On Safari

'''Resnick, Mike. "On Safari."' In Gateways''. Ed. Elizabeth Anne Hull. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2010. "A Tor Book" festschrift in honor of Frederik Pohl. Pp. [348]-63.

Two company men have won an all-expenses-paid safari. Their guide introduces himself as "I am Quatermain, your fully-equipped" AI "safari car and guide, trained in every aspect of safaris and safari life" (349) and dedicated to customer safety. Note H. Rider Haggard's character Allan Quatermain from King Solomon's Mines (1885); for protecting (and serving), cf. Jack Williamson's Humanoids — and expect some edgy comedy. SPOILER: the comedy isn't too edgy, and the protagonists survive to begin their journey home on an AI ship on her first flight: "But […] I am fully equipped and programmed. What could go wrong?" If you guessed her name Titanic, you guessed wrong; as she announces, "I am the Pequod" (362-63) — the more-thoroughly-doomed ship in Moby Dick.

3. FICTION, RDE, 03/VI/11, 8Jan19