Saturday, December 19, 2015

The Gods Have Not Died in Vain, by Ken Liu

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(SF) In the wake of a war fought against uploaded humans who called themselves "gods," teenage Maddie is approached by an AI claiming to be her "sister." (7,000 words; Time: 23m)

Rating: ★★☆☆☆, Not Recommended

"The Gods Have Not Died in Vain," by (edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey), appeared in The End Has Come (RSR review), published on by .

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

Pro: The story poses a serious problem; can the world really support billions of people in the sort of lifestyle they'd like to enjoy? It offers an answer, although it doesn't suggest that's the only answer.

Con: Is there really a story here? Maddie doesn't have any real conflict to resolve; she just has lots of chats with her "sister."

Maddie is a very unbelievable character. She's a hacker so good that she can look at reams of code and see what it does--even though today's top programmers cannot do that with code bases a tiny fraction of what one of these "gods" would require. Not that she does anything with her ability--or at all.

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