★★☆☆☆
(Cyberpunk) A big corporation creates a powerful AI in the form of a Hindu goddess in virtual reality, and a young woman seeks inspiration from it when she sees what happens when trolls attack it. (7,591 words; Time: 25m)
"Kali_Na," by Indrapramit Das [bio] (edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe), appeared in The Mythic Dream (RSR review), published on September 17, 2019 by Saga Press.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.555 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: The description of Ma Durga’s fight with the trolls and how she recapitulates the story of how Durga turned into Kali to defeat the demons is pretty cool. Durga’s (the human one) accounts of her bitter experiences as a low caste Hindu mistreated by the upper castes are distressing, but her refusal to give in is inspiring.
Con: The technobabble is just too much for me. E.g. nonsense like “Veeyar avatars . . . hiding under iridescent masks and cloaks of glitched data, holding weapons forged form malware, blades slick with doxing poisons and viscous viruses.” And there is way too much of it.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Indrapramit Das Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: The description of Ma Durga’s fight with the trolls and how she recapitulates the story of how Durga turned into Kali to defeat the demons is pretty cool. Durga’s (the human one) accounts of her bitter experiences as a low caste Hindu mistreated by the upper castes are distressing, but her refusal to give in is inspiring.
Con: The technobabble is just too much for me. E.g. nonsense like “Veeyar avatars . . . hiding under iridescent masks and cloaks of glitched data, holding weapons forged form malware, blades slick with doxing poisons and viscous viruses.” And there is way too much of it.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Indrapramit Das Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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