Review: Engrossing sci-fi story with plenty of twists
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 29, 2012
Engrossing, very quick read. Set in the somewhat near future, where an "auto" (a cyber assistant) manages your social media life, even to the point of responding to routine messages as "you."In the story, the main characters give each other an appreciative glance as they pass on the street and their autos quickly determine that they're compatible, so they start "dating" online. All goes well until the point where they're supposed to meet in real life. Then Joanna's auto informs her that there's a 24% chance that her date will kill her.I won't give more of the plot because I don't want to spoil it. As usual, Wailing works in plenty of twists and turns you won't see coming. I couldn't put it down and read it all in one go. My only quibble is that Joanna puts everything together a little abruptly at the end, so I would have liked to have seen that drawn out a bit more.I'd love to see another installment of this story or more stories set in this world. (I've already read "Relationship Status" set in the same world, and it was great too.) Wailing is one hell of a writer--he's on my auto-buy list.