R.K. Duncan

Review of eBook

With attitudes of complacency and more than enough carelessness, the problems of a polluted Earth finally overwhelmed humanity’s power to fix. It was a bad time, so people made choices . . . choices that ultimately led to the Exit and the settling of humanity in space.

Now Connor and Ines, working on a preservation project, travel back to Earth in search of the “jacks,” the humans who sacrificed their bodies to prop up the failing infrastructure of the United States.

Working against the countdown clock that gives them less than thirty-five hours, they are about to make an unsettling discovery. But someone has a secret and there’s more to the dark story from the past.

This short story, an original fiction piece written for Tor, quickly establishes the setting. An abandoned Earth keeps its secrets, but with the jacks being sought to create monuments to their sacrifice, preserving the workers who died before the Exit occurred, they’re about to be revealed. It’s an interesting take on the fallout of environmental disaster and climate change, perhaps something for serious consideration.

Recommended.… (mehr)