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[CraigD]

I’ve never recommended a Lovett story before - though a competent writer, I’ve always found his science fiction “soft” to the point of pseudoscientific. While this short (6,000 word) story, published 5/2005 in Analog (and available in commercial download from for under $1), doesn’t redeem him to me in this regard (I like my scifi hard, thank you), I was impressed by its exploration of a venerable (eg: “The Day the Earth Stood Still” movie, David Brin’s “uplift” novels, Charles Stross’s “Accelerando”) scifi line of speculation: how would H.Sapiens adapt to its admission into a “galactic civilization” in which we were no longer the pinnacle of intelligent life?

 

Though downbeat, I found “Tomorrow’s Strawberries” very uncliche, thought provoking, and worthy of serious discussion.