Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This is our discussion of the novelette:


"Safety Tests" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This story is part of the Edge of Infinity anthology discussion.

★★★

Synopsis:  A day in the dangerous life of Devlin, who is a test instructor for spacepilots on an Earth's orbit space station. Some tests go fine, some fail seriously.

Review:  The protagonist's snarky remarks brought me over the first part which introduced the setting. Then a grand, adrenalinic finale hit in. She makes a readable scenario out of a bored bureaucrat's everyday situation. Those rules have their value. Short and easy.

I thought this was a lot of fun -- the DMV of the future, with each client presenting a small mystery and a potential death threat.

I've been wanting to read some of Rusch's longer work, but the price tag on the print book has left me leery ...

"Safety Tests" is an enjoyable enough story, not breaking any new ground but being interesting enough. Not-too-distant future, cis-lunar space, translates the modern techniques for getting a pilot's or driver's license to space with a future DMV flight test official. Amusing enough first-person narration, more situational than plot driven story.

3 stars ***

Hillary wrote: "I've been wanting to read some of Rusch's longer work, but the price tag on the print book has left me leery..."

I've very much enjoyed Rusch's "Diving" universe stories (starts with Diving into the Wreck). Far future, humanity expanded across the galaxy, and then civilization retracted, leaving wrecks of previous, more technologically advanced space civilization drifting around. Rusch models exploring those ancient relics on exploring sunken galleons with scuba gear, deliberately paced and mysterious.

I noticed those books are "traditionally published" as Rusch phrases it, available only as "trade paperback" or eBook, in both kind of pricey for the book it's been out for a while. Never had a "mass market paperback" release. (I noticed my trade paperbacks were bought at a local used book shop for a couple of bucks each.) Rusch, who edited Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine through the 90's, has been using her own publishing the last couple of years, though.

Her "Retrieval Artist" series is her more popular and lonerg-running series, a different universe, sort of like a private eye series, but in space with multiple alien races. I'm not current with that, but I've enjoyed the ones I've read.