Novella
Number of words : 20700
Percent of complex words : 12.9
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 15.9
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 11.5
Flesch : 59.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.0
PEOPLE
Azar
Traveller to Tallulah from the Amalgam.
Shelma
A Bahari who meets Azar at Tallulah.
Shirin
Azar's great-great-granddaughter.
Jake
Spiral Out follower.
Tilly
Spiral Out follower.
Juhi
Spiral Out follower.
Rahul
Spiral Out follower.
Omar
A progressive Circler.
Lisa
A Circler.
Silas
A Circler.
Judah
A Circler spokesman.
Tarek
A Circler.
Santo
A Spiral Out delegate to the Amalgam.
PLACES
Hanuz
Azar's home system.
Tallulah
The planet Azar travels to, a world with no sun over a thousand light years from her home.
Bahar
A nearby solar system to Hanuz. Their people have five limbs and five tails.
Jute
A Tallulah colony.
TECHNOLOGY
Departure Gate
The launching off point for travelling to the new system.
Mologhat 1 and 2
Robot Probes to Tallulah.
Antimatter store
Powers Robot Probes and other such space craft.
Thermocouple
A junction between two different metals that produces a voltage related to a temperature difference.
Rail gun
Device for accelerating a payload rapidly into orbit.
Femtotech
The engineering of matter on the scale of atomic nuclei.
Mass spectrometer
Machine for measuring chemical composition.
Hoops
Made of something extraordinarily strong, spinning at close to the speed of light. A power source on Tallulah.
Deep-bore geothermal turbines
Used for specialized research projects.
Scout mites
Exploration and communication tiny tech.
Photonic jet
Used for moving Tallulah.
Geothermal cannons
Used for moving Tallulah to allow evacuations.
Deep rock graft
Used for seeding other worlds.
ORGANISATIONS
Amalgam
The meta-civilization that now ringed the galaxy.
Circlers
A Tallulah philosophy of those that want to stay on the planet.
Spiral In
A Tallulah philosophy. Followers that want to leave their bodies and become information. They do so and embed their minds in the deep rock of the planet.
Spiral Out
A Tallulah philosophy. Followers want to leave the planet.
CONCEPTS
C3
A carbohydrate polymer replicator.
P2
A polypeptide replicator.
Thermoelectric diffusion
In a particular Tallulah plant the electrons and holes would conduct heat from the ground up into the leaves, and in doing so they'd set up an electric potential, which in turn could be used to drive chemical reactions.
Chemosynthesis
Process of extracting energy from chemicals a la photosynthesis.
N2
DNA, Azar's ancestral replicator.
N3
A hereditary replicator.
Magnetic moment
A quantity that determines the force the magnet can exert on electric currents and the torque that a magnetic field will exert on it.
Next Passengers
The group that will use Tallulah in the future.
PLANTS
Entropy tree
Operates on thermoelectric diffusion, a living thermocouple.
Ribbon weed
A Tallulah common plant, also comes in giant varieties.
RACES
P2 Lizards
The current inhabitants of Tallulah. Two eight-clawed limbs that they used for digging and grasping objects; all their motive force came from their powerful tails. They sensed the world around them with a mixture of IR vision and sonar.
Builders
Creators of Tallulah. The Ground Heaters.
Old Passengers
Lived on Tallulah after the Builders.
ANIMALS
Tallulah wildlife
Shrimp-like animals straining microbes from the water, floating gas bladders with poisonous tentacles, and sinuous, muscular fish of every size among others.
VEHICLES
Mologhat 3
The probe for use in returning to the Amalgam.
PLOT
An Amalgam story.
Azar travels from her homeworld to the Tallulah system to explore this strange world with no sun. She is met there by Shelma, and together they explorer and finally make contact with the locals. A lizard-like people with their own political divisions, conservative, progressive explorers, and inward turning transhumanists.
The planet's technology allows extremely efficient conversion of energy, allowing it to stay warm without a star, and also the storage of those who leave their bodies to exist as information.
The conservative faction sees the arrival of aliens as a threat, and a precursor to a new wave of settling on the planet, and conflict erupts. One of their Spiral Out friends is taken hostage. They have to try and find a compromise to keep him safe, and allow those who want to make contact with the Amalgam to do so.
4 out of 5
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Africa Zero - Neal Asher
Two novellas about a very long-lived artificial man with superhuman capabilities thanks to his technology policing species diversity on a future Earth. With brings him into conflict with others like him, and with the corporate enclaves that remains.
Africa Zero : Africa Zero - Neal Asher
Africa Zero : The Army of God and the Sauraman - Neal Asher
Collector mammoth preservation wife cull.
4.5 out of 5
Dino hybrid near space struggle Collector wifely solution, with battle tanks.
3.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Africa Zero : Africa Zero - Neal Asher
Africa Zero : The Army of God and the Sauraman - Neal Asher
Collector mammoth preservation wife cull.
4.5 out of 5
Dino hybrid near space struggle Collector wifely solution, with battle tanks.
3.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
The Army of God and the Saurman - Neal Asher
Dino hybrid near space struggle Collector wifely solution, with battle tanks.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5500
Percent of complex words : 12.3
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 19.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 12.7
Flesch : 54.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 10.5
PEOPLE
James
A husband to be.
Alison
His wife to be.
Francis Chen
An astronomer who looked for time-reversed galaxies in space.
Hazzard and Capaldi and Wu
Astronomers who work on the hardware to communicate between future and past.
Pria
James and Alison's best man.
Lisa
A political staffer and mistress of James.
Henry Kissinger
A politician.
Maura
A politician.
PLACES
Kashmir
Disputed region between India and Pakistan where war breaks out in 2079.
ORGANISATIONS
Fulvio's
A restaurant on Martin Place.
St Vincent's
A hospital with a Casualty Department.
God Averts His Gaze
A cult with the political balance of power in 2077.
TECHNOLOGY
Hazzard Machines
Allows transmissions of messages from the future, 128 bytes per person per day.
ROMs
Digital information discs.
CONCEPTS
Shunting
Fictional theory that you can avoid something preordained communicated from the future.
PLOT
Astronomers discover that time reverses with the contraction of the universe. This allows the construction of machines that allow people's past and future selves to communicate - the amount of which is limited by bandwidth, and, of course, government desires on what people should actually know when it comes to wars. People of course cannot be made to communicate with their past selves, and a mistress of James desire to not do so, her pragmatism and political job and some conversations leads him to some terrifying realisations about what is going on.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 5500
Percent of complex words : 12.3
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 19.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 12.7
Flesch : 54.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 10.5
PEOPLE
James
A husband to be.
Alison
His wife to be.
Francis Chen
An astronomer who looked for time-reversed galaxies in space.
Hazzard and Capaldi and Wu
Astronomers who work on the hardware to communicate between future and past.
Pria
James and Alison's best man.
Lisa
A political staffer and mistress of James.
Henry Kissinger
A politician.
