"Goliath" by Neil Gaiman (3901 words) ****

Written as a kind promotional piece for the movie The Matrix, Gaiman's "Goliath" stands well on its own--and it's one of the better stories in his collection Fragile Things. So, say, you were stuck in a time loop--déjà vu--only it wasn't a time loop. Turns out, your brain is connected to a machine, and it's malfunctioning a bit, and in the "real" world, there's a war going on, and you're just in training for that. Or at least, I think that's what's going on. Otherwise, I'm not really sure why the computer-generated world is needed, except it sure is a lot more interesting, which is kind of the twist here. We start off thinking the fantasy world the more spectacular and end up wanting to be back in that other place--you know, taking care of wife and kids, selling computer parts. Read the story here.