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For Every Jack
Humanity has settled space and left Earth to its destruction. Connor and Ines have traveled back to Earth on a preservation project to find the human “jacks” that sacrificed their bodies to prop up the United States’s failing infrastructure. But the jacks hold a secret, one Connor would rather keep hidden than risk the truth being made public.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
16 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 26, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 30, 2020
“It was a bad time. People prefer to remember better things.”
...
“It’s still important,” snapped Ines. “We did it. Everything that took us to the Last Gasp was a choice people made, and we survived, but if we just sweep it away and pretend the stations were ‘the next step of humanity’s glorious rise,’ we’ll do it all over again.”
It was going to be hard keeping that intensity from digging up too much.
this story is real short. because it's so short, it doesn't have much space to develop, and it ends up feeling like a superficial pass at a complicated situation set in a complicated environment. i didn't feel satisfied, sitting here with all my questions about the core realities of this world. worlds.
it's a low three, because it's not that the writing is bad, but that it needs a lot more to make it register as a story, for me. which, if i'm wanting more, can only be a positive complaint, right??
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2020/08/26/for-ev...
come to my blog!
June 15, 2021
“We’re breaking down a lot of real, important history to get that damn theme park into orbit. Professor Bowles’s memorials are something to save, at least.”
A very interesting and innovative concept that I tried to like but couldn't. The story started out confusing but I started to get the gist of it as the story progressed but it was too short to actually amount to anything.
2 stars
A very interesting and innovative concept that I tried to like but couldn't. The story started out confusing but I started to get the gist of it as the story progressed but it was too short to actually amount to anything.
2 stars
June 11, 2021
This is the kernel of a good story. It even seemed to end with the idea that there was more to come. All the elements to a great story are there, but this did not feel like a fully realized story that could stand alone.
September 1, 2020
I'm torn on this, because on the one hand, I feel like speculative stories about the fallout of climate change are incredibly important right now and needed, but this one didn't work for me for a few major reasons.
First - I don't think the premise makes sense. Basically, I feel like the concept was a good one but it needed more time in developmental edits -- it's on a shaky platform when every question opens up more questions that don't have answers.
Second - I found the characterization weak. Ines (whose name literally means "the innocent" btw) has no tonal variation from aggressive, noble, in-your-face and opposed to Connor's weak-willed protests and laziness. His switch from 'oh i'd better cover up this crime' to 'risking himself to save her while she's trying to expose it' happens with no insight into what's going through his head. Again, I think some content edits here could have really strengthened this part.
I'm spending time on this one, I think, because I found it had a strong core I wanted to see more of and wanted to see it examined, and I'd be willing to read more by this author as a result -- I was just frustrated with how it went. Just wish it had spent enough time in the oven to bake these issues out, you know?
First - I don't think the premise makes sense. Basically, I feel like the concept was a good one but it needed more time in developmental edits -- it's on a shaky platform when every question opens up more questions that don't have answers.
Second - I found the characterization weak. Ines (whose name literally means "the innocent" btw) has no tonal variation from aggressive, noble, in-your-face and opposed to Connor's weak-willed protests and laziness. His switch from 'oh i'd better cover up this crime' to 'risking himself to save her while she's trying to expose it' happens with no insight into what's going through his head. Again, I think some content edits here could have really strengthened this part.
I'm spending time on this one, I think, because I found it had a strong core I wanted to see more of and wanted to see it examined, and I'd be willing to read more by this author as a result -- I was just frustrated with how it went. Just wish it had spent enough time in the oven to bake these issues out, you know?
April 22, 2021
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.
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.
December 24, 2020
In the distant future, a polluted Earth has been abandoned, in a Last Gasp, for the exit of the stars. But parts of Earth, apparently, are still worth preserving and studying, and two grad students are sent down to Earth, in controlled suits with jet packs, to assist in the preservation. Specifically, they are looking for jacks, cybernetically altered humans left behind before the Exit to try to shore up Earth's infrastructure as civilization was being destroyed by rampant climate changes.
The jacks had made a noble sacrifice, to be remade for work when burning more fuel to run industrial machines had been unthinkable. He did feel like they deserved some honor and remembrance, and that he should make sure some things stayed buried.
August 27, 2020
To small!...
August 30, 2020
2 1/2 stars
April 15, 2021
Interesting concept, flat execution. I’d be interesting in seeing more set in this world, though.
December 30, 2021
Great little short with a bit of a twist at the end.
August 30, 2020
Like many science fiction short stories, I found this to be an interesting concept and evocatively written, but lacking in anything so interesting or evocative to make it worth more than three stars.
November 3, 2020
I liked it. It's a interesting premise for a story. I wish there was more to read though.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews