★★★☆☆
(SF Thriller; Humboldt Station) A reporter on a space station describes how a religious trial involving photosynthesizing people seems to have managed to get someone killed. (3,234 words; Time: 10m)
Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)
"The Dead Man's Coffee," by John Possidente (edited by Andy Cox), appeared in Interzone issue 285, published on January 15, 2020 by TTA Press.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2020.069 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: It’s cute the way the nameless reporter ties herself into a pretzel to get around the rule that she can’t report on things that involve her personally, which apparently forbids her writing about the murder she herself witnessed. So she ostensibly makes her report about the unrelated religious trial involving photosynthesizing Muslims who need to do something special for Ramadan.
Note: I assume the reporter is female because she talks about “powdering her nose.” Otherwise, there’s essentially no useful description of any part of the narrators appearance.
Con: Ultimately there’s just not much here. The killing seems to related to the money laundering the café owner does, and the description of the religious trial is little more than an infodump.
Other Reviews: Search Web
John Possidente Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: It’s cute the way the nameless reporter ties herself into a pretzel to get around the rule that she can’t report on things that involve her personally, which apparently forbids her writing about the murder she herself witnessed. So she ostensibly makes her report about the unrelated religious trial involving photosynthesizing Muslims who need to do something special for Ramadan.
Note: I assume the reporter is female because she talks about “powdering her nose.” Otherwise, there’s essentially no useful description of any part of the narrators appearance.
Con: Ultimately there’s just not much here. The killing seems to related to the money laundering the café owner does, and the description of the religious trial is little more than an infodump.
Other Reviews: Search Web
John Possidente Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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