★★★★☆ Action-Packed
(Military SF) India and China are at war in Tibet about 100 years from now. Kandiah’s team are outnumbered by the Chinese forces near Lhasa, but she makes a surprising discovery that could turn things around (7,296 words; Time: 24m)
Recommended By: JMcGregor+1
"Command and Control," by David D. Levine [bio] (edited by Jonathan Strahan), appeared in Infinity Wars (RSR review), published on September 12, 2017 by Solaris.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2017.065 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: Kandiah and her boyfriend pull it off, and they don’t even kill the general in the process.
There’s almost non-stop action and plenty of tension. Kandiah’s solution is quite clever, even if it’s high risk, and we rather like her for it.
There are a lot of little bits that support the story: The short description of teleportation and its limitations. The placement of the monitoring devices. Even the com unit the general always wears. And, most of all, the big emphasis the Indians have on individual initiative.
The story makes it clear how much Kandiah loves her teammates, and how devastated she is when she loses one. This makes the loss of Kaur at the end poignant—particularly since her sacrifice ended a whole war.
Con: There are no side plots; the main plot is it. And Kandiah is the only character who actually gets developed.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
David D. Levine Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: Kandiah and her boyfriend pull it off, and they don’t even kill the general in the process.
There’s almost non-stop action and plenty of tension. Kandiah’s solution is quite clever, even if it’s high risk, and we rather like her for it.
There are a lot of little bits that support the story: The short description of teleportation and its limitations. The placement of the monitoring devices. Even the com unit the general always wears. And, most of all, the big emphasis the Indians have on individual initiative.
The story makes it clear how much Kandiah loves her teammates, and how devastated she is when she loses one. This makes the loss of Kaur at the end poignant—particularly since her sacrifice ended a whole war.
Con: There are no side plots; the main plot is it. And Kandiah is the only character who actually gets developed.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
David D. Levine Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
(Kaur was a woman.)
ReplyDeleteI thought this one was okay. Neat resolution, and it fits the anthology theme well.
Thanks! I'll add that to the fix list.
DeleteFixed.
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