--Don Sakers, ANALOG, January/February 2010, on A GLIMPSE OF SPLENDOR AND OTHER STORIES:

...It’s been a decade since the first Splendor story came out; it’s worth the price of admission to have them all together in one volume...Just to show that Splendor wasn’t a fluke, Creek invents other aliens and exotic locales; there more than enough otherness here to satisfy any sf reader.”

 

--Michael H. Payne, TANGENT ONLINE, on "A Glimpse of Splendor," ANALOG, February 2000:

The last novelette is "A Glimpse of Splendor" by Dave Creek, the only novelette this issue that needs its length for the story it tells. Splendor is a planet with two intelligent species, one living in the volcanic valleys, the other in the icy highlands, and they've become pretty much symbiotic over the millennia. Then people from Earth arrive, make first contact, and deliver the news that the shockwave from a local supernova is on its way, that it will wipe out all life on Splendor, and that no nearby world has the proper conditions for both highlanders and valley dwellers to move there. They must learn to live on separate planets, or they'll all die.

Creek explores the three cultures involved--human, valley dweller, and highlander--just enough to make us understand the individual characters we follow, and I didn't find myself skipping a single paragraph. My favorite novelette this time around.

 

 

--Michael H. Payne, TANGENT ONLINE, on "Splendor's Laws," ANALOG, June 2000:

 

"Splendor's Laws" by Dave Creek, this issue's second novelette, returns us to the world of Splendor. In the Feb00 Analog, we saw the two sapient species on the planet agree to a human relocation plan since a nearby supernova was about to make Splendor uninhabitable. Now, with the plan underway, the alien Sobrenians have shown up and begun testing weapons on the planet, killing scores of Splendorians. Earth Unity Ambassador Chanda Kasmira has come to sort things out, but the Sobrenians barely consider humans worth talking to, let alone the natives of Splendor, creatures they call presentient.

I liked the previous story, and I like this one, too: a straightforward SF adventure with an emphasis on character and cultural interactions. My favorite novelette this issue.

 

 

-Jay Lake, TANGENT ONLINE, on "Splendor's Truth," ANALOG, May 2002

 

"Splendor's Truth" by Dave Creek was an interesting read for me. I was very impressed with the description of the alien hospital ship, but much of the rest of the story take-off felt stock to me at first. As I read it, it grew on me. Creek avoided the obvious in his characterizations and actions, and by the end of the story I was rooting for the good guys and the bad. Color me impressed -- as much as I enjoy classic adventure-story SF, it doesn't usually grab me as well as this story did. This story is part of a story arc that has previously appeared in Analog, but Creek gives the reader plenty of backstory and key information to keep things moving.