Review of "The Most Complicated Avatar" by Mary E. Lowd

"The Most Complicated Avatar" by Mary E. Lowd is today's offering from the Daily Science Fiction e-zine (DailyScienceFiction.com).  A mother frantically tries to locate her missing ten-year-old girl using virtual reality.

Is the daughter lost in cyberspace?  Is the mother in cyberspace?  Is the girl logged on to a computer at a location unknown to mom?  I asked myself these questions as I read.  The answer became clear at the end, but to avoid confusion, the answer might have been clearer sooner--say at the beginning.

Told in the first person present tense, the story is narrated as though it is happening now--right now.  I found this scheme to be awkward and off-putting.  It was almost as bad as reading a story written in the second person.  You know what I mean.  2 out of 7 rocket dragons.