Science/Speculative Fiction Review #16

I spend a great deal of my time every day reading speculative science fiction.  The rest of my time is spent asking the questions and questioning the answers that the science fiction I read creates. All of the stories I post contain elements of profound contemplation, varying philosophy, metaphysics, and theoretical pondering. The authors that create these stories are among my heroes in this reality, and I very much want to share them with you.   Although I read a great deal more than the stories I will post in these short reviews, I only want to share those pieces of text/audio that really stick with me and force my mind to ponder life, the universe, and everything. While I am delighted with nearly all that I read in this genre, I will make an attempt to only present the best of the best.

Writing - The quality of the writing.  I specifically rate the writing on how well it is able to convey to me the action, thoughts, emotions, etc. of the story. 

Creativity- Simply put, this rating is a measure of the degree of imagination that exists in the writing.  How unique and new was the story? Is it something I have seen done over and over again? I also factor into this rating category interesting literary techniques such as stylish ways to present chapters or different parts of the story.   

Intrigue- This rating represents the stories ability to keep me interested.  Did I get bored and have to fight my way through to the end?  Or did I lose myself and end up somewhere else entirely?

Overall- My general impression of the story. How much I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and/or how much it affected me.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky -novel-

      Writing 5+                     Creativity 4.5                      Intrigue 5+ 

   Overall 5+

Aliens visit Earth very briefly and then leave.  The areas where they landed are known as 'zones' and are quarantined due to intensely strange and usually deadly phenomena that occur within them.  These phenomena do not spread but remain intact within the zone.  There are also various artifacts the visitors leave behind.  Human scavengers known as 'stalkers' venture into the the zones and collect these artifacts, pawning them off to the highest bidder.  Due to the unexpected and otherworldly nature of the zone it is the most stressful and deadly job that exists.  One such stalker is the protagonist in the story and through his eyes the reader is introduced to the effects on the world at large that the visitation has, and also the zone itself.  This is instantly one of the best pieces of text I have ever read.  Dynamic characterization, profound ideas, and a fluid plot filled with hope, thrill, doom and puzzled anticipation.


""A picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. Cars drive off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, birds, and insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Old spark plugs and old filters strewn around... Rags, burnt-out bulbs, and a monkey wrench left behind... And of course, the usual mess—apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire, cans, bottles, somebody’s handkerchief, somebody’s penknife, torn newspapers, coins, faded flowers picked in another meadow." The nervous animals in this analogy are the humans who venture forth after the Visitors left, discovering items and anomalies which are ordinary to those who discarded them, but incomprehensible or deadly to those who find them."





Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss -novel-

  Writing 5                       Creativity 4                        Intrigue 4 

Overall 4.5

This is the first novel Brian Aldiss ever wrote. It begins with the protagonist, a simple hunter who lives in a small tribe.  The poor and solitary tribe's culture punishes free thinking and discourages individuality.  After leaving his brutish home and exploring 'the ship' with a group of other men, he discovers that the world he lives in is much larger and yet infinitely smaller than he thought. The discoveries he and his companions make change the reality of everyone living in their world forever.








The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester -novel-

Writing 5+                       Creativity 4.5                    Intrigue 5+ 

 Overall 5

The Demolished Man was the winner of the very first Hugo award in 1953, the most prestigious book award in science fiction.  Set in the 24th century, the world is made up of espers and non-espers, or people that can read thoughts and those that can't.  Espers are ranked into 3 categories and differ by their ability to view deeper levels of a person's subconscious mind.  Due to a vast amount of people being able to read minds, thoughts, memories, and whatever else the brain records, murder and most other crimes have altogether disappeared.  A non-esper named Ben Reich, a highly charming and powerful business tycoon, changes that. One of my favorite parts of the story was the way Bester showed how espers have telepathic conversations.  In order to keep the conversation coherent and organized they mentally organize their words with each other into geometrical patterns.  It was a thrilling and interesting read.



""I'll think about it," Reich muttered and turned to go. As he opened the door, Breen called: "By the way... `We Transport You Into Transports' is the slogan of the D'Courtney Cartel. How does that tie in with the alteration of `bort' to `dort'? Think it over."

"The Man With No Face!"

