Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Morrigan in Shadow, by Seth Dickinson

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(Military SF) This tells of how Noemi Laporte got involved with NAGARI, her relationship with Lorna Simms, and the black hole that ate 100,000,000 people. (14,475 words; Time: 48m)

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Needs Improvement

"," by (edited by Neil Clarke), appeared in issue 111, published on .

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Pro: The berserker aliens are well-thought-out. The resolution was a pleasant surprise, although it's hard to enjoy the happy ending given the information that the situation is hopeless (but we can imagine that's propaganda).

Con: The entire story is narration. This is like reading a Wikipedia article or someone's outline for a story--and about as exciting. Laporte is a monster (as the text itself declares) and not much fun to read about.

It's rather odd that the Alliance went after Earth because Earth was too peaceful to be willing to fight the alien menace, and yet Laporte and her friends were so unwilling to accept defeat that they mutinied. You'd think they'd be delighted to get to work with real soldiers for a change. They certainly don't act like people committed to peace. Nor does it make sense that Earth, after sealing the wormhole, would settle into pacifism. I'd expect a massive military buildup, for fear the aliens would find Earth eventually.

A more minor issue is that, for military SF, it's riddled with scientific errors. For example, in real life spaceships orbit stars without needing to fight to keep from being sucked in.

Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 111)
Seth Dickinson Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline

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