I, Crimen — M.R. Adams

Walk into the light, and find the darkness.

In the wake of a violent act, a young boy is enslaved. He toils in the fields of a mysterious alien colony, never knowing what lies beyond the exotic horizon. He lives a horror his people had experienced generations ago. Many have died in the living garden, but he has only grown stronger. When presented with the chance to be free, there is no reason for him to decline. Or is there?

I, Crimen crushes the rose tinted glasses of romantic heroism to deliver a devastating exploration of oppression on the human spirit. Through a bizarre and colorful landscape, a young man learns that not even the stars are immune to animal nature. This suspenseful short tale harkens back to the classics of science fiction while also conjuring the unnamed protagonist of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. (Short story)

Interview with the Author

Q: What inspired this story?
A: Well, there is a lot going on in the world right now, and we see that for many platitudes seem patronizing. Having people debate whether or not your civil rights have been violated can make one feel very diminished. Where most “enslaved by aliens” stories pattern after the heroic epics, I wanted to give it a more dramatic turn. To move the story into a point of view that was not as privileged and hence was not going to be as romantic. The story is political, looking back on the aesthetics of science fiction to say something about the world we live in now.

The slave narrative can over-define a group in literary fiction, and yet be quite ignored within the realm of science fiction. So in a way I wanted to reclaim the narrative, even if briefly. It provides a diverse take.

Categories
Science Fiction (Alien Worlds) Literary Fiction (Psychological)