Review – Canaries
I can scarcely recall how I got the idea for Canaries. It is entirely possible I had recently heard the Police song, Canary in a Coal Mine. But I will be the first to admit it – I am not sure.
Background
The great battle for the Earth is over. And – spoiler alert, sorry, not sorry – we lost. So, what do we do now?
The Plot of Canaries
The first paragraph contains one of my favorite phrases to write. And yes, I have used it before. But it still works.
“… when they came.”
It is obvious there has been some sort of a disaster. And we humans types are not doing so well. No. Not at all.
But there is an opportunity out there. We just need to figure out how to seize it.
Characters
The characters are the narrator mainly, along with the birds she (he?) has brought along. The narrator references other people, but the reader never really “meets” them. Plus there are the birds he or she is carrying, in a cage.
But where are they?
Memorable Bits
The first night, in the big common room, their twittering kept people up. People complained, yes, but no one threatened me or the birds. After all, there are so few of us. To harm or threaten one of us is to threaten all of us.
I carried my cage wherever I went on the ship. I got to see what other people had brought along. One woman had a glass bottle of expensive perfume, wrapped in layers and layers of plastic. She told me she had been wealthy back on Earth. It was all she had from her glory days. So she understood why I had brought the birds.
Rating for Canaries
The story has a K rating.
Upshot or, Birds to the Rescue?
It was so great to hear Canaries would be published in Theme of Absence in March of 2019. So this was my second short story published by them. The first is The Interview.
So I am also glad that the story ends with the slenderest thread of hope. There may be a way out, somehow, some way, after all.
And what would this review be without a quick musical interlude?
Canaries — because an early warning system just might save us all.