A Pail of Air by Fritz Lieber. With a claim like that, it better be
good. It is. Written in 1951, the story starts with a startling premise: Earth
has been ripped away from the sun by a 'dark star', the atmosphere lies
in frozen layers on the ground, and everyone is dead. Well, not quite
everyone. The tale is narrated by a boy who survives with his small
family in a hand-built dwelling, valiantly staving off human extinction.
The story owes its title to one of the boy's daily chores: donning a
suit, going outside, and retrieving a pail of frozen air. The fire
inside warms the air, it turns to gas, and thus sustains the family.
Why
is this the best short story ever? Because, there is no hope, but the
characters hope anyway, and fight on. It is this quirk of the human
spirit that makes every post-apocalyptic story so compelling, and
inspires me. It was stories like this one that drew me to the genre, and
keeps me coming back.
You can read the story for free at the following link posted by the original publisher.
A Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber
There
is a short introduction, so just skip to the first line "Pa had sent me
out to get an extra pail of air." Yep - still gives me chills.
No comments:
Post a Comment