This fun short story has a great opening, so much so I bet you can't put it down after reading the first couple paragraphs. The background and world building for a short story is great and left me wanting more. On the other hand, for me the ending is just so so, and the whole thing feels short, like the final couple pages needed to be fleshed out some more.

It's been released under a CC license, so don't be afraid to look it up and introduce yourself to this authour. I'll be looking into more of his work on the strength of this one. ( )

This particular story doesn't appear to tie into Buckell's main works (the story line begun with Crystal Rain). It's a short thriller about a starship pilot whose computer-enhanced personalities take on a life of their own. I didn't find it particularly noteworthy. Some have called it cyberpunk but I didn't get that feeling about it at all. Just because there's are computers involved doesn't make something cyberpunk...you need the punk aspect to be there, as well. This one had more of the feeling of 1950s fiction.

I enjoy Buckell's Caribbean-influenced science fiction and am looking forward to getting around to his third book sometime this year but this one was forgettable. ( )