Tuesday, May 2, 2017

A Thousand Deaths Through Flesh and Stone, by Brian Trent

[F&SF]
★★★☆☆ Average

(SF thriller; War Hero) The narrator thought he’d retired from Martian covert ops ten years ago, but his bosses resurrected a copy and expect him to do another mission for them. (7,329 words; Time: 24m)


"A Thousand Deaths Through Flesh and Stone," by (edited by C.C. Finlay), appeared in issue 05-06|17, published on by .

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

Pro: Clean plot with lots of excitement. Harris needs to find and kill the killers from the concentration camp, and he manages despite terrible obstacles.

It’s chilling when you realize the bad guys killed everyone on Mars rather than surrender.

Con: There are no trials? When they find “Partisans” they just kill them? I sure hope they’re never wrong.

If Mars is gone, who is paying for this "Martian Security" operation, and why aren't other governments trying to shut it down?

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2 comments (may contain spoilers):

  1. Good, exciting adventure story. It does feel a bit like an excerpt, leaving a lot of questions. I see it's one of several stories set in his "War Hero" universe. Maybe the others would answer some of the questions.

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    Replies
    1. It's always a challenge trying to review stories that aren't really stand-alone. If I haven't read the other stories, then I can certainly report on how well the story stands by itself, but then I'm not giving useful feedback to the ones who have read the earlier ones. (That may not matter, though; people usually like to read the next in a series if they liked the first ones.)

      The reverse problem is when I've read the previous stories and then try to review the latest one as a stand-alone. It can be really hard to make yourself notice the elements that just wouldn't make sense to a first-time reader. (If I have to hunt up the earlier story to figure something out, that's a dead giveaway though.)

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