Saturday, November 16, 2019

Antarctica, by D.A. Xiaolin Spires

[Clarkesworld]
★★★☆☆

(Hard SF) Mysterious microbes accelerate Antarctic melting while a team of scientists (plus one artist) try to find a way to save the penguins. (5,693 words; Time: 18m)


"," by (edited by Neil Clarke), appeared in issue 158, published on .

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Review: 2019.635 (A Word for Authors)

Pro: The setting is interesting, and the effort to provide a safe surface for the penguins is easy to cheer for.

Con: The protagonist doesn’t really do a heck of a lot. Stone is the one who finds the solution. She only witnesses it.

The narrator is very poorly “grounded,” by which I mean we learn almost nothing about her in the story—not even her name. In fact, we only know the narrator’s gender thanks to a bit of Russian at the end of the story when Mac calls her “lyubimaya” instead of “lyubimiy.”

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1 comment (may contain spoilers):

  1. As you say, interesting setting, but I found the prose (especially the exposition parts) rather insufferable...

    ReplyDelete