(3.5 Stars)

This was interesting. ( )

THE LONG GAME by Ann Leckie is the last of the entries in The Far Reaches collection. I wish I could say that I saved the best for last. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. In my opinion, THE LONG GAME was the weakest of the bunch.

I never quite got the point of this short story. The narrator is an alien, an insect-like being. It appears this Narr is unique in that only they can see the larger picture regarding organizing the workers and finding a more efficient way of working. We learn little about the humans colonizing Narr's planet. While this could be problematic, like any colonization of one species, Narr seems to like the humans.

The one issue Narr has is when they discover the idea of death. It is a foreign concept, and Narr spends the rest of the short story trying to figure out what it means and how to prolong the inevitable for as long as possible. And that's all I could figure out.

I recently had a discussion with my family that I read to escape. I don't look for motifs, themes, allegories, and such. I feel that THE LONG GAME is one of those short stories that is nothing but allegory. If it is, I only see it as a story about an alien who discovers the concept of death with a sneaking suspicion that it is about that on the surface only.

As one of my favorite authors likes to remind her readers, no one can write a novel from an alien's point of view because we are not aliens. Anything written from that point of view will sound human because that is the only experience we have. Such is the case with Narr. He doesn't sound like an alien. He sounds like a child who is capable of describing his growing awareness.

THE LONG GAME was disappointing only because I left it for last. Among six very different stories, I believe it was the weakest one. Not only did it not touch on space or space exploration, it is the only one told from an alien point of view, which is an impossible feat. Add to that the impression that there is greater depth to this story than I could ascertain from it, and the whole thing is a study of missed opportunities. ( )

“You can’t make big things happen all at once, so you do what little things you can.”

Humans are studying and exploiting intelligent snails (slugs?) on a distant planet. Back on Earth, everyone thinks the snails are cute. They are a very short-lived species, so advancement is not easy. So how about wanting to make life better for your people and discovering the advantages of the long game? This is a nice and rather sweet short story, but there is nothing special about it. I’ve come to expect something unusual, unexpected or amazing from Ann Leckie, so I am slightly disappointed. ( )

This is an interesting story that looks at one possible way humans might react upon discovering other sentient life forms. (A rather depressing look, but very possible, and it does manage to have a hopeful ending even with the bleak outlook on human ethics.) I think the best part of this story is how it's told from the POV of one of those other life forms. ( )

The Far Reaches, a series of six separately published short pieces, provides a new venue for stories that used to be featured on the covers of long-gone science fiction magazines. All of them are set in deep space. Ann Leckie’s The Long Game tells us how a short-lived but curious slug-like creature plays “the long game” to get into space. Refreshingly light. ( )