The Repairer of Reputations

Further forced assimilation of Native populations has also been implemented to resemble the use of Cossacks in the military (Chambers belies the extent to which this "solves" the "Indian problem" by also noting the installation of an equestrian statue of Philip Sheridan).

Suicide has been legalized, and has been made generally and readily accessible in the newly established government "Lethal Chambers" being rapidly rolled out across every town and city.

While still recovering from his accident, Hildred obtains and reads The King in Yellow (a use, by the author, of a false document), which is represented as a universally censored play which deeply disturbs him.

[1] This is a type of fiction writing where one (or more) of the fundamental rules of short story telling is broken in some way, often resulting in what most readers would consider "experimental literature".

Chambers breaks the basic contract between author and reader by refusing to relate something that is both interesting and truthful (even given the "suspension of disbelief" required of fiction).

David G. Hartwell described "The Repairer of Reputations" as "an extraordinary achievement" and "a horrific tale that is also a sophisticated, avant-garde work of science fiction".