Going Harvey in the Big House

Aurora Award Finalist

The Builders had made the House generations ago, to shelter the remnants of humanity from the poisons of the Outside. The Inners, the direct descendants of the Builders, now rule the House. The House protects the People, and the Inners protect the House. And Smoothers are the arms and legs of that protection.

Big G is a Smoother, ensuring that the daily activities of the House are not interrupted by "Harveys," citizens who suffer violent mental breakdowns in the claustrophobic House.

But when Big G discovers a strange photograph of blue and white swirls of nothingness during a Harvey call, it leads him to world within the world he thought he knew—and a world outside it as well.

Science fiction, dystopia, post-apocalyptic SF

"Hands down, my favourite story … I've always been fascinated by the concept of a city that encompasses what we know of the known world. … Smith's version, the 'House,' is well conceived, but as always, it's his characters that drive the story. Big G is pitch perfect. Every aspect of his personality is just spot on. Though he's not a completely accessible character, portrayed as being not as intelligent as a more usual protagonist, he is completely there and three-dimensional and his reactions and motivations are plausible. It works! The ending is just right. It couldn't have been any other way..." —SF Crowsnest Reviews

"I first read this story nearly a decade ago. ... The images and the power of the story have stayed with me all this time. That's one of the strongest recommendations I can give." —Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Award-Winning Author

"Going Harvey in the Big House" fed into my natural fears, suspicions, and all-round disillusionment with authority. Thereafter, I began an inquiry. I read Orwell's 1984, Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World… "Going Harvey in the Big House" led me to places I thought I'd never be, culminating eventually in sweat-soaked nightmares about a post-apocalyptic world." —Cicada Magazine