(Hard SF; Oort Cloud Stories) Out in the Oort cloud, teen-age Tereza and her sister just won a 4H club competition, but when the kids try to return to the space station, no one answers. (4,400 words; Time: 14m)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average
Recommended By: SFEP"Blue Ribbon," by Marissa Lingen [bio] (edited by Trevor Quachri), appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact issue 03|15, published on December 15, 2014 by Penny Publications.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: Good story arc, from the station failing to respond up to the rescue at the end. No sugarcoating either; even the little kids can die. It's very touching how responsible Tereza and her friends become, once they realize how serious it all is.
Con: Tereza seems astonishingly unaffected by the loss of her family. She and her friends are immediately discussing how they're going to work together with their new clan. A separate problem is that it seems odd that during a single race the whole station became incapacitated. When the two boys got sick, it took them a day or more to die. How could there be no one on the station able to talk to the kids after their race?
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Marissa Lingen Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Con: Tereza seems astonishingly unaffected by the loss of her family. She and her friends are immediately discussing how they're going to work together with their new clan. A separate problem is that it seems odd that during a single race the whole station became incapacitated. When the two boys got sick, it took them a day or more to die. How could there be no one on the station able to talk to the kids after their race?
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 03|15)
Marissa Lingen Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
I liked this one. I'd have given it 3/4. It wasn't exceptional, but it had a good story arc and it was tense in the middle. A pleasant, entertaining story.
ReplyDeleteI definitely enjoyed it--no question about it. It just didn't have the sophistication I look for in a 4-star story. I often wish for a half-star system, so I could give stories like this one 3.5 stars.
DeleteI liked this one too… Totally didn’t expect it to have children literally dying yea… It also potrayed politics well for such a short story
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