It's weird when a story can really make me dislike an author, but I think J.M. McDermott completely missed the point on the original story "The Lady or the Tiger." His story suffers as a result.
I'm not the first one to suggest this, but it isn't about the man's choice. It never was. It was about the semi-barbaric princess' choice. (I'll assume most people here have read the story, BTW.) It's one of the best studies in human motivation, at lest in my opinion. The person you love is going to be lost to you forever. How would you prefer to lose him? Have him die a horrible death or be forever out of your reach, married to your bitter rival? Granted, the original short story is a lot more eloquent than that, but it's essentially what "The Lady and the Tiger" boils down to. There is no answer in the story, because the answer isn't the point. The point is to have the reader ask him or herself "What would I do if I were in that situation?" Go on, read the story and try not to answer the question yourself. It's like trying to eat just one of those little pretzels.
McDermott's story, on the other hand, lacks any of the studies into humanity that made the original so compelling. There is some good world building, I will admit that, and if Apex and Escape Pod bought the story for the world-building then I think they made a good choice. Giant lizards, genetically mutated commandos, some good philosophical points about what planets lose in trade with other planets all really drew me in. But to compare the little brother's dilemma with the princess's in the original is almost blasphemy.
It's an agonizing decision to have to choose which person will live and which person will die. But it is not really comparable with the choice faced in the original "Lady or the Tiger." McDermott's little brother, Simsa, can best be compared to the princess in the story, NOT the man who must open the door. The question here is "Who shall I save?" not "What shall my lover's fate be?" As such, Simsa's dilemma is very different. The princess in the original (and by extent the reader) has to decide how self-sacrificing she is. Does she love the man enough to be happy when he is happy? Or would she rather if she can't have him, than no one can? Simsa, though, has to essentially choose who he loves best. It's a meaningful decision in the story, but it doesn't resonate with me at all. Partially this is because I think unrequited love is a universal experience, whereas saving either your brother or the woman who has been like a mother to you is much more character specific.
Secondly, McDermott's "Lady and the Tiger" dilemma fails because McDermott doesn't make the decision Simsa faces relatable to the reader. Yes, choosing between your surrogate mother and your brother would be a tough choice. But I think McDermott falls into the trap a lot of creators do when they try to do a remake that tops the original. He goes over the top, says, "You thought the original had a dilemma? No, THIS is a dilemma!" That's great, and I would hate to have to choose between saving my mom and my brother, but guess what? That's a dramatic, character-defining decision. These kinds of impossible choices are faced often in stories, and they define the character when he or she makes them. Whether to let your lost love go gracefully or not is something universal, something the reader can relate to, and the author hammers that point home in the original "Lady or the Tiger," forcing us to put ourselves in the princess's position, over and over again. McDermott doesn't do that. He assumes that just describing the dilemma will work, and it doesn't. That was the whole point of the original "Lady and the Tiger," in fact--the thought process that went into making the choice.
That brings me to my third point. Remember how I said that decisions like this are what define a character? In the original, the characters are defined with very broad strokes and make very good cyphers for the reader (ever wonder why none of the characters in the original have names?). Here, even though Simsa is meant to be a cypher, he's too well-defined to be a good one. We've got a pretty good idea of his character and really, the story seems set up to be a defining moment in his life, not a study of the thought process that goes into his choice. By having him say, "I made my decision, but I'm not going to tell you what it was," it's cheating the reader. By the time we get to the dilemma Simsa faces, we're invested in the character. We want to know what choice he makes and how it affects him, but we don't get it. Consequently, the ending of the story feels like a cop-out.
With all this criticism I have, I feel I owe it to J.M. McDermott to suggest how the dilemma could have been improved. The first would have been to not have Simsa make a choice at all. Just end the story with him sitting, looking at the two bodies, deliberating which one he should save before the sun comes up. Heck, he could be dictating this to a sci-fi blog of some sort, asking us as the readers what we would do. He could delve into the reasons why he should save Jiri over Sheila. We've seen Jiri's dark side, so what about Sheila's? Because objectively, it seems as though you'd save the innocent who died in the crash as opposed to the would-be terrorist who caused it.
Secondly, play up the relationships between the three of them. Really twist the emotional knife. Examine how the relationships between the two survivors would change with the absence of the third. What would Simsa's parents say, for example?
Thirdly, what if Sheila had to choose between saving Simsa or Jiri? That'd be a definite dilemma, somewhat more comparable to the original. She's going to lose one of her charges, so which one would it be?
There's more criticism I have, but it's mostly superficial to the story. There's the very plot-driven way in which Jiri dies, the sudden revelation that Jiri is a "Tiger," which feels like a very forced reference, and a lot of extraneous pieces of the story like Guj Sarwar and, for that matter, even the giant lizards. Nice touches, but not really part of the story.
I have to admit, this story has soured me on reading McDermott's other works, which is kind of a shame. However, I am very fond of the original "Lady or the Tiger," and this story just can't compare.