REVIEW: “Fargone” by J. S. Veter

Review of J. S. Veter, “Fargone”, Luna Station Quarterly 28 (2016): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

It only takes a couple of lines for me to viscerally dislike Kush Apbuscan — who does not know how to forgive somoene [at first I thought it was a woman, but when it turned out later on that I was mistaken, this didn’t exactly improve things] for rejecting him and who does not understand the concept of consent. It doesn’t take long for betrayal to be added to the list of reasons I dislike Kush, and from that point on, I have to admit, I struggled to finish this story. At every point when Kush is given the opportunity to fix things, he always ends up making it worse. There was a redemption arc for Kush, but I was frustrated by it, because I’m not sure he deserved one.

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment

REVIEW: “The Glitch” by Aimée Jodoin

Review of Aimée Jodoin, “The Glitch”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a strange, creepy story bringing together threads of global warming, population decline, badly written software, and systematic incarceration (or, as it is called, “Rehabilitation”). It was a great example of one of my favorite kinds of writing: Take a bunch of things that are individually all plausible given today’s society, and bind them up into something just slightly horrifying. Very well-constructed, with a smashing ending.

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Fuel Me Once” by Allen Lang

Review of Allen Lang, “Fuel Me Once”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact July/August (2020): 116–117 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

Two businessmen meet at a bar and strike a deal to start a daring collaboration. They’ll build a fleet of heavy cruisers to extract oil from Saturn’s moon Titan.

Lang’s story has some nice and snappy dialogue that helps the reader get in the headspace of the two main characters. It’s reminiscent of the 40s gangster and noir movies, an appropriate style for this story. Unfortunately, the story’s premise lacks plausibility. It’s extremely unlikely that the characters would be able to efficiently extract hydrocarbon fuels from Titan and bring them to earth with conventional (hydrocarbon-based) methods of transportation.

If you can get past the plausibility issues, “Fuel Me Once” is a fun story to read.

John AtomLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Retention” by Alec Nevala-Lee

Review of Alec Nevala-Lee, “Retention”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact July/August (2020): 108–112 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

Perry is on a phone call with the customer service of his home security system trying in vain to cancel his service. The customer service rep, Lisa, refuses his request with roundabout arguments regarding the value of the security service. In a rather unsurprising twist, Lisa turns out to be a bot programmed to never allow customers to cancel their service. A bit later we find out that Perry is also an AI, the user profile is his the “real” Perry, and he desperately wants to be terminated. With neither side willing to back down, the two bots are destined to continue their pointless exchange forever.

I have not seen many science fiction stories that deal with the philosophy of Existentialism (or Absurdism, if you will) as explicitly “Retention” does, even quoting a direct passage from the Albert Camus’ seminal essay, “The Myth of Sisyphus.” “Retention” is yet another take on the Sisyphus trope. Just as one must imagine Sisyphus happy carrying the boulder up the mountain, so they must accept that Perry and Lisa are satisfied with their eternal back-and-forth. The author cleverly makes the protagonists of his story AIs, where the idea of fate (or determinism) is easier to conceptualize. And rather than making the plot a straightforward allegory (as many stories of this kind default to), Nevala-Lee manages to craft a clever and entertaining tale around Camus’ philosophical thesis, with humor and even a couple of twists around the corners. It does not add very much to the ideology that it’s inspired from, but it is nevertheless an interesting take on it.

But you won’t cancel me?

It’s against my programming. You’re still a customer. I wish it would be different.

But you’re not going to give up. Neither am I. It’s against my programming, too.

Overall, “Retention” was a really enjoyable story, one of the best in the issue.

John AtomLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Accidental Kaiju” by Dianne M. Williams

Review of Dianne M. Williams, “Accidental Kaiju”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

13-year-old Grendela dreams of becoming not another kaiju (a type of great Japanese monster) like her father and grandfather but an environmental scientist. Maybe there’s more to being a lava monster than smashing buildings and destroying cities. Maybe she could use her special knowledge of volcanos to help power cities rather than destroy them. But unfortunately, her little experiment didn’t go as planned.

This was a cute little story about hopes and dreams and how sometimes when one is a teenager one needs a little help and understanding from their parents and grandparents.

(First published in The Confabulator Cafe, 2016).

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Moonlight Plastics” by Rachel Brittain

Review of Rachel Brittain, “Moonlight Plastics”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I found this story a little too in the mind of the MC, Sana — there was a lot of reflection and recrimination and meta content that would’ve made sense if I were properly situated in Sana’s world, but unfortunately, I wasn’t. So I had a hard time putting together all the pieces to figure out who she was and what she was doing, and why it mattered.

I also struggled with the abrupt shift in tone: It started off as a commentary on our modern-day tendency to flood the ocean with plastics, and then suddenly it jumped left and became a mermaid romance.

