Tor.com, January 21, 2015; 7,465 words
Rating: 2, Not recommended.
Recommended By: SFEP
An intelligent, patchwork fighter ship struggles to help the last of the Free Belt fight off the Earth Force.
Pro: There is a decent rationalization of having an AI that feels pain and fear.
Con: There are a lot of problems that make it hard to sustain suspension of disbelief in this story.
Exactly what good is this AI? It seems to spend all its time worrying while the human pilot does all the work. Knowing that the survivors don't even believe in their own cause makes things like the attack on the Tanganyika painful to read.
General Geary is so evil he's impossible to believe.
It's very naive to imagine that you can merge two computers into a single new one--even a "fantasy AI" that feels pain and fear and loves its pilot. A low point is when the AI tries to multiply grief by a thousand and finds its co-processor can't do it. Ultimately, a story that depends on a computer overcoming its programming is like a story that depends on a locomotive learning how to leave the tracks and drive down the freeway.
It's impossible for an asteroid to reach Earth from the asteroid belt in just 82 hours. Even 82 days would be pushing it.