Maura
A politician.
PLACES
Kashmir
Disputed region between India and Pakistan where war breaks out in 2079.
ORGANISATIONS
Fulvio's
A restaurant on Martin Place.
St Vincent's
A hospital with a Casualty Department.
God Averts His Gaze
A cult with the political balance of power in 2077.
TECHNOLOGY
Hazzard Machines
Allows transmissions of messages from the future, 128 bytes per person per day.
ROMs
Digital information discs.
CONCEPTS
Shunting
Fictional theory that you can avoid something preordained communicated from the future.
PLOT
Astronomers discover that time reverses with the contraction of the universe. This allows the construction of machines that allow people's past and future selves to communicate - the amount of which is limited by bandwidth, and, of course, government desires on what people should actually know when it comes to wars. People of course cannot be made to communicate with their past selves, and a mistress of James desire to not do so, her pragmatism and political job and some conversations leads him to some terrifying realisations about what is going on.
3.5 out of 5
Saturday, November 27, 2010
At Budokan - Alastair Reynolds
Novelette
Number of words : 8100
Percent of complex words : 8.6
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 10.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.7
Flesch : 72.9
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.7
PEOPLE
Buddy Fox
A music promoter and entrepreneur.
James Hetfield
Singer with Metallica.
Jake Addison
Buddy's old partner and creator of Derek.
Derek
A Tyrannosaurus Rex that can play rock guitar.
Rachmaninov
A composer.
PLACES
Sea of Okhotsk
Body of water near Siberia.
Helsinki
City in Finland, where rock dinosaurs are made.
Copenhagen
City in Denmark.
MEDIA
Metallica
A heavy metal band.
Extinction Event
One of Derek's songs.
Rise of the Mammals
Another of Derek's songs.
Ghoul Group
The world's first all-dead rock act.
Godzilla
A fictional giant Japanese mutant radioactive firebreathing dinosaur.
Robot Metallica
Artificial tribute band.
Giant Robot Metallica
Really big artificial tribute band.
ORGANISATIONS
Morbid Management
Buddy and Jake's music company.
Gladius Biomech
Did the scientific work to make Derek.
FOOD
JD
Jack Daniels, a whisky.
Mammoth
As airline food, tastes like chicken.
VEHICLES
Antonov
An AN-225, the largest plane ever made, built fifty years ago for the Soviet space program.
Maglev
A hovertrain.
ANIMALS
T-Rex
Tyrannosaurus Rex, a dinosaur. Also an extremely expensive food.
TECHNOLOGY
Gibson Flying V
A brand of guitar.
Motor homunculus
Map of human brain function, according to how much volume's given over to a specific task. Looks like a little man with huge fucking hands.
CONCEPTS
Dorsal premotor cortex
Associated with the brain planning a sequence of body movements.
PLOT
Buddy and Jake are two music industry guys that run a management company that creates acts. Having run out of normal band ideas, they make one out of dead people. Eventually all artists want a better deal and not to be so screwed over, so they have to keep moving on. Like licensing robot replicas of Metallica to play around the world. Then Giant Robot Metallica. Which doesn't go so well, due to well, Giant Robot Rampage.
Metallica is not pleased and Fox is drowning his sorrows and trying to keep the nightmares and lawsuits at bay having dissolved his partnership.
His old partner Jake has an idea, however. He takes Buddy to what he has done - grown a T-Rex with hands so that it can play guitar.
Works very nicely and does well. However, even dinosaurs start to improvise when they rock. So it is go with it, or move on again.
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 8100
Percent of complex words : 8.6
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 10.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.7
Flesch : 72.9
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.7
PEOPLE
Buddy Fox
A music promoter and entrepreneur.
James Hetfield
Singer with Metallica.
Jake Addison
Buddy's old partner and creator of Derek.
Derek
A Tyrannosaurus Rex that can play rock guitar.
Rachmaninov
A composer.
PLACES
Sea of Okhotsk
Body of water near Siberia.
Helsinki
City in Finland, where rock dinosaurs are made.
Copenhagen
City in Denmark.
MEDIA
Metallica
A heavy metal band.
Extinction Event
One of Derek's songs.
Rise of the Mammals
Another of Derek's songs.
Ghoul Group
The world's first all-dead rock act.
Godzilla
A fictional giant Japanese mutant radioactive firebreathing dinosaur.
Robot Metallica
Artificial tribute band.
Giant Robot Metallica
Really big artificial tribute band.
ORGANISATIONS
Morbid Management
Buddy and Jake's music company.
Gladius Biomech
Did the scientific work to make Derek.
FOOD
JD
Jack Daniels, a whisky.
Mammoth
As airline food, tastes like chicken.
VEHICLES
Antonov
An AN-225, the largest plane ever made, built fifty years ago for the Soviet space program.
Maglev
A hovertrain.
ANIMALS
T-Rex
Tyrannosaurus Rex, a dinosaur. Also an extremely expensive food.
TECHNOLOGY
Gibson Flying V
A brand of guitar.
Motor homunculus
Map of human brain function, according to how much volume's given over to a specific task. Looks like a little man with huge fucking hands.
CONCEPTS
Dorsal premotor cortex
Associated with the brain planning a sequence of body movements.
PLOT
Buddy and Jake are two music industry guys that run a management company that creates acts. Having run out of normal band ideas, they make one out of dead people. Eventually all artists want a better deal and not to be so screwed over, so they have to keep moving on. Like licensing robot replicas of Metallica to play around the world. Then Giant Robot Metallica. Which doesn't go so well, due to well, Giant Robot Rampage.
Metallica is not pleased and Fox is drowning his sorrows and trying to keep the nightmares and lawsuits at bay having dissolved his partnership.
His old partner Jake has an idea, however. He takes Buddy to what he has done - grown a T-Rex with hands so that it can play guitar.
Works very nicely and does well. However, even dinosaurs start to improvise when they rock. So it is go with it, or move on again.
4.5 out of 5
Shine - Jetse De Vries
Updated - I was wrong, there is an ebook now - at least mobi, Amazon, Books On Board, etc. At the start of the year when I bought it and noted it there wasn't, as I would have bought that. http://www.amazon.com/Shine-ebook/dp/B003IWOBX4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A1HC3MLVT7QPHY
An anthology that was better than I thought it would be, given the lineup and being original, coming out at a very nice 3.59. Or somewhere between 4.25 and 4.5, basically. Impressively done. Kudos to Solaris too, for giving this a shot when generally speaking, the usual multinational offshoots just will not anymore. However, to partially alleviate that there is an excellent associated website. There are links to a couple of stories online (Yunye and Kenyon) anda podcast of the Tidhar piece. Plus some other excerpts and supporting stories of similar quality.
However, it also includes some twitter microstories of relevance, and introductions from an editor that is passionate about the project, which makes it even more pleasant to read. Also some non-fiction references.
