Ambassador

I’ve never sold a story to Analog. (Truth be told, I’ve never sold a story to any of the US magazines.) But this one, according to Analog editor Stanley Schmidt, “almost made it”. It had a “powerful narrative drive” and “compelling theme”. Sadly, ol’ Stan also found the ending “ugly” and “simplistic”; in other words, just too damn futile (which, to those familiar with my work, is kind of a familiar refrain). I toyed with the idea of bringing in some clowns at the end, but I just couldn’t get ’em to dance on cue.

“Ambassador” finally showed up in my “Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes” anthology, albeit in a somewhat updated and up-tarted (but every bit as ugly and futile) form. It was my one true foray into spaceships-and-rayguns science fiction until Blindsight (still in progress). And in either a clever nod to continuity or a pathetic recycling of unoriginal ideas, the thematic tagline of this story shows up in Blindsight as well.