/lit/ - Literature

>>20421251
Silver Fire (1995)
This story has a lot of problems. Ostensibly it's about an epidemiologist tracking down how a new disease, Silver Fire, is spreading. Considering the effect that COVID has had globally with its infectious though relativity low death rate, the response to a global pandemic disease that kills 90% of those it infects within is rather muted. I don't know that I can suspend my disbelief as well with these sort of stories now. There's various other questionable parts, but the disease isn't what it's really about. Moral panic is common, though this isn't that. Instead, I'd call this scientific panic. The problem is that I don't think it was done well.
Meh

Reasons to be Cheerful (1997)
A story of emotional extremes and choices, both arbitrary and pragmatic. This was difficult and painful for me to read due to its subject matter and for personal reasons. I found it to be very meaningful, which may be why I was so emotionally affected. It's the kind of work that I would never recommend reading, but also wouldn't discourage. How applicable is any of the above to anyone else? I don't know. Based on the responses I saw from various people on multiple websites it seems to entirely depend on your personal experiences and outlook on life.
Unrated

Our Lady of Chernobyl (1994)
An investigator searches for a stolen religious icon. The courier had been murdered. His employer was irrationally desperate to have it retrieved. No one has any idea why the icon mattered and the employer refused to explain. It's a fine investigation story, though nothing about it was notable to me. The ending is somewhat melodramatic about religion.
Ok

The Planck Dive (1998)
A group of posthumans create copies of themselves to enter a black hole to examine the properties of spacetime at planck scale. It doesn't matter that the copies will die without being able to retrieve any information. All that matters is to have known. Also, Prospero and Cordelia, posthumans as well, arrive from Athens to ignore all the science and compose an epic. Most of the story is infodump discussion.
Ok