The SCIFI Reader

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers My rating: 4 of 5 stars “It doesn’t require pockets, it just fits in one.” The story picks up more or less exactly where the last dropped off. Our Monk pal, Dex, is taking their new robo-buddy, Mosscap, into town to meet the locals and, hopefully, get some proper answers to its questions. "Mosscap had come to meet humanity as a whole; that was who Dex had informed. It made sense, Dex supposed, that everyone had written back." After a little fanfare, Mosscap gets a chance to ask the locals, "What do you need?" Which is naturally met with some polite but bemused laughter from the crowd. Mosscap gets to helping humans with some of their trivial chores and makes it into an opportunity to learn what it can about us, while hitting the books in its downtime allows it to start pondering the nature of its own consciousness. "...complex intelligence and self-awareness arise out of an externa...

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the shortest book that ever took me all day to read. But that's my fault, I kept pressing start and then getting distracted and having to start again. I think the setting for this is great. Technology somehow woke up and shortly after decided to part ways with humanity. This leaves our philosophising monks firstly stumped as to how their calculators suddenly became conscious and secondly bewildered as to why the living tech would not want to partake in human society. So, in some fashion it is agreed that humans may have exactly half of the Earth to use while the remainder of species, including the fledgling tech, would remain unmolested on the other half. Wouldn't you love to see how that map was drawn up?! But it's not about the politics of that decision, it's about the maturity of it and of the respectful actions that followed it. We meet Dex serving as a G...

WWW: Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars This review will SPOIL books one and two in the next paragraph. I loved book three and thought it was easily the best of the set. One of the things that I was reminded of at the start of the last book and again at the start of this book is just how little time has passed in the series so far. In the course of just a few weeks Caitlin gains sight, Webmind emerges, communication between the two is established, various international intelligence agencies monitor the interaction, Webmind reveals himself to the world and the US defence secretary runs an operation to terminate Webmind. Not to mention all of the events occurring on the peripheral. It's easy to think that months at least have passed but the speed of events is phenomenal and probably appropriate to the digital plot. I was enjoying the relationships and such in the first two books but I must admit that it was distracting me in this bo...

The Dimensioneers by Doris Piserchia My rating: 4 of 5 stars The blurb calls our protagonist "the orphan," so The Orphan it is. The blurb also describes that by mind linking with her mutated lion, (named Wyala), The Orphan can jump across worlds through a fourth dimension. We meet our new friends The Orphan and Wyala while they are being hunted by some Kriff who chase the pair through a dimension jump (referred to as a "skip") and the action is immediately cranked up to ten. The story is consistently fast paced and action packed, although the stakes vary from trouble at school to saving Earth. "In spite of my good intentions I didn’t remain a good little orphan for long. Perhaps if the weather had been decent; I don’t know" The Orphan is a feisty type. She's short, smart and has a biting attitude. We find out that she lives in an orphanage/boarding school arrangement and that skipping through the dimension pipes has ...

Around the World in 72 Days by Nellie Bly My rating: 4 of 5 stars Nellie Bly is exactly the kind of mighty woman that we all love. When she proposes her idea to her publishers she is hastily met with the rebuke that, if the trip were at all possible it would require a man to undertake it. To paraphrase her reply, she said: "Very well, you send a man today and I shall depart tomorrow for another newspaper and I shall still beat your man back." Apparently this can-do attitude was enough to eventually convince her superiors that she was up to the task and soon afterwards she was off and away on her ground breaking trip. The story of her trip is told with delightful humour. An early example is when Bly discusses how much sweeter sleep is when it threatens to make you miss an engagement. Just like Phileas, Nellie suffers delays and risks taking several detours yet still manages to eventually beat her ETA. On her journey she takes the opportunity...

Beside Still Waters by Robert Sheckley My rating: 3 of 5 stars Mark decides that he wants to "get away from it all" so ships himself out to an isolated asteroid in the belt with only his robot, Charles, for companionship. Over time he programs enough responsive material into Charles that he considers the robot a true friend. I liked the concept very much but I thought it wasn't explored enough and I didn't love the chosen dialogue at all. The ending while gloomy had a sweetness to it. View all my reviews

Glow worm by Harlan Ellison My rating: 3 of 5 stars "There was only silence. The silence of a graveyard." As far as Seligman is aware, he is not only the last human alive but also the only surviving remnant of all life on Earth. Much of humanity had long ago left for the stars and those who remained had managed to wipe everything out. Everything. Except for Seligman who is left glowing in the wake of the catastrophe. "He was more than a messenger, now. He was a shining symbol of the end of all humanity on Earth, a symbol of the evil their kind had done." Seligman makes it his mission to head out and reach humanity among the stars. In the process he learns that his body has been affected in more significant ways than to simply glow. This is a rather bleak "what if" scenario which examines otherness and loneliness. This is the first writing that I've read by Ellison apart from his 'City on the Edge of Forever' ...

