Re: Highlights and Lowlights - February 2025

On 2025-03-04, Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:

( ++ 1/2 - ) Flatlander - Niven (1995 collection of all 5 Gil the ARM
stories)
The 5th Gil the ARM story (The Woman in Del Rey Crater) was written for
this collection. Gil is a detective working for ARM (the elite UN police
force). He was born on Earth, spent years in the Belt, and the last two
stories have him on the Moon. The range of quality goes from the
excellent Patchwork Girl down to I-didn't-read-it The Defenseless Dead.
I only read a few pages of because it was clear that this was 1000000%
about organlegging, which I find too dumb an idea to ignore when it’s
the primary story driver.[1]

It's been a while since I read that collection.  Aren't, like, _all_
the Gil the Arm stories about organlegging?

While large-scale human-to-human organ transplantation didn't quite
work out and is a retrofuturistic idea whose time has passed in the
real world, it doesn't strike me as absurd beyond the suspension
of disbelief.  Psychic powers like Gil's, on the other hand, are
harder to swallow.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy@mips.inka.de