Without staggering, Reich slammed the door across the path from his mind to Breen and then lurched down the corridor toward his own suite. A wave of savage hatred burst over him. "He's right. It's D'Courtney who's giving me the screams. Not because I'm afraid of him. I'm afraid of myself. Known all along. Known it deep down inside. Known that once I faced it I'd have to kill that D'Courtney bastard. It's no face because it's the face of murder.""





Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott              -novella-

       Writing 5+                     Creativity 4.5                      Intrigue 4.5 

                                                                           Overall 4.5

At the time this novel was written, in 1884, I'm sure this review would have awarded a 5+ for all categories.  The story may be over one hundred years old, but it is still highly relevant and continues to expand the reader's imagination.  The protagonist of the story is a square who lives in a two-dimensional world.  In the first part of the story, the square explains to the reader how his two-dimensional peers live.  He describes their culture, their forms, their ideologies, even the basics, like getting around and recognizing one being form another (in a two dimensional world everyone just looks like a line from your perspective).  He then goes on to describe a dream he has where he views a one dimensional world of points and lines that live on a single line.  As the story progresses, he is introduced to third dimensional world via a preaching sphere.  The story goes onto describe and imagine worlds with more than three dimensions, and also a world with a single inhabitant consisting of no dimensions.  It's a quick and exceptional read that any true sci fi/math fan should not pass up.  

Read it here.

"Awestruck at the sight of the mysteries of the earth, thus unveiled before my unworthy eye, I said to my Companion, "Behold, I am become as a God. For the wise men in our country say that to see all things, or as they express it, omnividence, is the attribute of God alone." There was something of scorn in the voice of my Teacher as he made answer: "is it so indeed? Then the very pick-pockets and cut-throats of my country are to be worshiped by your wise men as being Gods: for there is not one of them that does not see as much as you see now. But trust me, your wise men are wrong.""

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
-novel-

Writing 5+                     Creativity 5                      Intrigue 5+ 

                                                                         Overall 5+

After World War Terminus, a nuclear war to end all wars, the world lives in a crumbling heap of filth.  Many people have moved to Mars where they are given a free android as a  servant as incentive to make the move.  Most people remain on Earth in a permanent shadow of the once beautiful planet. Peoples' moods are controlled through the use of emotion specific pills ranging from 'accepting' to 'complacent' to 'depressed'.'  People around the world also find solace through a global emotional connection known as Mercerism where they are able to connect with each other empathically in order to escape the lonely planet. Every so often an android of group of androids kills its master and makes an escape to Earth.  It is Deckard's job to retire the androids.  A dangerous and ethically complex profession.  With the advent of the Nexus 6, a new, more intelligent, more real model of android, Deckard's ability to kill with such cold disregard becomes to dissolve.  He is left with a harsh reality, and himself.  This is one of the most famous, most influential pieces of sci fi ever written.  It is highly philosophical, action packed, filled with characters you can't get enough of, and oozing with jaw dropping intrigue.  If you are a fan of literature in general, you won't be able to put this one down.

"You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity."

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Science/Speculative Fiction Review #15

I spend a great deal of my time every day reading speculative science fiction.  The rest of my time is spent asking the questions and questioning the answers that the science fiction I read creates. All of the stories I post contain elements of profound contemplation, varying philosophy, metaphysics, and theoretical pondering. The authors that create these stories are among my heroes in this reality, and I very much want to share them with you.   Although I read a great deal more than the stories I will post in these short reviews, I only want to share those pieces of text/audio that really stick with me and force my mind to ponder life, the universe, and everything. While I am delighted with nearly all that I read in this genre, I will make an attempt to only present the best of the best.

Writing - The quality of the writing.  I specifically rate the writing on how well it is able to convey to me the action, thoughts, emotions, etc. of the story. 

Creativity- Simply put, this rating is a measure of the degree of imagination that exists in the writing.  How unique and new was the story? Is it something I have seen done over and over again? I also factor into this rating category interesting literary techniques such as stylish ways to present chapters or different parts of the story.   

Intrigue- This rating represents the stories ability to keep me interested.  Did I get bored and have to fight my way through to the end?  Or did I lose myself and end up somewhere else entirely?

Overall- My general impression of the story. How much I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and/or how much it affected me.

Mail Order by Martin Ivision -flash story-

     Writing 4                     Creativity 3                      Intrigue 3.5 

Overall 3.5

Human colonists land on a world of mostly water. Their objective is to make contact with the intelligent alien species on the planet. After learning how to order products from the aliens with hacked credit, they lose track of their mission. 

