For a Breath I Tarry by Roger Zelazny

This is a guest post by Rick Buchan.

The Nature Of Man. Since the days of Pinocchio, inanimate devices seem mesmerized by Man and obsessed with trying to discover the answer to what it is and what it means to be human.

This quirky yet wonderful novelette, written by Roger Zelazny in 1966, illustrates the frustratingly perplex struggle to correlate genius with folly, strength with frailty, and all the promise and pratfalls of what it means to be Man! (*)

Story Synopsis:

Long after the Last Man had perished from existence, the Earth is faithfully maintained by armies of robotized machines and computers dedicated to the rebuilding program initiated by humans before their demise.

Solcom orbits the Earth directing the effort .To aid him in this task, Solcom builds a super computer called Frost to rule the Northern Hemisphere and one called Beta to rule the Southern Hemisphere,

As a backup system, Man had created an Alternate to Solcom : Divcom. Divcom is activated prematurely and they have a constant battle to assert their claim to be the dominant force.

With no Man in existence to make the determination, Solcom and Divcom spend eons destroying each others’ rebuilding attempts.

Frost, having time and unused resources at his disposal, becomes interested in Man after unearthing some artifacts of this now extinct creature. Frost’s curiosity grows into a frantic obsession as his research produces more questions than answers.

In a parallel to God and Satan discussing Job, Solcom and Divcom make a deal between themselves based on the outcome of Frost’s insatiable desire to discern the Nature of Man.

(*) (If it’s any consolation, my dear Frost, we humans have pondered these very questions throughout our existence as well and have come away with pitifully few results.)

The Good:

• Very well written and does not suffer in the least for having no PEOPLE in the story.
• Provides us with a long hard look from the outside in, as it were, of ourselves.
• Suspenseful.

The Bad:

• Little action here and not a very complex topic.(**)
• The ending is a little corny but still a very enjoyable story.

This & That:

• Word count 11,249
• Page Count 28
• Similar Story: If you liked "For a Breath I Tarry" you’ll love “The Bicentennial Man” by Isaac Asimov!

Can be found here:

• The Last Defender of Camelot
• Science Fiction: A Historical Anthology
• You can read it free online here.

(**) This is the toughest part of doing these reviews…finding something negative to say! I agree with Rusty in his purpose for this site – namely ONLY THE GOOD STUFF! (I’m paraphrasing of course).

With very few exceptions, the only SF I read are short story anthologies and the only way I would review one here is if I feel it is one of the Best of The Best in the FIRST PLACE!

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