Review: Very Enjoyable
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2012
This was a compelling and fascinating story.  Toni's challenges on Christmas relate to more than just a new experience in her career.  Beyond the sheer intellectual fascination, she deals with the emotional component of a team member's hostility and the evolving relationships with the planet's residents.The story is well written and flows easily.  The author strikes a good balance in terms of the amount of background information and Toni's task; we are given enough to keep us from feeling lost or uninterested, but not so much as to detract from the larger story.  Toni grows in strength and confidence over time in a believable and consistent way.  The central issue is handled well without belaboring the point, raising questions but not beating the reader over the head with rhetoric.Technically speaking, it's called a novella.  Speaking simply as a reader, I would call it a short story.  The one error I noticed was a single instance where the culture name was spelled "Megan" rather than "Mejan."  I enjoyed it very much; this sort of story is exactly why I frequently pick up SF anthologies.