Review: Thought-provoking and well-written short story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 9, 2012
A terrible disease called the FourH has destroyed the world's food production ability.  There are survivors...and they live in a world where your food allocation is your currency and life is grim and holds few pleasures for the food-poor.  In Re:union,  another kind of life is possible- comfortable, well-fed, in a non-physical, simulated cyber-existence.  It sounds sybaritic, but Liu explores some interesting ethical questions about who and why each life-style is chosen.  It's old territory in science fiction, but his approach brings some freshness.  Liu is a capable write who creates believable characters with understandable motivations, and moves the story along in a sort of unveiling way that creates a bit of mystery and embellishes with some delicious irony.