Sunday, November 4, 2018

Body Drift, by Cynthia Ward

[Analog]
★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

(Far-Future SF) A boy and a girl meet in the far future in a world so strange to us it’s barely comprehensible. (2,956 words; Time: 09m)

This story compares itself to “Day Million,” by Frederick Pohl, so you might want to read that first.

"Body Drift," by (edited by Trevor Quachri), appeared in issue 11-12|18, published on by .

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

Review: 2018.577 (A Word for Authors)

Pro: This updates Day Million a bit, expanding the famous “the girl was a boy” line quite a bit and introducing modern cyber-technology. It also doesn’t put an exact date on it.

Aside: If Day 1 of the Christian Era is Friday, March 25, 1 AD, then Day Million is Friday, February 17, 2739 AD. (Computed using the Julian Date Converter at the US Naval Observatory.)

Con: Before reading this piece, I reread "Day Million." Pohl’s story portrayed a very alien future, but it was all more-or-less plausible. He never spouted nonsense like “they’re compatible across more than eleven million dimensions” or “everyone can send a subroutine to participate.” This heavy use of technobabble takes all the fun out of "Body Drift," and it gets dull fast.

Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 11-12|18)
Cynthia Ward Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline

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