Carly’s Comments (group member since Sep 01, 2016)

Carly’s comments from the The Long Way... To a Common Orbit flash group group.

Beth, your comments here and in the earlier thread nailed one of my dissatisfactions with the story. (view spoiler)[I absolutely feel like we're supposed to dislike Corbin, and he very much struck me as being on the spectrum. IMO, they're actually all straight-out unkind to him--isolating him, stopping all conversations when he's around, etc. Sure, he's not tactful and he parrots racism towards someone who is pretty hateful towards him, but the crew doesn't ever give him the benefit of the doubt the way it does with others. Much of the story's morality centers around tolerance, but the narrative's attitude towards Corbin felt like a contradiction of all of it. It felt wrong to me too, and yet the narrative presents it as utterly acceptable. (hide spoiler)]

I read it a bit ago, and I think it's definitely one of the lighter and most heartwarming sfs I've read in a while. I've been heartily recommending it to friends and family who prefer their spec fic on the fluffy side. At the same time, I ended up with some strong reactions to spoilery plot points. I plan on lurking around to see what you all think of those aspects. :)