Impossible Dreams
by Tim Pratt
• Word count: 6655
• Page count: 15
Impossible Dreams is the 2007 winner of the Hugo Award for Best Short Story… and it is amazing! It is a science fiction love story - not your regular love story either - this one is about a man’s love of cinema. Yet it evolves into more than that - much more.
The protagonist of the story, Pete, is a genuine movie aficionado who one day discovers an amazing video store that changes his whole life. The author’s descriptions of Pete’s geeky love of cinema are awesome - his affection for movies is practically dripping off the pages of this story. If you are a movie buff then you will love this story - heck, if you have any true passion if life then you’ll understand how Pete feels. This qualifies as one of the best science fiction short stories I have read in a long time - absolutely excellent!
He stopped on the sidewalk, head cocked, frowning at the narrow store squeezed between a kitschy gift shop and a bakery. He stepped toward the door, peered inside, and saw old movie posters on the walls, racks of DVDs and VHS tapes, and a big screen TV against one wall. The lettering on the door read “Impossible Dreams Video,” and the smudges on the glass suggested it had been in business for a while.
Where you can find Impossible Dreams:
• Impossible Dreams was originally published in the July 2006 edition of Asimov’s Science Fiction.
• Impossible Dreams can also be found in Tim Pratt’s book of collected short stories Hart & Boot & Other Stories - a collection of thirteen stories including Bottom Feeding, Terrible Ones and Living With A Harpy.
• You can read if for free online at Asimov’s website. Sorry, this link is no longer valid, but…
• …you can find an archived copy of this story at the Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine.
• You can listen to a free mp3 version of this story at Escape Pod.
• You can also download a written version for less than $1 from Fictionwise eBooks.
- a collection of thirteen stories including You can learn more about the author, Tim Pratt, by reading his biography at sff.net.
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5 users responded in this post
Nice post
Ooohhh, I LOVE movies, so I’m sure I’ll like this story. Thanks for the suggestion, and I’ll comment again once I have read it!
Yep, I liked this one! I enjoyed reading of the character’s love for movies, and understood his strange need to see the movies and parts of movies he had not experienced yet. A story with a twist, better still!
An unbelivably excellent story I’d recommend to any living thing that can read.
Pretty amazing huh?
It was a totally cool story - I never thought I would enjoy a story about movies so much!