(SF; Jackaroo) On the planet First Foot, the small town of Joe's Corner faces conflict over building a radio telescope close to local alien artifacts. (6,013 words; Time: 20m)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Recommended
Recommended By: RHorton:5"Something Happened Here, But We're Not Quite Sure What It Was," by Paul McAuley [bio] (edited by Ellen Datlow), published on July 20, 2016 by Tor.com.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: Of course the main plot is about how Leah fought the radio telescope project and won, but what makes this story fun is the hilarious descriptions of the eccentric small-town folk. The chain of events at the end, culminating in the ancient crashed spaceship seizing control of the transmitters for its own purposes, makes for a great payoff.
Although this story is part of McAuley's "Jackaroo" universe, it holds up quite well on its own.
Con: We're not emotionally attached to any of the characters, so we don't feel happy or sad at the outcome.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 07/20/16)
Paul McAuley Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Although this story is part of McAuley's "Jackaroo" universe, it holds up quite well on its own.
Con: We're not emotionally attached to any of the characters, so we don't feel happy or sad at the outcome.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 07/20/16)
Paul McAuley Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
I agree with the review where the fun was in seeing a piece of small town America seemingly transplanted in an alien setting which allowed the story to end with the super-satisfying "sense of wonder" from the discovery of the massive alien debris ring around a distant star that makes SF special.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Jackaroo universe does a great job of using Clarke's third law -- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic -- in creating an economy around humans scavenging bits and pieces of Elder Culture "junk" for their advanced algorithms and mind/machine interfaces.
Yes, very pleased to see a new Jackaroo story. I hope McAuley does a Jackaroo short-story collection sometime.
ReplyDeleteMistakenly attributed to Ray Nayler in Horton's YBSF 2017 volume!
ReplyDelete