Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Beyond the Tattered Veil of Stars, by Mercurio D. Rivera

[Asimov's]
★★★★☆ Full of Tension and Surprises

(Virtual Reality Thriller) Cory’s ex-girlfriend invites him to write a story about her virtual-reality machine that she uses to find solutions to real-world problems. (8,253 words; Time: 27m)

Recommended By: πŸ‘STomaino+1 (Q&A)


"Beyond the Tattered Veil of Stars," by (edited by Sheila Williams), appeared in issue 03-04|20, published on by .

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Review: 2020.116 (A Word for Authors)

Pro: I really like the way all the different pieces in the story work together in the end. Cory’s a nice guy in a bad situation. We don’t blame him, much, for trying to get a usable story out before he loses his job, and Milagros just seems to get crazier and crazier as the story progresses.

The real heroes, though, are the Sallies, who rise to the occasion against every challenge and eventually manage to give Milagros her comeuppance.

I particularly liked the twist that because our universe is a simulation too, it’s possible to move someone from our world into theirs.

“Milagros Maldonado” could be loosely translated as “miracles that are no gift.”

Con: A reality simulator like the one in the story would need to be simulating the whole world at the molecular level to get the sort of results in the story. That would make it bigger than the Earth and much slower.

The Kindle version of this story contains several gross editing errors. E.g. entire paragraphs duplicated.

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Mercurio D. Rivera Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline

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