Read it here.

"The Q’rai language is at its most poetic when describing the ocean, and I’m the only human being who can appreciate it. I savour the nuance between the water stirred by a surface current and the water stirred by a gust of circular wind. I know the words for the green water rich with brine jelly and for the red water during a sunfish bloom. I roll my tongue over the suffixes added for the differences in salination and the tonal variances for the sea in the seven seasons. As I’m falling asleep nights, I whisper to myself oulai’ma’oulai, the word for your share of the ocean you carry in your heart."

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut -novel- 

   Writing 5+                     Creativity 5                      Intrigue 4.5 

Overall 5  

Cat's Cradle is one of Vonnegut's most well known works. It begins with the protagonist and narrator, John, describing the book he had planned to write. It would be a book about the fictional father of the atomic bomb, Felix Hoenikker. After contacting Hoenikker's three children, John is thrown for a tail spin on a bizarre adventure to a island country called San Lorenzo. In San Lorenzo, John meets the most beautiful woman alive, inadvertently converts to a strange new religion, a witnesses the greatest change in the world that has ever taken place. A dark, humorous satire that combines elements ranging from wild chemical discovery to anthropological insight.


""If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.""






Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon -novel- 

Writing 5+                     Creativity 5+                      Intrigue 5 

Overall 5

One of the the most highly acclaimed science/speculative fiction works ever created.  Many of the biggest names in science fiction source this book as inspiration or simply heave accolades all over its awe filled rhetoric.  The book begins with a narrator inexplicably transported out of his body and able to explore the solar system and galaxy at large as a non-physical being. After experimenting with high speed cosmic flight he attempts to return to Earth but realizes it is like searching for a single grain of sand on a world composed entirely of grains of sand.  He eventually continues his journey, describing a multitude of aspects of different worlds and systems.  He begins with those intelligent species that are 'similar' to ours, and after merging with other bodiless beings goes onto describe stranger and altogether amazing beings and collectives of beings.  His near ineffably profound experience spans all of time, and outside of it, eventually meeting the Star Maker itself.  To read this story in its entirety is to become versed in one of the most pivotal and talked about pieces of speculative/philosophical text that has ever existed.   

“In every one of these "chrysalis" worlds thousands of millions of persons were flashing into existence, one after the other, to drift gropingly about for a few instants of cosmical time before they were extinguished. Most were capable, at least in some humble degree, of the intimate kind of community which is personal affection; but for nearly all of them a stranger was ever a thing to fear and hate. And even their intimate loving was inconstant and lacking in insight. Nearly always they were intent merely on seeking for themselves respite from fatigue or boredom, fear or hunger. Like my own race, they never fully awoke from the primeval sleep of the subman. Only a few here and there, now and then, were solaced, goaded, or tortured by moments of true wakefulness. Still fewer attained a clear and constant vision, even of some partial aspect of truth; and their half-truths they nearly always took to be absolute. Propagating their little partial truths, they bewildered and misdirected their fellow mortals as much as they helped them.”







2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut -short story-  

      Writing 5                     Creativity 3.5                      Intrigue 4.5 

Overall 4.5

The world has been cured or disease, war, poverty, insanity, and even old age.  The only problem left is that of population.  How do you sustain such a perfect world if more people are continuously born into it? For every being that comes in, someone else must go out.  When you are ready to die, or are asked to, to allow another being to enter existence the number you call is the title of the story.  It is pronounced 'to be or naught to be.' The protagonist of the story is about to have triplets.  Who will die so that they may live?

Read it here.

"Everything was perfectly swell.

There were no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars.

All diseases were conquered. So was old age.

Death, barring accidents, was an adventure for volunteers.

The population of the United States was stabilized at forty-million souls.

One bright morning in the Chicago Lying-in Hospital, a man named Edward K. Wehling, Jr., waited for his wife to give birth. He was the only man waiting. Not many people were born a day any more."