All in all, not the story for me.

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Nanoscopic Nemesis” by P. K. Torrens

Review of P. K. Torrens, “Nanoscopic Nemesis”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact July/August (2020): 106–107 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

The story is told from the perspective of a medical nanobot performing a tumor excision surgery on a patient. Realizing that the tumor has metastasized, the nanobot proceeds to find its source and eradicate it.

Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of the “AI with a personality” – or “AI with attitude” – types of stories, especially when the AIs in question are depicted in a fairly realistic manner (as they are here). Certain lines like “I want to crack a beer open because that’s what my programmer does” or “My processor purrs” or “The liquid nitrogen washes over my RAM like a cool wave over a scorching beach” feel out of place in a story like this. Such a style is superfluous to the narrative.

That aside, I really appreciated the detail with which the author treated the hypothetical subject of nanobot surgery in the story. The author clearly knows his stuff and does a great job at delineating (in just enough detail) the innards of a technology that will quite possibly exist in the future. Medical nanobots are perhaps the first truly tangible “miracle drug” that science fiction has conceived, and well-crafted stories about them are always welcome.

John AtomLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Lowlife Orbit” by Rich Larson

Review of Rich Larson, “Lowlife Orbit”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact July/August (2020): 94–95 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

Earth is slowly dying, and in an effort to provide a new home for humanity, the governments of Earth have started terraforming Mars. Unbeknownst to many, however, this process will take a long time: up to 1000 years. That is why a team of smugglers – uncle and nephew – have decided that it is OK to steal some of the terraforming materials in low-Earth orbit and sell them in the black market for profit. The uncle has no moral qualms about the operations since he believes the Mars terraforming project is nothing but a pipe dream. On the other hand, the nephew is more apprehensive about the future. However long it takes, he argues, one day Mars might be the new home of Humanity.

A thousand years means nothing to the human brain […] We evolved to deal in seconds. Minutes. Days. Years. A millennium, we’re not equipped to imagine that.

Despite its brevity (~1000 words), “Lowlife Orbit” is a story with a lot to unpack. It simultaneously deals with human shortsightedness, as well as the human tendency to ignore the problem at hand. In Larson’s version of the (near) future, Earth is presumably ravaged by climate change and humanity has given up trying to fix it. Instead, they’ve piled all their hopes on the possibility of a habitable Mars. At the same time, the protagonist of the story can’t help but point out the futility of that hope.  Whether it is because of indifference, pessimism, or simply pragmatism for the present, he resigns into a sort of unhealthy apathy that satisfies neither side of the argument. As usual, Larson is able to imbue a lot of personality into his characters in a brief and concise manner. The story ends with a glimmer of optimism, before circling back to the same status quo.

John AtomLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Aboard the Mithridates” by Sean Vivier

Review of Sean Vivier, “Aboard the Mithridates”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact July/August (2020): 86–89 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

Aboard the generation ship Mithridates, the passengers are slowly adapting their bodies – through training and gene therapy – to survive on the planet Hephaestus, the atmosphere of which contains large amounts of sulfur. Zarah Ngata is coping well with these changes, but not all kids at school are handling it as easy. One young man, Gavin, is having a hard time as his lungs seem unable to process the increased concentration of sulfur in the air. Zarah speculates that he won’t survive the next stage of the adaptation process. She’s determined to do whatever she can to help save the life of her less capable schoolmate.

In “Aboard the Mithridates,” Vivier presents an interesting take on the popular science fiction trope of the generation ship. Many stories such stories are often focused on the breakdown of the generation ship’s society, whereas here, the ship’s inhabitants remain focused on their goal. Vivier also comments on the unpredictability of the offspring and the real possibility that they’re not fit for the harsh environment of a generation ship. I was happy the story addressed these issues. Running at approximately 2400 words, the story does not have the chance to dive very deep into its themes, but it does, nevertheless, raise some interesting questions regarding the communal lifestyle that would be required in a generation ship. Is individual sacrifice acceptable if it benefits the rest of the community?

There are some plausibility issues, however. For example, I find it unlikely that Gavin’s health issues would be totally ignored by everyone except another child. It’s also unlikely that a society capable of building generation ships would not have some way of easing his pain. A respiratory aid, perhaps.

John AtomLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Rite of Passage” by Jerry Oltion

Review of Jerry Oltion, “Rite of Passage”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact July/August (2020): 99 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

After graduation, Roshi prepares for his first solo moonwalk in his new 5-piece space suit.

There’s not much happening in this story other than the titular “rite of passage”, which presumably is the act of putting on the new suit. There’s a brief moment of tension (if one can call it that) when the character almost forgets to put on a helmet, but otherwise there’s not much plot to speak of. The story is simply a 460-word description of someone putting their space-suit on.

John AtomLeave a comment