Review of Katie Conrad, “Do We Build a House To Stand Forever”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 89-106 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)
Saira and Tuija are the last two survivors of an exploratory mission sent out by the human colony on Io, intended to see what lay beyond the edges of human exploration and knowledge. They have each been in their ships for three years, and have at least five years left before they will return home. The thing about exploratory missions is that you never know what you will find; but even so, neither Saira nor Tuija nor the command center back at Io had any idea that Tuija would find what she found…
I enjoyed this story a lot – the pacing was good, the story was interesting, Saira and Tuija were sympathetic, and I had no idea how things would resolve until they did. Thumbs up!
SFF Reviews 