Elegy for a Young Elk by Hannu Rajaniemi -short story- 

Writing 4                     Creativity 4.5                      Intrigue 4 

Overall 4

A hunter and his friend, a large talking bear, live a solitary, peaceful life in the woods of a desolate world.  At some point every bit of matter, be it alive or inanimate, was ravaged by a strange disease that affects the skin and mind.  Humans created a 'heaven' above the world and transcended their mundane forms through advanced technology.  For the sake of preserving the rest of the world, cities are quarantined through the use of a 'fire wall' a sentient wall that obliterates anything that attempts to enter or leave the city without permission. Kosonnen is given the task by a physical manifestation of his ex-wife, now a god, to enter the city in order to find something the god's dropped.  Danger lurks in every corner of the city, even in the most unexpected places.  There is a ton of history to this story that isn't explicitly delved into.  I thought being thrown into such a strange yet somehow familiar world with only vague knowledge of the 'why' of what is happening really added to the intrigue of the piece.  Check this one out.  You won't be disappointed.  

Read it here. 

"The city was a forest of metal and concrete and metal that breathed and hummed. The air smelled of ozone. The facades of the buildings around the railway station square looked almost like he remembered them, only subtly wrong. From the corner of his eye he could glimpse them moving, shifting in their sleep like stone-skinned animals. There were no signs of life, apart from a cluster of pigeons, hopping back and forth on the stairs, looking at him. They had sapphire eyes."

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Science/Speculaitve Fiction review #14

I spend a great deal of my time every day reading speculative science fiction.  The rest of my time is spent asking the questions and questioning the answers that the science fiction I read creates. All of the stories I post contain elements of profound contemplation, varying philosophy, metaphysics, and theoretical pondering. The authors that create these stories are among my heroes in this reality, and I very much want to share them with you.   Although I read a great deal more than the stories I will post in these short reviews, I only want to share those pieces of text/audio that really stick with me and force my mind to ponder life, the universe, and everything. While I am delighted with nearly all that I read in this genre, I will make an attempt to only present the best of the best.

Writing - The quality of the writing.  I specifically rate the writing on how well it is able to convey to me the action, thoughts, emotions, etc. of the story. 

Creativity- Simply put, this rating is a measure of the degree of imagination that exists in the writing.  How unique and new was the story? Is it something I have seen done over and over again? I also factor into this rating category interesting literary techniques such as stylish ways to present chapters or different parts of the story.   

Intrigue- This rating represents the stories ability to keep me interested.  Did I get bored and have to fight my way through to the end?  Or did I lose myself and end up somewhere else entirely?

Overall- My general impression of the story. How much I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and/or how much it affected me.






The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien -novels- 

   Writing 5+                      Creativity 5+                       Intrigue 5+  

Overall 5+

Go read the books that have had a bigger impact on the mind of humanity than most literature throughout all of history. Just think, we know more about the creation, history, and laws of the Lord of the Rings universe than we do any other, including our own. Written initially as a bedtime story, these books speak for themselves - the greatest epic ever told, ever!




“It's like in the Great Stories, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?

But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too young to understand why. But I think I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something-that there's some good in the world, and it's worth fighting for!” 

The Gravity Mine by Stephen Baxter -short story-

Writing 5                       Creativity 5                      Intrigue 5  

Overall 5

A very short story spanning an amount of time that is greater than maximum entropy itself. Due to the scale and profundity of this story, it is instantly one of my favorites. An individual part of a universal collective consciousness trillions of years in the future wakes up to its individuality within an ancient black hole.  This individual continues to awaken and fall back into the slumber and ease of the collective whole as time progresses on a scale beyond current conceptualization.  Leave it to Baxter.  While the terms Baxter uses may be a bit out of the realm of the normal reader's vocabulary, those of you that are really into contemporary physics and cosmology will love this one. Speculative and awesome!

Read it here.


"They are the remnants of stars," he said.

He told her about the Afterglow: that brief, brilliant period after the Big Bang, when matter gathered briefly in clumps and burned by fusion light. "It was a bonfire, over almost as soon as it began. The universe was very young. It has swollen some ten thousand trillion times in size since then ... Nevertheless, it was in that gaudy era that humans arose. Us, Anlic."






Am I Still There? by James R. Hall  -short story-

Writing 4.5                       Creativity 3                      Intrigue 4.5  

Overall 3.5

This is the story of a man who has systematically had every body part replaced. Now, after centuries alive, it is time to replace his brain. The whole idea of this story is represented as a prologue - "Which must in essence, of course, simply be the question 'what do I mean by I?'"


Read it here.



"Mr. Lee, this isn't going to be a matter of repair. We have found it necessary to replace the entirety of what could roughly be called your 'brain', as well as part of the spinal cord."

