Is this the worst possible fate in sci-fi/fantasy?

[Klaus]

I misused "evolve" there, you're right. I guess I felt that it was a really really long time for him to be transformed in that way... but I'm literally talking about 30 years or more since I've read it. Time to remedy that.

 

[Myasishchev]

That is one point objectively in its favor: it is brief.

 

[Silvercrest]

Still, as you say, the imagery was truly nightmarish and I think you're spot on with your interpretation of the symbiotic relationship between the humans and AM. But for the greatest horror short story, I'd have to go with Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space. It's not a "worst fate ever" tale, but I have never experienced such utter dread as I did while reading that one.

I've only just read the Ellison story as a result of the descriptions from you folks. I'm still trying to decide what I think. I must say that The Colour Out of Space holds a special chill for me, more than most Lovecraft, but that's partly because it's among the earliest stories I read. It was part of a collection of sf I received at the age of ten. Still go back and re-read it sometimes.

I would have to say that the winner of "utter dread" for me goes to A Colder War by Charles Stross, which I also read after discussions here. The ending freaks me out.

Spoiler: the ending

Things are as dire as they can be, but on top of that: The suspicion that the monster has already won, that may be in an afterlife where you're forced to live out every possible horrible death... but you can't quite be sure of it...

Brrr. Colder, indeed.

 

[Holdfast]

It's been a looong time since I've read it, but I remember thinking that the very end might have been a very long time after the earlier part, and the now-immortal humans had evolved into the shapeless things rather than being directly transformed by AM.

They didn't breed, thus no evolution. AM turned Ted into a shambly abomination whose appearance is left up to the imagination, except for the no mouth bit. And that could be metaphorical, insofar as he killed all his quasi-friends, and it might be an if-you-scream-in-a-cave-and-no-one's-around-to-hear, did-you-really-make-a-sound kind of thing.

Interesting. I must admit I didn't really think AM physically mutated any of them, but rather distorted their perception of themselves mentally. In other words, he created delusions and hallucinations congruent with the physical distortions described. Somehow that seems more plausible than an actual massive reorganisation of a human's physical structure. Though I guess there's no real reason for thinking that, given AM's described power... but somehow it feels even more chilling to consider it all a mental distortion.

 

[Myasishchev]

I hadn't considered that, but I might like that better, since I didn't like the wholly unexplained/inexplicable nature of AM's powers. "We're virtually immortal." "How?" "Dunno. Anti-aging rays, I guess."

On the other hand, if it's all a mental distortion, then he could not have really killed anybody, and they were never there at all, right?

I dunno. If AM had the full run of Teddy's mind, then torture becomes trivially easy and the creation of imaginative scenarios, while reading better, actually seems kinder than what it could have done.

 

[Holdfast]

I hadn't considered that, but I might like that better, since I didn't like the wholly unexplained/inexplicable nature of AM's powers. "We're virtually immortal." "How?" "Dunno. Anti-aging rays, I guess."

On the other hand, if it's all a mental distortion, then he could not have really killed anybody, and they were never there at all, right?

I dunno. If AM had the full run of Teddy's mind, then torture becomes trivially easy and the creation of imaginative scenarios, while reading better, actually seems kinder than what it could have done.

The "immortal" bit was precisely what caused me to unconsciously assume some kind of mental gameplaying was going on rather than it being literal. I guess I feel the "real" deaths (i.e. the ones where they kill each other) were real, and the "fake" deaths (they ones they attribute to AM killing/resurrecting them or using fake versions of themselves as dead bodies) were hallucinations with a delusional overlay.

The other "nice" thing about it all being mental torture is that it really does then become all about the dark side of man's mind overwhelming the stability of a more balanced mind. AM can exist and be causing the craziness they exhibit, but all the phenomenology is actually the mental illness AM is causing. Things like hallucinations, delusional systems, time distortions, etc, etc are common enough in really serious mental illness, so if AM can manipulate the mind enough, it all becomes possible for it to be psychological torture. Of course, you still need to "magic up" some "mind control device" than AM uses, but neurochemical manipulation feels easier to conceptualise than complete anatomical change and immortality.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I often wondered how, physically, AM could have been able to affect these people. What methods would it use to interact with them ON a physical level at all, to say nothing about actually altering their structures? Does it have armies of 'terminators' with which it can touch and alter them?

I find that strictly mental torture is more realistic for a computer to be able to inflict.