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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: Computers are ever smaller and smaller and smaller, while wireless networks are ever more pervasive. How, then, can a Poe scholar in desperate need of privacy effectively say, "Nevermore?"

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Analog, 2002
Fictionwise Release Date: February 2004

This eBook is also available in the following bundle(s):

• Edward M. Lerner Bundle

31 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [45 KB], eReader (PDB) [22 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [8 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [8 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [60 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [79 KB], hiebook (KML) [48 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [34 KB], iSilo (PDB) [6 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [9 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [36 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [15 KB]
Words: 2001
Reading time: 5-8 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"In his 1950 story "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains" Ray Bradbury gave us an animate house that narrates all that it does for its now-absent inhabitants. In "The Pedestrian" (1951), Bradbury gave us a story of the last man in a city of drivers who still likes to walk. He's a writer, but he's taken to a psychiatric center due to his peculiarities. In the story... okay, I'll stop, but I trust you get the idea. Edward Lerner's "Iniquitous Computing" is a brief, competently written story about a man who feels out of place in his age. That age is a near-future one in which computing technology is ubiquitous, and in which household items narrate their function for your "benefit," and, apparently, due to their own attitudes. The narrator is a literary historian at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, and the story is filled with sly references to various Poe stories, and the general sense of paranoia would fit well in a Poe story if it were so tinged with irony. There is a bit of a surprise ending, which I won't spoil, but which nicely evokes images from Poe's work, but with their emotional qualities intentionally inverted."--Greg Beatty, Tangent Online (Learn more about Tangent Online, the Internet's leading SF&F short fiction review website)

"This is another salvo in an important battle."--Bluejack Reviews

"There is heavy traffic on Monument Avenue, David."

"Do not call me David," I responded sternly to the automobile. It had a galling trait, by which it regularly forgot--or pretended to; I had my suspicions--that machines are not to address one so familiarly. "I nonetheless prefer,"--as I do every day--"the Monument Avenue route." The leafy canopy of the antebellum boulevard was soothing. Alas, traversing that verdant oasis encompassed only a small portion of my journey home.

Home ... that sanctuary from modern "conveniences."

"Yes, Dr. Whitaker."

A moment of blessed silence passed. "The hourly news summary is almost on, Doctor. Shall I play that?" The latest interruption came from the automobile's radio.

"You may." I thought the infernal gadget less likely to express "helpful" suggestions if it felt it was already being useful. In truth, I had little interest in the day's events. "Low volume."

A few seconds of soft-spoken announcer's voice were followed by a low blat for attention. "We put the you in ubiquitous computing," crowed a commercial.

That the offensive catch-phrase came from the sponsor, not my always-eager-to-please radio, did little to mollify me. "Radio off," I ordered, before articulation of the offending company's name could further raise my choler.