The Sith of Datawork by Ken Liu

Terrific!

Remember the scene where C-3PO and R2-D2 are in the escape pod and the gunners on the Star Destroyer, let it go after detecting no life signs aboard?

What if the gunner had second thought about not firing on it?

How can he save himself if his inaction is called into question?

Paperwork!  Or datawork as it’s called here.  Enter Arvira, fleet logistics liaison (grade 4) who knows the forms to fill.

Lots of fun, especially because you just know that running an empire requires quite a lot of forms.  All bureaucracies need a datatrail.

Ken Liu's website - https://kenliu.name/

Ken Liu

The Long Haul by Ken Liu

Issue 98, Nov 2014

21/100

Alternate history stories can really make you think.

Here the question of, what if the Hindenburg never crashed and burned?

There would be Zeppelins everywhere is what. 

In this story Liu shows us an impeccably realized time where a world that has embraced green energy and transportation solutions created a market for heavy-lift cargo Zeppelins. 

It is written like a magazine article where a reporter accompanies a married couple, who operate their own independent ship, on a typical run from China to the U.S.  

I loved this story, it showed what could have been just a normal slice of life. 

Recommended. 

Ken Liu's website is:
http://kenliu.name/

Ken Liu

Magazine Review #4 - Asimov's February 2012

Murder Born by Robert Reed:  Ooh, I liked this one.  This takes capital punishment in a very interesting direction.  In the story a new method of capital punishment is invented with the unintended consequence of bringing the dead back to life.  This story brings the moral questions of CP to a new level that I just found incredibly interesting.  A real winner.


Hive Mind Man by Rudy Rucker & Eileen Gunn:  This story was a bit out there.  At first it reads like a simple dating story set in the future but then it takes on a life of its own and takes social media and advertising in dizzying directions.  It left me scratching my head.  Entertaining? Yes. Interesting? Sure


The Voodoo Project by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:  An elite covert, military team meet for the first time in a vacant high-rise apartment.  One of the members is a ESPer (I don't know the term, but you get it - ESP) who's job it is to evaluate the team itself.  The evaluation does not go as usual.  Very good story.  It was Rusch's name that drew me to the issue.  I have never been disappointed by her writing.

Observations On A Clock by D. Thomas Minton:  I first found Minton's work on Lightspeed Magazine's website and found his story “Thief of Futures" very, very compelling.  I was very happy to find his name on the cover of the magazine.  This is a story of faith, of trying to save humanity from itself, but in the end the story kind of went over my head.  I'm sure I missed something; the only thing I'm sure about is that there is a monk on an asteroid with a dying atomic clock on it.  He's supposed to report back to Earth what he's observed. Yea, didn't get it.

The People of Pele by Ken Liu:  A nice story about human colonization, the effects of time dilation on a mission that traveled at near light speeds, politics and the definition of life.  I could read a lot more from this author.

Going Home by Bruce McAllister & Barry Malzberg:  A strange a quirky story told in letters between an author and his editor.