Close Encounters by Andy Duncan is the featured novelette in the September/October 2012 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction. "An elderly, folksy farmer who experienced a close encounter in 1956, experiences a close encounter of a different sort when, in 1977, a persistent reporter shows up at his farm and hounds him with questions about his past."
It was nice, refreshing even, to read a good, old-fashioned alien contact story that was not all dark and apocalyptic. The POV character is likable, his reminiscences poignant, his optimism infectious. Through him, Mr. Duncan reminds us that there is an important emotional response to an encounter with alien life that cannot be measured with gravimeters and geiger counters. I smiled as I read and was sad when the tale was finished.
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