2011 Locus Award for Best Novella (nominee)
2011 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (nominee)
A local man, a popular runner, is brutally killed. The apparent murderer, also a runner, is put in jail, but there isn't enough evidence to charge him and he is released. Then one cold Saturday morning, the dead man's buddies come across that most likely suspect. The man they hate is jogging along, free as can be, and as a group, these good citizens decide to run a confession out of their enemy.
"Dead Man's" is set in the near future, in a greenhouse world where people make avatars of themselves. Which is why one of the central characters happens to be the voice and memories of the dead man.
"Trees surrender to flattened grass and little stands of sumac. The sky hasn't changed, but the scattered clouds seem higher than before and the polished blue above the world is bright enough to make eyes water and blink. Diving into the grass, the twisting trail decides to narrow, and then like a man regaining his concentration, it straightens -- a tidy little gully etched into the native black sod. Lucas runs into the meadow, out where he can see and be seen, and that's where he stops. Nobody follows. Certain teeth ache when he stares into the wind, and he pulls down his sleeves and kneels slightly, listening and waiting. He soon becomes an expert in the sound of wind. It's never just one noise. Wind is endless overlapping noises, each coming from some different place, each hurrying to find ears that want to hear voices and words and sad cries that were never there."
Robert Reed has run for his entire adult life. He also has written quite a few stories, including titles nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Genre: Science Fiction
"Dead Man's" is set in the near future, in a greenhouse world where people make avatars of themselves. Which is why one of the central characters happens to be the voice and memories of the dead man.
"Trees surrender to flattened grass and little stands of sumac. The sky hasn't changed, but the scattered clouds seem higher than before and the polished blue above the world is bright enough to make eyes water and blink. Diving into the grass, the twisting trail decides to narrow, and then like a man regaining his concentration, it straightens -- a tidy little gully etched into the native black sod. Lucas runs into the meadow, out where he can see and be seen, and that's where he stops. Nobody follows. Certain teeth ache when he stares into the wind, and he pulls down his sleeves and kneels slightly, listening and waiting. He soon becomes an expert in the sound of wind. It's never just one noise. Wind is endless overlapping noises, each coming from some different place, each hurrying to find ears that want to hear voices and words and sad cries that were never there."
Robert Reed has run for his entire adult life. He also has written quite a few stories, including titles nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Genre: Science Fiction
Used availability for Robert Reed's Dead Man's Run