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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.