Thursday, November 17, 2016

Seven Birthdays, by Ken Liu

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(Far Future SF) Mia marks her birthdays as powers of 7, which gives her lots of time to work out her issues with her mother. (5,864 words; Time: 19m)

Rating: ★★★★☆ Recommended
Recommended By: GDozois:4 JStrahan

Read an interview with the author about this story.
"," by (edited by Jonathan Strahan), appeared in (RSR review), published on by .

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

Pro: At the individual, human level, the story is about Mia's attempt to make peace with her mother. The ending is heartwarming because, after all that time, Mia finally has the right words--and they're noble, inspiring words.

At the large-scale level, it's a great description of human evolution and transformation into a galaxy-spanning civilization--if civilization is even the right word for something so grand.

Con: There's little action and no tension in the story, which mostly consists of a recitation of events that transpired.

Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Ken Liu Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB

1 comment (may contain spoilers):

  1. I agree with RSR's ★★★★ rating. Classic hard SF with scope that spans the galaxy and blew my mind. :-) Marking birthdays by powers of seven was a cool way to stretch out the timeline while keeping the same character. I'm withholding one ★ because the ending didn't quite match the journey in its impact.

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