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A review by chirson
Asimov's Science Fiction, September/October 2017 by Robert Frazier, Jane Yolen, John Richard Trtek, James E. Gunn, Dennis E. Staples, Suzanne Palmer, Michael Swanwick, Leslie J. Anderson, Sandra McDonald, Harry Turtledove, Carrie Vaughn, Sarah Pinsker, William Preston, Kit Reed, Erwin S. Strauss, Robert Silverberg, Sheila Williams, Tim McDaniel, Robert Borski, Norman Spinrad, R. Garcia y Robertson, James Patrick Kelly, Allen M. Steele, Bethany Powell, Stuart Greenhouse
5.0
(I've read and rated a few novellettes and short stories in the last few days, but this is the first one that moved me to leave a review, in spite of the risk that GoodReads will decided this is not a proper independent text and shouldn't have an entry, and delete.)
I'm not familiar with that many Sarah Pinsker stories, but the few I've read so far have made quite an impression on me. And of all of them, "Wind Will Rove" is the new favourite. This story about a generation ship (and the generation as well as religious/philosophical clash on it) spotlights a few characters: protagonist, a history teacher and amateur musician; her family (including musical grandmother, actress mother and doctor daughter + small grandchildren) and friends (Harriet, standing guard over tradition); as well as her students (rebelling against authority of the past). It's a story about authorship, about the role and function of canon, about the way in which past and future are intertwined. It manages to comment on all those while at the same time conveying real human emotion, and creating a fully believable world with its own history and its own attitudes to history.
It is both a read to make you feel and think. A true achievement (and I don't even feel that strongly about music).
I'm not familiar with that many Sarah Pinsker stories, but the few I've read so far have made quite an impression on me. And of all of them, "Wind Will Rove" is the new favourite. This story about a generation ship (and the generation as well as religious/philosophical clash on it) spotlights a few characters: protagonist, a history teacher and amateur musician; her family (including musical grandmother, actress mother and doctor daughter + small grandchildren) and friends (Harriet, standing guard over tradition); as well as her students (rebelling against authority of the past). It's a story about authorship, about the role and function of canon, about the way in which past and future are intertwined. It manages to comment on all those while at the same time conveying real human emotion, and creating a fully believable world with its own history and its own attitudes to history.
It is both a read to make you feel and think. A true achievement (and I don't even feel that strongly about music).