Benjamin 2073

by Rjurik Davidson

A Tor.com Original, Benjamin 2073 is a near future sci-fi story from award-winning author Rjurik Davidson

In the year 2073, humanity is making progress toward restoring the environment and fixing the mistakes of the past.

Ellie has spent the last ten years going even further by working to resurrect the thylacine, extinct since 1936. But with no results and increasingly impatient bureaucrats threatening to pull their funding, the thylacine’s future—and Ellie’s—is in danger of reaching the point of no return.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, LGBT

23 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 13, 2020

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What’s next?” he said. “Marsupial lions? Giant wombats? Species snuffed out forty thousand years ago? When do we accept that extinction is extinction?” He waved his arms and his suit tightened around his armpits. Bureaucrats are all fashionistas, and style is so sharp and minimalist nowadays. Edges so hard they can cut you.

“The Russians are working on mammoths.” Somewhere in the background a lonely foghorn sounded.

Grimley pressed his clenched fists to his eyes in frustration. “They’re Russians. They’ve always been wild and utopian and impossible. And you, Ellie: You have some strange nostalgia for the past. It’s reactionary as fuck. We live forward, not backward. You’re needed elsewhere. Be reasonable.”

all of this because ellie and her team (now reduced to just herself and the loyal thien), have been unable lo these ten years to successfully bring back the thylacine. which, if you do not know, was this thing nature made one time when it was drunk using leftover parts of tigers and wolves, gilding the lily with a pouch and an alligator mouth before tossing it in australia with all the other bizarre beasts



and then it went extinct. for real. and in this story, set in 2073, in hobart, tasmania, where the very last thylacine died in captivity in 1936, someone is finally working on getting it back into circulation. it's like Jurassic Park without all the peril: the thylacine'll eat up your wallabies, but it won't stomp your jeeps into dust. the challenges here are more bureaucratic and practical, and it's about the frustrations of repeating the cycle of trying and failing to do one good thing within the brief span of a human life, being stripped of nearly everything but this one single-minded pursuit and stubbornly persisting until you achieve...conditional success.

still, if it gets us more of these little buddies



i'm into it.



raaaaaaar!!!



read it for yourself here:

https://www.tor.com/2020/05/13/benjam...

come to my blog!

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the Rehab Department Office, I forced myself...to look at Grimley. You’d have thought with a name like that, he’d have stayed out of bureaucracy, but maybe the name had imprinted some deep unconscious drive within him. Bureaucrats. Once we called them politicians, but now politics has dissolved into everyone. Without corporations, we aren’t obsessed with growth rates and profit any longer. We all make the policies—“economic democracy,” it was called in the beginning. Now it’s just called “the policies,” usually accompanied by a yawn. We elect those people boring enough to do the admin for our views. They were deliberately and ironically called “bureaucrats,” to remind them of just what they were. It didn’t seem to make much difference. They still fucked up the work of anyone like me trying to actually fulfil a vision.

What should we do with people who don't fit? The ones who don't, can't, certainly won't, see the world in the hues most find so comforting? It's like the entire species has red/green/blue light sensors and the misfits have sixteen different ones like mantis shrimp. Ellie, the first-person narrator of this genius-gone-wild tale, sees thylacines in the wilds of Tasmania where most people see the beauties of renewed nature. (It's fiction, so in 2073, Humanity has killed corporations, smashed political systems that reward planetary-scale rapine, and begun to live in a low-impact way. I'll be dead, thank goodness, so I won't be there among the neoVictorian hellscape of Manchester II and New Pittsburgh as the .01% suck on fresh oxygen tanks as decent, worthwhile people die at 35.)

In this lovely fever dream, Ellie's been given resources to work on reintroducing the thylacine, extinct since 1936, into Tasmania's wilds. She's limited her world to the achievement of this goal. The miserable childhood stuck in an exoskeleton because her mother's adventure-seeking selfishness exposed her to a teratogenic substance. The loss of her innocence when a kindly motivated friend said of the boy who wouldn't be her boyfriend, "Look at him. Now look at you." The death of the grandmother whose life was over long before she died: “It’s just past my time. I’m all out of place.” All these pressure her to achieve...something...something far grander than a mere life restoring the raped Earth's clothes to some kind of order: Revive something our careless, heedless, really quite stupid actions fumblingly killed.

But the course of obsession is never easy. Her political boss, Bureaucrat Grimley, cuts her funding because who actually cares about this animal dead for 137 years? There are ripped seams to mend, scratched limbs to bathe and heal, all over Tasmania. Thien (at times the copyeditor went to sleep and let "Tien" appear, which irked me) is her henchrat, the gayboy who loves the crippled girl for her mind (there's a trope we could let die without losing much), finally tells Ellie some home truths: Get out. Go live your life. We're not going to succeed. Some battles can't be won.

Tell that to the spearing, smashing mantis shrimp, Thien. Ellie is a misfit and, beautifully, that means she gives not a single fuck what stands in her way. She will beat it or slice it, but she *will* move beyond that obstacle, the next, and the one after that.

