Friday, August 26, 2016

Academic Circles, by Peter Wood

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(Time Travel) Kate is sure Marzano stole the paper she spent a year writing, but he somehow submitted his for publication eighteen months ago. (3,688 words; Time: 12m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆, Average

"Academic Circles," by , appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction issue 09|16, published on by .

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

Pro: Kate ultimately solves the problem with her suggestion of a letter. It's amusing that Popov thought to include the lottery numbers in that letter, and, of course, everyone else gets what they deserve as well.

Con: When people are sent back, why aren't there two copies of them? And how would a temporal change leave people with some memories of the previous reality?

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3 comments (may contain spoilers):

  1. Thanks for reading, Greg. Good points. I can't disagree with your Con observations, but I think there is no way to make time travel stories logical.
    I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my story.

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    Replies
    1. I remember when Sam at Baen's Universe Annex told us that it's nearly impossible to get time-travel stories accepted, so congratulations on beating the odds! Out of ~1500 stories I've reviewed in the past 12 months, only 12 of them were about time travel, and only three (counting yours) were published in Asimov's.

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  2. I listened to the audio edition of this story. It was great! In a funny coincidence, I was eating a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie from Stick Boy at the time. Or, was it a coincidence. . . I wonder. . .

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