Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Flight from the Ages, by Derek Künsken

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(Fantasy Science) About a thousand years from now, two powerful AIs struggle to prevent the destruction of the multiverse. (10,988 words; Time: 36m)

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended
Recommended By: GDozois:5 RHorton:4

"Flight from the Ages," by (edited by Sheila Williams), appeared in issue 04-05|16, published on by .

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

Pro: This colorful story takes us to interesting, ever-more-incomprehensible places and boasts good narration and dialogue. It even has a happy ending.

There are a number of cute allusions to the story of Ulysses and the Cyclops that are entertaining for those familiar with the story.

Con: The science mixes real things with impossible ones. Just to name a few: the attometer-sized black holes should weigh around half a million tons, not eighty thousand. Fast-moving dust at high velocity would erode the hull, not "tickle" it. What does it mean for an AI to "live out its days?" And how can a beam of light travel for thousands of years through an opaque plasma--much less automatically turn into an AI when it hits a neutron star?

Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 04-05|16)
Derek Künsken Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB

2 comments (may contain spoilers):

  1. Who should we believe -- you or Gardner Dozois? I'm not quite done with the story (reprinted in Dozois #34) but having fun, even if he stretched the physics. Michael Swanwick once remarked that classicists like Dozois were easy to fool with "hard-rubber science." Ultimately, is it a good story? YES!

    1. It all depends on what you like and what matters to you. For me, "hard-rubber science" (I think of them as "failed Hard SF") simply ruins a story because it keeps breaking my suspension of disbelief. But others don't care about that as much.

      It's part of the reason why we cite multiple reviewers. Readers should get a feel for which reviewers match their tastes the best.

      I see I reviewed this one more than 2.5 years ago. These days, I'd probably rate it 3 stars with a "mixed" tag, which means it has elements that make me want to recommend it, but also has things that make me want to recommend against it. (That's to distinguish it from the usual 3-star story that's unexceptional.)