Review: Glow worm

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Glow worm Glow worm by Harlan Ellison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"There was only silence. The silence of a graveyard."

As far as Seligman is aware, he is not only the last human alive but also the only surviving remnant of all life on Earth. Much of humanity had long ago left for the stars and those who remained had managed to wipe everything out. Everything. Except for Seligman who is left glowing in the wake of the catastrophe.

"He was more than a messenger, now. He was a shining symbol of the end of all humanity on Earth, a symbol of the evil their kind had done."

Seligman makes it his mission to head out and reach humanity among the stars. In the process he learns that his body has been affected in more significant ways than to simply glow.

This is a rather bleak "what if" scenario which examines otherness and loneliness. This is the first writing that I've read by Ellison apart from his 'City on the Edge of Forever' which had a controversial history, much like the man himself. It's well written but I thought even for a short it didn't have very much to it.

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