Today’s short story discussion focuses on the newest story by E. Lily Yu, “The Urashima Effect“, which is featured in the June 2013 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine. Yu is one of the newer stable of writers whose name in a magazine will have me scrambling to pick up a copy. I really enjoy her work.
Leo Aoki wakes from a cold sleep, disoriented and alone on a ship bound for the planet Ryugo-jo in the Alpha Lyrae system. He has been under for three years, awakened as the ship attains a closer proximity to its destination. Leo’s mission is to establish a small liveable base. His astrophysicist wife, Esther, will join him on a ship launched two years after his. In addition to necessities and entertainments, the ship contains recordings from family and friends, meant to assuage Leo’s loneliness. Esther’s recording begins with a story about a man named Urashima Taro and the rescue of a small turtle. Leo rations this story, completing necessary tasks and engaging in other entertainments to make these moments last. As Urashima’s tale unfolds, the reader is shown how the stories of these two men intersect, and E. Lily Yu leaves her protagonist with a decision that will have the reader contemplating the options for days to come.
E. Lily Yu has crafted a story that focuses on a man in isolation which manages to beautifully convey the importance of relationships and the costs that must be paid in the name of progress.
The story can be read at the Clarkesworld site or listened to via podcast.
After you take some time to read the story, come along and check out my spoiler-filled thoughts and leave some of your own.
