The Long Game - Ann Leckie - ★★

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AUTHOR: Ann Leckie
SERIES: The Far Reaches, #4
GENRE: Science Fiction Short Story.
PUBLICATION DATE: June 27, 2023
RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: A sci-fi short featuring a very unusual “alien” and their dreams and disappointments. Attempt to be deep but ends up bland. Might work better for those who enjoy pointless, philosophical tales.


Plot Preview:
Narr is a slug-like “person” working for humans who came to their planet some years ago. The humans tower over Narr’s species in size, but within the aliens’ work group, Narr is the boss, directing their coworkers to dig and burrow in a better manner. However, when Narr discovers how shortlived their species is, they go on a mission to discover the truth about death and what can be done to extend life. Their quest involves a better future for themselves, their fellow locals, and for the humans as well. How will such a difficult journey of self-discovery pan out?
The story comes to us in Narr’s first person perspective.


This is the fourth standalone story in 'The Far Reaches’ series, described on Amazon as “a collection of science-fiction stories that stretch the imagination and open the heart.”

Woohoos:
🎉 Narr – A very different kind of alien with his sentient thoughts and his optimistic desire for improvement while ensuring harmony.

🎉 The semi-colonialist vibes thanks to the human behaviour towards the species of the home planet.

🎉 Only 30 pages long. Not much wastage of time.


Hmmms:
👽 Begins great but soon ends up into a longwinded ramble about the meaning of life and how it can be extended with purpose, all of which seems like a half-baked awareness of reality. Was bored by the pseudo-philosophical tone. (I am always bored by anything resembling philosophy! So you could say this was a ME problem.)

👽 The only “sci-fi” in this is the presence of an alien species (that has different anatomical features but sounds remarkably human) and the mention of a spaceship. But as the narration is from Narr’s first-person pov, the content feels more literary than sci-fi.

👽 Narr’s narrative voice has a forced cutesy tone, which is unusual but annoying.

👽 The story might have made a better impact on me had Narr some kind of greater awareness towards the end. But the story starts and ends with their being at the same level of ignorance and possibly even more enhanced optimism. To a middle-aged cynic such as I, this was very naïve and disappointing.

👽 Narr uses “human” to refer to Earth human beings and “person” to refer to their own species. This is very muddling!


All in all, the story had a good start but soon began to feel like a pointless exercise. Narr’s rambles and the choice of ending fail to impress. Might work better for readers who would enjoy an introspective work disguised as a sci-fi story. To me, it was mostly meh.

This standalone story is a part of the 'The Far Reaches’ collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.

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