Also, the settings range around the world, something that American editors, deliberately or not, often have great problems with. Therefore, we clearly need more Dutch editors. :)
Plus, it has Alastair Reynolds. And his story is extremely funny, and rather different to all the others, so a definitely excellent change of pace work in the middle, there.
Interestingly, he says most of the writers around are pathetically incapable of writing a story along these lines - which is odd, given as they say, ideas are a dime a dozen.
Anyway, just about a textbook example of how to do it, I think, compared to the usual hopelessness from Penguin or Macmillan or whoever that are so uselessly unprofessional they cannot even manage a table of contents.
I thought this book would be decent - so when it hits around the excellent mark and is a great price currently you really should buy it.
Having read hundreds of anthologies it isn't often that I want to revisit one soon afterwards, Shine is definitely one such.
Shine : The Earth of Yunhe - Eric Gregory
Shine : The Greenman Watches the Black Bar Go Up Up Up - Jacques Barcia
Shine : Overhead - Jason Stoddard
Shine : Summer Ice - Holly Phillips
Shine : Sustainable Development - Paula R. Stiles
Shine : The Church of Accelerated Redemption - Gareth L. Powell and Aliette de Bodard
Shine : The Solnet Ascendancy - Lavie Tidhar
Shine : Twittering the Stars - Mari Ness
Shine : Seeds - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Shine : At Budokan - Alastair Reynolds
Shine : Sarging Rasmussen: A Report by Organic - Gord Sellar
Shine : Scheherazade Caught in Starlight - Jason Andrew
Shine : Russian Roulette 2020 - Eva Maria Chapman
Shine : Castoff World - Kay Kenyon
Shine : Paul Kishosha's Children - Kenn Edgett
Shine : Ishin - Madeline Ashby
Metanation seed.
4 out of 5
Posthuman plan power lack.
3.5 out of 5
Lunar Last Resort.
4 out of 5
Parked fountain.
3.5 out of 5
Robots. Smashing.
3.5 out of 5
AI uplift thinktank recruit.
3.5 out of 5
Vanuatu tech leapfrog.
3.5 out of 5
Iridium fetching alien bacteria eating surprise.
4 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
An anthology that was better than I thought it would be, given the lineup and being original, coming out at a very nice 3.59. Or somewhere between 4.25 and 4.5, basically. Impressively done. Kudos to Solaris too, for giving this a shot when generally speaking, the usual multinational offshoots just will not anymore. However, to partially alleviate that there is an excellent associated website. There are links to a couple of stories online (Yunye and Kenyon) anda podcast of the Tidhar piece. Plus some other excerpts and supporting stories of similar quality.
However, it also includes some twitter microstories of relevance, and introductions from an editor that is passionate about the project, which makes it even more pleasant to read. Also some non-fiction references.
Also, the settings range around the world, something that American editors, deliberately or not, often have great problems with. Therefore, we clearly need more Dutch editors. :)
Plus, it has Alastair Reynolds. And his story is extremely funny, and rather different to all the others, so a definitely excellent change of pace work in the middle, there.
Interestingly, he says most of the writers around are pathetically incapable of writing a story along these lines - which is odd, given as they say, ideas are a dime a dozen.
Anyway, just about a textbook example of how to do it, I think, compared to the usual hopelessness from Penguin or Macmillan or whoever that are so uselessly unprofessional they cannot even manage a table of contents.
I thought this book would be decent - so when it hits around the excellent mark and is a great price currently you really should buy it.
Having read hundreds of anthologies it isn't often that I want to revisit one soon afterwards, Shine is definitely one such.
Shine : The Earth of Yunhe - Eric Gregory
Shine : The Greenman Watches the Black Bar Go Up Up Up - Jacques Barcia
Shine : Overhead - Jason Stoddard
Shine : Summer Ice - Holly Phillips
Shine : Sustainable Development - Paula R. Stiles
Shine : The Church of Accelerated Redemption - Gareth L. Powell and Aliette de Bodard
Shine : The Solnet Ascendancy - Lavie Tidhar
Shine : Twittering the Stars - Mari Ness
Shine : Seeds - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Shine : At Budokan - Alastair Reynolds
Shine : Sarging Rasmussen: A Report by Organic - Gord Sellar
Shine : Scheherazade Caught in Starlight - Jason Andrew
Shine : Russian Roulette 2020 - Eva Maria Chapman
Shine : Castoff World - Kay Kenyon
Shine : Paul Kishosha's Children - Kenn Edgett
Shine : Ishin - Madeline Ashby
Metanation seed.
4 out of 5
Posthuman plan power lack.
3.5 out of 5
Lunar Last Resort.
4 out of 5
Parked fountain.
3.5 out of 5
Robots. Smashing.
3.5 out of 5
AI uplift thinktank recruit.
3.5 out of 5
Vanuatu tech leapfrog.
3.5 out of 5
Iridium fetching alien bacteria eating surprise.
4 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Friday, November 26, 2010
Eugene - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5500
Percent of complex words : 15.7
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 20.9
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 14.6
Flesch : 48.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 11.6
PEOPLE
Angela Cooper
Lottery millionaire mother who wants an enhanced son.
Bill Cooper
Lottery millionaire father who wants an enhanced son.
Sam Cook
MB BS MD FRACP PhD MBA. A reproductive specialist.
Elvis Presley
An early rock singer.
Eugene
Bill and Angela's future child.
Kant
A philosopher.
Beethoven
A composer.
TECHNOLOGY
Perspex
A transparent thermoplastic.
IVF
In-vitro fertilisation.
ORGANISATIONS
Human Potential
A genetic engineering company.
Department of Social Security
Australian government department.
Department of Defence
Australian government department.
PLACES
Melbourne
Capital of Victoria.
Alice Springs
City in the Northern Territory.
CONCEPTS
Neo-blacks
People who have taken a viral treatment to turn their skin black and make it more resistant to skin cancer and radiation given the ozone depletion.
Muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease
Genetic conditions Human Potential can eliminate.
TPGM
Third-party genetic material.
Grand Unified Field Theory
Merged interaction of the fundamental forces.
VEHICLES
Roll-Royces
Expensive cars.
MEDIA
Van Goghs
Old paintings.
PLOT
Bill and Angela meet and decide they are compatible, so do the usual thing. After winning the lottery they decide to have a child that has undergone gene therapy.
The act and possibility of doing so with so many millions behind it earns them a visit from the future-possible avatar of the child - who doesn't see any point in his existence as they desired it, tells them this briefly, empties their banks accounts, and vanishes.
The three people involved go back to their lives.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 5500
Percent of complex words : 15.7
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 20.9
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 14.6
Flesch : 48.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 11.6
PEOPLE
Angela Cooper
Lottery millionaire mother who wants an enhanced son.
Bill Cooper
Lottery millionaire father who wants an enhanced son.
Sam Cook
MB BS MD FRACP PhD MBA. A reproductive specialist.
Elvis Presley
An early rock singer.
