The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi

“The Gambler” is a 2008 science fiction novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is about a man who flees unrest in his native Laos to become an internet reporter in Los Angeles.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:

Ong grew up with his brilliant parents in the Laotian city of Vientiane, but when his father’s civilly-disobedient writings cause trouble Ong flees the country. He eventually ends up working for an internet news conglomerate in the USA – a news corporation that is only interested in how many hits Ong’s articles are generating. His penchant for writing deep, thoughtful and not-so-happy articles gets Ong into trouble with his boss, but a sympathetic co-worker lines up an interview with a mega-star in an attempt to gain more readers. The question is what will Ong do with this incredibly lucky break?

In the maelstrom, their work flares, tagged with site location, content tags, and social poke data. Blooms of color, codes for media conglomerates: shades of blue and Mickey Mouse ears for Disney-Bertelsmann. A red-rimmed pair of rainbow O’s for Google’s AOL News. Fox News Corp. in pinstripes gray and white. Green for us: Milestone Media—a combination of NTT DoCoMo, the Korean gaming consortium Hyundai-Kubu, and the smoking remains of the New York Times Company. There are others, smaller stars, Crayola shades flaring and brightening, but we are the most important. The monarchs of this universe of light and color.

My Two Cents:

• The good:

• I totally enjoyed reading about the fast pace of internet news life – all the talk about scoops and clicks reminded me of the blog-o-sphere.
• I loved the cultural diversity of "The Gambler". The weaving of a future history of Laos along with Ong’s current troubles was very skillfully done.
• Ong: what a great character! The telling of his story – and his refusal to give in to trite news articles – was inspiring.

• The bad:

• There are a few instances of strong language.
• The ending doesn’t really resolve the main conflict of the story – so stay away if you require closure on everything you read!

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 23
• Word Count: 10,294
• “The Gambler” garnered the following awards:

• It was nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

Where you can find “The Gambler”:

• This novelette first appeared in the excellent 2008 anthology Fast Forward 2, edited by Lou Anders.
• You can read “The Gambler” for free online at the website which hosts sample chapters of Pyr books.

Some Interesting Links:

• Did you know that Paolo Bacigalupi’s essays have appeared in numerous newspapers? Yep. You can learn more about this excellent new science fiction author at Wikipedia.
• To make this story even more interesting and relevant, I suggest you take a little time to learn more about Laos.

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might also like the Henry David Thoreau themed story Burn, about a farmer-turned-firefighter who accidentally summons the ruler of a distant world to help fight forest fires, by James Patrick Kelly.

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