Review: surprisingly good
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 4, 2014
I am always gratified when I find a story such as this-- one that is well-imagined and written, and that the author clearly cared enough about to ensure that it was free from the too-common egregious typos and usage/grammar errors so common in indie-published books.The author's take on future culture and technology, on the possible relationships between human and android, and perhaps best of all on poetry and popular culture, all made this worth reading.  The humor involved, including the "beach, babes and barbecue" description of the 'resort planet', the cheerful rip-off of John Masefield's Sea Fever, and of course the zombie apocalypse involving virtually the entire population of the planet, 12 of the 13 humans, was delightful.  The poignancy of the nascent loving, physically affectionate but non-sexual relationship between the female protagonist and the "female" android was well-written and even believable (non-sexual in that the android had neither genitalia nor nerve endings capable of feeling anything other than simple pressure-- this was not about a lesbian relationship, but rather one between two people of different species, one of them artificial).There were some minor inconsistencies in the science fiction aspects of the plot, but given the quality of the story-telling, they were unimportant.  I just wish that Kalem would use her name and not an obvious pseudonym, as she should get credit for this novella.