Mario’s Three Lives is a short short story. Maybe a bit over a thousand words, almost flash fiction. I have to admit I generally don’t like stories that short. The author only has time to get his point across but that is about it. Maybe it is good practice for a writer to strip down a story that far but as a reader I need some of the things that gets stripped. I rarely read any that I think are memorable.
In Mario’s Three Lives the famous plumber from a great many computer games asks himself some fundamental questions about his existence while hurrying through the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Peach. He feels the invisible hand of the gamer (which he things of as God Who Continues) on him and dreads the return to “The Place Where One Waits Between Continues”.
It is certainly a view on the computer game character that will not be on most gamers’ minds when they’re dodging mushroom headed foes. It’s an interesting concept, I have to say that, but not enough to make me overcome my initial reservations. Maybe it would if I had actually played Super Marion.
This is part of the BookSpot Central Short Fiction Round Table spotlight on stories that will be included in Best American Fantasy 2008 edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and forthcoming from Prime Books. Please see the intro to the spotlight.
