“View From a Height” by Joan D. Vinge: An Appreciation by Aimee C. Amodio

Let me get this off my chest first.

Some of my “friends” in high school mocked me mercilessly for reading Joan D. Vinge’s THE SNOW QUEEN on the bus. I tried to argue that it was an award winning novel, but they decided it was some sort of bad thing to read science fiction in public.

Lucky for me, I liked reading science fiction and fantasy more than I liked my friends.

If I had read “View From a Height” in those days, I would have felt a sort of kinship with Emmylou on her long, lonely journey. But I appreciate JDV for so much more than her writing. I appreciate that her story was stronger than the teasing. And every time someone asks me why I don’t write about “real” things, I remember sitting on that bus, burning with embarrassment. Alone but not alone.

Loneliness. Paranoia. Ah, the familiar companions of the socially outcast.

“View From a Height” gives hope. The clouds part, the view is great, and life isn’t so bad after all.

Link to story.