Strange Horizons, December 5th, 2016

“The Thanatos Mode” by Tom Hadrava

Reviewed by Benjamin Wheeler

“The Thanatos Mode” by Tom Hadrava is a series of three stream of consciousness descriptions of a giant spaceship organism’s suicide directives. The directive is given autonomy and given the task to slay each ship it is activated within. Each ship (an advanced AI) has a different world view and history. Gharial is a giant cargo hauler absorbing its own crew into its systems. Dread-a-Thousand-Stings is a warship and much more, with a fleet of smaller vessels like parasites around a carnivore. Esteeth is unlike the others, and a philosopher. By the end of it, Thanatos will face what has been going on outside its perspective.

I became more pleased by this story as it progressed. It began slow, and the ‘Insert individual thing here’ gag was a little tiring, but by the time it got to Esteeth I was being carried along. The other two ships are interesting and no less characterized. I found myself fond of the ‘ships as beings’ motif that I haven’t seen since the Formics of Ender’s Game or The Black Fleet Trilogy by Joshua Dalzelle, though I’m sure I’ve just not come across other examples. Commonly, one sees them as shipboard AIs, and having the ships as living, breathing, thinking beings really creates a feeling of majesty absent from many mainstream Star Trek or Star Wars type science fiction.