D.A. -- Connie Willis
Theodora Baumgarten has been awarded an insanely coveted spot as an IASA space cadet. Even though she, unlike pretty much every person her age, didn't apply. And even though she, unlike pretty much every person her age, didn't even consider applying, because she doesn't. want. to go. to space.
She ends up at the Academy a few short hours after her position is announced, but she certainly isn't going to take this lying down. Not only is she going to get back to Earth -- with the help of a hacker friend -- she's going to winnow out the hows, whys and whos behind what she considers an abduction.
This is only the second Connie Willis I've read -- and so far, she and I are two-for-two. I'm feeling the Connie Willis love. D.A. = WAY FUN.
At 76 pages (including full-page illustrations (which oddly creeped me out a bit), biggish margins and smallish pages), it's short even for a novella. It's more like a longish short story that doesn't have to share space with a bunch of other stories. Which was fine by me, because, as I said, I loved it.
I enjoyed Theodora's voice, the story is funny and smart and riffs on SF (but affectionately), the slang felt right and real and never like the author was trying too hard, I believed in Theodora's friendship with Kimkim, the hows and whys and whos worked for me as did the ending. It's one, I think, that would go over well with SF fans as well as being totally accessible to non-SF readers.
Suggestions for more funny Connie Willis? I've read a bit about some of her novels and it doesn't sound like they fall into that category...
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