Reviewed by: Fredlet
Genre: Short Story/Science Fiction/Fantasy/Time
Travel
Approximate word count: 5-6,000 words
Availability
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on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
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Author:
” Jason Gurley is the bestselling author of
Greatfall, among other novels and
short stories. By day he's a designer, and by night he writes and designs book
covers. He lives with his family in Oregon, where he is currently writing a
novel about a girl named Eleanor. He loves meeting readers, and often gives
them free books via his newsletter.”
Find out
more here from his website or by subscribing to his newsletter. Follow him on twitter or like his Facebook page.
Description:
“On the day she was born, he left for the stars.
He watches her grow up on screens. Misses her first words. Misses her first steps. She's never kissed his scratchy cheek, or fallen asleep on his shoulder. He's never wiped away her tears, or sung her to sleep.
Now she's a toddler, and he's about to enter hibernation sleep -- and when he wakes nearly 150 years in the future, his family will be gone.
This is a short story for every father who never wants his daughter to grow up.”
He watches her grow up on screens. Misses her first words. Misses her first steps. She's never kissed his scratchy cheek, or fallen asleep on his shoulder. He's never wiped away her tears, or sung her to sleep.
Now she's a toddler, and he's about to enter hibernation sleep -- and when he wakes nearly 150 years in the future, his family will be gone.
This is a short story for every father who never wants his daughter to grow up.”
Appraisal:
I’d read
Mr. Gurley’s Silo Saga: Greatfall
novel a bit ago and really enjoyed his Kindle Worlds contribution to Hugh
Howey’s world of Wool. I picked up The Dark Age: A Short Story while looking for a quick read. The
cover just caught my eye and the blurb was interesting. I was unsure I would be
able to connect with the plot, because I am not a parent. Not to worry; I am a
daughter and wife, and an author’s job is to pull you into the story no matter
what. Mr. Gurley sure did that! I had
such an emotional reaction to this book… heart racing, breath taking, all the
tears shed. And the dreams that followed which made me ruminate about personal
experiences I’ve had evoking the feelings of a dark age.
I can’t
remember the last time an author’s words had such an effect on me. Stopping to
think, I came up with The Diary of Anne
Frank and Tuesdays with Morrie.
While The Dark Age: A Short Story is
heart wrenching, it is also uplifting and covers a lot of ground. I found it
amazing that in so few words you came to know the main and supporting
characters and could empathize with their choices. The ending reminded me of
the emails I wrote to my father after his death, which were undeliverable,
returned to me, and saved to an email folder. I went back and read them all, as
I also did with this book.
FYI:
In case you
haven’t noticed, this is a short story well worth the amount of time it will
take you to read.
Format/Typo Issues:
I read both
the e-book and paperback editions and found no errors. If any were there, I was
too involved in the story to notice.
Rating: ***** Five Stars
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