The Wanderers by Joel Doonan

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Robert_Moriyama
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Re:  The Wanderers by Joel Doonan

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

Tsk tsk -- already we have two threads relating to this story. Must be some bizarre effect of the worldlines diverging ...<br><br>The red-herring opening with the scruffy-looking guy stealing rifle ammunition sets us up to expect some kind of violence (particular since the story title sounds like the name of a street or biker gang ...). Then Mr. Doonan takes us in an entirely different and interesting direction, where worlds diverge on the basis of moral/philosophical orientation, and the dangerous-looking guy turns out to be an agent of the "light" world (like Michael Biehn's character in The Terminator).<br><br>I'm not sure this is quite the kind of multiple-timelines story that Dan thinks it is. As Mr. Doonan's bio note might suggest, the world-splitting here seems more metaphysical than quantum physical. Of course, it could be argued that since the observer affects the phenomenon observed, the divergence and polarization of moral and philosophical orientations has caused quantum-level effects to manifest at the macro level (say WHAT?).<br><br>The story hints (although it does not explicitly state) that the "light" world has pulled at least somewhat ahead of the "dark" world in technology. There is no indication that the "dark" world has Wanderers deliberately traveling into the "light" world, and the hovering "round object" seems a lot more advanced than "our" helicopters and VTOL aircraft. One might assume that the "light" world is also a lot less crowded (one reason that the divergence is increasing), which would result in a less-polluted environment even if the people retained all their "dark" world habits.<br><br>Lots o' typos or punctuation slip-ups (use of ";" where "--" would make more sense; missing quotation marks; etc.). Must be that pessimistic "dark" world proofreading ...<br><br>So everybody think happy thoughts, lest we end up on the wrong side of the portals when they close!<br><br>Robert M.
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Robert_Moriyama
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Re:  The Wanderers by Joel Doonan

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

Tsk tsk -- already we have two threads relating to this story. Must be some bizarre effect of the worldlines diverging ...

Robert M.
<br><br>Even spookier, some kind of weird quantum convergence has merged the two threads into one! (That, or Mr. Sullivan or Mr. Wynne is trying to make me look foolish. Ha! How redundant would that be!)<br><br>Robert M. again<br>
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kailhofer
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Re:  The Wanderers by Joel Doonan

Post by kailhofer »

I'll admit, stealing the shells suckered me in. I was surprised and expected something darker.<br><br>Perhaps I've already been pulled to the dark side, but I think if I would have asked some strange woman to come back to my room, I'd still be cleaning the pepper spray out of my eyes. :-)<br><br>Was the sound of motorcycles supposed to signify approaching evil?? I was confused by that.<br><br>Still, good story.<br><br>Nate
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