Diabolical Plots
#75, May 2021
“The PILGRIMs Guide to Mars” by Monique Cuillerier
“Three Riddles and a Mid-Sized Sedan” by Lauren Ring
Reviewed by Tara Grimravn
May’s issue of Diabolical Plots serves up two SF stories to the table, both of which envision future technologies in very different ways. One embraces it, the other fears it.
“The PILGRIMs Guide to Mars” by Monique Cuillerier
Ursula, a Processor-Integrated Logistical General Robot for Independent Maintenance (or PILGRIM), kneels next to the Spirit Rover which landed on Mars in 2004. Her job, which she’s been doing for 23 years, is to care for and pay homage to the many robotic exploration units that humans have sent to Earth. Like the many units she cares for on her route, Ursula is aware that her systems are slowing down and that her mission will soon come to an end. There’s little she can do, however, but continue in her duties.
I love the idea that Cuillerier is going for in this rather sad tale of duty and decay. She says in her author’s notes that this story was born of a love for space exploration and the idea that, currently, Mars is a planet inhabited entirely by robots. She has treated that notion beautifully here.
Although Ursula is a robot and isn’t programmed for emotion as we understand it, I am still able to get a very good sense of her as a character. The reverence with which she treats each robot, the dignity with which she faces the concept of her own mortality, is wonderfully presented. This is truly a lovely story and one I highly recommend.
“Three Riddles and a Mid-Sized Sedan” by Lauren Ring
Alicia and her young daughter, Margot, are walking to the local park. Margot, who is fascinated by fairytales and folklore, wants to go to the bridge to see if there’s a troll there, but Alicia tells her it’s too dangerous. They have to be extra careful—all of the cars have gone rogue, killing any humans they encounter. Once at the park, Alicia takes a seat with a few other parents while Margot runs off to the sandbox to play with a friend. A few moments later, the girls have disappeared, and Alicia is desperate to find them before something terrible happens.
The premise upon which Ring has built this story is fantastic. It’s an enjoyable combination of the “science gone horribly wrong” trope with the old Norwegian “Three Billy Goats Gruff” fairy tale (a personal favorite of mine as a child) and Stephen King’s Christine. I love how Alicia notes in the beginning how she’s taught her daughter how to draw “runes” for protection, and that these are just traffic symbols that the cars’ programming forces them to obey.
The story’s theme of humanity’s ability to adapt and survive is well presented, and the glimmer of hope at the end is nice. The ending, unfortunately, also draws attention to a few flaws in the story as a whole. The first of these is the most obvious. How long have these killer cars been an issue? It doesn’t make a great deal of sense that Alicia is the first to come up with the solution she does in the end.
The second issue is the same one I have with horror stories in which rotting zombies seem to keep going for years. Exactly how these cars are still in working order? It makes me wonder how far in the future this is meant to be taking place. Just who’s changing the oil in these cars? Who’s checking coolant or other fluid levels? Do these self-driving cars not use them? Are they electric or do they require fueling up? Is there a stable of imprisoned mechanics somewhere that the cars are keeping alive, or are they being maintained by robots?
The above aside, it’s an enjoyable read if one doesn’t look too deeply, as I may have done. And it certainly provides a few points to ponder in terms of the potential dangers of technology dependence.