"My whole brain?" Lee sat, stunned, comprehension slowly filtering into him. He voiced the only coherent thought which materialized. "Why that will mean there won't be anything left of me at all."




Raft by Stephen Baxter -short story-

Writing 4                       Creativity 5+                      Intrigue 4 

Overall 4

An enormous ship is somehow transported into a parallel universe. Gravity is billions of times stronger in this universe, and due to this, planets do not exist as they would implode due to their own mass. Many generations after the ship is transported into the parallel universe the surviving humans build a 'raft' out of the ship that was destroyed due to its mass. They survive in a nebula on the outskirts of a massive black hole. Even humans have a noticeable gravitational field in this universe. Because of the nature of gravity in this universe, the story takes place amid a time of environmental collapse. What will the surviving humans do to escape the fate of a star plummeting directly toward them.


Read it here.


"The structure swung neatly around the star, tipping so that it kept the upper face to the star. People cried out and deck plates groaned. Rees watched two trees smashing together; huge splinters rained down over the deck.

For a moment he was upside down, the distant stars rushing upwards, and there was the Core itself poised above him, cool and red and enormous. But centripetal force and the Raft's gravity field kept him glued to the deck, and then the Raft whipped through the rest of its rotation and righted again, dangling from its trees like a toy."





Scales by Alastair Reynolds -flash story-

Writing 4                       Creativity 5+                      Intrigue 5 

Overall 5+

Nico signs up to fight an invading alien species that has already decimated all human strong holds on Mars and Luna. It turns out the creatures that attacked humanity are just puppets of a far vaster and complex life form that spans n dimensional space. In order to fight the enemy, Nico's physical form is systematically dismantled. A recursive story that leaves you wondering who the enemy really is. Amazing!

Read it here.


"“Forget your armour certification, your weapons rating,” says the new instructor, a human head sticking out of an upright black life-support cylinder. “Now it’s time to get real.”

A wall slides back to reveal a hall of headless corpses, rank on rank of them suspended in green preservative.

“You don’t need bodies where you’re going, you just need brains.” she says. “You can collect your bodies on the way back home, when you’ve completed your tour. We’ll look after them.”"



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Science/Speculative Fiction Review #13

I spend a great deal of my time every day reading speculative science fiction.  The rest of my time is spent asking the questions and questioning the answers that the science fiction I read creates. All of the stories I post contain elements of profound contemplation, varying philosophy, metaphysics, and theoretical pondering. The authors that create these stories are among my heroes in this reality, and I very much want to share them with you.   Although I read a great deal more than the stories I will post in these short reviews, I only want to share those pieces of text/audio that really stick with me and force my mind to ponder life, the universe, and everything. While I am delighted with nearly all that I read in this genre, I will make an attempt to only present the best of the best.

Writing - The quality of the writing.  I specifically rate the writing on how well it is able to convey to me the action, thoughts, emotions, etc. of the story. 

Creativity- Simply put, this rating is a measure of the degree of imagination that exists in the writing.  How unique and new was the story? Is it something I have seen done over and over again? I also factor into this rating category interesting literary techniques such as stylish ways to present chapters or different parts of the story.   

Intrigue- This rating represents the stories ability to keep me interested.  Did I get bored and have to fight my way through to the end?  Or did I lose myself and end up somewhere else entirely?

Overall- My general impression of the story. How much I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and/or how much it affected me.

Blow Ups Happen by Robert Heinlein -short story-  

     Writing 5                      Creativity 3.5                       Intrigue 3.5  

Overall 4

A story written before World War 2. The world's energy depends on the continuation of a highly unstable nuclear reactor (that's right, Heinlien wrote about nuclear technology before it was even used on a global scale). One little mistake means the obliteration of most of Earth's population. Men watch the workers just in case. Men watch the watchers just in case. And just in case, men watch the watchers watching. Needless to say, tension is very high.
Read it here.

"Dr. Silard waited unhappily for the ensuing twenty minutes until his own relief arrived. Perhaps he had been hasty. Maybe he was wrong in thinking that Harper had at last broken under the strain of tending the most dangerous machine in the world—an atomic power plant. But if he had made a mistake, it had to be on the safe side—slips must not happen in this business; not when a slip might result in the atomic detonation of two and a half tons of uranium.

