Comment on Rationalist Fiction

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:41:00 GMT

I've seen an analysis of "The Cold Equations" which claimed there was no way to set up the plot so that you have to space someone because of simple physics-- it would always be organizational failure.

It would be a rather different story if the theme was that organizations sometimes fail to set things up sensibly, and this leads to deaths.

And a quite interesting one if it were a matter of the odds rather than certainty-- the stowaway costs enough fuel that there's 10% chance that the rocket won't deliver the medicine. Now what?

Dickson's "Lost Dorsai" is close to that theme-- mercenaries are trapped in a bad contract, and there just isn't enough time to find the flaw which would lead to a good outcome.

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