Tor.com, November 2022
“The Sufficient Loss Protocol” by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
“Judge Dee and the Mystery of the Missing Manuscript” by Lavie Tidhar
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
“The Sufficient Loss Protocol” by Kemi Ashing-Giwa takes place at a future time when travel to other star systems is common and under the control of ruthlessly competitive corporations. The narrator is the commander of a starship sent to claim the first known world where humans can survive in the open. The voyage quickly turns into a nightmare as multiple members of the crew are killed in gruesome ways. Could it have anything to do with an ancient civilization, thought vanished, that left booby traps throughout the galaxy?
For the most part, this is a bloody science fiction horror story, in the tradition of the movie Alien. An opening sequence not related to the main plot shows the narrator casually killing the colonists of a mining world when they try to rebel against the corporation. With a coldblooded protagonist and a murderous antagonist, there is no one to cheer for. Fans of violent action stories may be the best audience for this grim tale, but even they may find some of the narrator’s actions foolish.
“Judge Dee and the Mystery of the Missing Manuscript” by Lavie Tidhar is the latest in a series of stories about a vampire and his reluctant human assistant. In this adventure, they travel to a castle where vampiric monks watch over ancient manuscripts. In addition to facing punishment for failing to return a scroll that is seven centuries overdue, the vampire is forced to investigate murders involving a forbidden book.
The story combines dark fantasy, mystery, and humor, with a strong emphasis on the latter. As a whodunit, the plot is not particularly strong; the identity of the killer is both obvious and arbitrary. Readers looking for light entertainment will best enjoy it.
Victoria Silverwolf would like to point out that Judge Dee, apparently unrelated to the vampire of the same name, is also a character in a series of mystery stories set in ancient China.