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A review by lelex
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 111, December 2015 by Tamsyn Muir, Neil Clarke, Neil Clarke, Cixin Liu
5.0
Holy hell boys. This was A Ride.
"She rolls her shoulders and arms her coilguns and starts killing the things come to kill her."
I loved the continual mortality questions and the really really big world shifting questions that this piece posed. And I loved the entire bit about all the Simms and the Laportes and how Humanity Stands. The continual struggle between monstrosity and humanity is just my absolute favorite.
"But she is all those things now. Born from the tragedy of a war as unnecessary as it was inevitable. Shaped by combat and command and (between it all, pulling in the opposite direction) the love of the finest woman she’s ever met."
"Remember that? After the ambush at Saturn? Remember adjusting Simms’ blankets and pressing your cheek to her throat? Hoping she’d live long enough for both of you to die together, as you’d always dreamed?"
"give up your gentle ties. Come with me, towards victory. Become a necessary monster."
"Laporte grins and knocks her helmet twice against her ejection seat, crash crash, polymer applause for the mad gentleman on her trail. She knows who it is. She’s glad he’s come."
"That’s right. Monsters shouldn’t be warm. They shouldn’t have fun. Being a monster should feel like it costs."
" Simms is still exploring Laporte’s new crazy side, separate (in her practical mind) from Laporte’s old crazy side, before their long radiation-cooked severance."
"Laporte opens her arms in a gesture of animal challenge. “Are you worried,” she says, grinning, “that I might be unwell?”
Al-Alimah laughs. She can pretend to be very warm, when she wants, although it’s terrifyingly focused. Like all her charm radiates from a naked wire charged red-hot."
"Love is about knowing the rules of your connection. You know how you could hurt her, if you wanted, and she trusts you with this knowledge. And war is about that too. You learn the enemy’s victory conditions, her capabilities and taboos. You build a model of her and figure out where it breaks. You force the enemy into unsurvivable terrain, pinned between an unwinnable war and unacceptable compromise."
"That’s how the Federation and the Alliance became separate things—sometimes that’s how you define yourself, in the space when you are separated, when you have abandoned all hope of reunion."
"What do you call this? The decision to know something not because it is true, but because it’s useful?"
"Imagine a Simms-god rampant, organizing the universe, winning the love of all the Laportes. So productive and persuasive that no one notices its ultimate agenda is hollow, self-referential, malignant."
"To fight them is to instruct them how to kill you."
"Laporte wants to say something clever, to fix this. An alien told me that every Laporte needs a Simms. That monsters have to love makers, so they can hone each other. So they can keep a safe orbit. Simms, if you go, I don’t know how to find my way back."
'Hidden from Haywain van Aken’s communion. From his semiosis weapon, his dream of ants, his bridge into conscious minds."
“Eject!” In pilot code, you always say it three times, to make it real. “Eject, eject!”
She gets a nanosecond glimpse of Simms in the backseat mirror. She’s grinning like an idiot."
"Is monsterhood conditional? Like a mirror you hold up to the war around you, just long enough to win?"
"She rolls her shoulders and arms her coilguns and starts killing the things come to kill her."
I loved the continual mortality questions and the really really big world shifting questions that this piece posed. And I loved the entire bit about all the Simms and the Laportes and how Humanity Stands. The continual struggle between monstrosity and humanity is just my absolute favorite.
"But she is all those things now. Born from the tragedy of a war as unnecessary as it was inevitable. Shaped by combat and command and (between it all, pulling in the opposite direction) the love of the finest woman she’s ever met."
"Remember that? After the ambush at Saturn? Remember adjusting Simms’ blankets and pressing your cheek to her throat? Hoping she’d live long enough for both of you to die together, as you’d always dreamed?"
"give up your gentle ties. Come with me, towards victory. Become a necessary monster."
"Laporte grins and knocks her helmet twice against her ejection seat, crash crash, polymer applause for the mad gentleman on her trail. She knows who it is. She’s glad he’s come."
"That’s right. Monsters shouldn’t be warm. They shouldn’t have fun. Being a monster should feel like it costs."
" Simms is still exploring Laporte’s new crazy side, separate (in her practical mind) from Laporte’s old crazy side, before their long radiation-cooked severance."
"Laporte opens her arms in a gesture of animal challenge. “Are you worried,” she says, grinning, “that I might be unwell?”
Al-Alimah laughs. She can pretend to be very warm, when she wants, although it’s terrifyingly focused. Like all her charm radiates from a naked wire charged red-hot."
"Love is about knowing the rules of your connection. You know how you could hurt her, if you wanted, and she trusts you with this knowledge. And war is about that too. You learn the enemy’s victory conditions, her capabilities and taboos. You build a model of her and figure out where it breaks. You force the enemy into unsurvivable terrain, pinned between an unwinnable war and unacceptable compromise."
"That’s how the Federation and the Alliance became separate things—sometimes that’s how you define yourself, in the space when you are separated, when you have abandoned all hope of reunion."
"What do you call this? The decision to know something not because it is true, but because it’s useful?"
"Imagine a Simms-god rampant, organizing the universe, winning the love of all the Laportes. So productive and persuasive that no one notices its ultimate agenda is hollow, self-referential, malignant."
"To fight them is to instruct them how to kill you."
"Laporte wants to say something clever, to fix this. An alien told me that every Laporte needs a Simms. That monsters have to love makers, so they can hone each other. So they can keep a safe orbit. Simms, if you go, I don’t know how to find my way back."
'Hidden from Haywain van Aken’s communion. From his semiosis weapon, his dream of ants, his bridge into conscious minds."
“Eject!” In pilot code, you always say it three times, to make it real. “Eject, eject!”
She gets a nanosecond glimpse of Simms in the backseat mirror. She’s grinning like an idiot."
"Is monsterhood conditional? Like a mirror you hold up to the war around you, just long enough to win?"