Aptitude

by Cooper Shrivastava

Alena has momentarily escaped her world and its imminent gravitational collapse by cheating her way into the selection process of the Board of Cosmogamy. By passing this stringent exam, she may finally learn the secrets of building a universe from first principles. But the competition is smarter and better prepared, and even Alena’s cunning and mathematical talents may not be enough to uncover the answers she has been looking for. The appearance of a strange competitor reveals that Alena may not be the only candidate with hidden motives.

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

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

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 4, 2021

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

She spun the radius she had created through all the positions and let n spin out into infinity. They were in a simulation beyond reconciling time and space, so the set immediately sat in her palm, and when she licked a fingertip and pressed it to (0,0) she could lift it off the disk like a wheel with infinite spokes.

Perfect.

Together the set of all spokes of the wheel and the set of all points in the circle that were not spokes made up the entire unit disk. Alena rotated the spokes clockwise, so that a new spoke appeared. She had cut the disk into two pieces, moved one of them, and now had the original set plus an extra spoke, all within the simple mathematical rules that the candidate had agreed to.

She redrew the triangles so that the ratio of their sides was equivalent to the ratio of their sum over the longest side, which made them glow golden. She overlaid these on the rhombuses, which she sorted into thick and thin shapes. The golden half of each thin rhombus could be laid next to the golden half of each thick rhombus so that their sides were aligned left to right. The shapes reformed themselves along this matching rule, which allowed unbounded expansion.

1:00–2:00: Lunch

this story made me feel dumb, but i'm used to that. i liked that parts that weren't casting their math/physics/cosmology/cosmogony before the swine of me. however, in general, i think sabotage is rude and should not be rewarded. be better at proctoring, proctors!



read it for yourself here:

https://www.tor.com/2021/08/04/aptitu...

come to my blog!

[Alina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aptitude by Cooper Shrivastava - 3+/5★

A young woman (from Earth or at least our universe) manages to get summoned to an aptitude test that decides who gets to become a god/designer of universes. But all she actually wants is to find out who designed her universe, that now is dying, and especially why it is failing.
I enjoyed the story, though I had to ignore quite a lot of advanced math.

The short story is found in Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2021 Edition and can also be read on Tor.com.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever story about an aptitude test for cosmogeny that has unexpected results. Nicely done. 4 stars, recommended reading. Story link: https://www.tor.com/2021/08/04/aptitu...

"One may ascend to godhood in the same way one attains any other competitive position: a series of rigorous standardized exams."

[Netanella · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful story of gods and cosmogony! A garbage recycler fakes her way into universe-creation contest to snatch a spot to interview with the big Builders. Alana wants to ask some hard questions, because she's mad - why did her world have to be destroyed? In the simulation of the contest, she compromises other contestants' projects to get ahead.

But as Alana works her devilish magic to advance her spot, she steps into the world of her main competitor, the Beautiful Gardener. Here, the proto-universe is organic and spins with possibilities of fig trees, grass, soil, and sky. And Alana has the means to destroy it . . . . If she wants to.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

One person discovers herself at an aptitude test for designers of universes. But she is more interested in discovering who created her own universe, which is now close to death. But after creating her own universe, and cheating to disrupt the universes created by other candidates, she finds her self drawn to one other particular universe, whose creator shows her that there is more to be seen in universes besides creation and destruction.

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very weird short story written for a very niche audience - i.e. someone who has an advanced degree in mathematics but also spent some time on getting a degree in either philosophy or theology.

I didn't agree with the main character's actions - but the descriptions were as fascinating as they were baffling.

[Ken Karimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One may ascend to godhood in the same way one attains any other competitive position: a series of rigorous standardized exams."

Not that I'm entirely proud of it, but following Alena the Saboteur in this mind-bending tale awkwardly feels like the most pleasurable act of self-care I've undertaken in at least two weeks.

[Hillary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really cool! The language was absolutely beautiful. I liked the main character and how she moved through the universe- building test. I'm not entirely sure she got her answers in the end, though.

[Hanneleele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it a lot! Not entirely sure what happened there at the end but it certainly felt right (even if the questions that were left unanswered do bug me a bit)...

[Hirondelle (not getting notifications) · Rating 2 out of 5]

From tor.com. Still doing the short story a day thing, mixing up themes and lengths and all.

New to me author, very ambitious story, using a lot of cosmology and mathematical physics jargon, and then putting in a very human, very petty exam story. Our main character Alena comes from a very badly failing soon universe, very sad story (also quite unbelievable, that universe failure happens this fastl this concentrated, and how aware she is of concepts like cicadas and diversity hire) which is meant to justify, I guess, her cheating and resentment. But the characters never felt particularly real, particularly the other important candidate. The grand jargon feels just like jargon and the ending and symbology felt a bit, uh, cheesy, IMO. So, TLDR, I did not like it, though I admire the ambition to pick a setting like that. (My taste is weird and I am picky and I get particularly picky when reading very diverse stories in a row...)

[Zozo · Rating 3 out of 5]

One must wonder if I enjoy things that make me feel stupid.
A complex mix of subjects I know little about like math and physics. I will say that the characters didn't feel grounded enough but the worldbuilding takes a chunk of the praise.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely little read about cosmogeny. Reminds me a bit of The Wizard's Dilemma by Diane Duane.

[Ab · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on creation myth but the intended audience is obviously someone who remembers more about math than I do.

[Chelsea Moreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t understand science at all but that was dope

[Vendea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooh, I liked this. Universe building. I feel like you either need to know some math or be able to ignore how very math dependent the story is though.

[Pers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely excellent! Really enjoyed this tale, though I didn't understand any of the mathematical references!

[Fatima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh this was beautiful. Even though I know NOTHING about math like this, it made me want to dedicate the next few years to learning JUST so I could enjoy this even more.