★★★☆☆
(Lost Colony) When the portal collapse isolated the colony, the colonists struggled to survive on a world where the dark forests lured people to their deaths, turning them into “demons.” (7,322 words; Time: 24m)
"The Shadow We Cast Through Time," by Indrapramit Das [bio] (edited by Nisi Shawl), appeared in New Suns (RSR review), published on March 12, 2019 by Solaris.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.273 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: The story tells us Surya’s experience having so many children to help produce a viable population and the struggle of the whole colony against the attraction of the forest.
Con: The story can’t seem to make up its mind whether it’s a hard SF story or a fantasy horror story, and it ends up not doing either one very well.
As far as the science goes, it really makes no sense that an alien lifeform would want human bodies; the proteins (if it even had proteins) would be incompatible. The idea that it evolved over just a few decades in response to the human presence is ridiculous. The description of how one woman had a child with another woman’s “seed” was confusing too.
On the horror side, the “demons” are described as so harmless that there’s no real sense of threat or tension. The only real risk is that humanity might die out on this world, and, by all accounts, it’s not very friendly to human beings anyway.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Indrapramit Das Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Pro: The story tells us Surya’s experience having so many children to help produce a viable population and the struggle of the whole colony against the attraction of the forest.
Con: The story can’t seem to make up its mind whether it’s a hard SF story or a fantasy horror story, and it ends up not doing either one very well.
As far as the science goes, it really makes no sense that an alien lifeform would want human bodies; the proteins (if it even had proteins) would be incompatible. The idea that it evolved over just a few decades in response to the human presence is ridiculous. The description of how one woman had a child with another woman’s “seed” was confusing too.
On the horror side, the “demons” are described as so harmless that there’s no real sense of threat or tension. The only real risk is that humanity might die out on this world, and, by all accounts, it’s not very friendly to human beings anyway.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Indrapramit Das Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Now online at Apex 124 (Jul 2021): https://apex-magazine.com/the-shadow-we-cast-through-time/
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