Rather unusually (i.e. the first time in about 15 years of reading Asimovs) there are some missing pages in this issue of Asimovs, including the first page of this story, which was a bit of a bummer.
However, Asimovs have put the story up on their site in full, so I haz read it, and was pleased so to do, as it’s a fine story, that gets better as it goes along, and has a neat twist in the final sentences.
It’s Tuesday, early morning, and the story takes the form of short segments focussing on the several characters – the two cops who have been called out to a diner, the guy who made the 911 call, the manager of the band whose tour bus is parked outside, and a couple of others who have pulled into the diner. All have a bit of a story behind them, each has their own character, and the cops have to try to find out just exactly what it was that came down from the sky, and what exactly it was, other than ‘big’. There’s some nice characterisation, nice dialog, and whilst it’s short and sweet, rather than lengthy an absorbing, I’m going to put it forward for consideration for The Best SF Short Story Award 2015.
