Del Sol SFF Review

    They call us  angels  because we help fix broken people. It’s hard work to go inside someone’s head,  live  there for a month, try and pull them back from the dark side and put them on a better path. That first week is the most difficult, when their mind is still strong and you are trying to uproot everything. Synapses splintered by trauma and a life of crime, they are hard-wired for badness. We angels, we get in there and we put it back together. We unbreak the broken connections, awaken their buried consciences, and set them on a better path. It almost always works, but that first week or so is like playing with gelignite on a warm day. If you ask me why I became an angel, there are two versions of that story: the public one and the private one. The public one you probably already know. My name is Soren and my daughter’s name was Amelia. You remember now, don’t you? You remember how Amelia was on her way home from school when a car pulled up alongside...

In the future, Perso Tech allows anyone, including criminals, to change their personality through chemical dosing. Now, in order to be convicted of a crime, a person must have not only criminal intent, but a criminal personality: a personality capable of committing the crime for which a person is being prosecuted. The role of incriminator arose as a way for law enforcement to get convictions by ensuring a suspect’s personality was sufficiently criminal.   It was beautiful and I hated it. Sitting on my porch and watching the endless sway of the night-shrouded grass, feeling the wind caress my naked torso, the stars dazzling overhead—disgusting. Too empty, outside and inside. I never liked being able to see all the way to the horizon. What kind of person wakes up every day eager to be themselves? The problem is that even after three years my mind is frustratingly resilient. I suppose I should have seen that coming; it was why they got me so young, after all. Now my memory is either r...

The world is my expense The cost of my desire Jesus blessed me with its future And I protect it with fire Rage Against the Machine – Sleep Now in the Fire   Night had crept up and brought a bitter cold that clawed and bit at any exposed flesh. As if they were panes of glass, the frozen puddles shattered with each step, and the condensation of every breath danced and swirled like ghosts before being swept away. The car-clotted highway receded further and further behind us as we made our way through these desolate fields. All around us were rusted farm equipment and the dry, stunted remnants of failed crops. I glanced back at the distant city. The tale-tell mushroom cloud had dissipated hours ago, but a luminescence brushed the undersides of the tattering clouds with faint light. The city still burned. I could see snowflakes drifting down around us in the faint moonlight. My mouth was dry, and my lips chapped; I held out one gloved hand and let the snowflakes slowly fill my cupped pa...