In Competition No. 2911 you were invited to submit a thriller in three text messages.
This one seemed straightforward enough but it turned out to be a tough assignment that stretched veterans and newcomers alike. As in all forms of micro-fiction — the mini-masterpiece attributed to Hemingway, ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’, springs to mind — it’s all about the reader filling in the gaps.
Many entrants went for the mistaken-identity trope, which became rather monotonous after a time. But while I applauded those who attempted a more original twist, most of these didn’t quite come off.
The standard was somewhat disappointing, then, but there were some creditable exceptions, printed below. They earn their authors £15 each.
The good news: your cyber-temporal experiments succeeded. You won the Nobel for your Paradox Amelioration Algorithms. This message is from your 2055 self.
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