A review by enbyglitch
Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky
4.0
Quite a fascinating little piece, and learning about its inspiration makes me want to look into Beowulf.
Had an idea of the twist pretty early, but was still taken aback by the time aspects and the ending confrontation.
Haven't found any well-argued interpretations online, but my take is that the Iron Hunchback is the other initial survivor - also transformed by 'Mother' but with a goal more in line with keeping her crew safe. Having the Danish food packet and attempting to befriend Gary, plus defending the remaining crew at the end would be my reasoning.
4 stars because it really is just a little too confusing. Otherwise the humor was pretty good and Tchaikovsky's own audio narration was very fun.
Was hard to tell on audio but I think there were some cool neopronouns in there? And even if not the non-binary reference was appreciated!
Had an idea of the twist pretty early, but was still taken aback by the time aspects and the ending confrontation.
Haven't found any well-argued interpretations online, but my take is that the Iron Hunchback is the other initial survivor - also transformed by 'Mother' but with a goal more in line with keeping her crew safe. Having the Danish food packet and attempting to befriend Gary, plus defending the remaining crew at the end would be my reasoning.
4 stars because it really is just a little too confusing. Otherwise the humor was pretty good and Tchaikovsky's own audio narration was very fun.
Was hard to tell on audio but I think there were some cool neopronouns in there? And even if not the non-binary reference was appreciated!