When a short story usually ends, most of the — if not all the major — questions have been answered. That isn’t the case in The Space Between, leaving us with a story that is incomplete. Now I can’t help but wonder if there will be a Le Comte St. Germain story set in the Outlander universe after this.
A short story needs a clear beginning, middle, and end. While The Space Between had the first two, the ending was a little lackluster and disappointing. Joan and Michael got some sort of ending, but there were far too many questions about Le Comte St. Germain and Master Raymond.
What happened to Le Comte St. Germain and Master Raymond in The Space Between?
Toward the end of the short story, we see Master Raymond explain some of the time travel details to Le Comte St. Germain. Part of that is how all those with the blue aura are sons and daughters of Master Raymond. Then Master Raymond takes Le Comte presumably through the stones to a time unknown.
That’s where their story is left. We have no idea where they were going, and we don’t know if they got there. Of course, we know that time travel is dangerous, and it’s something Master Raymond pointed out. However, the danger didn’t seem to bother Raymond in the slightest, almost like he knows how to control the situation. Le Comte just trusted him because he needed to know.
Too much was from Le Comte St. Germain’s point of view
If the short story was only told from Joan and Michael’s point of view, I could accept this ending for Le Comte St. Germain and Master Raymond. However, so much of the story is from Le Comte St. Germain’s point of view. He’s going on about Melisande, who we figure out is Geillis, and he is dealing with Madeline, who is possibly pregnant with his child. There are even fears that Madeline is his daughter or granddaughter.
To end with no real ending for Le Comte seems strange and incomplete. It felt like the end of the first part to a bigger story, almost as if there should be a second short story to follow. And if that was the case, then I could accept it. The problem is The Space Between was originally published in 2013 as a short story in the collection The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination. If there was going to be another short story, wouldn’t there already be one or at least a comment about one?
Diana Gabaldon has shared she’s working on a Master Raymond book, but she hasn’t mentioned Le Comte St. Germain. It’s almost like the character stopped talking to her, which could suggest that he didn’t make it through the stones, but we need to know that to make the ending of the short story feel complete.
In the end, I have way too many questions about what Le Comte was doing in The Space Between, and it’s a frustrating way to end a story when there isn’t more to it.
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