Strange Horizons, December 7, 2020

“Renovation of a Finite Apartment” by Toby MacNutt

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

The unnamed narrator of “Renovation of a Finite Apartment” by Toby MacNutt is best described by negatives. In original form, the narrator is not human, not three-dimensional, and not finite. For unexplained reasons, the narrator is confined in a luxurious apartment and transformed into something like a human being. Aided by an artificial intelligence, the narrator learns to eat and drink, and redecorates the apartment in various ways. At the end, the reader learns that the narrator is yearning for another.

This work contains many fine, evocative descriptions, but the vagueness of the narrator and the lack of a real plot render it static. It is best appreciated as an example of elegant prose rather than as a true story.

Victoria Silverwolf bought some yellow roses yesterday.