Spoilers SNW: Toward the Night by James Swallow Review Thread

[James Swallow]

Spoiler: The Question

My takeaway from all the descriptions was that the planet was basically a dead planet when the Enterprise crew first landed there. Did I misunderstand that?

The epilogue with the Discovery cameo was fun, but it also implies the planet is again lush with life. I Know it's 1,000-ish years later, but that seems a very short time for a planet's ecosystem to evolve new life.

I'm sure I completely missed something, but heck if I can figure out what it is I missed.

Spoiler: The Answer

This is a work of fiction, not a science paper, so I chose to exercise a little artistic licence to create what I felt was a satisfying dramatic ending.

In my original outline, Keol would have awoken much further into the future, but that conclusion felt a bit empty to me, and the cameo by the Discovery crew resonates much more strongly with Toward The Night's themes.

 

[James Swallow]

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Thank you Jessie for a great review!

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

It was a good story, a very good one (hence my "Outstanding" rating, which is vanishingly rare for me), and (perhaps because I'd read ADF's Icerigger trilogy enough times that the premise of a planet whose life evolved around periodic climate shifts was already familiar) the idea of a planet where life had evolved around periodic extreme solar activity seemed rather obvious to me.