November 2023 Short Story: "Between the Dark and the Dark" by Deji Bryce Olukotun

[Natalie]

This month's short story can be found here:
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...

[Oleksandr]

I finished the story and I liked the idea even if the execution was sometimes flawed

[Oleksandr]

On the most general level, I think that the idea that there are deviations too harsh to consider the ship teams no longer human and a threat to destroy is a first step on a road to assume that if people aren't blue-eyed blonds, it is a deviation enough to destroy them

[Jim]

Interesting story. Pretty good although the message cancelling thing made no sense to me & that really dampened my enjoyment. (view spoiler)[ How can a cancellation message catch up to & interfere with a message sent days before it? (hide spoiler)] Also, the secret ingredient was lacking. (view spoiler)[Prednisone is a artificial version of cortisol which their tech should have been able to make. (hide spoiler)] Still, the atmosphere & politics were interesting if too abruptly ended.

Well, no short story is perfect & this one had plenty of food for thought. Thanks, Natalie.

[Oleksandr]

Jim wrote: "Well, no short story is perfect & this one had plenty of food for thought. Thanks, Natalie.
."

I agree

[Ed]

I also found the story interesting, even though parts don't really make sense to me. I agree with Jim and Oleksandr's comments.

I can't believe that the Earth people would build the ships with that, let's say "saftey measure". Nor that they would send the signal so quickly on such little evidence. And I don't really understand why the main character was considered such a threat. Her parents might be a threat, but not her.

Still, plenty of food for thought. I like that it ended ambiguously, with us not knowing whether the signal would arrive or be blocked. (Even if the mechanism of blocking the signal makes no sense to me.)

[Natalie]

Interesting story. Some short stories are very subtle, requiring the reader to use scant evidence to make conclusions.
This story, however, is pretty clear, with the characters spelling out what is happening and what they think. I'm not so sure about the reasoning involved in the conclusion but the two perspectives in the story certainly provide good counter points

[Ryan]

I liked this a lot.

Natalie wrote: "This story, however, is pretty clear, with the characters spelling out what is happening and what they think."

I appreciate this. It would've been hard to follow without the characters being quite clear IMO.

Also agree with Jim and Ed that the signal being blocked doesn't make sense but eh, I'm willing to forgive the technoflubs for a solid story.

I guess something may have happened when the Earth was dying where cannibalism became a relevant topic, and that could explain why it's so violently opposed by everyone. That's another thing, though: the outgoing spaceships knew the rules about no cannibalism, and though much time has passed, you would think they would be able to refer to the documentation to realize you shouldn't mess around with that. Them being fully aware of the ban and that a death-signal could be sent would've nipped it in the bud, I would think.