(SF) On Skipbrudden, each child must pass four tests to earn the right to become an adult. Arvie is a precocious kitten, which means he'll face the tests sooner than most. (19,185 words; Time: 1h:03m)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average
Recommended By: SFRevu:4 Readers"Progress Report," by Rajnar Vajra [bio] (edited by Trevor Quachri), appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact issue 09|16, published on July 16, 2016 by Penny Publications.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: It's fun watching Arvie make progress, and the bits of revelation about what happened to the doomed colony ship add a lot of interest to the story. We've had plenty of foreshadowing that the big tests are for empathy, not fighting ability, so the ending seems natural.
Con: One wonders why parents don't just cheat and tell their kittens what the tests are really about. One also wonders why the human colonists kept mucking with the local ecology after each failed intervention.
The story fails to stick the ending; there ought to be a big emotional charge, but there isn't one.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 09|16)
Rajnar Vajra Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Con: One wonders why parents don't just cheat and tell their kittens what the tests are really about. One also wonders why the human colonists kept mucking with the local ecology after each failed intervention.
The story fails to stick the ending; there ought to be a big emotional charge, but there isn't one.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 09|16)
Rajnar Vajra Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
I guess I was dumb and missed the foreshadowing so it was a pleasant surprise in the end that it wasn't Hunger Games with alien kitties.
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