Review: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 12, 2014
Martin Russman is a Relic, a man over 300 years old who remembers (or actually chooses not to remember) the old wars. In this time of peace, he is on a grand star liner Edwin Teale, mainly to be a part of the vessel traveling into Leyra'an space and to meet some of the Leyra'an people, since he missed first contact.While chatting with them, he slowly remembers more and more of his past. But is that a good thing, or a bad thing? For while his past holds the horrors that he wishes to forget of days gone by, they also hold lessons of what not to do in order to keep the peace. And also what to do if war comes again.An interesting short story, it brings home the old saying that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. So many wars in our current history could have been stopped if we had looked at our past and taken cues from what happened. Can we expect the future to be any different? People prefer to forget the bad and only remember the good in life, but that won't save a civilization in war, and it won't bring lasting peace if you ignore the problems while they are small enough to actually fix.This short story takes place in the same universe as The Luck of Han'anga - Ware of the Second Iteration, Book One.(The quote form the Headline: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Written by George Santayana (1905) Reason in Common Sense, p. 284, volume 1 of The Life of Reason)