Although Robert Reed tells us he isn’t really convinced that there will be a history of terraforming, he paints a vivid and convincing portrait of the sacrifices and triumphs that might take place over the next thousand years of one man’s life. Bob is currently at work on his first YA novel. Like much of his fiction it will be a world mixing familiarity and strangeness, but this one will also have a dash of kids in peril.
Mars
Simon’s father started talking about nuts on walls, about how the seeds he was working with looked very much like wall nuts. Then he winked, handing over the wonder that he had been carrying in his big palm. “What do you think of this, Simon?” But before the boy could answer, his father cautioned him to use both hands and be especially careful. “Not because you might damage the seed,” the man said. “Or because it would ever hurt you. But certain objects are important, sometimes even sacred, and they deserve all the consideration and respect that we can possibly show for them.”
Considering how small it was, the seed was exceptionally heavy. It was black and hard as diamond but covered with small, sharp-edged pits. Against his bare palms, the object felt warm. Maybe the heat was left over from where the seed was kept, or maybe it was warm in the same way that little boys were warm. Either answer might be true. He didn’t ask. He just held the object in his cupped hands and stared, wondering what would happen if the impossible occurred, if the seed decided to awaken now.
For one person, time passed.
Then his father asked again, “What do you think, Simon?”
Editorial Sheila Williams: Out of This World
