"And Then There Were (N-One)" is a 2017 science fiction/murder mystery novella by Sarah Pinsker. It was first published in Uncanny Magazine. It was republished in the collection Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea.
Synopsis
When physicist Sarah Pinsker is murdered at SarahCon — an interdimensional convention where everyone is Sarah Pinsker from a different alternate timeline — only insurance investigator Sarah Pinsker can solve the case.
Reception
"And Then There Were (N-One)" was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novella of 20172017 Nebula Award Finalists Announced!, at Science Fiction Writers of America; published February 20, 2018; retrieved March 31, 2018 and the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella.2018 Hugo Award Finalists Announced, at Tor.com; published March 31, 2018; retrieved March 31, 2018 It was later republished in the 2019 collection Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea by Small Beer Press.
Tor.com found it "gloriously high-concept", with "a sense of the minute as potentially revelatory",Where Futurism Meets the Liminal: The Short Fiction of Sarah Pinsker, by Tobias Carroll, at Tor.com; published April 1, 2019; retrieved April 13, 2019 while Kirkus Reviews described it as "phenomenal".SOONER OR LATER EVERYTHING FALLS INTO THE SEA, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published December 11, 2018; retrieved April 13, 2019 Tangent Online, however, considered it "a fairly straightforward murder mystery", and "rather self-absorbed, for obvious reasons".Uncanny #15, March/April 2017, reviewed by Anne Crookshanks, at Tangent Online; published May 5, 2017; retrieved April 13, 2019
References
External links Text of the story Narration on Escapepod.org (part 1) Narration on Escapepod.org (part 2) Interview in which Pinkser discusses the process that inspired the story