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The Exchange Officers (2013)

by Brad R. Torgersen(Favorite Author)

2.56 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Analog Science Fiction and Fact

review 1: I guess this wanted to be a shout-out to retro science fiction, but it seemed more like a right-wing racist screed. The basic plot is: the US are cool and advanced, Europe sucks, and the Chinese want to steal the US remote-controlled robots. Yellow peril - in space!It's more likely that the Chinese built the damn things, because they have the microelectronic factories now and it's quite likely they will still do in the future. So even if everyone forgot that the cold war ended decades ago, and even in the improbable eventuality that they didn't know how to make a robot themselves, they could just steal one on the ground. The end.
review 2: As you would expect from a regular contributor to Analog, this is a solid, medium-to-hard sci-fi story with a heroic bent.... more The author's military experience shines through in the deft touch he displays in the flashback training scenes and the ending is reminiscent of stories from the Golden Age of sci-fi. By this I mean that: (a) it actually has an ending rather than meandering to a confused halt like some modern stories and…(b) the end comes about by a decision from the hero using his experience and judgement.Some reviews have drawn attention to this year's Hugo nomination kerfuffle. I would just point out that a previous story from this author was also nominated two years ago before all this blew up and not just the Hugo. The excellent "Ray of Light" was a Nebula nominee as well and Torgersen was up for the Campbell Award. Attempts to suggest that this story and its author are somehow undeserving are churlish at best if not downright disingenuous. less

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