of chances taken and lost, and wrapping it all up in a very solid murder mystery that is completely relevant to the concept. I also really loved the ending, which in retrospect was the only possible one.
I don’t want to give too much away, but since I’m putting this in FF Friday I will note that many of the Sarahs are married to or dating a woman named Mabel, and their relationship, or rather many iterations of relationships or lack thereof, are relevant to the story.
(I wonder what it says about you depending on whether you think attending a convention for iterations of yourself would be fascinating or horrifying, and whether you'd go. I'd go in a shot. Guaranteed, the food would be great.)
“And Then There Were (N-One)” was nominated for a Nebula for Best Novella (also for a Hugo, same category) but lost to Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. That was a very solid ballot, with Ellen Klages’ Passing Strange also a contender.
Read for free at Uncanny Magazine.
On the far side of the room, four folding tables covered with velveteen tablecloths. A printed sign hung on the wall behind them: Sarah Pinsker Hall of Fame.
If the list of occupations had made me feel like an underachiever, this display reinforced it. A Grammy for Best Folk Album 2013, a framed photo of a Sarah in the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle, a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, a stack of novels, a Nebula Award for science fiction writing, an issue of Quantology Today containing an article with a seventy word title that I guessed amounted to “Other Realities! I Found Them!”
Even apart from the cleverest title in the multiverse, this is a great story. A lot of times a story has a good concept but fails to live up to it, or goes off on some tangent that has nothing to do with the concept. “And Then There Were (N-One)” did everything I wanted with the premise and more, exploring variations on choice and identity, delving into the bittersweetness of chances taken and lost, and wrapping it all up in a very solid murder mystery that is completely relevant to the concept. I also really loved the ending, which in retrospect was the only possible one.
I don’t want to give too much away, but since I’m putting this in FF Friday I will note that many of the Sarahs are married to or dating a woman named Mabel, and their relationship, or rather many iterations of relationships or lack thereof, are relevant to the story.
(I wonder what it says about you depending on whether you think attending a convention for iterations of yourself would be fascinating or horrifying, and whether you'd go. I'd go in a shot. Guaranteed, the food would be great.)
“And Then There Were (N-One)” was nominated for a Nebula for Best Novella (also for a Hugo, same category) but lost to Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. That was a very solid ballot, with Ellen Klages’ Passing Strange also a contender.
Read for free at Uncanny Magazine.
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I would definitely go to a me convention--the curiosity would eat me alive if I didn't--but I'd go in assuming that whatever I found would just depress me. Either I would be failing to live up to the interdimensional standards for Ellens, or I'd be a comparative success and feel bad for all the other Ellens who were doing even worse.
(There is no universe in which Ellens are not dedicated pessimists and prone to depression.)
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I would definitely go to a convention of myselfs.
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If I received an invite to go to a me-con I probably would go in the end because otherwise I'd be eternally curious about what I'd have missed out on, but I'd dither about it a bunch beforehand (as I dithered while drafting this comment)
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I also really, really liked the story. Like you, I think it did absolutely everything right with the "high concept" premise, and really worked as a mystery, and the ending was perfect for the story it was. Such a perfectly constructed gem!
I liked Murderbot a lot, too, and am not sad it won, but was rooting for this story on all the ballots.
I'd go in a shot. Guaranteed, the food would be great.)
Hee! (I'd go, too.)
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Naq V'z trarenyyl zru ba nzovthbhf raqvatf, va trareny naq rfcrpvnyyl sbe sbe zlfgrevrf, ohg bs pbhefr vg jnf obgu gurzngvpnyyl cresrpg naq punenpgre nccebcevngr urer!
This was my first introduction to Pinsker, and I also read the novelette "Wind Will Rove" as part of my Hugo homework, and liked it too, which means I should read more Pinsker, so I'm looking forward to the short fiction collection she has coming out in March.
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https://sleepingjaguars.com/buffy/viewstory.php?sid=101
(The story is from the "Barbverse" Buffy AU.)
A timeline of all the "Barbverse" stories is at https://sleepingjaguars.com/buffy/viewpage.php?page=timeline
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I would be way too curious not to go to a convention of alternate versions of me, but it would be horrible, because I already spend so much time wishing I'd have made different career/workplace choices at crucial points, so it would be really painful to meet the historian-me and the astrophysicist-me and the "just said hell to all rational career choices and went to writing school" me. Hopefully nobody would get murdered.
But at least the music would be way better than it usually is at any public events!
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(And we'd go back home and our spouses/families/friends would be all "So, what were the other versions of you doing in your other lives, and what were the points of divergence?" and we'd all say "...uh, no idea? But let me tell you about this GREAT Bruckner motet we were able to put together--")
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I really loved this one, both on the trying to solve the mystery level and the lots-of-feelings level. I'm kicking myself for missing some clues which were obvious in retrospect (but only in retrospect, which is the sign of a good mystery.)
I'm kind of curious what a Lily convention would be like, though I suspect it would be an exercise in envy and misery on my part. I refuse to believe some wild variations of me out there aren't fabulously successful, though that may be narcissism, as the protagonist might say. :)
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(I also love the note in the interview with the author about getting the comment that "you very rarely see the technique [of authorial self-insertion] used by women, and that this was a 'vast overcorrection,' an assessment I adored and took as further proof I was on the right track." All the self-inserts!)
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In retrospect I should have paid more attention to the mystery. I think I read and enjoy as many books that follow the outer form of a mystery but are more "twist" books and less "mystery" books, which means that I can't tell when it's worth reading for clues carefully.
Would I go? Well, I'd certainly *go* out of curiosity, but I don't know how I'd feel about it. I sort of like myself, but not with enough confidence to expect to enjoy spending time with more of me. And I'd be curious how the rest of me did at life. I feel like my relationship with Rachel is so lovely, would Rachel-less versions of me have found someone else? Are there versions of me who have a relationship with one of my might-have-beens? I'm going to feel insecure about my career however everyone else did...
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Then I realized that it would be me all around. I'd have a great time... but probably feel bad after I get home.
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Oh, a good point. I want to find out what the hell happened to the version of me who are good enough organizers to put together a con! 'Cause that's wildly divergent from this reality.