Paradiso Lost: 08/08/09
"Paradiso Lost" by Albert E. Cowdrey takes place in the same universe as "The Tribes of Bela" (August 2004). The story is told in flashback as an "uncle" relates to his nephew the circumstances that lead to him and the boy's father becoming friends.

Think of Paradiso Lost as a WWII story except set in space. Robert Kohn, one of the few survivors from the disaster on Bela is now in his "anecdotage" and living in the Great American Desert. Bored one day while his wife is visiting relatives in China, he sets down to write about the mission to Paradiso where he met the boy's father.

Paradiso is another failed colony. It's distance from the "prime real estate" left for mining missions makes it hard to get to and an undesirable mission. The colony was started by a charlatan who had formed his own cult. The secretive nature of the colonists reminds me again of Operation Starseed (review still coming!) and of "The Price of Silence" by Deborah Ross.

My favorite parts of "Paradiso Lost" were Kohn's explanations of how old maritime traditions were translated into space travel traditions. I'm working on a series of novels that also build on maritime traditions so it was fun to see what Cowdrey had done with them.

I enjoyed reading another adventure of Robert Kohn and would like to see him again in a Cowdrey story.

Other posts: Suite 101, Morning of Dystopia, Short Fiction and Tangent.

fantasy science fiction magazine | fiction | short story | Albert E Cowdrey | 2009

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