Opening: "In Lar'sz' traditional society," said the alien, "a lady would often be buried with her husband. A rather beautiful custom, don't you think?"
Capsule: Note: The comments on this story are best considered in conjunction with those regarding the previous one. The Diaspora pieces work better as a whole, in my opinion, than as stand-alones.
Interesting story exploring ideas on relativity, subjective (non-linear) time, and relationships (both between beings of different races, and between beings and time). The premise, the various interpretations of which the tale ably explores, is delivered in that first sentence captured above. The highpoints were the sheer number of ideas explored, the fascinating glimpses of alien culture and spacefaring civilization, and an ending which spoke both to character transformation and conceptual breakthrough. However, I didn't think this story was particularly even, on the whole. The cast of characters seemed large for the length of the story, and their psychological development therefore compressed. Elen came fully alive for me, but only in the second half of the story. I also found the style a little jarring at times (exposition abruptly interrupting description, for example, but not really driving the story forward). A novella set in this universe might have been more satisfying.
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