Category: Ian Randall Strock

On the Rocks by Ian Randall Strock

On the Rocks by Ian Randall Strock (Analog, January-February 2022) is a short-short1 about a billionaire who tells of an effort to save Earth from global warming by bringing back “ice cubes” from the Kuiper Belt. These hollowed out ice asteroids will then be floated in the atmosphere to cool it down.
This references two other SF stories to tell the tale, and doesn’t articulate why the idea doesn’t work. It’s more ridiculous musing than story-telling.
* (Mediocre). 1,000 words.

1. I’m not sure when short-shorts became “flash-fiction” (as this is described in the table of contents), or why. I’m not fan of the category, given that the average standard of these is far below other lengths of story.