Eugene
Bill and Angela's future child.
Kant
A philosopher.
Beethoven
A composer.
TECHNOLOGY
Perspex
A transparent thermoplastic.
IVF
In-vitro fertilisation.
ORGANISATIONS
Human Potential
A genetic engineering company.
Department of Social Security
Australian government department.
Department of Defence
Australian government department.
PLACES
Melbourne
Capital of Victoria.
Alice Springs
City in the Northern Territory.
CONCEPTS
Neo-blacks
People who have taken a viral treatment to turn their skin black and make it more resistant to skin cancer and radiation given the ozone depletion.
Muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease
Genetic conditions Human Potential can eliminate.
TPGM
Third-party genetic material.
Grand Unified Field Theory
Merged interaction of the fundamental forces.
VEHICLES
Roll-Royces
Expensive cars.
MEDIA
Van Goghs
Old paintings.
PLOT
Bill and Angela meet and decide they are compatible, so do the usual thing. After winning the lottery they decide to have a child that has undergone gene therapy.
The act and possibility of doing so with so many millions behind it earns them a visit from the future-possible avatar of the child - who doesn't see any point in his existence as they desired it, tells them this briefly, empties their banks accounts, and vanishes.
The three people involved go back to their lives.
4 out of 5
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Dust - Greg Egan
Novelette
Number of words : 12300
Percent of complex words : 12.7
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 12.3
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.0
Flesch : 58.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.2
PEOPLE
Paul Durham
Experimenter with Copies of himself.
Dali and Giger
Painters and artists.
Martin Sandover
Former US President and crook.
Tsang Chao and Michael Nyman and Philip Glass
Composers.
Elizabeth
Paul's girlfriend.
Cleopatra or Ramses II
Ancient Egyptian rulers.
Rembrandt and Picasso
Painters and artists.
TECHNOLOGY
Copy
Computer representation of a human created by scanning their brain.
Telepresence
Remote operation of robots.
CONCEPTS
Strong AI Hypothesis
Declares that consciousness is a property of certain algorithms, independent of their implementation.
Gaia
Earth deity.
MEDIA
Principia
A mathematical tome.
Mishima
A Glass composition.
David
A statue by Michaelangelo.
PLACES
Canberra
Capital of Australia.
Sydney
Capital of NSW.
New York
American city.
ORGANISATIONS
Hitachi Supercomputer Facility
In Tokyo. One of the processors Durham uses in his experiments.
PLOT
Paul Durham is creating copies of himself by brain scanning to see if running them via massively distributed processing results in something equivalent to reality. And it doesn't matter where they are run, geographically. Being programs, they can also be run at varying speeds. The Dust Theory.
His girlfriend Elizabeth doesn't like what he is doing, and suggests if he is going to inflict this on Copies, he should undergo it himself, and she helps him set things up so that he thinks he is a copy in a simulation.
5 out of 5
Number of words : 12300
Percent of complex words : 12.7
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 12.3
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.0
Flesch : 58.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.2
PEOPLE
Paul Durham
Experimenter with Copies of himself.
Dali and Giger
Painters and artists.
Martin Sandover
Former US President and crook.
Tsang Chao and Michael Nyman and Philip Glass
Composers.
Elizabeth
Paul's girlfriend.
Cleopatra or Ramses II
Ancient Egyptian rulers.
Rembrandt and Picasso
Painters and artists.
TECHNOLOGY
Copy
Computer representation of a human created by scanning their brain.
Telepresence
Remote operation of robots.
CONCEPTS
Strong AI Hypothesis
Declares that consciousness is a property of certain algorithms, independent of their implementation.
Gaia
Earth deity.
MEDIA
Principia
A mathematical tome.
Mishima
A Glass composition.
David
A statue by Michaelangelo.
PLACES
Canberra
Capital of Australia.
Sydney
Capital of NSW.
New York
American city.
ORGANISATIONS
Hitachi Supercomputer Facility
In Tokyo. One of the processors Durham uses in his experiments.
PLOT
Paul Durham is creating copies of himself by brain scanning to see if running them via massively distributed processing results in something equivalent to reality. And it doesn't matter where they are run, geographically. Being programs, they can also be run at varying speeds. The Dust Theory.
His girlfriend Elizabeth doesn't like what he is doing, and suggests if he is going to inflict this on Copies, he should undergo it himself, and she helps him set things up so that he thinks he is a copy in a simulation.
5 out of 5
Story of Your Life - Ted Chiang
Novella
Number of words : 17400
Percent of complex words : 13.2
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 13.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.7
Flesch : 60.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.2
PEOPLE
Louise Banks
A linguist asked by the US military to help communicate with aliens.
Daughter
By Gary. She died.
Nelson
The new boyfriend.
Colonel Weber
Recruits her for the project.
Dr. Gary Donnelly
A physicist Louise works with studying the heptapods, marries and later separates from.
Captain Cook
An explorer.
Roxie
Daughter's friend at 16.
Raspberry
A heptapod.
Flapper
A heptapod.
Moorehead
Another heptapod studying physicist.
Cisneros
Working on the Massachusetts looking glass.
Hossner
A government flunkie.
Burghart
The linguist at the Ft. Worth looking glass.
PLACES
Ellis Avenue
Where Louise lived.
Belmont Street
Where Louise lived next.
Illinois
A US state.
Massachussets
A US state.
Lascaux
Site of famous cave paintings in France.
Fort Worth
City in Texas, USA.
ORGANISATIONS
Mountain Rescue
Found Louise's daughter's body.
State Department
US Government body that deals with non-US relations.
TECHNOLOGY
Looking glasses
Alien communications device.
Etch-a-Sketch
Child's drawing toy.
RACES
Heptapods
Alien visitors to Earth.
CONCEPTS
Heptapod A
The alien spoken language.
Heptapod B
The alien written language.
Phonemics/graphemics
Study of language sounds and writing.
Logographic
Language written via pictures.
Semasiographic
Writing without reference to speech.
Glottographic
Writing that represents speech.
Semagram
A word coined to describe a unit of the written heptapod language.
Escheresque
Reminiscent of the optical illusory art of M. C. Escher.
Fermat's Principle
Least time path of a ray of light.
Planck mass
2.17644(11)×10−8 kg
Spin-flip of atomic hydrogen
An excited hydrogen atom will have an electron change back to the lower energy configuration eventually.
Morpheme
Smallest component of a word.
Teleological
A process for the sake of an end.
ASL
American Sign Language.
Mandalas
Concentric diagrams.
Xenobiology
The study of alien life.
VEHICLES
The Endeavour
Captain Cook's ship.
FOOD
Gourd
Hepatod food.
Gelatin egg
Hepatod food.
Brussels sprouts
A hated vegetable.
MEDIA
Borgesian Book of Ages
Fictional chronicle that records every event, past and future.
PLOT
Louise Banks is recruited by the US military to team with a physicist to understand the newly arrived aliens. She is an expert linguist.
