Review: This is a teaser, this is only a teaser
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 31, 2009
We should all be familiar with alternate worlds - most fiction movies or literary works that describe the present or the near future are worlds that deviate from our own in small, subtle ways - for example, the movie itself and the actors playing the parts do not exist there - or may be significant variations to what we think our world is supposed to be like - think Indiana Jones and his magical artifacts.I wish I could hint at the plot of the story and then state that I will not spoil it but a story this short doesn't have much of a plot. There's a war most of us heard of and a few minutes in the miserable life of one, anonymous actor, or warrior. The charming part, and this is what earns the story its stars is the easy, smooth, almost imperceptible transition from what appears in the beginning to be 'historical fiction' to what turns out to be something completely different.I stated in my review that this is only a teaser not because I know for a fact that it is but because I can't see any other reason why the story would be written. "In the Trenches" could stands its own in the pages of Analog or, better, the "Fantasy and Science Fiction" magazine but, even there, the readers would be unhappy if they learned that this wasn't the precursor of some large, expansive series of works mapping that strange universe for our wonderment and reading pleasure.Based on the teaser, I'd buy the 'big book' if and when it comes out.