The Cold Solution: ...and more

by Don Sakers

The solution to "The Cold Equations."

This short story, first published in Analog, won a reader's award for the best short story of 1991. In Tom Godwin's classic "The Cold Equations," the inflexible laws of nature meant death for a stowaway aboard a rescue ship. Sakers, writing in a different era, provides a solution to Godwin's dilemma.

Includes an afterword by the author.

Genres: Science Fiction

203 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 1991

About the author

Don Sakers was launched the same month as Sputnik One, so it was perhaps inevitable that he should become a science fiction writer. A Navy brat by birth, he spent his childhood in such far-off lands as Japan, Scotland, Hawaii, and California. In California, rather like a latter-day Mowgli, he was raised by dogs.

As a writer and editor, he has explored the thoughts of sapient trees (The Leaves of October), brought ghosts to life (Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three, Baen 1989), and beaten the "Cold Equations" scenario ("The Cold Solution," Analog 7/91, voted best short story of the year.)

Sakers is a member of the CoastLine SF Writers Group. He has taught sf-writing through Howard Community College.

In 2009, Don took up the position of book reviewer for Analog Science Ficiton & Fact, where he writes the "Reference Library" column in every issue.

In his day job, Don works for the Public Library.

Don lives at Meerkat Meade in suburban Baltimore with his spouse, costumer Thomas Atkinson.

Reviews

[Jill Mcknight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting twist on Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations". Nice to get a non-fatal ending, but it also changes the message a bit. In both stories, however, the emphasis is on the message that all actions have consequences. Sometimes, the consequences aren't as bad as they seem...

[Teresa Dowd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A harsh solution to an ethics puzzle. While it is an adequate solution to THIS version of the decades-old dilemma, change a thing or two and this solution will not work. The ways things can go wrong when far from rescue are infinite. It misses part of why the original was gripping: not that it was a mechanistic universe, but sht happens and people die and everyone has to face that regardless of seeing things mechanically or through the Force. Sometimes there is no solution. There is no magic fuzzy rescue for all life's problems. Sometimes you cannot cheat the Kobiashi Maru. At some point most people will have to look dearth and they are not the center of the universe.

The original is much about meaning in living, dying, and acceptance. The prayer for serenity applies so much whether a believer or not, the hope and grief still applies. 'God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.' The original pilot accepted, but is no more wrong than this pilot's courage. We can't tell if the readers gain any wisdom when there is an out

The set up is a morality and ethics test. The details don't really matter to set up the no win scenario, as it is the drama and morality that is the point. Could you live with saving the many over the one?

[John Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically, I agree with the author's afterword: there are times when you have to face a no-win scenario (similar to the Kobayashi Maru test in "Star Trek"), but there are also times when you can find an alternative. Those are both valid stories, and this is a worthy companion to "The Cold Equations".

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just read this in the July 91 issue of Analog. Easily worth the buck for the Kindle version--if you want it after reading the blurb.

[Paul Bard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feminist rewrite of Godwin’s story. I’d be interested in a response story.

[Thomas Wade Jr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.. it's certainly a "solution" but only if the problem presents perfectly. It lacks what the Cold Equation offers.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A response to Godwin's iconic story. However, even though it utilizes logic to refute Godwin's conclusions Saker's “The Cold Solution” is in comparison the weaker story, the language much less compelling, the entire focus on disproving Godwin's construction of a fatally inescapable situation, which creates most of the narrative tension and is responsible for a good part of his story's effect. Well, it does that and becomes in turn a narrated review rather than an autonomous narrative. Entertaining and as an adjunct to “The Cold Equations” interesting enough.