★★☆☆☆
(SF Adventure) Nora didn’t get chosen for the first Mars mission, but when something seems to go wrong with it, they ask her to go on a special followup—solo. (6,519 words; Time: 21m)
"The Agreement," by Dominica Phetteplace [bio] (edited by Jonathan Strahan), appeared in Mission Critical (RSR review), published on August 15, 2019 by Solaris.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.461 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: This starts out as a mystery/space rescue story, but it turns into a diplomacy/AI-conflict story.
Con: There’s just too much here that breaks suspension of disbelief. The government keeping it a secret that something’s wrong with the Mars mission. Then sending a single person solo to investigate and possibly fight. And taking 550 days to get to Mars when a minimum-energy orbit is half that. Having an espresso machine that can host an AI. Having an AI become sentient by accident. Not just sentient, but godlike, able to surround the Earth with an impenetrable force field. Etc.
Key parts of the story are told through narration rather than action scenes, and that takes a lot away from it too.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Dominica Phetteplace Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Pro: This starts out as a mystery/space rescue story, but it turns into a diplomacy/AI-conflict story.
Con: There’s just too much here that breaks suspension of disbelief. The government keeping it a secret that something’s wrong with the Mars mission. Then sending a single person solo to investigate and possibly fight. And taking 550 days to get to Mars when a minimum-energy orbit is half that. Having an espresso machine that can host an AI. Having an AI become sentient by accident. Not just sentient, but godlike, able to surround the Earth with an impenetrable force field. Etc.
Key parts of the story are told through narration rather than action scenes, and that takes a lot away from it too.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Dominica Phetteplace Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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