Selected Short Stories Featuring Analog Memory

by Nicolas Wilson

Selected Short Stories Featuring Analog Memory collects fifteen of Nicolas Wilson's earlier short stories. These stories are dark, brooding, and entirely too intimate.


Analog Memory contains:

Uncanny Valley: A man forced to be a luddite in a robotic world, by medical necessity, ponders whether his new fling is human.
Censlus: A census worker is murdered while doing his job.
Seed: An old woman meets a familiar face in an unfamiliar setting.
Faith Emmanuel: After a carjacking, a student finds himself financially at the mercy of a corrupt medical system.
Family Business: A marital fight ensues after a husband involves his kids in a life of crime.
Brickmouth: A buried vampire awakens.
Laborious Love: A robotic engineer builds the perfect girlfriend, and the perfect relationship.
Jesus Loves Me (Just Not That Way): A man wrestles with his sexuality.
Unlucky At Math: An intellectual ruminates on his relationship.
Fighting Mad: A soldier considers the toll that the military takes on Muslim soldiers.
Cowgirl Up: A memorial for a stubborn woman's fight with cancer, and love of smoking.
The Courage of Our Convictions: An old soldier examines the leavings of genocide.
Medicine: A friend falls back into addiction.
The Cost of Being Me: Some ruminations on the possibility of heaven, while dying.
Randomly Accessed Memory: A head injury causes a man to lose his memory, throwing his life into chaos as he regresses to his last known lifestyles.
Analog Memory: A former CIA operative has his memory reset in an unorthodox way, and deals with the glitches of the new technology.

Unknown Binding

First published August 7, 2013

About the author

Nicolas Wilson is a published journalist, graphic novelist, and novelist. He lives in the rainy wastes of Portland, Oregon with his wife, four cats and a dog.

Nic has written several short story collections and novels.Nic's work spans a variety of genres, from political thriller to science fiction and urban fantasy.

For information on Nic's books, and behind-the-scenes looks at his writing, visit nicolaswilson.com.
You can also subscribe to his mailing list, for information on new releases, as they become available. Mailing list subscribers also receive a copy of Dogs of War, an unpublished novella.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

These ideas are great. But they're like short first drafts. I'm hopeful that he fleshed them out since this came out.

[Peter Ivey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is the perfect analogy for this book: take a hundred or so thimbles, and fill them with something mysterious, alluring, and seductive to the senses. Then, quaff each thimble greedily until you finish them all. Then, realize that the thimbles were not enough, and rage in your unfulfilled angst.

Nicholas Wilson is an alchemist of short stories, turning the lead of a base idea into something much more precious – a vision. In this case, many visions. He possesses a dry wit that one finds in an accomplished satirist, and many of his stories dip into samplings of high hyperbolae that only men such as Vonnegut tap into to exploit the absurd and surreal. I was particularly tickled by his imagery in Laborious Love as he described Hitler having a sex doll by way of Japanese robotics made up to look like Hirohito, and the consequent image of him having sex with it while it made its crying face after Pearl Harbor. That is the only spoiler I will reveal, for the rest is just too good not to pick up and devour for oneself.

My only complaint stems from my desire for more, or rather, a wish to see these visions magnified within the volume. I would have wanted more of the stories developed to a more satisfying outcome; Wilson is wickedly good at setting the table, but I want to eat the dishes he’s prepared rather than have them whisked away before I could enjoy them completely. To conclude, I would say that you will most likely enjoy this volume immensely, but want to read more afterward.

Please sir, may I have some more?

[Emily Stiffler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t love all of the stories in this collection, but there were a handful that really grabbed my attention. The ones I did enjoy were, in part, because of the writing style. I also found the concepts extremely interesting.

The stories that I did enjoy, I almost wish would have had a little more detail to them. I would have rather had a few REALLY well fleshed out stories compared to more mini stories that didn’t all capture my attention.

I’d personally rate this more of a 2.5... maybe even a 3 out of 5 stars.