She comes to realise the Heptapods have a distinct written and spoken language that are not related. Heptapod B, and Heptapod A.
The humans experience a breakthrough in understanding the alien mathematics with Fermat's Principle. The alien understanding of time is different and so is their language.
The Heptapods written language is such that starting means you know how it will end. This changes the way her brain functions as she increases her facility with it.
During the project she falls in love with her teammate Gary, and they marry and have a daughter but separate, and the daughter is killed in an accident. She can perceive the daughter's whole life because of her heptapod experience and this is interweaved throughout the story.
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 17400
Percent of complex words : 13.2
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 13.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.7
Flesch : 60.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.2
PEOPLE
Louise Banks
A linguist asked by the US military to help communicate with aliens.
Daughter
By Gary. She died.
Nelson
The new boyfriend.
Colonel Weber
Recruits her for the project.
Dr. Gary Donnelly
A physicist Louise works with studying the heptapods, marries and later separates from.
Captain Cook
An explorer.
Roxie
Daughter's friend at 16.
Raspberry
A heptapod.
Flapper
A heptapod.
Moorehead
Another heptapod studying physicist.
Cisneros
Working on the Massachusetts looking glass.
Hossner
A government flunkie.
Burghart
The linguist at the Ft. Worth looking glass.
PLACES
Ellis Avenue
Where Louise lived.
Belmont Street
Where Louise lived next.
Illinois
A US state.
Massachussets
A US state.
Lascaux
Site of famous cave paintings in France.
Fort Worth
City in Texas, USA.
ORGANISATIONS
Mountain Rescue
Found Louise's daughter's body.
State Department
US Government body that deals with non-US relations.
TECHNOLOGY
Looking glasses
Alien communications device.
Etch-a-Sketch
Child's drawing toy.
RACES
Heptapods
Alien visitors to Earth.
CONCEPTS
Heptapod A
The alien spoken language.
Heptapod B
The alien written language.
Phonemics/graphemics
Study of language sounds and writing.
Logographic
Language written via pictures.
Semasiographic
Writing without reference to speech.
Glottographic
Writing that represents speech.
Semagram
A word coined to describe a unit of the written heptapod language.
Escheresque
Reminiscent of the optical illusory art of M. C. Escher.
Fermat's Principle
Least time path of a ray of light.
Planck mass
2.17644(11)×10−8 kg
Spin-flip of atomic hydrogen
An excited hydrogen atom will have an electron change back to the lower energy configuration eventually.
Morpheme
Smallest component of a word.
Teleological
A process for the sake of an end.
ASL
American Sign Language.
Mandalas
Concentric diagrams.
Xenobiology
The study of alien life.
VEHICLES
The Endeavour
Captain Cook's ship.
FOOD
Gourd
Hepatod food.
Gelatin egg
Hepatod food.
Brussels sprouts
A hated vegetable.
MEDIA
Borgesian Book of Ages
Fictional chronicle that records every event, past and future.
PLOT
Louise Banks is recruited by the US military to team with a physicist to understand the newly arrived aliens. She is an expert linguist.
She comes to realise the Heptapods have a distinct written and spoken language that are not related. Heptapod B, and Heptapod A.
The humans experience a breakthrough in understanding the alien mathematics with Fermat's Principle. The alien understanding of time is different and so is their language.
The Heptapods written language is such that starting means you know how it will end. This changes the way her brain functions as she increases her facility with it.
During the project she falls in love with her teammate Gary, and they marry and have a daughter but separate, and the daughter is killed in an accident. She can perceive the daughter's whole life because of her heptapod experience and this is interweaved throughout the story.
4.5 out of 5
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Six Directions of Space - Alastair Reynolds
Novella
Number of words : 24000
Percent of complex words : 11.6
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 13.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.2
Flesch : 63.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.8
PEOPLE
Yellow Dog
A government operative and one of the Thirteen. Ariuna Bocheng is one of her aliases as a journalist. Real name Ariuuna.
Tenger
Yellow Dog's escort.
Khan
A Mongol ruler.
Minister Chiledu
For the Khan.
Qilian
One of the men who had been making life difficult for the khan these last few years. NHK ruler who puts Yellow Dog to work.
Tisza
An enhanced eununch who guards Yellow Dog on the BK.
Tayang
A steward on the BK.
Uugan
Yellow Dog's research deputy.
Muhunnad
An alien from the Shining Caliphate, surgically adapted to pilot ships as a criminal punishment.
Jura and Batbayar
Technical staff on the River Volga.
ANIMALS
Goyo
Yellow Dog's horse.
Lemur
A small primate.
ORGANISATIONS
Nestorians
A christian sect.
Kuchlug Special Administrative Volume
A political division of Mongol space.
Kiriltuk, Tatatunga, and Chilagun administrative volumes
More political divisions of Mongol space.
Sorkan-Shira
Pony renters.
Zarnuk
Silk manufacturers.
New Far Samarkand Mutual Insurance
Insurance company.
Blue Heaven
A Mongol intelligence group.
New High Karakorum
An administrative volume of dubious legality.
Shining Caliphate
Political body where Muhanaad is from. The Shining Ones.
PLACES
Gansu Nexus
A Mongol star system where major trunk routes converged.
Kherlen Corridor
A wide transport region of Mongol space.
The Parvan Tract
A notoriously rough passage of Mongol space.
Qing Shui
A moon under Qilian's control.
Greater Mongolia
Area of Earth. Mongolia, parts of China and Russia.
RACES
Khorkoi
Aliens who left relics and FTL universe shifting tech.
Fish People
Another Galactic Empire race from another universe.
Thin Men
Another Galactic Empire race.
Smiling Ones
A reptile Galactic Empire. Do not appreciate monkeyboys of any variety.
CONCEPTS
Founder's Day
A Mongol holiday.
Mongol Expansion
Mongols in space and Galactic Empires.
Centromeric
The most condensed and constricted region of a chromosome, to which the spindle fiber is attached during mitosis.
Li
A Chinese measurement of distance.
FOOD
Temujin Brand Airag
Grog.
Death Worm Airag
Very strong grog.
VEHICLES
Burkhan Khaldun
A spaceship.
Black Heart Mountain
A larger ship.
River Volga
A hardened exploration ship.
Mandate of Heaven
An exploration ship slaved to the River Volga.
TECHNOLOGY
Infrastructure
Superluminal machinery of khorkoi origin through which you can travel to other universes. A bit unstable.
PLOT
Yellow Dog is a spy in Mongol Space. She is busted, and Qilian, a warlord of one of those good old lawless type regions of a Galactic Empire has some interesting alien technology, of multiple varieties. The space 'phantoms' are aliens from other realities.
He has a ship, and they find a man alive - someone who has been altered to pilot ships by connecting them. He is from another universe, and they decide to put him to use, even if they can't torture everything they want out of him.