Hall of Mirrors by Fredric Brown My rating: 4 of 5 stars "It is a tough decision to make—whether to give up your life so you can live it over again!" I mean, if that quote, which is the opening line for 'Hall of Mirrors', if that quote doesn't grab your attention then nothing I'm about to write will do it for you. Norman Hastings wakes up and learns that he is the first human time traveller and that he must determine whether humanity is ready for timey wimey stuff or whether to destroy the technology. Brought forward from 1954 to 2004 in a very unique way, he is told that there is no possible return for him. "I constructed the first time machine a week ago. My calculations had told me that it would work, but not how it would work." I really can't say any more about the plot without giving up the goods so I'll just highly recommend this super short story which is based on a wonderful and novel idea, a new wa...

Made to Order: Robots and Revolution by Jonathan Strahan My rating: 4 of 5 stars This review is for 'Test 4 Echo' by Peter Watts. “I spent most of my life surrounded by things that look like me. I came up here so I wouldn’t have to.” Research is being carried out on a mechanical arm deep in the oceans of Enceladus and when the arm begins to behave atypically the scientists are under pressure to solve the dilemma and maintain their funding status. A very thoughtful and thought provoking discussion ensues on the rights and the risks of granting autonomy and self determination to any artificial Intelligences. This was a short but sweet read. The collection looks great and I intend to read and review it all eventually. View all my reviews

The Mercenaries by H. Beam Piper My rating: 3 of 5 stars "and when he saw her, his heart gave a little bump, like a geiger responding to an ionizing particle. It always did that, although they had been together for twelve years, and married for ten." I knowww, it has nothing to do with the scifi but I just adored the above quote and wanted to share it. How sweet! And at least it demonstrates that Piper's prose is not entirely mechanical in this story. I thought the language employed was marvellous. "in a world where soldiers must use the weapons of science and scientists must learn the arts of violence." Written in 1950 and set in 1965. This short involves a small group of contracted soldier-scientists. It's a chemistry and particle physics heavy narrative, the team have developed a new type of weapon which is described at length. One among their number is a traitor and most of the narrative is taken up by the group discus...

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne My rating: 4 of 5 stars Like most scifi readers I've seen this everywhere around the place and it's hard not to know anything about a 150 year old story, especially since the title gives up the game. I reckon I've had a copy on my bookshelves for well over a decade now but I've never read the story and I did not read the blurb or any reviews before starting. Presumably I had seen some cartoon or film at least in passing which had given me the mental picture I held, but TV versions of Frankenstein are notoriously bad, so I decided to write down what I thought I knew before starting: [I think a chap sets off to circumnavigate the globe by hot air balloon on a bet? Or a dare? That's all. I believe he succeeded.] In fact I wasn't really sure how this was going to make a scifi story, even though I've always considered it so. I do have very specific memories of reading '20,000 L...

WWW: Watch by Robert J. Sawyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars After my spectacularly inept review of book one I was hesitant to say much about this one. Here I go anyway, hopefully with some more meaningful commentary. I'm truly invested in the characters now and even though I thought that some plot decisions were questionable I am pleased with the way it has all come together so far. The writing ebbs and flows for me, sometimes I'm leaning towards 5 stars for ideas and interesting developments, other times I'm drooping down near 3 stars for plain language and awkward scenes. The story has a more energetic plot overall involving covert ops; intelligence agencies around the world have begun to notice the existence of Webmind and it's no challenge to guess how those types of folks will respond. This puts Caitlin and her posse on the defensive and makes for a good tense bit of storytelling, especially the ending which had all the heart racing e...

A Man Obsessed by Alan E. Nourse My rating: 3 of 5 stars Our man obsessed, Jeff, hated all the frivolities of society around him. But the thing he hated most was Paul Conroe. So he had fixed to kill the man and was ever in hot pursuit. Blinkered and fettered by his fixation he follows his bounty into a madhouse that it is said nobody ever comes out of - A place where the patients are subjected to morbid experimentation. "He ran across the room and struck the solid brick wall full face. He hit with a sickening thud, pounded at the wall with his fists, screaming out again and again. And then he collapsed to the floor, his nose broken, his face bleeding, his fingers raw with the nails broken." You're wondering at this point... why wouldn't Jeff leave his prey to the terrible fate that is sure to become him inside that madhouse? Well, that would not a story make. Oh. And Jeff is convinced that Conroe would find a way to escape the place...

