Crossing the Midday Gate, by Aliette de Bodard

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(Space Opera; Xuya) Dan Linh returns from twenty-years exile to head up her old lab again. She’s a scientist, not a politician; can she really make it work? (7,411 words; Time: 24m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Recommended By: GDozois:4

"Crossing the Midday Gate," by Aliette de Bodard [bio] (edited by Athena Andreadis), appeared in To Shape the Dark, published on May 1, 2016 by Candlemark & Gleam.

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

Pro: The story does an excellent job of capturing the feeling of a person unexpectedly offered authority again when he/she had given up hope. Of looking through the records to find just how much of a mess things are in. And of getting a hint of the office politics that are often more important than the work itself.

The plot is really about her coming to terms with what’s on offer, what the cost would be, and what she really wants to do. Her choice is a reasonable one. It may not be the right one—only time would tell—but it is definitely her own choice, and that's a victory of sorts.

Con: There’s no action in the story and no emotional involvement. Lacking details of what really happened twenty years previously, we’re not quite sure how much blame Dan Linh really deserves, and this makes it hard to decide how to feel about her.

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