Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Racing the Rings of Saturn, by Ingrid Garcia

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(SF Adventure) While racers compete in the Ring Race at Saturn, other people fight for freedom and the future of the solar system. (7,528 words; Time: 25m)

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Needs Improvement

"Racing the Rings of Saturn," by (edited by C.C. Finlay), appeared in issue 11-12|17, published on by .

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

Pro: The plot is that military pilots secretly replace the racers in the Running the Rings race, and at the finish line, they divert and mount an attack, capturing a few small moons. The dictator sends his forces after them, and is defenseless when the real assault force attacks Titan. Happy ending.

Con: The writing is awful. The narration is intrusive and the dialogue is extremely unnatural to the point of being corny. This includes purple prose, as-you-know-Bob dialogue, editorializing, repeated infodumps (by which I mean the same infodump repeated over and over), etc.

The science is very, very bad. The whole concept of this "race" is nuts in terms of physics, but there's more: Travelling at “Mach 88” in the vacuum of space? Habitats hidden in the A ring? Using magnetic fields to maneuver? Etc.

Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 11-12|17)
Ingrid Garcia Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline

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