"Jane" by Marc LaidLaw

[Max35]

Found a short story by Marc LaidLaw called "Jane" on scifi.com. Written in the same vague-mystery genre as Half-Life. I thought it was well done. Here is the link:


http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/laidlaw2/

 

[Ennui]

Awesome find.

 

[baron insig]

that was Great

 

[cabbs]

hell, that was good. confusing though.

 

[bvasgm]

Somebody needs to turn that into a book. Maybe a series of short stories that explain everything. Anyway, very nice find, that was awsome.

 

[MultiVaC]

Very good story. Very mysterious and sad.

 

[Greatgat]

Hmm. Kind of reminds me of "Demonology" by Rick Moody. Good stuff. It's like a sad and vaguely remembered memory.

 

[A.I.]

Yep, a story that makes you crave for more explanations (like we haven't experienced that before )

 

[Edcrab]

Marc Laidlaw's not just a pretty face it seems!

He can actually write; that's always a plus when you're looking for creative input in a game. The Half-Life series reeks of his literary style which is, of course, a brilliant compliment to both Laidlaw and the game's designers.

Generally short stories set in unique universes tend to be muddled up with their own twists and settings but that's a pretty damn good one. Confusing, but in a fluent and revelatory way. That's an oxymoron, but meh.

Go Marc! Start a revolution! Not that there've been mass-marketed games/films/books with crap stories in the past or anything. No sir.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Man, Laidlaw's writing's really good.

I found the whole thing about the guy's flayed corpse flying against the moon and screaming rather disturbing.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Ikerous]

Wow, that was awesome, a bit confusing though...
So did the dad kill the mom...?
And what was the thing the bird brought the dad that he crushed with his heel?

 

[Max35]

I believe it was the son's flesh, maybe it was trying to symbolize the end of the father ending his son's suffering.

 

[Laivasse]

Quite sad and disturbing...well written, although it was hard to follow the exact thread of events at a couple of points.

Spoiler

The thing that the falcon brought back contained the son's voice, somehow.

Not quite sure why the father did what he did at the end - did he intend the girl to do the same?

I do have a vague idea of what the (back)story was about. The unanswery-ness is pure HL2-style, though. Good stuff - I'd like to see it expanded.