Jenna: The Trial by Simon Guerrier My rating: 3 of 5 stars Oddly, the blurb tells us that this story occurs years after the Dust Run (an event which occurred in the previous story) but it picks up exactly where the last story finished off. The voice actors are the same, Carrie Dobro and Benedict Cumberbatch, playing Jenna and Max. This one has a better narrative and does a better job of building background for Jenna and the whole political situation as we find it at the start of the TV series. The drama is wound back in intensity and this one is mostly conversational again, with a focus on the manipulative tactics of both Federation operatives and those who fear for their own freedom. There is also a little more of Jenna's mad piloting which is the funnest part of this story. View all my reviews

Jenna: The Dust Run by Simon Guerrier My rating: 3 of 5 stars Apparently Knyvette came back for the Big Finish audiodramas but Carrie Dobro voices Jenna for these B7 productions. I think there's a few spots where Dobro tries to hide it but not much and her American accent kind of spoils any chance of familiarity with the character. Also in this drama is Benedict Cumberbatch playing an old flame, Max. This one plays out as Jenna recalling her past with Max and I don't think it does very much for her background but it does show off a bit of her passion and skill for piloting spacecraft which was a pleasure of its own. The action gets quite tense which is the highlight in this, but then the end is a bit ugh. View all my reviews

The Wailing Asteroid by Murray Leinster My rating: 4 of 5 stars "There is as yet no hint of what the messages may mean but that they are an attempt at communication is certain." An artificial signal received on Earth that appears to be of non human, but intelligent origin sets the people of Earth into a frenzy. Joe Burke was in the middle of confessing insanity to his partner, explaining that he'd always wanted to marry her but had not wished to inflict his madness into her life, on the grounds that he had been hearing (since childhood) a strange message that noone else can hear. When the news of the extraterrestrial message is broadcast on the radio, Joe forgets all about his marriage proposal and immediately he draws a connection between the public messages and his own private ones. When Joe Burke was young an uncle was showing him some cromagnon artefacts and he dropped and shattered a peculiar black cube. Ever since then, he had bee...

Neuromancer by William Gibson My rating: 4 of 5 stars "A pair of predatory-looking Christian Scientists were edging toward a trio of young office techs who wore idealized holographic vaginas on their wrists, wet pink glittering under the harsh lighting." This is one of those stories which I simply must admit is actually quite good even though I personally didn't enjoy it. I didn't like any of the characters at all and the plot was entirely uninteresting to me. However the scifi in this world is just marvellous, especially since this story preceded any global network of digital information, even moreso because this was Gibson's writing debut. It's not worth me trying to explain what happens herein. I didn't really get it all the time and being an established classic there are plenty of folks who have already written a better review for it than I ever could. Go read those instead. To illustrate my point, I can hones...

WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very good blend of hard and soft scifi, or at least a lovely imaginative fantasy rooted in a bunch of scientific knowns. I suppose that latter is what you all mean when you say "speculative fiction" *shrugs* I don't know. I read another reviewer calling it cyberpunk and I went "oh, yeah, I suppose a bit o' that too," ... as you can see, I really don't know what I'm talking about so you should probably read someone else's review. The main theme is a cyberpunk/biopunk mashup but the actual plot is much more of a human story. Sawyer imagines various examples of interactions that require a paradigm shift for any sort of useful interpretation to occur. This is largely based on what we know to expect and then Sawyer runs with it a bit which is how good scifi happens. Some of the examples have a sense of "uplift" about them, but of course, this is consi...

Desertion by Clifford D. Simak My rating: 5 of 5 stars "She was the top-notch conversion unit operator in the Solar System and she didn't like the way he was doing things." Extraordinarily for a 1940's story, Miss Stanley is quite a bit of a badass. She brings the humanity to this story too, which is a little less unexpected, but she doesn't do so by yelping about in hysterics like many other female characters of the time. We meet her protesting the wasteful methods used to perfect a way for humans to establish ourselves on Jupiter! "No matter how many men may die, you’ll go up a notch or two." - is Mr. Fowler's very unsavoury response. And then it seems like business will persist as usual until a little introspection causes a very sudden twist in the narrative. The ending is not so surprising as the way it is reached. Very creative. View all my reviews

Burning Chrome by William Gibson My rating: 2 of 5 stars Cynical misanthropia. Sex, drugs and presumably punk rock. This is a collection of universe expanding stories for the cyberpunk sensation 'Neuromancer'. I almost guarantee that I missed the point in most of these. Perhaps I was getting the wrong vibe but it seemed that Gibson was trying to warn us about a future of liberalism, like the worst thing about the future is that people are going to be amoral by his definition. More than that is the idea that we'll all switch off and allow ourselves to be led by corrupt organisations that are designed to fleece us while perpetuating a meaningless existence. I guess I kind of vaguely get on board with this latter but not in a big way. 1. The Gernsback Continuum. A photographer has a vision which he finds disturbing and the advice he receives in order to make sense of it, is not to make sense of it. 2. Fragments of a Hologram Rose. Ah, the ti...