(SF) Riley hacked his personal teleporter to make illegal copies of himself. The police have found him out, and he's trying to lead all 17 of him to safety. (1,664 words; Time: 05m)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended
Recommended By: GDozois:4"The Lives of Riley," by Sean Williams [bio] (edited by John Joseph Adams), appeared in Lightspeed Magazine issue 76, published on September 1, 2016.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: The general idea that a team of duplicates won't stay duplicates for long, no matter what you do is a good one, and the twist that any one of them might decide it was the original was cute.
Con: The story is mostly infodumps and narrated emotions (e..g show-don't-tell failures). This distances the reader so much from the story that there's zero tension in it.
It's not explained why identical copies should have something approximating telepathy with each other. Nor is it explained what Riley gets out of this; having to live cooped up in a warehouse always in hiding seems a poor trade just to have copies of yourself around.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 76)
Sean Williams Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Con: The story is mostly infodumps and narrated emotions (e..g show-don't-tell failures). This distances the reader so much from the story that there's zero tension in it.
It's not explained why identical copies should have something approximating telepathy with each other. Nor is it explained what Riley gets out of this; having to live cooped up in a warehouse always in hiding seems a poor trade just to have copies of yourself around.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 76)
Sean Williams Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
"Having to live cooped up in a warehouse always in hiding seems a poor trade just to have copies of yourself around."
ReplyDelete...Just waiting until you have enough to take over the world, of course!