★★★★★
Synopsis: Immortal humans don’t travel in space any more because it’s too dangerous. Instead, they amalgamate their characteristics to one clone and send it in teams on field trips. Pico returns home to her 63 parents from a decades long adventure cruise through the galaxy. With her, she brings all the memories, adventures, and feelings – her creators will dissassemble her and integrate her to their own minds just the next day. On the feast to honor her, she tells some highlights and remembers some intimate scenes. One man seems to be different than the other bored immortals and she gets second thoughts.
Review: A unique idea that I loved following with a well-played plot twist. The feast’s dialogues integrated well with her flashback scenes on different planets. They were fascinating and remembered me of the Tears in Rain soliloquy in 1982’s BladeRunner. It stayed with me and I wondered how all the other clones tried to escape their fate and how long the sacrifice helped overcome the immortals’ boredom. How does Pico cope with her looming death caused by her creators? Reed interleaves that topic masterfully with different angles into the narration.
Meta: isfdb. Reprinted online at Clarkesworld.
Reißwolf 