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A review by theonionboy
The Yanthus Prime Job: A Pepper Melange Novella by Robert Kroese
3.0
Like many of this author's books, the silly character names are a distraction from a well-written story. Also, like many of his books, it sits on the fence between science fiction and comedy, never quite becoming either one.
*** SPOILER ALERT *** The next part reveals things that are better to discover yourself when you read this.
This introduced the intriguing concept of sentience being a scale of degrees instead of a binary 'yes' or 'no'. Also, the concept of a group sentience. The idea worked until the flies spell out words in English, then he completely broke my suspension of disbelief. It would have worked better if they would have developed some non-English way of communicating, but that would take more time than you could fit into a short story.
*** END SPOILER ALERT ***
Starship Grifters was an outstanding fun read. So it makes the reader want more. But this prequel short story just doesn't quite satisfy that. There isn't room for a follow up story to Starship Grifters because of the ending. As good as it is, the best thing to do may just be to leave it as it is.
*** SPOILER ALERT *** The next part reveals things that are better to discover yourself when you read this.
This introduced the intriguing concept of sentience being a scale of degrees instead of a binary 'yes' or 'no'. Also, the concept of a group sentience. The idea worked until the flies spell out words in English, then he completely broke my suspension of disbelief. It would have worked better if they would have developed some non-English way of communicating, but that would take more time than you could fit into a short story.
*** END SPOILER ALERT ***
Starship Grifters was an outstanding fun read. So it makes the reader want more. But this prequel short story just doesn't quite satisfy that. There isn't room for a follow up story to Starship Grifters because of the ending. As good as it is, the best thing to do may just be to leave it as it is.