Flight Lt. Vango Markis is a fighter pilot defending Earth and the solar system in a losing war against the invading Meme. (Yes, the invading Meme. One of his comrades in arms is a black man who goes by the nickname of "Token.") On his way back from a temporarily successful battle, Vango is in coldsleep.

When he wakes up, he finds he's in a very limited VR environment. He has to answer a series of increasingly annoying questions from a strangely formal doctor, and it soon becomes clear, or at least he concludes, that he was badly injured during that coldsleep journey home, and his body is being regenerated. When he's finally released into a wider VR environment, he finds he has twenty-three companions.

While all of them have served with some of the others, he's the only one who has served with all of them. He's also the senior in rank.

One of them is his most definitively dead former girlfriend, Stevie. He saw Stevie unambiguously dead of a drug overdose well before the battle that is the "last memory before coldsleep" for him and many of the others.

As they explore their virtual space, they find flight simulators, and it soon becomes clear they're being prepped for a mission of some kind.

But when do they get their regenerated bodies back, and why aren't they being allowed any outside communication at all, not even with their families?

Despite some clunky bits, it's an interesting and fairly well-done story. I did enjoy it, and you may too--as long as you don't go into it expecting a Hugo-quality story, despite its nomination.

I received the anthology including this story as part of the 2016 Hugo Award nominee packet. ( )

There's a germ of a good idea in this story. The ending is actually really well-presented. I could see a 12-year-old boy with a serious video game obsession thinking that this story was absolutely devastating.
However - I've already read 'Ender's Game.' I saw that ending being telegraphed to me loud and clear from quite early on. The set-up? A space soldier comes to consciousness in a medical-type setting which he realizes quite soon, is a VR simulation. He assumes that he's been injured and that he's in recovery. But soon, he's joined by a number of other soldiers - all acquaintances that he's served with, and even one old girlfriend who, he's quite certain, was dead. They're asked to participate in a number of simulated training exercises involving new tech against humanity's alien enemies.
The main problem with the story is that the characters feel like they were imagined by the aforementioned 12-year-old boy. The mentality is very juvenile and limited-feeling, and a scenario that had a ton of potential just doesn't achieve what it could have.

Also - a note: When South Park called a lone black character "Token" it felt like a pointed bit of social criticism. When VanDyke does it here, it doesn't. ( )

There's a germ of a good idea in this story. The ending is actually really well-presented. I could see a 12-year-old boy with a serious video game obsession thinking that this story was absolutely devastating.
However - I've already read 'Ender's Game.' I saw that ending being telegraphed to me loud and clear from quite early on. The set-up? A space soldier comes to consciousness in a medical-type setting which he realizes quite soon, is a VR simulation. He assumes that he's been injured and that he's in recovery. But soon, he's joined by a number of other soldiers - all acquaintances that he's served with, and even one old girlfriend who, he's quite certain, was dead. They're asked to participate in a number of simulated training exercises involving new tech against humanity's alien enemies.
The main problem with the story is that the characters feel like they were imagined by the aforementioned 12-year-old boy. The mentality is very juvenile and limited-feeling, and a scenario that had a ton of potential just doesn't achieve what it could have.

Also - a note: When South Park called a lone black character "Token" it felt like a pointed bit of social criticism. When VanDyke does it here, it doesn't. ( )