The simplest equation

by Nicky Drayden

A struggling college student gains new perspective on her studies from her classmate, who's come to study from another planet.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fantasy, Romance, Aliens

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2014

About the author

Nicky Drayden is a Systems Analyst who dabbles in prose when she’s not buried in code. She resides in Austin, Texas where being weird is highly encouraged, if not required.

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Reviews

[Jassmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Nicky Drayden and I quite liked it for the super sweet sapphic love-story that it was. I... don't really have much else to say? It's story about love, but it's also story about math. Therefore, not quite for me. Although I did enjoy it and am definitely looking forward to reading Escaping Exodus even more now!
3,5⭐ rounded up.

[Felecia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Via Levar Burton Reads. Touching story about the relationship between two college students, a human, Mariah, and an alien, Kwalla that starts with working on math together. It says so much about the connection we have with others, acceptance, and our role in the universe.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful story about math.
I listened to this as part of Levar Burton's podcast and honestly I need to review more of what I listen to him read.
This was beautifully done.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sweet, with a heartfelt afterward from LeVar.

I love that he’s so considerate. He’s worried that he would not be able to pull off a love story between two women and he wanted to do the story justice as he views reading the story as love letter of sorts to his daughter.

This story can also be found in GlitterShip: Spring 2017

[Brittany Minnesma · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous short story. Weaves in so many relevant cultural themes - forbidden love, interacting with the “other” in our lives and learning we’re not so different. It made me wonder in new ways - loved the idea of math as a first language and the idea of how story is important to any language.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was beautiful. It made me cry.

[Beige · Rating 3 out of 5]

math+romance. A sweet very short story performed by LeVar Burton.

https://www.stitcher.com/show/levar-b...

[Dave]

Quite an interesting SciFi/love story!

[Jacque Hodges (Carter) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of a book challenge I'm doing this year called Run along the Shelves. One of the challenges is to read 28 short stories in February. I'm starting early because it is convenient. Interesting love story revolving around a human female who claims to hate math and her female classmate from another planet where math is their first language. Nice, happy, story. I didn't fully understand about fractals telling stories but that's ok. I got the gist of it and would like to read more by this author.

[Sam Lange · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an accounting student, I felt Mariah's plight with mathematics probably more deeply than most. It was thrilling to listen (since I came across this story via LeVar Burton's podcast) as the protagonist fell back in love with mathematics, as her alien classmate exposed her to the stories that the individual equations conveyed. The descriptions were spellbinding, and I will definitely be picking up more books by this author!

[David Blaylock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read to me by LeVar Burton.

[Annabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful math story!

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to on LeVar Burton Reads podcast. Sweet sapphic scifi love story. Math as a love language.

[Ashley (Tiny Navajo Reads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful short story of love and math as a language to express that love. I listened to it on LeVar Burton Reads, you should definitely give it a listen.

[Dan Mackison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing sci-fi love story with quite a lot packed into a few words.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute math love story

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

LeVar Burton read this to me. I can’t really say anything about this without including spoilers but it was intriguing and beautiful.

[Kelsey Linnea · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my son’s favorite short stories.

[Marva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not just a very good short story, but LeVar Burton's reason for connecting with the story made me tear up.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read by LaVar Burton

[Schrödinger's nap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read by Levar Burton from the podcast Levar Burton Reads.

[Eva Therese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to as part of the LeVar Burton Reads podcast series.

The middle part with the descriptions of math as a way of telling stories and expressing emotions is pretty damn brilliant.
But the end and the beginning seems tacked on like an afterthought and honestly it reminded me of the kind of high school AU fanfics which just sucks the magic out of any kind of stories, by placing the characters in a deeply mundane setting as if the original world building didn't matter at all.
In this case, the story is supposed to take place in the twenty-second century in a setting with interstellar travel and aliens and yet we have a main character who is struggling through her math classes because she can't afford to change her major. Or actually it's her parents who can't afford it. This just made me roll my eyes so hard and think "Americans!" Look, I'm not saying that this needed to be a Star Trek utopia where everything is free, but just acknowledge that most countries that can afford it gives free college education and that the American model is broken and that there's no reason in Hell that it would still be used two hundred years into the future. And it's not even like all the talk about money adds anything to the story. There could have been a number of reasons why the main character won't quit a major she hates and almost every single one of those reasons could have been made more interesting than "I don't want to tell my parents I wasted their hard earned money". Okay rant over.

All in all an interesting concept that could have used some better world-building to support it.

[Amy Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting tale of two math majors, one human and one not, coming together through a shared interest in math. The alien has an instrument that plays music and fractals based on equations, and the alien culture associates emotions with various equations, so that they effectively become stories. I can't quite buy into that as SF, but it's a fascinating idea, and well-executed.