Sunday, July 14, 2019

Planet Doykeit, by Eliza Rose

[F&SF]
★★☆☆☆

(Colony SF) On a Jewish planet obsessed with hair, Zishe envies her best friend for being chosen to have children. (7,472 words; Time: 24m)


"Planet Doykeit," by (edited by C.C. Finlay), appeared in issue 07-08|19, published on by .

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

Review: 2019.390 (A Word for Authors)

Pro: The details about the issues involved with terraforming are pretty good. It’s clear that the story is meant to give a detailed impression of what life in such a colony might be like. Also, there’s a deeper meaning explained in the last few paragraphs.

Con: There’s no discernible plot, and the result is painfully dull. And what’s with this obsession with hair?

A small annoyance is that the planet is way outside the tidal lock radius for its star. Also, even though it’s described as tidally locked, the story talks about summer, which it implies is the result of the ellipticity of the orbit, which is almost impossible for tidally locked planets. Even allowing for that, since the orbit is only 124 days long, the “summer” would be 31 days long at most.

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3 comments (may contain spoilers):

  1. Author website:

    https://www.elizarose.info/

    Looking at the stories listed there, I see she had a story in the Nov/Dec 2018 issue of Interzone as Eliza Ruslander, "Heart of the Awl." So she is in her 2nd year of eligibility for the Astounding/Campbell Award.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oops, should be "Heart of an Awl."

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    2. Thanks, I've updated this review and the 2019 New Writers page.

      Delete