Artwork by Paul Drummond
The Fix writes:
“Mercurio D. Rivera introduces us to “The Fifth Zhi”—number 5 in a family of clones preprogrammed with devotion to their mission, an appropriate skill set for the task, and as little individuality as possible. This cloning project is the result of the usual mix between desperation in the face of a terrible threat and the callousness of those who give the orders towards those who carry them out. This theme is familiar, from Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War to Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and countless others. “The Fifth Zhi”’s use of clones is an excellent, highly appropriate riff on the theme. It’s a gripping story, featuring a unique, likable protagonist; it avoids being unambiguously polemical and gives a familiar conclusion a very satisfying twist.”
Check out the remainder of the Fix’s reviews of IZ #219 here.
The Barking Dogwrites:
“Mercurio D. Rivera presents a tale of alien contact in ‘The Fifth Zhi’, as a succession of clones are dispatched to destroy an immense otherworldly organism that has penetrated the Earth, and is busy giving humanity a bad case of Cthulhu-esque nightmares. Despite the massive scale of an entity that has pierced the planet like a toothpick through an olive, this turns out to be a quite a thoughtful and intimate piece, with issues of identity and individualism coming to the fore in this straightforward but enjoyable yarn.”
Read the remainder of the Barking Dog’s reviews of IZ#219 here.
SF Revu‘s Mark Watson writes:
The fifth Zhi being one of several hundred clones, vat-bred and grown in a week, to make an assault on a very strange alien creature/tree that has landed on Earth, burrowed through the crust, and set up an impenetrable barrier to defend itself. The fifth Zhi is marked out from his cadre siblings by the fact the he alone has been able to pass through the barrier, and he must then climb the great tree to deliver a viral package to rid the Earth of the menace. However, in realising that is was his sense of loss that marked him out from his brothers, he is able to come to some understanding with the alien creature, which itself is suffering from a far greater sense of loss and loneliness. And he has to make a decision – whether to deliver his payload, or become one with the tree and to seek further afield.
Read the rest of SFRevu’s take on IZ#219 here.
Sam Tomaino reviews IZ#219 for SFRevuand writes:
In “The Fifth Zhi” by Mercurio D. Rivera, Zhi 5 is a clone who has been sent to destroy the Stalk, a strange immensely thick plant-like form that has bisected the Earth from North Pole to South. He has made it through a barrier that has stopped everything and everyone else. He carries a retrovirus that should kill the Stalk, freeing Earth from the nightmares it causes. He must climb the Stalk and release the retrovirus from the top of it. Naturally, things do not go as planned in this well-told tale of survival and triumph.
Garth D. Jones at SF Crowsneststates:
I was pleased to note the return of Jason Sanford and Mercurio Rivera whose stories I enjoyed earlier this year…. A giant stalk has skewered the Earth from pole to pole in ‘The Fifth Zhi’ by Mercurio D. Rivera. The eponymous Zhi is a clone sent on a suicide mission to destroy it who makes some startling discoveries about himself and the stalk. The mixture of adventure and introspection make it a touching story that leads to an entirely satisfying climax.