Genre: Short
Story/Science Fiction/Fantasy/Time Travel
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.”
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.
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.
Added for
Reprise Review: The Dark Age by Jason Gurley was a nominee in
the Short Story category for B&P 2015 Readers' Choice Awards. Original
review ran March 26, 2014
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
Reviewed
by: Fredlet
Approximate
word count: 5-6,000 words
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