GaP Jaxie Reviews: Send Only Memories · 3:53am Oct 29th, 2019
So, I run a speedwriting contest once a week or so. Our last contest had prizes, and one of those prizes was that I would review any fic of the winner's choice. He asked me to review was Send Only Memories, a story with one hell of a hook.
Strange symbols have started appearing all across Equestria that nopony can read, except Discord. As he comes to grips with what this message means, he is determined that nopony find out its secret. If they do, absolutely everypony in Equestria will die.
God, I wish I could write story descriptions that well. That's how you get the readers' attention.
First, a quick bit of preface. This story is a crossover with The Three Body Problem series, a remarkably good bit of high-concept sci-fi. While you don't need to have read The Three Body Problem to enjoy Send Only Memories, I would recommend it. A lot of the clever ideas this story uses are covered in greater detail in Three Body Problem, and so that background will help you appreciate the deeper meaning.
Plus, Three Body Problem is great in it's own right. Double-plus recommend if you enjoy hard sci-fi.
Alright, with that preface out of the way, let's get into the review of the story itself. You see, I have a message for you!
‼️↩️🚀:⚛🌌〽💢〰.
🌌↩️📪📭,⚱⌛💀∞⇔.
☀️💭💀.🙏🚀⚛↩️,⏩⭕️💭🎊🌌.
Know what it means? No? Good. Because if you ever figure it out, everything and everyone you know will die.
How will they die, you ask? Is the message magic? Will reading it unleash elder horrors? Is it some kind of mind weapon that will make everyone who hears it bleed out their eyes? No no. Nothing like that. It's only a list of facts. But once you know those facts, you will choose to die. You will choose to kill. You will, being of sound and rational mind, decide that everything you've ever known needs to cease to exist.
What facts could possibly cause you to make such a decision?
There's no way to tell you. Once you know, you'll do it. And please, kindly, for the sake of all Equestria, don't try to translate those symbols.
This is the central conflict of Send Only Memories. In most stories with such a hook, the message would be a MacGuffin -- a magic spell whose contents are never revealed. But in this story, the author knows exactly what the message says, and the descriptions are filled with hints as to its true contents. As the reader puts together more and more of what the message says, they're forced to ask two things of themselves: should they translate the full message, and what decision would they make if they knew?
After all, if any rational person who reads the message would choose to destroy themselves, doesn't that imply that destroying themselves is the right thing to do? Maybe the message is right. Maybe the ponies who want to save Equestria are wrong.
There's only one way to find out.
Overall, if you enjoy high-concept sci-fi, particularly the Three Body Problem series, I'd give Send Only Memories a score of Highly Recommended. If you prefer your sci-fi fast-paced and gritty though, the high-minded ideas and abstract philosophy presented in this story may come across as a bit dry. Either way though, this is a fantastic example of how fanfiction can be literature, and I greatly enjoyed it.
Will this be the story to finally break me out of just reading short shitfics and comedies and slices of life—i.e. “easy” or “popcorn” stories?
Only one way to find out!
I'm glad you liked it, man :)
5147270
Well, if you're having trouble reading, there's always the Audiobook version.
"choice. He asked me"
"choice. The one he asked me"?
"After all, if any rational person who reads the message would choose to destroy themselves, doesn't that imply that destroying themselves is the right thing to do?"
Ahh, but it in fact does not! That that is the rational thing do to having read the message does not mean that that is the rational thing to do having not read the message. Logic is, after all, based on premises, and true additions or corrections can be made to a set of premises in such a way as to change the rational response, without the resulting information being the whole truth or the removal of possibility of other true additions or corrections changing the rational response to something else.
It is likewise conceivable that for anyone with the existing premises found within a given population, there will be some set of true facts such that adding those facts to the premises of an individual will flip that individual's moral calculations to murder, and that there are further true facts which, applied to any such person, would flip it back, or inoculate the population against the first facts if they were introduced first.
Might or might not read this later; thanks. :)
Yeah, this one's fantastic. I won't say anymore; anyone reading this should just go read it!