However, in an unstable Infrastructure with a pilot you do not fully understand you just might end up in another universe. And even if you have an advanced ship, other Galactic Empires are full of hi tech nastiness and weapons, too. Eventually you will run out of luck trying to find your way back home.
The pilot Muhunnad is from an Arab Empire, and was made a pilot because he was a criminal that got caught. Qilian he would be happy to be rid of, to be his own master for a time - and in the inevitable one fight too many for the River Volga, he finesses things to fool Qilian into abandoning ship, and gets himself and Ariuuna out of there as best he can - but to where, he can't control.
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 24000
Percent of complex words : 11.6
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 13.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.2
Flesch : 63.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.8
PEOPLE
Yellow Dog
A government operative and one of the Thirteen. Ariuna Bocheng is one of her aliases as a journalist. Real name Ariuuna.
Tenger
Yellow Dog's escort.
Khan
A Mongol ruler.
Minister Chiledu
For the Khan.
Qilian
One of the men who had been making life difficult for the khan these last few years. NHK ruler who puts Yellow Dog to work.
Tisza
An enhanced eununch who guards Yellow Dog on the BK.
Tayang
A steward on the BK.
Uugan
Yellow Dog's research deputy.
Muhunnad
An alien from the Shining Caliphate, surgically adapted to pilot ships as a criminal punishment.
Jura and Batbayar
Technical staff on the River Volga.
ANIMALS
Goyo
Yellow Dog's horse.
Lemur
A small primate.
ORGANISATIONS
Nestorians
A christian sect.
Kuchlug Special Administrative Volume
A political division of Mongol space.
Kiriltuk, Tatatunga, and Chilagun administrative volumes
More political divisions of Mongol space.
Sorkan-Shira
Pony renters.
Zarnuk
Silk manufacturers.
New Far Samarkand Mutual Insurance
Insurance company.
Blue Heaven
A Mongol intelligence group.
New High Karakorum
An administrative volume of dubious legality.
Shining Caliphate
Political body where Muhanaad is from. The Shining Ones.
PLACES
Gansu Nexus
A Mongol star system where major trunk routes converged.
Kherlen Corridor
A wide transport region of Mongol space.
The Parvan Tract
A notoriously rough passage of Mongol space.
Qing Shui
A moon under Qilian's control.
Greater Mongolia
Area of Earth. Mongolia, parts of China and Russia.
RACES
Khorkoi
Aliens who left relics and FTL universe shifting tech.
Fish People
Another Galactic Empire race from another universe.
Thin Men
Another Galactic Empire race.
Smiling Ones
A reptile Galactic Empire. Do not appreciate monkeyboys of any variety.
CONCEPTS
Founder's Day
A Mongol holiday.
Mongol Expansion
Mongols in space and Galactic Empires.
Centromeric
The most condensed and constricted region of a chromosome, to which the spindle fiber is attached during mitosis.
Li
A Chinese measurement of distance.
FOOD
Temujin Brand Airag
Grog.
Death Worm Airag
Very strong grog.
VEHICLES
Burkhan Khaldun
A spaceship.
Black Heart Mountain
A larger ship.
River Volga
A hardened exploration ship.
Mandate of Heaven
An exploration ship slaved to the River Volga.
TECHNOLOGY
Infrastructure
Superluminal machinery of khorkoi origin through which you can travel to other universes. A bit unstable.
PLOT
Yellow Dog is a spy in Mongol Space. She is busted, and Qilian, a warlord of one of those good old lawless type regions of a Galactic Empire has some interesting alien technology, of multiple varieties. The space 'phantoms' are aliens from other realities.
He has a ship, and they find a man alive - someone who has been altered to pilot ships by connecting them. He is from another universe, and they decide to put him to use, even if they can't torture everything they want out of him.
However, in an unstable Infrastructure with a pilot you do not fully understand you just might end up in another universe. And even if you have an advanced ship, other Galactic Empires are full of hi tech nastiness and weapons, too. Eventually you will run out of luck trying to find your way back home.
The pilot Muhunnad is from an Arab Empire, and was made a pilot because he was a criminal that got caught. Qilian he would be happy to be rid of, to be his own master for a time - and in the inevitable one fight too many for the River Volga, he finesses things to fool Qilian into abandoning ship, and gets himself and Ariuuna out of there as best he can - but to where, he can't control.
4.5 out of 5
Fury - Alastair Reynolds
Novelette
Number of words : 11500
Percent of complex words : 11.8
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 12.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.5
Flesch : 65.1
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.1
PEOPLE
Mercurio
The Galactic Emperor's security head, and an artificial intelligence.
Emperor
Ruler of the Galactic Empire.
Vratsa
An uplift pond-keeper of gorilla stock.
Fury
Mercurio's brother artificial intelligence.
PLACES
Capital Nexus
The area of space around the planet the emperor lives on.
Great House
Emperor's residence.
Selva
One of the major power centers of the Luquan Emergence.
Porz
One of the major power centers of the Luquan Emergence.
Julact
The old heart of the Luquan Emergence. Also known as Mars in the past.
Phobos and Deimos
The moons of Mars.
ANIMALS
Asgai Koi
Large, long-lived fish which the Emperor keeps as pets.
TECHNOLOGY
Gravity neutralisers
Can float stuff.
Surface-environment protection units
Fully closed-cycle models with exoskeletal servo-systems, to assist wearers. Sophisticated units with a high capacity for self-repair.
ORGANISATIONS
Radiant Commonwealth
A Galactic Empire.
Luquan Emergence
An area of the empire.
Coronal Polities
An area of the Empire.
CONCEPTS
Prime
A common Galactic language.
Superluminal
Faster than lightspeed.
VEHICLES
Flying disk
A common form of transportation in the Julactic League.
PLOT
Mercurio fails to stop a successful assassination attempt on his Emperor. However, he has unlimited backup bodies on tap, and an ordinary killing won't stop him. They both agree this is odd. Mercurio sets out to find out what happened.
He meets fellow artificial intelligence Fury. A brother of sorts who was behind the killing, as a lure to get Mercurio to come and find him. He tells the story of their evolution over a long time from the protective suits to their current form. The current Emperor killed his brother on Mars a long time ago, leading to war. However, he is currently ruling the Empire rather well, so Mercurio has a dilemma.
Rather than detonate himself and wipe everything out where the Emperor lives, he demands a different sort of punishment. He demands the Emperor kill his beloved pet koi that he has spent so much time raising. Then they can go on as before, protector and ruler.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 11500
Percent of complex words : 11.8
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 12.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.5
Flesch : 65.1
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.1
PEOPLE
Mercurio
The Galactic Emperor's security head, and an artificial intelligence.
Emperor
Ruler of the Galactic Empire.
Vratsa
An uplift pond-keeper of gorilla stock.
Fury
Mercurio's brother artificial intelligence.
PLACES
Capital Nexus
The area of space around the planet the emperor lives on.
