This review is for The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim, nominated for best novelette for both Hugo and Nebula.

Saki Jones was supposed to join her “lifelove” partner M.J. on the new colony on the New Mars. But the colony had suddenly collapsed prior to her arrival, and the colonists are dead — likely from an alien plague, possibly related to alien artifacts from a seemingly vanished alien civilization. To determine what exactly happened, Saki and her crew mates can access the Chronicle — holographic projections of time records, a nonhuman invention that allows you to see slices of the past — but entering the Chronicle alters and destroys parts of it across time.

“We did not create the Chronicle, we simply discovered it, as you did. Layer upon layer of time, a stratified record of the universe. When you visit the Chronicle, you alter it. Your presence muddles the temporal record as surely as an archaeological dig muddles the dirt at an excavation site.”

This is a quiet story of pain and loss and grief. It’s about how your personal experiences can’t help but bring bias to your research. It’s about misunderstandings that can make first contact a tragedy. It’s sad, with a bittersweet ending, and quiet understated power. It’s not a story of struggle or conflict, but of what comes after, of how you deal with loss, how you learn to go on.

The idea of the Chronicle is fascinating. I’d be curious to see it explored further in a longer story.

“We act out of love, but that does not erase the harm we cause. Forgive us.“

4 stars.

Read it here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-archronology-of-love/

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My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3295830569