★★★☆☆
(Apocalypse) In the last days before an asteroid strike, a botanist collecting data for the last Ark leaving Earth makes plans to stay behind and die with the world. (10,676 words; Time: 35m)
"Ark," by Veronica Roth [bio] (edited by Blake Crouch), published on September 17, 2019 by Amazon Original Stories.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.572 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: The core story here is Samantha’s decision to stay behind and the events in her life that compelled her to that decision. Beyond that, there’s quite a bit of slice-of-life about what it’s like working on a small team in a remote location.
It’s heartening that her discovery of a new species of orchid—one that violates the usual rules for flower colors—inspires her to live on in hopes of new discoveries.
Con: My biggest problem with the story is that Samantha never appealed to me as a character, so I got bored reading about her. I’m not sure why she didn’t catch fire with me, but she never did.
Beyond that, the science in the setup is questionable. First, there’s no way to relocate the whole population of the Earth, not even with fifty years advance notice. Second, we couldn’t get a space probe to another star in just 50 years, much less giant arks with most of the population on them. Third, given the amount of advance notice, a sufficiently large series of stand-off nuclear explosions should have been enough to divert the asteroid. Finally, give they’re going to wait 100 years anyway, they would have done better to just build shelters on the Earth and wait out the dark period.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Veronica Roth Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Pro: The core story here is Samantha’s decision to stay behind and the events in her life that compelled her to that decision. Beyond that, there’s quite a bit of slice-of-life about what it’s like working on a small team in a remote location.
It’s heartening that her discovery of a new species of orchid—one that violates the usual rules for flower colors—inspires her to live on in hopes of new discoveries.
Con: My biggest problem with the story is that Samantha never appealed to me as a character, so I got bored reading about her. I’m not sure why she didn’t catch fire with me, but she never did.
Beyond that, the science in the setup is questionable. First, there’s no way to relocate the whole population of the Earth, not even with fifty years advance notice. Second, we couldn’t get a space probe to another star in just 50 years, much less giant arks with most of the population on them. Third, given the amount of advance notice, a sufficiently large series of stand-off nuclear explosions should have been enough to divert the asteroid. Finally, give they’re going to wait 100 years anyway, they would have done better to just build shelters on the Earth and wait out the dark period.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Veronica Roth Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
No comments (may contain spoilers):
Post a Comment (comment policy)