Tuesday, November 1, 2011

How Maartje and Uppinder Terraformed Mars (Marsmen Trad.)

Short Story by Lisa Nohealani Morton
Text and Audio from Lightspeed

In a rare turn of events, I thought the audio hurt the story, rather than helping it. Not that I liked it much either way, but the reading emphasized the kiddie tone that bothered me in the story.

This is a folktale/creation myth for the terraforming of Mars, told by a little girl in the moon (Phobos) and hideously simplistically unlikely the way folk creation myths tend to be. Which I wouldn't mind so much, but for the central conceit that the folksy stuff involves rocket ships and nanotech. It's more incongruous than I can deal with, and not really in a good way.

The repetition of lines is just how you'd expect in a simple myth told to children, but we are not children reading this, and it sort of grates. It isn't a neat enough idea for me to get past that.

Cutesy without being interesting.

2 Marsmen out of 5 know better.

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