The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky | Aug 18, 2020 ) Orbit
Brilliant…griping…a mind-boggling feast for fans of thoughtful speculative fiction…great writing and great characters…an intelligent science fiction spy novel…Charles Stross’s Laundry series all grown up…What, you mean I’ve got to write an actual review now? — Ernest Lilley, Continue reading
Back in March (2020 if you are living in the future) the New York Times ran an op-ed by a “professor of information science who specializes in the social effects of technology” on why the CDC was wrong about who needs to wear face masks. Zeynep Tufekci’s article may have been the tipping point in bringing health professionals out of the woodwork to say what they’d been thinking all along: masks, any mask, reduces the chance of viral transmission.
Today, August 24 (still 2020) the Times doubled down with an article about Tufekci and how she “keeps getting things right.” And why. The why is that she’s a Nexialist, but we’ll get back to that in a minute. Continue reading
Originally published: https://amazingstories.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=219339
This month we’ve got some excellent debut novels, starting with Micaiah Johnson’s The Space Between Worlds, a parallel worlds novel that deftly turns the notion of the explorer as a person of privilege on its head. There’s also The Mother Code by Carole Stivers, a pandemic novel where humanity’s next generation is in the hands(?) of robots designed for space exploration, but coded with a mother’s touch. Finally, Architects of Memory is a very strong debut from Karen Osborne in which a plucky crew of salvage tug misfits gets caught up in a corporate struggle for an alien artifact. The premise may sound familiar, but Osborne brings rich characterization and excellent plotting to the tale.
If you’re looking for SF so hard it’s hardly SF, dock at Space Station Down by Ben Bova and Doug Beason, where terrorists take over the ISS with a plan to deorbit it onto NYC, and if the Big Apple doesn’t have enough problems, check out Bystander 27 by Rik Hoskin, a mind-bending take on the superhero reality and what it means.
Mil-SF and Space Opera fans should enjoy Debt of Loyalty by Christopher G. Nuttall, the second in this series, following Debt of Honor last year. A king in exile with half the fleet and a conflict waged by opposing admirals who once served together make a complex and well-told tale.
Mirage by Julie E. Czerneda continues her Web Shifter’s Library series with the return of Evan Gooseberry, an ambassador to alien races with anxiety issues and the shapeshifting alien(s) who manage the All Species’ Library of Linguistics and Culture. It might be subtitled, Fun with Esen and her Friends at the Library, and it wouldn’t be wrong.
City Under the Stars by Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick — Since we started out with debut novels, it’s only fitting we end with a last work, or at least a final collaboration. In 2018 science fiction lost one of it’s most treasured editors and authors, Gardner Dozois, who compiled The Year’s Best Science Fiction for 35 years, but along the way he also worked on a collaboration with Michael Swanwick. The two batted ideas back and forth for decades, and though it was originally planned as a longer work, Michael opted to close the story where they’d left off with their characters looking forward to things to come. It’s a terrific piece of work,.
Originally published on Amazing Stories Website: https://amazingstories.com/?p=212406
Someone asked me if I felt safe going back to my normal summer activities in the face of the ongoing unpleasantness. Well, since finding a quiet place in the shade to hang out with a good book is my idea of the perfect summer activity, I’d say yes. OK, it’s not everything, but it’s still fun, and there are plenty of books coming out that are perfect for social distancing.
Mary Robinette Kowal expands her Lady Astronaut series in The Relentless Moon returning us to the 1950/60s alternative history space effort to get humans to Mars before the Earth dies. She turns her focus to a different member of the original six Lady Astronauts, and I highly recommend it. Another book I really liked was Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis, in which Cora Ortega is the daughter of a conspiracy theorist/leaker that says the government knows about aliens and isn’t telling. It’s a different sort of first contact novel and very well done.
Both Kill Orbit by Joel Dane and Automatic Reload by Ferrett Steinmetz are full-on action and mayhem, the first about a squad of “genius fuckups” and the second about a former drone pilot gone full cyber and haunted by those he killed while taking on a cover agency. Both are brilliant but very different.
More mayhem abounds in Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air as Jackson Ford brings Teagen (The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind) and her crew back to deal with an esper like herself, but one that can trigger quakes. Of course it’s set in California. More mil-sf worth considering is Battle Luna put together by Travis S. Taylor and a handpicked team, each who wrote a story to move the plot along in a very thoughtful exercise in lunar conflict. It is more of a relay race than an anthology, but thoroughly enjoyable.
Madeline Ashby finishes up her Third Machine Dynasty with ReV, a bit of Westworld and a bit of Asimov gone rogue, You’ll find more sympathetic robots in My Battery Is Low and It Is Getting Dark, a really fine collection from Zombies Need Brains about abandoned robots and second chances.
A slight jar and we’re free,
Floating in the dark.
A hand touches the stick
And a shudder passes
Through the craft. Continue reading