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You, by Anonymous [MultiFormat]
eBook by Stephen Leigh
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$0.49 |
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$0.42 |
eBook Category: Science Fiction Year's Best Science Fiction Selection
eBook Description: Mike Resnick was putting together an anthology of stories told from the first person viewpoint of an alien, and asked me if I wanted to contribute. With theme anthologies, I like to push the envelope of the assignment. The genesis for this story came from an article I was reading in Science News, and it seemed best written in second person, so that's what I gave Mike, telling him that "hey, second person is just first person once removed." Mike insisted that I had to put at least one "I" in the manuscript. So I did... "You..." is the shortest story I've ever sold, the only one in second person, and one of my absolute favorite stories to use in readings.
eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: I, Alien, ed. Mike Resnick, 2005
Fictionwise Release Date: May 2006
Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [147 KB], eReader (PDB) [19 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [4 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [5 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [69 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [74 KB], hiebook (KML) [70 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [31 KB], iSilo (PDB) [4 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [5 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [33 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [11 KB]
Words: 1311
Reading time: 3-5 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
 
You wonder about the title, but you start to read.
You also grimace a bit at the use of second person, thinking it both a bit awkward and pretentious, and you wonder if the author is trying to make you think you are the protagonist of the story, that this paragraph is referring to you personally.
It is.
Now, you read those words and you grimace again and give a little half-exasperated huff of air. Almost, you start to argue back to the page, denying it, and then you stop. And there's just the faintest, the tiniest bit of wonder, of something akin to hope--after all, you think, that would be interesting. That would be unusual. You can almost hear Rod Serling intoning the introduction for The Twilight Zone. You've always wanted something like that to happen to you, haven't you?
Well, you're right. These words are directed to you. Truly.
You're not quite certain how that could be. After all, there are thousands of copies of this book out there circulating and how could the story know that it's really you and not that overweight, balding programmer with a graying beard in the paper-stuffed apartment in Queens who's also currently reading this at the moment. But it is you, not him. Why would it be him? He's a loser. He hasn't had more than one date with a woman for three years, and even those single dates have been rare. He goes out to bars once a month or so hoping to get lucky, but his social skills, never very good, have atrophied even further since his job doesn't require him to actually hold a conversation with anyone, and so he usually ends wandering from circle to circle being ignored until closing time, and then going back to his room and popping one of his pornographic DVDs into the player.
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