The Feeling of Power by Isaac Asimov -short story- 

Writing 4.5                      Creativity 3.5                       Intrigue 4  

Overall 4

In an age dominated by computers that do all calculations, being able to do simple mental math borders on witchcraft. 


Read it here.



""Aub! How much is nine times seven?"

Aub hesitated a moment. His pale eyes glimmered with a feeble anxiety. "Sixty-three," he
said. Congressman Brant lifted his eyebrows. "Is that right?"

"Check it for yourself, Congressman."

The congressman took out his pocket computer, nudged the milled edges twice, looked at its face as it lay there in the palm of his hand, and put it back. He said, "Is this the gift you brought us here to demonstrate. An illusionist?"

Ubik by Philip K. Dick -novel- 

   Writing 5+                      Creativity 5+                       Intrigue 5+  

Overall 5+

Dick crafts a world that details the mundane and the profound; doors cost a nickel to use and the dead can be temporarily preserved within their own mind.  Ubik is the only salvation, but what is it? A zany and highly addictive story.  Get a free subscription of Ubik by following my blog.  heh.


“We are served by organic ghosts, he thought, who, speaking and writing, pass through this our new environment. Watching, wise, physical ghosts from the full-life world, elements of which have become for us invading but agreeable splinters of a substance that pulsates like a former heart.”

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny -novel- 

   Writing 5                      Creativity 5+                       Intrigue 5  

Overall 5+

Buddhist and Hindu philosophy/characterization set in an ultra advanced, action packed world! A mythological, energy filled story that will have you gritting your teeth from beginning to end!  Because there are so many characters and profound yet potentially foreign ideas in this story, I have included a link to the wiki page which includes a surplus of information to help the reader fully experience the novel's alluring grandeur.  


"His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god, but he never claimed not to be a god."

Gossamer by Stephen Baxter -short story-

   Writing 5                      Creativity 4.5                       Intrigue 4.5  

                                                         Overall 5

Read it here.

Have a heaping serving of a healthy dose of Stephen Baxter. Worm hole failure and an undiscovered alien species within our own solar system to name just a few of the themes that make this story unforgettable. Two women explore Pluto and its moon while they attempt to find a way back from the remoteness and desolation of the outer solar system.  

"Lvov had been listening to her data desk’s synthesized murmur on temperature inversion layers in nitrogen atmospheres; now she tapped the desk to shut it off. The flitter was a transparent tube, deceptively warm and comfortable. Impossibly fragile. Astronauts have problems in space, she thought. But not me. I’m no hero; I’m only a researcher. Lvov was twenty-eight years old; she had no plans to die—and certainly not during a routine four-hour hop through a Poole wormhole that had been human-rated for eighty years."



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Science/Speculative Fiction Review #12

I spend a great deal of my time every day reading speculative science fiction.  The rest of my time is spent asking the questions and questioning the answers that the science fiction I read creates. All of the stories I post contain elements of profound contemplation, varying philosophy, metaphysics, and theoretical pondering. The authors that create these stories are among my heroes in this reality, and I very much want to share them with you.   Although I read a great deal more than the stories I will post in these short reviews, I only want to share those pieces of text/audio that really stick with me and force my mind to ponder life, the universe, and everything. While I am delighted with nearly all that I read in this genre, I will make an attempt to only present the best of the best.

Writing - The quality of the writing.  I specifically rate the writing on how well it is able to convey to me the action, thoughts, emotions, etc. of the story. 

Creativity- Simply put, this rating is a measure of the degree of imagination that exists in the writing.  How unique and new was the story? Is it something I have seen done over and over again? I also factor into this rating category interesting literary techniques such as stylish ways to present chapters or different parts of the story.   

Intrigue- This rating represents the stories ability to keep me interested.  Did I get bored and have to fight my way through to the end?  Or did I lose myself and end up somewhere else entirely?

Overall- My general impression of the story. How much I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and/or how much it affected me.





All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein -short story-

  Writing 5+                      Creativity 5+                       Intrigue 5+  

Overall 5+

A very short story concerning time travel and the webs of space-time that intertwine indefinitely. It took me a few careful read throughs to truly understand and grasp the plot. Here's a hint- there is only one character. Genius.

Read it here.


"Then I glanced at the ring on my finger.
 
The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail, Forever and Ever. I know where I came from - but where did all you zombies come from?

