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A review by peterseanesq
Last Train to Jubilee Bay by Kali Wallace
3.0
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This is a very short story - more of a treatment - than a story that feels like a synopsis of a chapter from a longer book. Obviously, like most Tor.com Originals, this story is supposed to provide a taste of a larger work.
The writing is very good. It provides atmosphere and color to the impoverished, restricted cityscape, which is being cannibalized by its human inhabitants in a way similar to the way in which those humans are cannibalizing their own memories in order to buy "serum." What is serum? It was clear. Clearly, it is a kind of narcotic drug, but somehow it transforms the user into something else.
In such a short story, it is hard to answer the questions that I wanted answering, such as, what happened? There was a plague that drove city-dwellers from the city, but what happened then? Who are the frondy-limbed dealers who are talked about but do not make an appearance in the story?
I felt that I liked the story but it didn't hook me.
This is a very short story - more of a treatment - than a story that feels like a synopsis of a chapter from a longer book. Obviously, like most Tor.com Originals, this story is supposed to provide a taste of a larger work.
The writing is very good. It provides atmosphere and color to the impoverished, restricted cityscape, which is being cannibalized by its human inhabitants in a way similar to the way in which those humans are cannibalizing their own memories in order to buy "serum." What is serum? It was clear. Clearly, it is a kind of narcotic drug, but somehow it transforms the user into something else.
In such a short story, it is hard to answer the questions that I wanted answering, such as, what happened? There was a plague that drove city-dwellers from the city, but what happened then? Who are the frondy-limbed dealers who are talked about but do not make an appearance in the story?
I felt that I liked the story but it didn't hook me.