"A Journey in the Afterdeath" by Peter S. Drang

Another of the Fictionwise original fiction offerings under their own imprint is Peter S. Drang's novelette "A Journey in the Afterdeath." This is a qua-picaresque fiction that nearly inspired me to literary picarism. Drang tells the story of Ko'onar of Clan Huuman, morte Mike Connor of Earth, who we meet in his second life walking beside Miiree on the forested path from Wryyl to Buula. Ko'onar suffers from a disease that will soon kill him, and he and his mate are seeking treatment in Buula. One of the central philosophical dilemmas of the story is whether there is another afterlife — other than the scorned Blanks, virtually all of the denizens of Secondworld have been reborn from lives elsewhere. Each is aware, at least dimly, of their former existence, and this personal history casts a shadow on their lives and culture. Drang never addresses some of the obvious questions that spring from this, like how the proliferation of the human population of our contemporary world over the past centuries had affected Clan Huuman, but he does make an effort to show how the obsession with past and future life undermines the values of the Secondworlders' contemporary existence. Although it could have stood to be tighter and better thought out, the story works for the most part. There's some magic, some despair, and an uplifting ending.

To purchase this story go to: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook1351.htm

Jay Lake lives in Portland, Oregon with his family and their books. He has one of those nebulous New Economy jobs that doubtless qualifies him to review speculative fiction. Jay attempts on a regular basis to commit fiction himself with Wordos, the Eugene Professional Writers' Workshop. So far in 2002, his fiction will appear in Beyond the Last Star, The Third Alternative, Ideomancer, and Clean Sheets, and he is a Writers of the Future Finalist. Jay can be reached at jlake@jlake.com.