I felt a headache coming on, but a headache powder is one thing I do not take. I did once - and you all went away."

The Observer by Kristine Kathryn Rusch -short story-

Writing 4.5                      Creativity 4.5                       Intrigue 5  

Overall 4

A story that puts the reader into the head of a woman biologically altered to have an insatiable need to kill and destroy anything and everything, even herself. Is there any way she can return to normality, or will she be a prisoner within herself forever?


Read it here.


"No shielding, no vehicles, no nothing. Just us, dosed, altered, ready to go.

I wanted to rip something’s head off, and I did, the fury burning in me like lust. The weapons became tools—I wanted up close and I got it, fingers in eyes, fists around tentacles, poking, pulling, yanking—

They bled brown, like soda. Like coffee. Like weak tea.

And they screamed—or at least I think they did.

Or maybe that was just me."







Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke -novel- 

Writing 5                      Creativity 5                      Intrigue 5  

Overall 5

One of the most influential stories in the genre. A gigantic cylindrical object appears in our solar system and passes Earth in its trajectory. Where did it come from?  What is it?  Who made it?  Where is it going? All the inhabited planets and moons of the solar system collectively decide to send an expedition team to search the mysterious craft. What they find becomes stranger and stranger with every turn of the page. A brilliant story that pushes the boundaries of the reader's visualization. 

"The mass of Rama was at least ten trillion tons; to any spaceman, that was not only awe-inspiring but also a terrifying thought. No wonder that he sometimes felt a sense of insignificance, or even depression, as that cylinder of sculptured, ageless metal filled more and more of the sky."  








A Random World of Delta Capricorni Aa, Also Called Scheddi - by John C. Wright -flash story-

   Writing 4                     Creativity 4                      Intrigue 4  

Overall 4

A volunteer alien abductee is brought to a strange world where nothing seems to make sense. There is a reason though. There must be a reason for everything! I really enjoyed the perspective on higher intelligence this story provided. The description was fantastic as well.

Read it here.


"The Hierarch I called “Lollipop Guild” hovered naked next to me, his gleaming gray skull at armpit height. He raised a slender, shining arm and pointed, looking at me with eyes too large for his face, and deeper than outerspace. In his eyes, I saw the message:This is why.

“Why what?” I asked, teeth chattering. I had not mastered their art of speaking without speech.

In his eyes I saw a memory. The first thing I had said to them when the crystal ship had lowered itself out of the October dawn, ringing like hollow chimes, and the inhuman, solemn faces peered at me like fishermen examining a fish beneath their keel had been a question. “Why do you come to Earth?”"

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester -novel-

  Writing 5+                     Creativity 5+                      Intrigue 5+  

Overall 5+

Gully Foyle, a simpleton shipwrecked in space and kept alive through extreme and hapless self preservation for six months, is abandoned by a passing space craft. The anger he feels spurs him to seek obsessive revenge on the commander of the space craft through any means necessary. This drive leads him on a filthy, demeaning, struggle of a journey. The characters in the story are so well fleshed, especially the main character. The main character is a hero, a villain, a murder, a savage, and a saint. It is no wonder this story has been a sci fi/speculative favorite for the last fifty years for readers all around the world.

Read it here.

"He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead. He fought for survival with the passion of a beast in a trap. He was delirious and rotting, but occasionally his primitive mind emerged from the burning nightmare of survival into something resembling sanity. Then he lifted his mute face to Eternity and muttered: "What's a matter, me? Help, you goddamn gods! Help, is all.""

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Science/Speculative Fiction Review #11

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I spend a great deal of my time every day reading speculative science fiction.  The rest of my time is spent asking the questions and questioning the answers that the science fiction I read creates. All of the stories I post contain elements of profound contemplation, varying philosophy, metaphysics, and theoretical pondering. The authors that create these stories are among my heroes in this reality, and I very much want to share them with you.   Although I read a great deal more than the stories I will post in these short reviews, I only want to share those pieces of text/audio that really stick with me and force my mind to ponder life, the universe, and everything. While I am delighted with nearly all that I read in this genre, I will make an attempt to only present the best of the best.

Writing - The quality of the writing.  I specifically rate the writing on how well it is able to convey to me the action, thoughts, emotions, etc. of the story. 

