Hi Rick,

As requested, I am reviewing your short story "The Last Download Forecaster". I really enjoyed this intriguing and thought-provoking story, so thank you for sharing. It starts very strong, with the "sermon" about the lost art of waiting for downloads and introduces the term "download forecaster", which is a great description and a great title for the story. There is a lesson and a moral: a price to pay for the convenience of instant gratification and access to instant information. And I agree. I too remember waiting for dial-up internet to load, and waiting sometimes hours for a download or file transfer to finish. Waiting, sitting still, silent contemplation, boredom, concentration, these are not skills that people develop anymore. So I found this a very interesting take.

My favorite things:

The language used, particularly in the sermon section, is lovely. It has all the charisma, persuasion and influence of an actual sermon and it feels very natural for dialogue. I loved all of it, but particularly the metaphor in this section:

But now our craft is gone. Information doesn’t wait to be invited anymore. It crashes through, aggressive and overconfident, like a river bursting with coked-up trout. And the bears? They’ve stopped chasing. They stare into the stream, mesmerized by their reflections, as if they’ve forgotten what they came for.

Did the bears get lazy, or the fish too easy?

I can just picture someone staring at a screen, scrolling mindlessly on social media, watching 30 second video after 30 second video. I think my favorite part is the ending, with this mysterious "download forecaster" on the street solving the main character's problem by (I assume) stealing their phone. It's really the perfect ending to the story. I like that it's left open ended and we never find out who the mystery man is. All we do know is that he probably isn't to be trusted, and we find this out along side the main character.

Suggestions:

This story is really well written, so I don't have many. One minor suggestion is that the italicized font in a large block can be a little hard on the eyes to read. Maybe you can still use the different font to distinguish the section but take off the italics? Or, Arial italics may be a little easier to read. But besides that, I don't think I have any corrections or suggestions to make here. A very well done and enjoyable story that I think is just the right length.

Thanks for sharing! You've definitely got some talent.

This review is associated with the "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" 

My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!" .