365 tomorrows

BIRTHDAYS by Curtis C. Chen is now up.

When Stacy was twelve, she celebrated her father’s thirty-third birthday.

“It’s only sixteen light-years,” he was saying. “We’re not sure how hard we can push the stardrive, but we also need to balance the relativistic effects...”

When Stacy was sixty-five, she celebrated her father’s fortieth birthday.

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Thats the unchanging human element that brought this tomorrow to life for me; another example of how we will always have our humanity. I liked this story a lot.

But. It takes place far enough in the future where interstellar travel is possible, but a 65 years old person is confined to a wheel chair because of some measly little cancer? And the Dad doesn't seem to think it odd? Also, Ibuprofen and alcohol is an extremely ineffective way to kill one's self. I'm not a medical type, but you just don't hear about that kind of thing. Neither of these issues are fatal for the story, but they just stood out a little.

We have no idea how long it will take us to cure cancer. To put it like Sean Connery: "It's the f***ing plague of our times"

But I agree ibuprofen + alcohol = not ver effective

I thought it a great story.

Q

While the story is too short to have developed the father character, who remains unremarkable throughout, it has an attention breaking flaw.

You cannot overdose on Ibuprofen. It just burns a hole in the lining of your stomach and you end up with ulcers.

Yes, I am a nitpicker, but this stopped my enjoyment of the story.

I don't particularly mind petty inaccuracies like ibuprofen, etc.

That story gave me an emotional sucker-punch. Ouch.

Very well written, to pull true grief...

Well, we've seen even in recent years how technology has progressed by leaps and bounds, seemingly overnight, but there are things in the medical community that continue to puzzle physicians. I don't see this as necessarily being a stretch. You're talking about two completely different fields here, so it's entirely plausible that one might advance more quickly than the other.

I liked this little psychological exploration.

Oh, and that link in the first post really needs to be fixed...

My bad. I fixed it.

Yes, I know it is very difficult (if not impossible) to OD on ibuprofen-- commonly sold as Advil or Motrin-- and that irreversible kidney damage is much more likely.

All I can say is, them astronauts is some mighty clever folk.

Thanks for all your comments!

I enjoyed this tomorrow - mostly because of the relativistic concepts. The ibuprofen thing didn't bother me so much.



This particular phrase hold some bitter memories for me and is a small part of a rift between myself and my maternal grandmother, to whom I am not currently speaking.

Enjoyed it. Reminded me of some classic Haldeman (Forever War) and passed the Ellison Test about good fiction being about the human heart in conflict with itself