A review by gengelcox
Breakaway, Backdown by James Patrick Kelly

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

This is exactly my kind of story; that is, I’m the perfect audience for this story of what it might be like to actually create colonies in space. I just finished writing a story of my own assuming all kinds of necessary body modifications, and damn if Kelly doesn’t hit me right where I’m writing, because he’s thought about this kind of thing even more than I have. The story hinges on the fact that space shortens lifespans so if you want to commit, you have to really want it, but even more, it recognizes that life without gravity and, more especially, a level of radiation protection, changes people. What Kelly has here is a proto-Shaper story, and one that hits both the brain and the heart. Recommended.