Aphelion

Verse wrote:This a gentle and melancholy tale of loss and grief. The writing and flow were good, I didn't get hung up on anything.

Overall the tone was quite detached, almost clinical, which contrasted quite well against Gomer's own emotions and feelings as the story proceeded.

Yes, there was a lot of foreshadowing and the ending was predictable but I think that was the nature of this piece.

I suppose that Gomer's rejection of the rejuvenated Muriel.1 was a big hint that he could never be happy with a replacement, no matter how "lifelike". In the end, he wanted his Muriel, and even a machine that was, apparently, learning and adapting as it tried to fulfill its purpose, was still a poor substitute. (Besides, the .1 and .2 were considerably more complicated than a basic cellphone.)

Odd. The writing style is light, to the point of being like a running joke, but the topic matter is dead serious (sorry about that).

Yes, it was obvious early on that Gomer wasn't going to be happy with a replacement. This was his way of trying to escape the grief. Along the way, though, he did express some of his grief, and finally decided that the pain was better than self-deception.

Nicely done; pleasant to read -- but a little shallow.