0/5

TLDR: Tom Godwin kills a young woman because Campbell wanted a story to tug at 1950's America's mawkish heartstrings.

A ridiculously contrived and improbable set of circumstances lead to a shuttle pilot having to choose between saving a stowaway and completing his mission.

This is a world where the punishment for stowing away is death, yet the public and passengers on interstellar spacecraft are never informed of this, and the doors to shuttle craft are left unlocked and unguarded.

This is a world where every ounce is at a premium on spacecraft, yet shuttle craft are build with enough space in their cabins for someone to hide away, including several comfortably large lockers, yet these shuttles are not searched before launch. Did I mention these craft where every ounce is at a premium also have air locks?

This is a world where these craft are provided with exactly enough fuel margin for the pilot to notice he is burning too fast, discover stowaways and dispose of them, but not enough to complete the mission with a stowaway.

This is a world where the pilot is provided with a gun, but no tool with which to dismantle all the dead weight in the cabin, which he could then throw out the airlock.

Finally, this is a world where the shuttle craft sent on an emergency mission, too small for a nuclear reactor so powered by chemical rockets is provided with artificial gravity. Yet no-one has thought of adapting the amazing and lightweight gizmotron providing the artificial gravity or even more amazing mcguffin powering it as a means of propulsion.

And did I mention the moral of this story is that you should take personal responsibility for your actions, not that gross corporate and governmental malfeasance causes avoidable deaths?

EDIT: Reread for some bizarre reason and noticed the bit about artificial gravity. It just makes the story even more outrageously bad. ( )

Taut and clinical. No sermonising, no moralising yet it really twangs those heartstrings. Ngl, it brought a tear to my eye. ( )

The short story 'The Cold Equations' itself is well written and certainly packs a punch. The end is not what you might expect. Some sources say that the author originally wrote a standard ending, but that the publisher made him change it. The other stories in the book are completely different in style and content. The story The Cold Equations is definitely worth five stars, whereas the other stories are probably around three. ( )

Structurally it's a very well written story, but it never questions beyond its own belief system. Why is the system built without safeguards for the "cold equations"? Money. The equation is that we put money over human life and then use "the cold laws of nature" to excuse our behavior. As propaganda, it is 5 stars, one of the best of its kind. ( )

a cool short story about the clash of morals and laws on nature, which do not care. In free domain, available online. ( )