New Twinmaker Story in Daily SF: “Loopholes in Light”

Daily SF has been such a good home for my flash fiction this year. In 2017 they published “The Winter Gardener” (inspired by my visit to Casey research station in Antarctica and The Thing),“Uber” (about parallel worlds and social justice),  and “A Better Place” (based on a dream I had about the death of my father). They also published my first collaboration with Matthew Cropley, a dark fantasy piece called “Seeking the Great Current”. I haven’t felt so at home publishing-wise since my early days with Eidolon.

By a curious coincidence, one of those Eidolon editors, Jonathan Strahan, is the reason this new story exists. While on retreat earlier this year, we were shooting the breeze about teleporters and he urged me to write the particular story that became “Loopholes in Light”.

“Loopholes” touches on recurring themes in my Twinmaker fiction: death, the nature of existence, and the law’s struggle with both. I’ve written it in such a way as to evoke old-school SF of the 40s or 50s, in that nothing stands between the reader and the ideas. It’s raw, quick, and (hopefully) stimulating.

Here’s a sample. And here’s a link to the published story. Enjoy!

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“Not a day goes by I don’t thank the miracle that is modern science. But miracles can be misused . . . and so here we are. I’m sure you are aware that the law has not changed–”

“I am indeed. D-mat cannot be used for the purpose of suicide, because matter transmitters are not death machines–although of course they are, no matter what the state says. They strip everyone who uses them back to their component atoms, killing them in the process. To deny oblivion to those who desire it is–”

“A mercy, not a cruelty. I know you disagree, Andre.”

“Of course I do. I wish to die just as dearly as other people wish to visit Mount Everest or the moon. Their wishes are granted. Why not mine?”