The Last Witness, K.J. Parker
I love the way this novella takes the idea — that someone could perhaps look into your mind and take away your memories, at the cost of having to keep them themselves if there was anything distressing in them — and then develops it, runs with it, deals with what a character who could do that would be like, what they would be willing to do, what they’d feel about it. How they could profit from it, and what that might cost them.
The narrator is, of course, unreliable. He’s unreliable even to himself, because he doesn’t know which memories are his, and which memories might be missing. Truth is a malleable thing in this world, because it depends on what you believe, and he can change that. (It never really addresses what happens when someone has some kind of record of what he’s going to wipe.) Identity is malleable too — and his changes all the time as he takes on the memories of murderers and victims. It’s definitely a fertile ground for a story, and K.J. Parker makes great use of it.
This novella has convinced me I really need to get round to reading more of K.J. Parker’s work. He does an amazing job here of creating a character and a complex story from a simple seed — without it ever getting too tortuous.
Rating: 4/5
The premise is really intriguing, another title and author for me to look out for.
It was a good one! Not sure how much these novellas cost in print… they’re a steal in ebook format, fortunately for me.
I agree with your rating, I had a very good time with this novella. I loved how he took a unique idea and really ran away with it.
Yeah, it’s made me more eager to read Parker’s novels!
I’m in! Going to look for a copy now.
Good luck laying hands on it!
I found one! Read it, liked it! Thanks for the review- I’m into novellas lately.
Then the Tor.com bunch are a good avenue for investigation! I’ve found them interesting.