The New English Library book of Internet stories Book

Review of "Is there anybody there?" by Kim Newman

This... wasn't an easy story for me to read. While I could appreciate the technological side and the humour of the situation, I far from appreciated the mystical side. As a Christian, I stay as far away from Ouija boards and anything related as possible. So to read this story took some perseverance.

Overall, the situation is amusing. A seance is being conducted, the medium trying to reach the 'other side' at the request of her client, who wishes to contact a dead fiance. For whatever reason, from 2001 an internet user called Boyd taps into the seance and becomes the de facto "ghost" communicating from the "other side". So, not much time travel, really (since this is, after all, in The Time Traveller's Almanac), as there is a... joining of times in a... spooky... manner.

I don't really have much to say on this beyond what I've said. If it weren't for my dislike of anything related to Ouija boards, this would probably have been more amusing than I already found it, and it's very clever, really. A well written story, with an excellent conclusion. But I didn't enjoy reading it.