★★★☆☆
(SF Adventure) The military kidnaps a veterinarian to find a runaway bioengineered road before it hits the Canadian border and starts a war. (10,364 words; Time: 34m)
"Road Veterinarian," by Guy Stewart [bio] (edited by Trevor Quachri), appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact issue 09-10|19, published on August 16, 2019 by Penny Publications.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.469 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: There’s something hilarious about the idea of a bio-engineered road that fails because it gets hungry and wanders off. And trying to lure it back with the right sort of food is pretty cute too.
This is actually a hard SF story, in that Javier has a technical problem to solve and he approaches it in a scientific manner.
Con: I never did figure out the political situation. At one point it implies that if someone nukes the road then both Canada and the US will cease to be countries and will become territories of the world government. But at other points it seems that the world government military is running this operation.
I find it imposible to believe that the US would decide that the best way to deal with a problem in this living road was to kidnap a veterinarian and force him to treat it. They’d pick someone they knew and trusted or who was recommended by such a person. Nor is it credible that such a secret experiment would be conducted right on the border with a hostile country.
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Pro: There’s something hilarious about the idea of a bio-engineered road that fails because it gets hungry and wanders off. And trying to lure it back with the right sort of food is pretty cute too.
This is actually a hard SF story, in that Javier has a technical problem to solve and he approaches it in a scientific manner.
Con: I never did figure out the political situation. At one point it implies that if someone nukes the road then both Canada and the US will cease to be countries and will become territories of the world government. But at other points it seems that the world government military is running this operation.
I find it imposible to believe that the US would decide that the best way to deal with a problem in this living road was to kidnap a veterinarian and force him to treat it. They’d pick someone they knew and trusted or who was recommended by such a person. Nor is it credible that such a secret experiment would be conducted right on the border with a hostile country.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Guy Stewart Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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