Fairy Tale Spotlight: Mate in Two Moves [Short Story Review]

[Only minor spoilers included.]

"Mate in Two Moves" is a short science fiction story written by Winston K. Marks. It was published in 1954. It was a bit longer than most of his works, so it took me a while to read it.

This story is fairly relaxed. It is about two medical scientists named Murt and Phyllis dealing with a rather amusing problem. The world seems to be going through a very strange pandemic that is causing people to fall hopelessly in love. An actual "love bug!"

The problem with this virus is that it is so powerful that it keeps everyone very distracted, sometimes to their detriment. People are quitting their jobs over the obsessions they are having with the opposite sex, and some of them are getting married without really thinking any of it over.

Even worse is that people who are already married are also affected. They get extremely depressed or jealous whenever away from their spouse. As silly as the virus is, it is actually making problems in the world, and the two scientists are working to figure out a cure... that is until they get infected themselves.

That's all I want to spoil about this one. The thing I like about this story is how well the characters are presented. They seem like real people dealing with a very odd problem. The ending made me smile. I honestly don't really have a complaint for this one.

Yes, I recommend "Mate in Two Moves." It's mainly for more casual readers though. This is more like soft scifi. It's there to give you something to think about, and it leaves you with a smile for having experienced it. Give it a read if that sounds like fun to you.

This blog was written on May 15, 2024.

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