Great House
Emperor's residence.
Selva
One of the major power centers of the Luquan Emergence.
Porz
One of the major power centers of the Luquan Emergence.
Julact
The old heart of the Luquan Emergence. Also known as Mars in the past.
Phobos and Deimos
The moons of Mars.
ANIMALS
Asgai Koi
Large, long-lived fish which the Emperor keeps as pets.
TECHNOLOGY
Gravity neutralisers
Can float stuff.
Surface-environment protection units
Fully closed-cycle models with exoskeletal servo-systems, to assist wearers. Sophisticated units with a high capacity for self-repair.
ORGANISATIONS
Radiant Commonwealth
A Galactic Empire.
Luquan Emergence
An area of the empire.
Coronal Polities
An area of the Empire.
CONCEPTS
Prime
A common Galactic language.
Superluminal
Faster than lightspeed.
VEHICLES
Flying disk
A common form of transportation in the Julactic League.
PLOT
Mercurio fails to stop a successful assassination attempt on his Emperor. However, he has unlimited backup bodies on tap, and an ordinary killing won't stop him. They both agree this is odd. Mercurio sets out to find out what happened.
He meets fellow artificial intelligence Fury. A brother of sorts who was behind the killing, as a lure to get Mercurio to come and find him. He tells the story of their evolution over a long time from the protective suits to their current form. The current Emperor killed his brother on Mars a long time ago, leading to war. However, he is currently ruling the Empire rather well, so Mercurio has a dilemma.
Rather than detonate himself and wipe everything out where the Emperor lives, he demands a different sort of punishment. He demands the Emperor kill his beloved pet koi that he has spent so much time raising. Then they can go on as before, protector and ruler.
4 out of 5
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Zendegi - Greg Egan
Novel
Number of words : 110000
Percent of complex words : 11.1
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 24.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 14.1
Flesch : 53.5
Flesch-Kincaid : 11.8
PEOPLE
Martin Seymour
An Australian foreign correspondent who gets an assignment in Tehran and ends up staying.
Nasim Golestani
An Iranian computer researcher in the USA who returns home after political changes. Also a cousin of Mahnoosh.
Javeed Seymour
Martin's young son.
Alice
A friend of Martin's.
Annie Lennox
Singer for the Eurythmics.
Liz
Martin's ex.
Peter Cook
A comedian and actor.
Haroun
A passenger on a flight who gives Martin music software advice.
Dariush Ansari
Founder of Hezb-e-Haalaa. Is killed.
Omar
Martin's neighbour and friend who will care for his son.
Hassan Jabari
A high-ranking Iranian jurist and politician who gets caught with a trans prostitute. Member of the Guardian Council.
Shoukouh
The trans prostitute whom Martin and Omar help.
Shah
A former ruler of Iran.
Ayatollah Khomeini
A former ruler of Iran.
Behrouz
Martin's fellow journalist, a local.
Kambiz
A student Martin met in the run-up to the election.
Zahra Amin
A reporter from the reformist weekly Emkaanha.
Fariba
A Tehran University student Martin interviews during a demonstration.
Majid
An accounting student demonstrator.
Jane Frampton
A science journalist and author of The Sociobiology of The Simpsons and The Metaphysics of Melrose Place.
Nate Caplan
A brilliant entrepreneur who approaches Nasim - fancies living forever via technology.
Professor John Redland
Faculty on the HCP.
Christopher
IT Tech support for the HCP.
Judith
Co-worker of Nasim's.
Mike
Co-worker of Nasim's. Recently dumped his girlfriend.
Shen
Co-worker of Nasim's.
Melville
An American author.
Proust
A French author.
Dinesh
A co-worker of Nasim's who comes up with HETE.
Sandra Knight
A foreign correspondent.
Mahnoosh
A march organiser who gives Martin information and later becomes his wife.
Rana
Omar's wife.
Mohsen
Rana's father-in-law.
Farshid
Rana and Omar's son.
Zachary Churchland
An octogenarian oil billionaire who had raised the possibility of funding his own brain-mapping project. Also fancies living forever via technology.
William S. Burroughs
An author.
Congressman Fitzwaller
Chairman of the Select Committee dealing with the HCP.
Kourosh Ansari
Brother of Dariush. Becomes President.
Mossadegh
An Iranian prime minister ousted by Churchill and Eisenhower and the CIA.
Karim
A young man who’d spotted Martin taking pictures near Abadan.
Nasim's mother
Left Iran when her husband was executed. Writes a book called After Oil and is headhunted by Kourosh Ansari as an adviser for the new Iran.
Donald Rumsfeld
Dodgy American politician.
Vin Diesel
An actor making a comeback The Chronicles of Kulos, to be shot in the Negev.
Robert Smith
Singer for The Cure.
Bahador
Nasim's chief engineer at Zendegi.
Nahid
Rana's mother-in-law.
Azimi
Iranian football captain and ex-player for Hoffenheim. Mapped as software for a Zendegi game as Virtual Azimi.
Gita Razavi
A critic for Generation 2012.
Michelle Bello
PR for the BSBSP.
Conrad Esch
Director for the BSBSP.
Farah, Chalipa, Asa and Azita
Women used in Nasim's Blank Fariba proxy testing.
Mark and Rachel
Australians who came to Martin's wedding.
Hojatoleslam Shahidi
An anti-AI cleric.
Dr Jobrani
Treats Martin's cancer.
Tim Ritchie
A 1980s 2JJJ presenter.
Reza
Man who buys Martin's shop on Enqelab Avenue to turn into a gym.
Solzhenitsyn
Russian author.
Dr Zahedi
Helps with the Martin proxy recording.
Jafar Falaki
Of Falaki Associates. Looks into the Zendegi security breach.
Arif Bahrani
A tech worker with Zendegi.
Milad
A Zendegi programmer.
Hamid
Nasim's ex-husband.
Bernard
Helped Martin with the scanning, planning on staying in Iran.
Rollo
The CHL hacker who meets with Nasim.
Ali and Zahra
A murdered Afghan family Martin knew in Bamyam Province.
MEDIA
Devo
A band.
The Residents
A band.
The Virgin Prunes
A band.
Elvis Costello
A singer and guitarist.
The Smiths
A band.
Eurythmics
A band.
Touch
A Eurythmics album.
Talking Heads
A band.
The Cure
A band.
The Pretenders
A band.
Paul Kelly
An Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist.
St Kilda to King's Cross
A Paul Kelly Song.
To Her Door
A Paul Kelly song about a break-up and reconciliation.
You Can't Take It With You
A Paul Kelly Song.
The Slave Girl and the Caliph
A story in Arabic.
Saturday Night Live
An American weekly comedy tv show.
Al Jazeera
Arab news channel.
IRIB
Iranian broadcaster.
You Can't Hurry Love
Song covered by Phil Collins.
Run Run Run
Hunters and Collectors song.
Dancing Queen
An ABBA song.
