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Schrodinger's Kitten [MultiFormat]
eBook by George Alec Effinger
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eBook Category: Science Fiction Hugo Award Winner, Sturgeon Award Winner, Nebula Award(R) Winner
eBook Description: Jehan nervously awaits the dawn in a dark alley, watching for the boy she knows will assault her, unsure if she will use the dagger in her sleeve ... this decision will determine which of the many futures from her visions will come to pass. Life on the streets as a defiled woman ... beheading in the public square ... or assistant to the German physicist who buys her life from the executioner's sword.
eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Omni, 1988
Fictionwise Release Date: January 2001
This eBook is also available in the following bundle(s):
Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [131 KB], eReader (PDB) [45 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [32 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [30 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [48 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [102 KB], hiebook (KML) [97 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [63 KB], iSilo (PDB) [27 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [34 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [62 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [48 KB]
Words: 9727
Reading time: 27-38 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
 
Schrodinger's Kitten is a spectacular dance with the question of how much can rest on one fateful decision in one moment of time. The choice the protagonist faces--whether or not to meet a potential rapist with dagger drawn--is at first glance a simple one. In Effinger's world, though, nothing is that simple. A dizzying series of visions highlight how much of her future--and the future of others--rests on her choice. I was spellbound watching her struggle with the knowledge of what was at stake, and then making her choice. -Tammy Cravit, Fictionwise Recommender
Here is a story of possibilities. Jehan can see her future, or, more accurately, her possible future. Can she change that future? Her decision this night is whether or not to wield her dagger against a boy whom she knows will assault her, and on this decision rests... everything. I read, rapt, as Jehan struggled, then made her decision. -Scott Danielson, Fictionwise Recommender
What if you could foresee your future, but each time you did, it changed? Maybe the first time you predicted wealth, prosperity, and happiness, but your next premonition indicated that you would die poor and alone? Would you allow these ever-changing premonitions to dictate your actions?
Meet Jehan, an Islamic girl barely yet a woman. During her life she is either raped or not, damned or saved, kills a man or is killed. Also meet Jehan, an Islamic woman in her late 20's, brilliant, and privy to the innermost dealings of the greatest scientific minds of the mid-1920's. Who, when, and where is Jehan really? And how can someone so young have so many memories?
In "Schrodinger's Kitten" by George Alec Effinger, the reader is told the same story several times each with a slightly different twist. As the same story plays out through different means with different ends, Jehan struggles to get a grasp on what is part of her reality and what is a premonition. And are they really premonitions or the distant memories of many Jehans long dead?
In this work of science fiction with bits of historical fiction thrown in, Effinger has created a thought-provoking tale sure to appeal to sci-fi buffs, physicists, and fiction readers alike. -Amy Poppenga, Fictionwise Recommender
One of the great things about the eBook revolution is the availability of older material. Certainly, it's allowing me
to catch up on some stories I should have read years ago -- such as this gem from the late George Alec Effinger. What a masterful work! The entire history of quantum mechanics condensed to 10,000 words, and made a powerful character story, to boot. -Robert J. Sawyer, Fictionwise Recommender
Jehan must face her past, or future. Is a boy's death in the Budayeen an item of history or prospect, and what of Jehan's own death? Parallel tales: which becomes history--that is the question. And a most remarkable one. -Eugen Bacon, Fictionwise Recommender
The clean crescent moon that began the new month hung in the western sky across from the alley. Jehan was barely twelve years old, too young to wear the veil, but she did so anyway. She had never before been out so late alone. She heard the sounds of celebration far away, the three-day festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Two voices sang drunkenly as they passed the alley; two others loudly and angrily disputed the price of some honey cakes. The laughter and the shouting came to Jehan as if from another world. In the past, she'd always loved the festival of Îd-el-Fitr; she took no part in the festivities now, though, and it seemed somehow odd to her that anyone else still could. Soon she gave it all no more of her attention. This year she must keep a meeting more important than any holiday. She sighed, shrugging: The festival would come around again next year. Tonight, with only the silver moon for company, she shiv! ered in her blue-black robe. Jehan Fatima Ashûfi stepped back a few feet deeper into the alley, farther out of the light. All along the street, people who would otherwise never be seen in this quarter were determinedly amusing themselves. Jehan shivered again and waited. The moment she longed for would come at dawn. Even now the sky was just dark enough to reveal the moon and the first impetuous stars. In the Islamic world, night began when one could no longer distinguish a white thread from a black one; it was not yet night. Jehan clutched her robe closely to her with her left hand. In her right hand, hidden by her long sleeve, was the keen-edged, gleaming, curved blade she had taken from her father's room. She was hungry and wished she had money to buy something to eat, but she had none. In the Budayeen there were many girls her age who already had ways of getting money of their own; Jehan was not one of them. She glanced about and saw only ! the filth-strewn, damp, and muddy paving stones. The reek of the alley disgusted her. She was bored and lonely and afraid. Then, as if her whole sordid world suddenly dissolved into something else, something wholly foreign, she saw more.
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