The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard In the Yard), by Matthew Kressel

The Last Novelist by Matthew Kressel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It's possible to do more in a short story, but not a lot. The Last Novelist is a very emotional piece of work, I really enjoyed reading about an eccentric author at the end of his life finding friendship and inspiration with a young girl. It's all very well handled. The eponymous novelist might have been sad or angry about the disappearance of print books, but I didn't end up reading it that way--more that he was simply an eccentric person who liked to create books from end to end.

I'm not sure that books would disappear from a universe such as this one, where technology enables the creation of such things (view spoiler)[in the story there is a fabricator called a Maker that can pretty much make anything, and makes the author's old fashioned linotype printing press. No knowledge would really be lost (hide spoiler)]. They will always be valued as art objects, at least as long as art objects are valued.



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