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apar's review
4.0
Published in Clarkesworld Magazine (issue 174).
Submergence is a cli-fi novella that asks questions about the relationship of identity, selfhood and memory; about sentience and intelligence; and the ethics of scientific research and the cost of ‘progress’. I am not sure how to rate this novella. The plot is a good 5 stars but the writing swings wildly between 2 stars and 5.
The novella is set in future where humanity has destroyed its environment and humanity is racked with ‘monstrous incurable plagues’ (which are monstrous indeed). There is a new technology that allows people to experience memories of the dead, and our protagonist, Nithya, has been selected to receive the memories of a scientist, Noor, who died under unusual circumstances. Before her death, Noor was studying a newly discovered deep sea sponge that has proven to have amazing medical properties and is currently the only treated for the plague ravaging humanity. But as Nithya experiences Noor’s memories every night, she uncovers a deeper mystery that makes her question her identity and the cost of scientific research.
One of the strongest parts of the writing and the storytelling are the medical and research portions of the story. Arula Ratnakar is a scientist specialising in neuroscience, and it really shows. Not that I could tell you if she made any glaring errors, of course, but I felt secure in the hands of a writer who seemed to know what she was talking about and wondered how she had done her research to get it feeling so right in the text.
The patchy writing is the weakest part of the story. There are some places where the writing is terribly bland, where arguments are spelled out rather than explored, and some where the word choice threw me out of the story completely. At times I felt like I was reading a second or third draft of the story rather than a final, edited version.
It clocks in at 20800 words, and I think it could have used an extra 5000 or so to do some character development work towards the beginning and the end of the story. We are expected to see Nithya become Noor as she experiences Noor’s memories until, by the end of the novella, Nithya becomes someone else, some combination of Noor’s and Nithya’s lived experience. This is a really interesting premise, but since Nithya’s character pre-Noor is very poorly established we don’t really get to see any change. It reduces one of the books main arguments to something merely intellectual without any of the emotional punch I expect from fiction. The ending felt really rushed, too. Everything sort of came together too quickly and too neatly in the last few paragraphs. Almost the only thing missing was a little bow on top! I would have liked at least a section or two
Parts of the story reminded me of Asimov (and I do not mean that in a bad way). The jumps between Noor’s and Nithya’s sections are handled well enough. And this is a complicated story with a structure that was probably quite difficult to wrangle. I know, patchy writing and all, that I am going think of this story for a long time to come. The pervasive sense of horror and hopelessness of the world and the truth about the sponges…all of that is going to stay with me. You know what, I am looking forward to reading more of Ratnakar’s work, and that deserves 3.5 stars at least.
Merged review:
Published in Clarkesworld Magazine (issue 174).
Submergence is a cli-fi novella that asks questions about the relationship of identity, selfhood and memory; about sentience and intelligence; and the ethics of scientific research and the cost of ‘progress’. I am not sure how to rate this novella. The plot is a good 5 stars but the writing swings wildly between 2 stars and 5.
The novella is set in future where humanity has destroyed its environment and humanity is racked with ‘monstrous incurable plagues’ (which are monstrous indeed). There is a new technology that allows people to experience memories of the dead, and our protagonist, Nithya, has been selected to receive the memories of a scientist, Noor, who died under unusual circumstances. Before her death, Noor was studying a newly discovered deep sea sponge that has proven to have amazing medical properties and is currently the only treated for the plague ravaging humanity. But as Nithya experiences Noor’s memories every night, she uncovers a deeper mystery that makes her question her identity and the cost of scientific research.
One of the strongest parts of the writing and the storytelling are the medical and research portions of the story. Arula Ratnakar is a scientist specialising in neuroscience, and it really shows. Not that I could tell you if she made any glaring errors, of course, but I felt secure in the hands of a writer who seemed to know what she was talking about and wondered how she had done her research to get it feeling so right in the text.
The patchy writing is the weakest part of the story. There are some places where the writing is terribly bland, where arguments are spelled out rather than explored, and some where the word choice threw me out of the story completely. At times I felt like I was reading a second or third draft of the story rather than a final, edited version.
It clocks in at 20800 words, and I think it could have used an extra 5000 or so to do some character development work towards the beginning and the end of the story. We are expected to see Nithya become Noor as she experiences Noor’s memories until, by the end of the novella, Nithya becomes someone else, some combination of Noor’s and Nithya’s lived experience. This is a really interesting premise, but since Nithya’s character pre-Noor is very poorly established we don’t really get to see any change. It reduces one of the books main arguments to something merely intellectual without any of the emotional punch I expect from fiction. The ending felt really rushed, too. Everything sort of came together too quickly and too neatly in the last few paragraphs. Almost the only thing missing was a little bow on top! I would have liked at least a section or two
Parts of the story reminded me of Asimov (and I do not mean that in a bad way). The jumps between Noor’s and Nithya’s sections are handled well enough. And this is a complicated story with a structure that was probably quite difficult to wrangle. I know, patchy writing and all, that I am going think of this story for a long time to come. The pervasive sense of horror and hopelessness of the world and the truth about the sponges…all of that is going to stay with me. You know what, I am looking forward to reading more of Ratnakar’s work, and that deserves 3.5 stars at least.
