★★★☆☆ Mixed
(Hard SF Apocalypse) After the asteroid destroys the Earth, Aleja escapes in a life pod good for one month, but surviving long enough to find a real colony isn’t going to be easy. (14,888 words; Time: 49m)
"Ring Wave," by Tom Jolly [bio] (edited by Trevor Quachri), appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact issue 01-02|19, published on December 15, 2018 by Penny Publications.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.002 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: Aleja’s a nice person, so we’re rooting for her all the way. The main thing she needs is to find a sustainable colony to accept her before her food and air run out, so she’s got quite the challenge—particularly when people like Cal just want to kill her and take her stuff.
The best part of the story is the various creative ways she overcomes the different problems she runs into.
Accordingly, it’s gratifying when she’s able to help Manuel and his family, earning a place in their pod.
Con: The what-if is quite a stretch; we already know where all the threatening 20 km asteroids are, so this one would have had to come from interstellar space or the Oort cloud, which is really, really unlikely. And there’s no real way anyone would survive the shock wave and get into space. Finally, even if you granted all that, the people in pods seem to have essentially zero chance of survival.
Cal is a cardboard villain, and he doesn’t even get his comeuppance.
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Tom Jolly Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: Aleja’s a nice person, so we’re rooting for her all the way. The main thing she needs is to find a sustainable colony to accept her before her food and air run out, so she’s got quite the challenge—particularly when people like Cal just want to kill her and take her stuff.
The best part of the story is the various creative ways she overcomes the different problems she runs into.
Accordingly, it’s gratifying when she’s able to help Manuel and his family, earning a place in their pod.
Con: The what-if is quite a stretch; we already know where all the threatening 20 km asteroids are, so this one would have had to come from interstellar space or the Oort cloud, which is really, really unlikely. And there’s no real way anyone would survive the shock wave and get into space. Finally, even if you granted all that, the people in pods seem to have essentially zero chance of survival.
Cal is a cardboard villain, and he doesn’t even get his comeuppance.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Tom Jolly Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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