Published: Dec. 01, 2010
Words: 21,137 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781452326665

Short description

All of his short life, Paavo Deshin has seen ghosts. The same two ghosts who have now approached him on the school playground, ghosts who look older and actually smell bad. Paavo’s cry for help brings the authorities, a few lawyers, and Retrieval Artist Miles Flint, who learns some secrets about the ghosts—and about Paavo’s parents. A stand-alone short Retrieval Artist novel.

Extended description

All of his short life, Paavo Deshin has seen ghosts. The same two ghosts who have now approached him on the school playground, ghosts who look older and actually smell bad. Paavo’s cry for help brings the authorities, a few lawyers, and Retrieval Artist Miles Flint, who learns some secrets about the ghosts—and about Paavo’s parents. This short stand-alone science fiction novel in the Retrieval Artist series received a Special Mention from the prestigious international UPC contest.

“The Possession of Paavo Deshin” is a masterfully crafted story. Definitely don't miss this one.
—Tangent Online (Read more) All of his short life, Paavo Deshin has seen ghosts. The same two ghosts who have now approached him on the school playground, ghosts who look older and actually smell bad. Paavo’s cry for help brings the authorities, a few lawyers, and Retrieval Artist Miles Flint, who learns some secrets about the ghosts—and about Paavo’s parents. This short stand-alone science fiction novel in the Retrieval Artist series received a Special Mention from the prestigious international UPC contest.

“The Possession of Paavo Deshin” is a masterfully crafted story. Definitely don't miss this one.
—Tangent Online

A custody battle like no other, where every side has its own agenda. An engaging story, a title very apt.
—Internet Review of Science Fiction

Rusch mounts hard-boiled noir on an expansive sf background with great panache.
—Booklist

International bestselling writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch has won two Hugo awards, a World Fantasy Award, and three Asimov’s Readers Choice Awards. Io9 called her bestselling, award-winning Retrieval Artist novels, inspired by this novella, one of the top ten science fiction detective series ever.
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Tags

childhood, children, short story, space opera, science fiction, detective, adoption, legal thriller, parenthood, kristine kathryn rusch, wmg publishing, retrieval artist, miles flint, the moon

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Reviews

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Review by: Nancy Beck on July 11, 2012 :
Although it's not necessary to read this short novel, it will add an extra dimension to the next regular-length novel, Anniversary Day. (At least you'll be in the know when Ms. Rusch mentions Paavo and his father briefly in Anniversary.)

Paavo Deshin is an extremely intelligent but very strange boy; including the fact that he sees ghosts. When he mentions seeing them yet again at school for brainiac kids, his mother hits the roof over how they managed to infiltrate the school without tripping any systems, the headmistress goes to work on getting her security people to figure out how that could have happened. When they can't come up with anything, she turns to (you guessed it)...Miles Flint.

While the mother seems to be compassionate, the father is anything but, and there's a hint at some criminality in his past...and maybe he's still at it...

He does try to do the right thing with Paavo because, deep down, he does love the child, so he's not just one dimensional. Ms. Rusch packs a lot of emotion into her stories, and this one does not disappoint.

There's enough of a twist here to keep you engrossed to the very end.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

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