Impossible Dreams

by Tim Pratt

• Word count: 6655
• Page count: 15

Impossible Dreams is the 2007 winner of the Hugo Award for Best Short Story... and it is amazing! It is a science fiction love story - not your regular love story either - this one is about a man's love of cinema. Yet it evolves into more than that - much more.

The protagonist of the story, Pete, is a genuine movie aficionado who one day discovers an amazing video store that changes his whole life. The author's descriptions of Pete's geeky love of cinema are awesome - his affection for movies is practically dripping off the pages of this story. If you are a movie buff then you will love this story - heck, if you have any true passion if life then you'll understand how Pete feels. This qualifies as one of the best science fiction short stories I have read in a long time - absolutely excellent!

He stopped on the sidewalk, head cocked, frowning at the narrow store squeezed between a kitschy gift shop and a bakery. He stepped toward the door, peered inside, and saw old movie posters on the walls, racks of DVDs and VHS tapes, and a big screen TV against one wall. The lettering on the door read “Impossible Dreams Video,” and the smudges on the glass suggested it had been in business for a while.

Where you can find Impossible Dreams:

• Impossible Dreams was originally published in the July 2006 edition of Asimov's Science Fiction.
• Impossible Dreams can also be found in Tim Pratt's book of collected short stories Hart & Boot & Other Stories^† - a collection of thirteen stories including Bottom Feeding, Terrible Ones and Living With A Harpy.
• You can read a free archived copy of this story at the Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine.
• You can listen to a free mp3 version of this story at Escape Pod.

You can learn more about the author, Tim Pratt, by reading his biography at timpratt.org.

† - This is an affiliate link.  Learn more on my Privacy & Disclosure page.

(This is a revised version of a post which was originally published on BestScienceFictionStories.com on Dec 20th, 2007.)