Submergence is a cli-fi novella that asks questions about the relationship of identity, selfhood and memory; about sentience and intelligence; and the ethics of scientific research and the cost of ‘progress’. I am not sure how to rate this novella. The plot is a good 5 stars but the writing swings wildly between 2 stars and 5.
The novella is set in future where humanity has destroyed its environment and humanity is racked with ‘monstrous incurable plagues’ (which are monstrous indeed). There is a new technology that allows people to experience memories of the dead, and our protagonist, Nithya, has been selected to receive the memories of a scientist, Noor, who died under unusual circumstances. Before her death, Noor was studying a newly discovered deep sea sponge that has proven to have amazing medical properties and is currently the only treated for the plague ravaging humanity. But as Nithya experiences Noor’s memories every night, she uncovers a deeper mystery that makes her question her identity and the cost of scientific research.
One of the strongest parts of the writing and the storytelling are the medical and research portions of the story. Arula Ratnakar is a scientist specialising in neuroscience, and it really shows. Not that I could tell you if she made any glaring errors, of course, but I felt secure in the hands of a writer who seemed to know what she was talking about and wondered how she had done her research to get it feeling so right in the text.
The patchy writing is the weakest part of the story. There are some places where the writing is terribly bland, where arguments are spelled out rather than explored, and some where the word choice threw me out of the story completely. At times I felt like I was reading a second or third draft of the story rather than a final, edited version.
It clocks in at 20800 words, and I think it could have used an extra 5000 or so to do some character development work towards the beginning and the end of the story. We are expected to see Nithya become Noor as she experiences Noor’s memories until, by the end of the novella, Nithya becomes someone else, some combination of Noor’s and Nithya’s lived experience. This is a really interesting premise, but since Nithya’s character pre-Noor is very poorly established we don’t really get to see any change. It reduces one of the books main arguments to something merely intellectual without any of the emotional punch I expect from fiction. The ending felt really rushed, too. Everything sort of came together too quickly and too neatly in the last few paragraphs. Almost the only thing missing was a little bow on top! I would have liked at least a section or two
Parts of the story reminded me of Asimov (and I do not mean that in a bad way). The jumps between Noor’s and Nithya’s sections are handled well enough. And this is a complicated story with a structure that was probably quite difficult to wrangle. I know, patchy writing and all, that I am going think of this story for a long time to come. The pervasive sense of horror and hopelessness of the world and the truth about the sponges…all of that is going to stay with me. You know what, I am looking forward to reading more of Ratnakar’s work, and that deserves 3.5 stars at least.
Merged review:
Published in Clarkesworld Magazine (issue 174).
Submergence is a cli-fi novella that asks questions about the relationship of identity, selfhood and memory; about sentience and intelligence; and the ethics of scientific research and the cost of ‘progress’. I am not sure how to rate this novella. The plot is a good 5 stars but the writing swings wildly between 2 stars and 5.
The novella is set in future where humanity has destroyed its environment and humanity is racked with ‘monstrous incurable plagues’ (which are monstrous indeed). There is a new technology that allows people to experience memories of the dead, and our protagonist, Nithya, has been selected to receive the memories of a scientist, Noor, who died under unusual circumstances. Before her death, Noor was studying a newly discovered deep sea sponge that has proven to have amazing medical properties and is currently the only treated for the plague ravaging humanity. But as Nithya experiences Noor’s memories every night, she uncovers a deeper mystery that makes her question her identity and the cost of scientific research.
One of the strongest parts of the writing and the storytelling are the medical and research portions of the story. Arula Ratnakar is a scientist specialising in neuroscience, and it really shows. Not that I could tell you if she made any glaring errors, of course, but I felt secure in the hands of a writer who seemed to know what she was talking about and wondered how she had done her research to get it feeling so right in the text.
The patchy writing is the weakest part of the story. There are some places where the writing is terribly bland, where arguments are spelled out rather than explored, and some where the word choice threw me out of the story completely. At times I felt like I was reading a second or third draft of the story rather than a final, edited version.
It clocks in at 20800 words, and I think it could have used an extra 5000 or so to do some character development work towards the beginning and the end of the story. We are expected to see Nithya become Noor as she experiences Noor’s memories until, by the end of the novella, Nithya becomes someone else, some combination of Noor’s and Nithya’s lived experience. This is a really interesting premise, but since Nithya’s character pre-Noor is very poorly established we don’t really get to see any change. It reduces one of the books main arguments to something merely intellectual without any of the emotional punch I expect from fiction. The ending felt really rushed, too. Everything sort of came together too quickly and too neatly in the last few paragraphs. Almost the only thing missing was a little bow on top! I would have liked at least a section or two
Parts of the story reminded me of Asimov (and I do not mean that in a bad way). The jumps between Noor’s and Nithya’s sections are handled well enough. And this is a complicated story with a structure that was probably quite difficult to wrangle. I know, patchy writing and all, that I am going think of this story for a long time to come. The pervasive sense of horror and hopelessness of the world and the truth about the sponges…all of that is going to stay with me. You know what, I am looking forward to reading more of Ratnakar’s work, and that deserves 3.5 stars at least.
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