(SF) Lillian grew up poor, but soon she’ll be one of the first astronauts to traverse a wormhole. Memories of her father keep haunting her, though. (5,532 words; Time: 18m)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average
"The Person Who Saw Cetus," by Tang Fei [bio] (translated by S. Qiouyi Lu, edited by Neil Clarke), appeared in Clarkesworld issue 128, published on May 1, 2017.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: There are a lot of good elements here: the mysterious disappearance of her father. The mysterious star. The equipment he left. And the narration and dialogue are good—no infodumps or very artificial conversations.
Con: It sort of fizzles at the end. Yep, he really did die. Huh, somehow he really did have pictures of a star he shouldn’t have been able to see. But nothing comes of it.
Some of the science is poor. It’s hard to imagine a poor man affording a clone of himself. There is a δ Ceti but no δ3 Ceti, and δ Ceti is a B2 supergiant, so not suitable for planets. Why do we need to travel through wormholes if interstellar travel is so cheap that Lillian’s classmates could take vacations on other planets?
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 128)
Tang Fei Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Con: It sort of fizzles at the end. Yep, he really did die. Huh, somehow he really did have pictures of a star he shouldn’t have been able to see. But nothing comes of it.
Some of the science is poor. It’s hard to imagine a poor man affording a clone of himself. There is a δ Ceti but no δ3 Ceti, and δ Ceti is a B2 supergiant, so not suitable for planets. Why do we need to travel through wormholes if interstellar travel is so cheap that Lillian’s classmates could take vacations on other planets?
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 128)
Tang Fei Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
I could have done without the horrible suicide performance of the father. Other than that, a good translated story.
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