At first I didn’t think I was going to like this story (from the introduction I thought it was going to be a bit preachy), but then suddenly I found myself still awake at 1:00 in the morning desperately ignoring the part of my brain telling me I was going to pay at work the next day, just so I could finish it off. I liked the writing style, and the plot really held me through to the end.
The Voodoo Project by Kristine Kathryn Rusch was another story I quite enjoyed in this issue. I thought Ms Rusch did a great job of sketching out the shadowy world of Rebekah, an operative for some kind of clandestine organisation who has the ability to see the future and the past, as well as the present. Sufficient detail was provided to give a good sense of ambience for such a short story. I also thought the character’s voice was strong and consistent.
I also enjoyed The People of Pele by Ken Liu, which described the reality for interstellar colonists isolated from Earth by relativity and the inability to travel faster than the speed of light. Strong writing and a hopeful message.
This month also had stories by:
- Hive Mind Man by Rudy Rucker & Eileen Gunn
- Observations on a Clock by D. Thomas Minton
- Going Home by Bruce McAllister & Barry Malzberg
And poetry by:
- Submicro-Text Message 3V45129XZ: To My A.I. Valentine by Kendall Evans and David C. Kopaska
- future history by Joe Haldeman
- The Atom’s Lattice Could Such Beauty Yield by William John Watkins
This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.
