★★★
Synopsis: Ben Lo is a trade delegate from the Pacific community on a mission to Neptun’s moon Proteus where he meets his ex-wife Barbara, aka famous Outer “gene wizard” Avernus. As his mission progresses, he finds that his memories are failing and another personality, a counter-spy, engages in his work.
Review: This story is not standalone but takes place after The Quiet War. Despite of large info dumps it will only be understandable if you’ve read that novel. I welcomed the addition but thought that it is no masterpiece given the unbalanced amount of add-on value in these few couple of pages. There is the fascinating description of tamed waves off a lake in near zero-g environment and how the children of the village Elfhame make a game of hopping down a canyon in as few steps as possible. I also welcomed revisiting Avernus who gengineered vacuum organisms this time – the author considered not only the whatabouts of this looser of the quiet war but also how the war affected the Outer’s society and even their fashion. The story’s got an ending with a plot twist that was satisfying in more than one ways.
Meta: isfdb. Available online.
Reißwolf 