A review by oleksandr
The Stone Wētā by Octavia Cade
4.0
This is a cli-fi novella based on the short story by the same author, which can be found HERE. I read is as a part of monthly reading for May 2021 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.
This is a collection of short pieces (cannot say stories, for they are more glimpses than tales) about a group of women scientists, who gather and hide data regarding environmental degradation from some enemy (supposedly multinational corps), who doesn’t want them public. Each scientist gets her chapter. We don’t know their names, only nom-de-guerre they choose – usually from some animal or insect or plant, all of which live in an inhospitable terrain. For example, [b:The Stone Wētā|51888547|The Stone Wētā|Octavia Cade|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582925493l/51888547._SY75_.jpg|76404188], for which the book is titled is Hemideina maori or the mountain stone wētā, a large, flightless, nocturnal orthopteran endemic to New Zealand. As a note at the start of the story states: When the world freezes about it, becomes a stretch of snow and ice and darkness, the stone weta freezes solid in its bolthole. Eighty-two percent of the water in its body turns to ice; the weta is climate in a single body, it is a continent broken off and geology made flesh.
Each text starts with a quote about a plant/animal, chosen as nom-de-guerre, then there is some glimpse of how she lives/works, intertwined with a few more excerpts about that being and a reader sees how a person is linked to her nickname. This is done extremely well, at least for people who enjoy documentaries about nature. For this the book worth the praise!
What I haven’t liked was the plot and ideas behind it. Scientists hiding data so the data aren’t destroyed by corporations (which also kill scientists) actually do a corps’ job for them – don’t make data public. It is done arguably to protect people, who gathered data, but if corps kill even on suspicion alone, one should either wait till natural death comes or agree to sacrifice few to save many (I highly doubt that data remain relevant as years go by). I’d assumed an analog to Wikileaks, or found a person, who is suffering from a terminal disease to announce data through them if anonymity is paramount.
Also the choice of ‘only women’ team is based on "No matter the country, no matter its professed stance, women tended to be overlooked more than men. Part of the background, all the grains of sand in a desert." While I agree that what is stated is true, the next step – grouping up environmental scientists for me breaks the point. I mean, yes, on average women run 100m slower than men, but if you take women Olympic runners, they will (in 99% cases) overrun any average person disregarding their gender. Same руку – if I am an evil corp, which murders people to keep secrets, I’ll have environmental scientists under close observation disregarding their gender.
This is a collection of short pieces (cannot say stories, for they are more glimpses than tales) about a group of women scientists, who gather and hide data regarding environmental degradation from some enemy (supposedly multinational corps), who doesn’t want them public. Each scientist gets her chapter. We don’t know their names, only nom-de-guerre they choose – usually from some animal or insect or plant, all of which live in an inhospitable terrain. For example, [b:The Stone Wētā|51888547|The Stone Wētā|Octavia Cade|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582925493l/51888547._SY75_.jpg|76404188], for which the book is titled is Hemideina maori or the mountain stone wētā, a large, flightless, nocturnal orthopteran endemic to New Zealand. As a note at the start of the story states: When the world freezes about it, becomes a stretch of snow and ice and darkness, the stone weta freezes solid in its bolthole. Eighty-two percent of the water in its body turns to ice; the weta is climate in a single body, it is a continent broken off and geology made flesh.
Each text starts with a quote about a plant/animal, chosen as nom-de-guerre, then there is some glimpse of how she lives/works, intertwined with a few more excerpts about that being and a reader sees how a person is linked to her nickname. This is done extremely well, at least for people who enjoy documentaries about nature. For this the book worth the praise!
What I haven’t liked was the plot and ideas behind it. Scientists hiding data so the data aren’t destroyed by corporations (which also kill scientists) actually do a corps’ job for them – don’t make data public. It is done arguably to protect people, who gathered data, but if corps kill even on suspicion alone, one should either wait till natural death comes or agree to sacrifice few to save many (I highly doubt that data remain relevant as years go by). I’d assumed an analog to Wikileaks, or found a person, who is suffering from a terminal disease to announce data through them if anonymity is paramount.
Also the choice of ‘only women’ team is based on "No matter the country, no matter its professed stance, women tended to be overlooked more than men. Part of the background, all the grains of sand in a desert." While I agree that what is stated is true, the next step – grouping up environmental scientists for me breaks the point. I mean, yes, on average women run 100m slower than men, but if you take women Olympic runners, they will (in 99% cases) overrun any average person disregarding their gender. Same руку – if I am an evil corp, which murders people to keep secrets, I’ll have environmental scientists under close observation disregarding their gender.