Review: A Well-Written Cautionary Tale
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 2, 2012
What does it mean to be human? To care for those lesser than yourself? To feel a duality of emotions warring against themselves within the confines of your mind? These are questions the title character, an A.I. named Z.E.R.O., must wrestle with if he is to understand the humans in his charge on a world linked to Earth, but in a parallel universe. This story serves as a prologue of sorts to Offutt's novel SLIPSTREAM, providing the backstory necessary for a full understanding of the events to follow. But even in and of itself, this well-written tale reads like a cautionary myth or legend, showing the results of a godlike figure's overreaching desires and inevitable insanity, springing from the best of intentions.