(Near-Future SF) Violet’s duplication machine makes it easier to interrogate the world’s most famous terrorist, but they need so many copies of him, she’s had to duplicate herself to keep up with the workload. (4,254 words; Time: 14m)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average
"After the Atrocity," by Ian Creasey [bio] (edited by Sheila Williams), appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction issue 03-04|17, published on February 16, 2017 by Penny Publications.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: So did Violet-2 make the right choice? The story leaves it up to us to decide.
Making copies so interrogation goes more smoothly is a pretty cool idea.
The title is cute, since it’s ambiguous which atrocity it refers to: the terrorist act, the torture, the duplication, or even Violet-2’s murder of Violet-1.
Con: It’s hard to believe that Violet’s copy diverged so far from the original. If their personalities are so different, one wonders why the duplicates of the terrorist work so well.
It’s very hard to be sympathetic to Violet-2’s decision to murder the original, particularly when the evidence for actual torture is so limited.
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Making copies so interrogation goes more smoothly is a pretty cool idea.
The title is cute, since it’s ambiguous which atrocity it refers to: the terrorist act, the torture, the duplication, or even Violet-2’s murder of Violet-1.
Con: It’s hard to believe that Violet’s copy diverged so far from the original. If their personalities are so different, one wonders why the duplicates of the terrorist work so well.
It’s very hard to be sympathetic to Violet-2’s decision to murder the original, particularly when the evidence for actual torture is so limited.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 03-04|17)
Ian Creasey Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
It’s hard to believe that Violet’s copy diverged so far from the original.
ReplyDeleteIt is, but -- I think the story does make a good case for this, giving each of them a single defining moment that shapes their view.
It is pretty strong -- being willing to kill yourself certainly seems like some serious disassociation. OTOH, if I started seeing cracks in an alternate-me, I might be all the more horrified, and all the quicker to disassociate...