★★☆☆☆
(Hard-SF Adventure) Polly challenges her brother to a race: her in a balloon circling Venus and him in a rover on Mars. (4,516 words; Time: 15m)
"Around A World In Ninety-Six Hours," by Wendy Nikel [bio] (edited by Trevor Quachri), appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact issue 01-02|20, published on December 19, 2019 by Penny Publications.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2020.012 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: The account of Polly’s trip around Venus is reasonable, and there’s a bit of suspense when we wonder what happened to Casper on Mars. It even manages to give Polly agency in helping her brother despite not even being on the same planet.
Con: The bad science ruins this story, and the worst is the idea that anyone would ever use Morse code in an application that required a human being to interpret it. But there are other things, like communications between Venus and Mars with just a 20-second lag and wind-powered rovers on the Venerean surface.
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Wendy Nikel Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: The account of Polly’s trip around Venus is reasonable, and there’s a bit of suspense when we wonder what happened to Casper on Mars. It even manages to give Polly agency in helping her brother despite not even being on the same planet.
Con: The bad science ruins this story, and the worst is the idea that anyone would ever use Morse code in an application that required a human being to interpret it. But there are other things, like communications between Venus and Mars with just a 20-second lag and wind-powered rovers on the Venerean surface.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Wendy Nikel Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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