A Time to Kill, by S. Andrew Swann

Short Review:

A chilling story that definitely got me thinking.  Not a story I’d read or share so much for enjoyment as for discussion, both of the story and its flaws.

Long Review:

An excellent sample of the complexity of human existence and the difficulty in predicting the consequences of any one choice.  Of course, it also has a few holes.  Why would scientists go to all the trouble of editing themselves out of existence?  If they knew the capabilities of their device, they’d also have made some attempt to learn its weaknesses and would have settled the question, once and for all, of whether changes in the past will make marked changes in the future.  If they had the answer to that question, they’d proceed with greater caution.  Another flaw, from my pov, is that if the DHARMA project never took place, the device can’t have existed and the change couldn’t take place either.  But in so saying I open up a whole area of discussion and argument, and even the Long Reveiw isn’t that long.

The layer within layer of causality was reminiscent of a liar covering his lie with more lies, caught in the tangle.  Of course, I’ve never been very impressed with liars, and its hard to be impressed with this character.  Why didn’t he catch on to the fact that he was only making things worse?  You’d think he would have stopped and considered, maybe done some research, at least.  But still the story made good use of the tools available to make its point, and carried me through the read on well-honed crafting.  Over all, an enjoyable read.

 

The Man Who Wasn’t There, by Gregory Benford

Short Review:

Another story with anti-terrorist content.  This one was not as interesting to me as the other stories so far, though it was well executed and kept me reading throughout.  Definitely not a story you can share with just anyone, as it may start political fights on several fronts.

Long Review:

My issues with this story were the character’s coldness, and my emotional detachment from the pov character, combined with a story plot and concept that just wasn’t that original.  The story crafting was superb, the pacing of the action well timed, and the unfolding of pertinent information skillfully done.  But I never could muster any reason to care about the character, really, although the final disclusure of the brother at the end helped a bit.  And the only a-ha moment was the cool twist of extracting information from a dead man.  Now that’s a concept I can see building a story around!

Perhaps someone with a stronger military background would be more appreciative, but as I’m no pacifist I’m guessing that this story would miss with most readers.