Pieces of Me

by Lee Willard

Overview

Memory fades with time. Ephemeral humans remember few details of their childhood when they are old. When people live many centuries, nothing of their earlier lives remains. When this story takes place, it is two centuries since someone marketed an enhancement to memory that improved capacity and length by a factor of one hundred, allowing those who use it to remember clearly for centuries.
Memory is a powerful thing. One with it can put one without it at a disadvantage. Sudden recall can be staggering in the right time and place. When this story takes place (941ad.). it has been four centuries since a drug was available that allows one to recall the past so vividly they live in it, and suddenly remember all the details they remembered at the time.
In this story we follow the adventures of Taron, who has enhanced memory but suffers flashbacks that bring her into the past as a side effect; and Deneb, who has not enhanced his memory so he can’t remember the times they shared. But neither of them remembers the secret they share, a secret that puts them in danger today.
This story happens in Kassidor's 45th century, just before the Instinct reaches the Norbin basin so there is the possibility of violence. The flashbacks take us to the 35th century when violence was almost as common as on Earth today. The 45th century is also before the suntowers so there is less communication with other parts of the planet and many areas were unknown to each other. In many other ways the 45th century was modern. There was amplified and recorded music, grown housing and many other things that made the world, and Norbin in particular, look a lot like it does today.
The memory problems of eternal youth are real, and this story explores a few of them. The main one Deneb and Taron came up against is something many will face when aging is cured, probably just as unknowingly as the characters in this tale. When eternal youth is possible, society will face the same problem Norbin did in the 35th century, and we will go thru the same trouble they went thru. We may already be starting it now because we can all be VERY sure that the cure will be hoarded by the wealthy as it was there.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940164907747
Publisher:	Lee Willard
Publication date:	05/15/2021
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	606,717
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

I am a retired embedded systems engineer and sci-fi hobbyist from Hartford. Most of my stories concern Kassidor, 'The planet the hippies came from' which I have used to examine subjects like: What would it take to make the hippy lifestyle real? How would extended lifespans affect society? What could happen if we outlive our memories? How can murder be committed when violence is impossible?

I have recently discovered that someone new to science fiction should start their exploration of Kassidor with the Second Expedition trilogy. To the mainstream fiction reader the alien names of people, places and things can be confusing. This series has a little more explanation of the differences between Kassidor and Earth. In all of the Kassidor stories you will notice the people do not act like ordinary humans but like flower children from the 60's. It is not until Zhlindu that the actual modifications made to human nature to make them act that way are spelled out. To aide that understanding I've made The Second Expedition free.

I am not a fan of violence and dystopia. I believe that sci-fi does not just predict the future, but helps create the future because we sci-fi writers show our readers what the future will be and the readers go out and create it. I believe that the current fad of constant dystopia and mega-violence in sci-fi today is helping to create that world, and I mention that often in reviews and comments on the books I read. I also believe that the characters in those stories who are completely free of any affection are at least as unnatural as the modified humans of Kassidor.

In my reviews, * = couldn't finish it. ** = Don't bother with it. *** = good story worth reading. **** = great and memorable story. ***** = Worth a Hugo.