The Long Way... To a Common Orbit flash group discussion

Sidra stood outside the shop for three minutes. She'd seen the place before, when running errands for Pepper around the caves, but had never gone inside. She wasn't sure why she hadn't before. She wasn't sure she wanted to now.

Frendly Tethesh, the blinking blue sign red. Licensed AI Vendor.

All right, book, you got me. Just one of those things when you're reading right along and the tears start dripping. This was the scene where (view spoiler)[Owl visits Jane in a human-ish form in the sim (hide spoiler)]. Trying to figure out why a scene has that effect can siphon its power in hindsight, so I won't try to over-analyze it. The chapter carried forward the thought that Jane, at this stage, is a very lonely young girl who has been without real human company for years.

The "funeral" was quite good, too.

"She would die someday--no getting around that. But nobody would find her bones in the scrapyard. She wasn't going to leave them there."

Sidra's sections here weren't quite as good, for a number of reasons I'll get into once I get to review time. I was pleased to see Sidra and Tak interacting more like real friends (although I'm still not terribly attached to the relationship), and the end of the chapter in the AI shop, where Sidra (view spoiler)[holds another "herself," a Lovelace AI core, in her hand (hide spoiler)], was nicely striking.

I did like Sidra's disorientation in the AI shop. That moment was written quite well, although she certainly reacted in a feeling kind of way.