Survey Report of System AQ275-43L-991

Information

Status

Completed

Year

2019

Author

HeWhoLooksSkyward

• Survey Report of System AQ275-43L-991
  May 8, 2019

Reviews

Community Reviews(8)

• Baemah1012Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Now I’m not good at all that English stuff so I can’t say too much but I think your writing style is nice and flows well. I love the basis of the story and I wish there were more like it!! Keep the posts coming please so I have to read!
  Edit: Dead memes here
• FleischmannRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  All right, so this is was a nice little short story that I found relaxing. It is done in the format of a probe's log and might seem boring to most others, but I quite enjoyed it It is a weird thing and worth a look at in my opinion.
• MK bk-201Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  a very short story about the "life" of probe waiting for eons as it watches the evolution of a planet as against all odds it overcomes everything its set in its path, while reciving no communication of the ones who made it, all it can do is continue its silent observation.
• kleptomaticRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Masterpiece. Knocks it out of the park.
  This is an incredibly short story and an incredible short story. One character only, a computer at that, at yet human. Compelling, and the grand reveal (kind of, the story isn't long enough to technically warrant that name I feel) is worth it.
  It won't take you much time to read it, so why not just do it!
• lenagelisRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Was looking for something short and dreamy to read and was not disappointed 👌🏻 Beautiful and inspiring writing for such a short piece. I would totally want to read whatever comes next, or perhaps learn about the probe's backstory, where it came from and why. Sign me up for a First Contact summary 😉
• SidewelterRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  What a great short story, thanks!
  Loved the character development of the probe, from mostly technical reports to more philosophical. In most sci-fi automated equipment and robots are usually mindless or if they start to show emotion it's often as a result of things going 'wrong'. A nice take on what counts as 'life' and amazing to get that from such a short tale.
  Without spoiling anything, you will leave with a lot of questions about the nature of the probe and what happens next. Questions, in my opinion, best left unanswered in such a thought-provoking piece. The mystery means I will think about this story for a long time.
  Thanks 😀
• RznRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  This story of the probe's record of the development of a planet contains several brief snapshots of its development. Acting from a strictly scientific aspect, it is a fairly incomplete and strange summary of planetary conditions - eons passing and key events escaping the probe's notice. It is short, it is simple. This is worth a read. Take a few minutes to enjoy this piece that knows what it is doing and embraces simplicity.
• SamenwerferRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  This story had me wanting more, more details about the who and what that came before, I wasn’t satisfied with what little I got.
  But to be clear: this is a good thing. This was a wholly satisfactory lack of satisfaction.
  For me, this yearning, this wanting of more, felt after reading is one of my personal litmus tests for a good story, whether short or not.
  When my mind can't help but ponder and poke at the nature of the Author's universe, that's a very good sign.
  HeWhoLooksSkyward gave us all of the information we needed.
  We don't need to know exactly who sent out our narrator, the probe. We don't need to know how, or if, they met their end.
  These omissions only serve to create a richer world in which the narrative takes place.
  But despite that, I want to know; I can’t help but want to know. And while I doubt the questions in my head will ever be resolved exactly--in fact, I’d rather they weren’t, as getting those answers would mean seeing this story expanded to places that I think it ultimately needn’t touch—I enjoy the narrative space that HeWhoLooksSkyward has created for my mind to wander in.
  And with my rambling out of the way, the nitty gritty:
  Character- As others have said, the single character viewpoint worked perfectly for this story. In my opinion, any others would've broken the feel of the piece.
  Despite being a clear non-human entity, I found myself empathizing with our narrator.
  Grammar- I think there was a single sentence in which I'd've used a different arrangement of commas, but this is personal preference, and not indicative of any failing on HeWhoLookSkyward's part.
  Story- I wouldn’t say that the story breaks any real new ground, there aren’t any surprise twists or “oh crud” moments, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In the case of this story, I think the predictableness is a feature rather than a bug.
  As an account of the specific processes of cosmological evolution that lead to us, it should be predictable. The point of the story was to s