Creativity- Simply put, this rating is a measure of the degree of imagination that exists in the writing.  How unique and new was the story? Is it something I have seen done over and over again? I also factor into this rating category interesting literary techniques such as stylish ways to present chapters or different parts of the story.   

Intrigue- This rating represents the stories ability to keep me interested.  Did I get bored and have to fight my way through to the end?  Or did I lose myself and end up somewhere else entirely?

Overall- My general impression of the story. How much I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and/or how much it affected me.





The Ender's Game Series 

         by Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game -novel- 

   Writing 5                       Creativity 4                       Intrigue 5+  

Overall 5

The novel that began a saga and a revolution in sci fi. Despite its grandeur and allure, you will realize after reading more of the series that it is a mere prologue to a universal epic. The Ender's Game Saga has a following the size of a small nation, and a universe filled with characters seemingly as tangible as our own family and friends. Earth has been attacked by an alien race that looks like giant insects. People refer to them as the 'buggers.' Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin is a child watched from birth by an international governmental organization to be raised and trained in space to save the world from a future onslaught. A novel packed with emotion that asks some of the biggest and most important questions regarding life and ethics.




Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind 

   -novels-

Writing 5+                       Creativity 5+                       Intrigue 5+  

Overall 5+

Three separate novels that can be seen as three parts to an epic tale. These novels take place 1000's of years after the events of Ender's Game, and focus on Ender and his eventual family. Due to traveling throughout the galaxy at relativistic speeds, Ender and his sister Valentine have literally been transported through time. The novels focus on the potential eradication of several new species, the classification of new species, religion, the reality of life, the universe and existence, and the possibility of seemingly impossibly alien creatures living harmoniously together in the galaxy. A breathtaking, heart wrenching set of novels that force you to fall in love with the various characters and worlds you meet.




Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, 

Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant 

  -novels-  

 Writing 5+                       Creativity 4                       Intrigue 5+  

Overall 5+

Like the previous stories that focus on Ender himself, these 4 books can also be grouped together into one epic story. The protagonist in the "shadow series" is a minor character from Ender's Game named Bean. Bean is undoubtedly the smartest human that has ever lived, and is arguably not human. Ender's Shadow depicts Bean's experience as a toddler, living as an orphan on the violent, sordid streets of Rotterdam. It then shows his experience in battle school, meeting and learning from the infamous Ender. The next 3 novels take place directly after the events of Ender's Game and focus on the ensuing wars that occur on Earth. The most powerful weapons in the world are the hyper intelligent, incredibly talented children trained in battle school and every nation wants to use them. These books discuss battle tactics and political scuffles in depth, and really show off Card's knowledge of history and the art of war. Tragedy, drama, romance, and completley fluid/dynamic characters. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire ride.




Shadows in Flight -novella- 

Writing 5                       Creativity 5                       Intrigue 5 

Overall 5

A short story written this year about the future of Bean and his children.   It takes place after the Earth is unified and Bean departs on his final journey.  It takes place as a sequel to Shadow of the Giant.  A story that left me intrigued and in tears after finishing it. I actually listened to the audio version of the story.  It is extremely well done with all 4 characters being read by a different person. Card is in the process of writing another novel that links the 'Ender Series' with the 'Shadow Series' called Shadows Alive. This short story left me salivating in anticipation for its release. 

Ender in Exile -novel- 

Writing 5                       Creativity 4.5                      Intrigue 5 

Overall 5

This story serves as a sequel to the Shadow Series and a prequel to Speaker for the Dead.  It ties up a lot of loose ends and unexplained questions that were left in both story arcs. The story also delves more into the minds of characters like Hyrum Graff, who ,despite their vital importance, were left on the outskirts of Card's descriptions in the other novels.  It begins directly after Ender destroys the formic home world, and documents Ender's journey to multiple colonies.  Ender even has a chance to confront Bean's lost child that was only touched upon at the end of the Shadow Series.  Although it would make chronological sense to read this book after reading the first novel, Ender's Game, I don't think the reader would be able to appreciate it unless they had read much more material in the whole of the series.  I recommend reading this novel last to truly connect with the plot, themes, and characters.  A well deserved and needed addition to the series as a whole! 

I have included a link to the wiki page for the entire Ender's Game Saga for a better understanding of the chronology, characters, ideas, events, and other short stories/novels that are able to stand-alone from the rest of the series.  

Click here for the wiki.