The world, it turns out, needs that person as much in 2073 as in 1609 or 1905. This is a sentimental, sometimes inelegant, but readable and even occasionally persuasive story of what the world needs from its junk-drawer people, the ones whose shapes, sizes, or dubious utility don't earn them a proud, sculpturally fitted slot in the easy-to-reach places.

[Meredith Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I'm basically required to give this 5 stars because I straight up sobbed at the end. This is a story about climate change and humanity and struggling into the future while trying to not let go of the things in the past that shouldn't have happened. It's about scientists in 2073 trying to recreate an extinct animal and struggling against bureaucracy and it was an incredibly painful read because I could not imagine a hopeful end. Not right now, reading it in the present day, absolutely exhausted. That shot of hope at the end made me burst into tears, like I wasn't ready to believe it but it handed it to me anyway. So well composed.

[Judy & Marianne from Long and Short Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

When at first you don’t succeed, clone, clone again.

The character development for both of the main characters was handled nicely. My first impression of Ellie was of someone who was intelligent but at times also too stubborn for her own good. Finding out the reasons why she behaved this way only made me like her even more than I already did. She felt like a real person to me. This pattern was repeated with Thien, the other researcher at her lab. He had a well-developed sense of empathy and could be pedantic about the way things were done, but once again his biggest flaw was something that made perfect sense once I got to know him better.

I would have liked to see more foreshadowing included for the twist ending. It seemed to spring up out of nowhere, and that felt out of place when compared to all of the foreshadowing that was included for the other elements of the plot. I would have gone up another full star in my rating if this has happened as the last scene was satisfactory once I adjusted to the fact that there were virtually no hints about what was to come there.

By far my favorite scenes were the ones that talked about how Ellie and Thien were creating new thylacines. The science behind it was fascinating, especially given how many times they’d already tried to bring this species back from extinction without success. They were in danger of having their whole project shut down for good due to a lack of funding when this tale began, so there was a real sense of urgency with every new method they tried. I was mesmerized by their race against time and couldn’t wait to find out if they’d be successful.

Anyone who loves reading about cloning or hopeful visions of what humanity’s future might be like should give Benjamin 2073 a try.

[Jack Lyell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like a good short story is allowed to be delightfully lopsided. Maybe the plot is breakneck, but there's not quite time for character. Or the theme is something you carry with you for years, even if the details fade into obscurity. Sometimes the characters are painfully and gorgeously drawn and there's not enough room for anything else to matter. However Benjamin 2073 has a slightly interesting idea, flattish characters, and a setting that could've used more explanation. There's also a twist at the end that I felt just begged for better execution. Given the themes, I feel like there has to be some way this could've been edged into something far more compelling and cohesive, it's just... not entirely there, which isn't a particularly satisfying review? If you love thylacines and are interested in big questions around conservation, I'd still recommend checking it out, it's a solid take.

[Miriam Cihodariu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love sci-fi with a touch of hard science, especially biology. It reminds me of why I am so fond of Greg Egan's works. This short story published by Tor was a delightful surprise, being so much like Egan's writing but at the same time different, with its own personality.
The sadness and sense of wistfulness I feel for extinguished species was mirrored in this adventure story and I will definitely want to read more from this Rjurik Davidson. :)

[Netanella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Environmental disaster, extinction cloning, and a disabled scientist who refuses to give up on successfully cloning a thylacine, also known as a Tasmanian tiger, after decades of research. Enjoyable, sad, and uplifting, all at the same time.

The grainy video footage of the last surviving thylacine recorded in the 1930's, which is referenced in the story, is here: https://www.treehugger.com/footage-ex...

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, but not that exciting or interesting. I suppose it’s not the plot that attracted an editor to this one, because as a plot, there’s not much new here: researcher fights against the bureaucracy and people’s apathy to try and bring an extinct species back using DNA and host animals, etc. So what’s different here? The disabled, neurodivergent lead character, her gay research companion, and the backdrop setting of a world changed in response to climate change. All great, but I wish there had been more to the actual story.

[Seth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Several decades into the future, when everyone's super concerned about climate change yet still eating meat, scientists are working diligently to perpetuate Darwinan suffering. Our protagonist can't even do that successfully, so her experiments keep dying early, painful deaths, and yet she goes right on making more and begging for more funding that could have been used for something worthwhile, against the very reasonable advice of practically everyone else. She is, in my estimation, morally bankrupt, and her story is framed like it's supposed to be inspiring. Yikes.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this little short story. It reminded me of some of the conservation efforts in New York 2140.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. I usually don't enjoy an open ending, but I like this one. The twist at the end was something I did not see coming.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really do hope they bring this creature back someday.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK environmental near future story. Not really my cup of tea.

[Alian · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded down from 3 for the cartoonish and half-predictable twist. I did like the single-mindedness of the protagonist, though.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story. I liked the idealism and hope thus vision of the future brings. I liked the idea of bringing back extinct animals and the difficulties that might be faced doing so. I didn't understand the narrator's thought process at all. Like, why would they shoot the thylacine? Aren't there zoos or something that would just hold onto her if the project ended? Maybe it's the result of unexplained world-building. Otherwise I did like it.

[Iseult Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dream is a wish your heart makes

Interesting story about a scientist’s desire to hold onto hope by successfully bringing back the thylacine in near future Tasmania.