★★★+
Synopsis: In October 1962, the Cuban missile crisis worries the family of 12 year old Ray Beaumont. The boy meets Cross, a mysterious stranger from the future who tries to prevent WWIII – the survival chances are very small. He hides in the family’s bomb shelter and when Ray comes home from school he finds that his mother discovered the stranger and shot him. Now, Ray must save his timeline: does the likely death of many people justify the murder of one?
Review: A wonderful characterization of this backwater boy somewhere in the country of New York back in the 60s. Bomb shelter building must have been a thing back then and the author brought the story to life with his additions of autobiographical memories. The story was written at the end of the 90s, and I don’t remember someone from that time who’d be worried about a nuclear war whiping out humanity in 2009. Far more urgent crisis were obvious, so I don’t really buy into the story’s premise.
Meta: isfdb. Available online at Clarkesworld. It won the Hugo.
Reißwolf 