I came across this short story yesterday and I really liked it. It was published in 1991 and was nominated for a Nebula Award. It's short, clocking in at around 800 words. It's 100% dialogue. No tags, no beats, just two people talking. I saw Cogito did a dialogue challenge a while back on his blog, and this reminded me of it. Lemex and I have been discussing it and I wanted to get other thoughts on it. Why was it so good? So short, with no narration. I thought, 'Well if this can get nominated for a Nebula Award, then I need to get in on this.' You can read the story here: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TheyMade.shtml What do you think? Is it the quality of the writing or the gimmick of the perspective? ~ J. J.
The omigod took me out of the story. It sounded kinda valley-girl. And religion is a human thing. For the aliens to state this - omigod - left the idea open to suggest similarities in their cultures and or the fact that even as they kept insisting on an all meat thing creature - didn't even attempt to discuss a soul. Other than that it was definitely well done. I think it was probably the gimmick, the twist that got it noticed, though. I read something which I thought was better written from the perspective of an alien - I think it was Ray Bradbury. The alien was kept in the basement and the reader didn't know it was an alien till near-about the end.
I agree, I kind of stopped at 'omigod'. I think maybe the author was just playing with an alien word that is similar to our expressions but I think it would have been better without it.
I can see why but I didn't let it bother me. I think I like the idea of the story more than the story itself, and I don't think such an alien race would be so flippant or diplomatic if it was as careless as the last time presents them to be. I think it was a fun read but it could have been so much more.
