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R. Jean Mathieu
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Earth Epitaph: Humanity's Last Message (Science Fiction Short Story) Kindle Edition

by R. Jean Mathieu (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
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Five thousand years before the end of the Earth, the star called WR-104 went supernova. Over the intervening centuries, its deadly gamma-ray burst hurtled across silent planets and empty space on a death-errand to that distant world. And, in the intervening five thousand years, Earth learned to listen, and learned to see, and learned to contemplate its coming demise.

Robinson and Campbell are the last two astronomers left at Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory as downtown Hobart, and the whole world, descend into chaos. The Earth's biosphere is coming to an end, thanks to a gamma ray burst five thousand years in the making. There will be nothing left. Except that the two astronomers might, just might, be able to leave a message encoded in Earth's Sun, a message to whoever is out there, and whoever comes after...
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  1. Print length
    8 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    February 28, 2023
  5. File size
    437 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BWL8DZPF
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 28, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 437 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 8 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

About the author

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R. Jean Mathieu

R. Jean Mathieu

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R. Jean Mathieu is the fiction writer of all trades. From award-winning stories of the Peace Corps and meditators on Mars (“Gods of War”) to time-traveling mysteries of a Mexican detective solving his own murder (No Time: The First Hour), Mathieu revels in different genres, different voices, and cultural chop suey. Under other noms de plume, he writes romances, thrillers, pulp adventures, Westerns, and mysteries.

Mathieu grew up in Morro Bay, California. He enrolled in college at fifteen, where he would spend the next ten years. With an Associate’s degree in International Studies and $100 in his pocket, Mathieu traveled to China, alternately working as a teahouse server, organic farmhand, Hong Kong movie extra, and English teacher. Despite being deported thrice, he won his degree in Sociology (minoring in Business) over his five years in China, refining his craft along the way. From the streets of Shenzhen to the Thousand-Handed Bodhisattva to the color of industrial sunlight in a mountain town, he continues to draw on the experiences and life lessons he learned there.

He lives in Morro Bay with his wife Melissa and daughter Lyra, where they keep a good table when not writing side-by-side or chasing trains to the next adventure. A convinced Quaker, he attends Central Coast Friends Meeting in between writing and publishing his fiction, learning new languages, and practicing Uechi-ryu karate. Besides anthologies and magazines, you can find all his stories at Amazon.com and his commentary at RJeanMathieu.com.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
3 global ratings

Top review from the United States

Jeffrey D. Mitchell
5.0 out of 5 stars hope amidst despair
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
There’s a beautiful economy of words and phrasing to “Earth Epitaph” where you’re just a little behind the narration, trying to keep up, until the meaning hits you and you know what it’s all about.

A great little story about two people’s struggle to make themselves mean something—and Earth. Kind of a microcosm of a world perhaps born a billion years too early. Perhaps that’s the way it is. In R. Jean’s Mathieu’s capable hands, that may just be the way the fate of Earth will be. Even in the moment of doom, there’s life, and maybe, as this story points out, in that doom there’s fresh hope for the future. This means something? Right? RIGHT.
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