With all his savings stuck in a negative equity apartment, Henry is still mourning the loss of his wife, who died when a starship tore through his city’s hull. When he falls for one of the city’s chars, Red Cross wards who are tolerated because they perform menial jobs, he has either found a salve for his heartache or he is about to get his heart broken a lot more.
Though the story lacks some of Bukowski’s raw authenticity, the characters feel like they’ve walked straight out of one of his stories (deliberately perhaps, with a main character called Henry). The science fiction elements seem rather superfluous, but what’s left is still a well-told tale of broken people using and loving each other.
(Asimov’s, July 2008)
