Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, February 2024

“Call of the Void” by Bridgette Dutta Portman

Reviewed by David Wesley Hill

What’s a reviewer to do when the story they’re reading is well-written but, ultimately, unconvincing? I don’t want to pan “Call of the Void” by Bridgette Dutta Portman, the February offering of Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores as well as the short fiction winner of the 2023 Kepler Award, but I can’t recommend it, either. You see, like one of the characters in the story, I’ve been to Niagara Falls, and while I was awed by the glorious spectacle, I felt no inclination to throw myself into the water. True, every so often some poor soul does go over the edge, but this number represents such a statistically insignificant percentage of total visitors, I feel safe positing suicide is not a normal or common reaction to natural beauty. Consequently, I had a hard time believing three out of twenty-three colonists of the Jovian moon Europa were so overwhelmed by the majesty of the experience that they opened their suits to become one with infinity, particularly since said colonists most likely were subjected to a barrage of psychological tests guaranteed to ferret out any such suicidal predilections ahead of time. No, unfortunately, the premise of the story is so detached from my experience of reality, I couldn’t suspend my disbelief and enjoy the tale, despite the author’s craft… This reviewer didn’t hear the call.