Science Fiction Short Story Review: "Time Bomb Time" by C. C. Finlay

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This story begins with a pop and the sharp scent of ozone. Nolon is in Hannah’s room, trying to demonstrate his device to her and to the assembled TV crews covering a student protest on the quad. He’s hoping to change the world, to change the way the world sees him, to change the way Hannah sees him… When his device goes off, (so he hopes) the TV cameras will record that all we do is go through the same meaningless motions over and over, an idea he calls “temporal bubble.” Dr. Renner didn’t think much of Nolon’s temporal bubble ideas. Indeed, he demanded he change his dissertation or leave the program. Hannah thinks she might hate Nolon, but there is something of a lost puppy about him. The story turns on a gimmick, which I won’t give away. Once I got it, it almost made the rest of the story irrelevant. I almost didn’t have to read the rest of the story, as I knew where it was going, word for word. Having said that, I must admit that not every writer could have pulled this off, and author C. C. Finlay does so with aplomb. According to the author’s blurb, Finlay has written four novels, a collection, and dozens of stories. His work has been translated into sixteen languages. Since January 2015, he’s been the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which is where my personal tie to him begins and ends. That is, he rejected a story of mine. But he sent me a very nice rejection letter. The text of this story is available here: _____ Title: “Time Bomb Time” Author: C. C. Finlay Published in: The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 First Published: Lightspeed May 2015