Jean Servais and his partner design lunar colonies for whoever might need them—typically Hollywood and NASA. Recently, however, they have had an unusually bitter quarrel about where to locate a colony they’re designing for a movie, and perceptive Henry is able to determine why.
I have a particularly soft spot in my heart for this story, and for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, it has the single most poetic title of any Black Widower story, and follows in More Tales of the Black Widowers hard on the heels of "The One and Only East,” which is itself high in the list of poetic titles.
Secondly, it was the first Black Widower story I read, being a subscriber to F&SF at the time it appeared there. Although it was a bit different from any Asimov story I'd previously read, I enjoyed it well enough, and it was the cover story for that issue, too, with a very nice illustration to accompany it.
So is it any good?
On the whole, yes. As a story in and of itself, stripped of my sentimental reasons for particularly liking it—yes, it’s quite nice. It isn’t the most spectacular Black Widower story of the bunch, but the puzzle is reasonable and the solution properly forshadowed. It certainly is one I look forward to rereading.
