Diabolical Plots #18, August 2016

“Sustaining Memory” by Coral Moore

Reviewed by Kat Day

In “Sustaining Memory,” by Coral Moore, we meet The Archivist, who is using her own memories to feed a machine that, she hopes, will regenerate the dead planet on which she is buried. The descriptions of the memories are beautiful, and the sense of loss as they’re used up is palpable. But I found myself with some awkward questions at the end of the story. I won’t list them here for fear of spoilers, but I was left with the niggling sense that the tale’s internal logic did not quite add up. On top of this, the ‘memory bead’ idea is reminiscent of last year’s Pixar movie “Inside Out,” which unfortunately meant that the story seemed derivative. A case of bad timing perhaps, but overall, while “Sustaining Memory” is a nice read, it is ironically (or not) rather forgettable.