Hunters and Collectors
An Australian band.
Rusholme Ruffians
A Smiths song.
Teddy Bear
An Elvis Presley song.
Enter Sandman
A Metallica song.
LOLCat Diaries
A movie.
The Moor's Last Sigh
A Salman Rushdie novel.
U2
A band.
Shahnameh
A thousand year old Persian epic, popular in Zendegi. Martin and Javeed play this.
Murder in Manolos
A gossipy VR whodunnit set among North Tehran’s Mall Princess cliques.
Midnight Oil
An Australian band.
Carry Me
A Hunters and Collectors song.
Jailhouse Rock
A song covered by The Residents.
The Grapes of Wrath, Animal Farm, Catch-22, and Slaughterhouse-Five
Novels Martin chooses to keep dead tree versions of for his son as he sells his shop.
The Diary of Anne Frank, Down and Out in Paris and London, and The Gulag Archipelago
Non-fiction Martin chooses to keep dead tree versions of for his son as he sells his shop.
Harmony
A VR SF soap opera game.
Minions of Eblis
A Zendegi game.
Bedazzled
A Peter Cook deal with the devil movie.
TECHNOLOGY
Audacity
Open source sound editing software.
Groundhog Cage
Software Alice constructed that made thirty-day free-trial software think it was always on the first day of the trial.
Shalwar kameez
Iranian garment.
HCP
Human Connectome Project. A brain mapping project that Nasim worked on.
AcTach
A reality-mining plug-in that learns about academic networking using physical proximity, along with email and calling patterns.
Tinkle
A femtoblogging service going through a beta trial.
Murmur
A lower-level platform that Tinkle and AcTach run on.
Lichtman-Livet-Sanes ‘Brainbow’ technique
Making neurons that fluoresce.
ATLUM
An Automatic Tape-collecting Lathe Ultra Microtom. A brain peeler used for mapping the grey matter..
Human Excrement Treatment Ecosystems
The aim of the HETE project was to develop a whole portfolio of microbial communities that could render human waste safe in almost any situation, with an absolute minimum of labour and no expensive infrastructure.
Slightly Smart mobile phones
Can do mesh networking.
PowerFlirt and HookMeUp
Speed dating software that works via location of the person.
Zendegi
A mutiplayer online virtual reality that Nasim works for.
Cyber-ketab
An ebook reader.
Blank Frank
A new computer Proxy and AI Nasim works on using her old research, to make it more advanced and capable of better reactions.
Blank Fariba
As Blank Frank, but a female version.
Ghal'eha
VR stations people rent time on in shops.
Proxies
Computer generated characters in virtual reality.
ORGANISATIONS
Eikonometrics
Swiss company who want to see if they can classify images by flashing them on a monitor subliminally and looking at the viewer’s brain activity.
Hezb-e-Haalaa
Iranian political party. Literally the Party of Now.
Hezbollah
The ‘Party of God’.
Guardian Council
Fascist fundamentalist ruling body in Iran.
Majlis
Iranian political body.
VEVAK
The Iranian intelligence service.
Basijis
Iranian militia thugs.
Hungry Mind Cafe
Near the HCP.
House Select Committee
Group of US politicians that deal with a particular area of importance.
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
Used to control Abadan.
MEK
The Mujahedin-e-Khalq, the People’s Army of Iran - a nationalist group formed in opposition to the Shah.
Ministry of the Interior
Iranian government department.
Iranian-American Friendship Council
Nate Caplan donates to them to try and get Nasim on side.
Benign Superintelligence Bootstrap Project
Wants to start off an AI singularity.
Alcor
A cryonics company. Have Zachary Churchland's corpsicle.
People of the Book
Martin's bookshop.
Cyber-Jahan
Succesful major VR competitor of Zendegi's.
Happy Universe
Another VR provider.
Crowds and Power
Games effect subcontractor.
CHL
The Cis-Humanist League. Opposes the Zendegi AI research and hacks the environment.
FLOPS House
A computing service provider in Europe.
PLACES
Tehran
Capital of Iran.
Changi Airport
In Singapore.
Glebe
Suburb of Sydney.
Valiasr Street
One of Tehran's main thoroughfares.
Quetta
Pakistan city.
Ferdowsi Square
Site of an election demonstration in Tehran.
Shiraz
Site of a big demonstration in Iran while Nasim is in the US.
Jomhuri-ye-Eslami Avenue
A broad, elegant street, with a stately row of fountains where it met Baharestan Square in Tehran.
Cinema Europa and Cinema Hafez
In Tehran.
Saf Street
A protest march detour.
Sa'di Station
In Tehran.
Reagan Airport
In Washington DC.
Abadan
Ansari's birth town. Fifty kilometres inland from the Persian Gulf.
Arvand River
Renamed Shatt al-Arab when you crossed it. Goes to Southern Iran. Upstream is Basra.
Evin Prison
On the line where the northern suburbs of Tehran gave way, abruptly, to the Alborz Mountains.
Khavaran Cemetery
Where Behrouz's murdered brother was buried.
Section 240
A political wing of Evin prison.
Karbala
City in Iraq.
Kashmir
Indian-Pakistani region.
Bamyan
A province in Afghanistan.
Houston
US city and site of an anti-AI terrorist attack.
Kabul
Capital of Afghanistan.
CONCEPTS
Farsi
Persian language.
Dari
The Afghani dialect of Farsi.
Noruz
The Persian New Year.
Urdu
Pakistani muslim language.
Femtoblogging
Like microblogging, only snappier. It tells everyone in your network where you are and how you’re feeling, once a minute.
Thirty-Second Pitch
A thought game about selling yourself to a company with outlandish ideas.
Bioinformatics
The application of statistics and computer science to the field of molecular biology.
Sufi
A religion.
Muezzin
Person who leads the call to prayer at a mosque.
Velayat-e-faqih
Religious role of Iranian clerics as guardians of society.
Simorgh
Mythological giant bird with a dog's head.
Zal
An infant the Simorgh thinks looks tasty but decides to rear instead.
News Five Point Oh
Current iteration of journalism in the 2020s.
HigherTribe
Worse than News Five Point Oh.
Ta'arof
Ritual of gift giving and refusal.
Toman
A toman was ten Iranian rials. Five million tomans was about ten thousand US dollars.
ANIMALS
Zebra finch
A type of small bird. Lots of them used in the HCP.
FOOD
Ragout
A stew.
Khoresht sabzi
An Iranian fried meat and vegetable dish. http://www.iranchamber.com/recipes/meat/khoresht_qormeh_sabzi.php
PLOT
A simpler book for Egan.
This one follows two characters. Martin, an Australian journalist and foreign correspondent in Iran, and Nasim, an Iranian researcher studying artificial intelligence in the USA.
While Martin is there a conservative Iranian politician is caught with a tranvestite hooker. An even which becomes a trigger for protest and for the reformers to bring enough pressure to bear on the corrupt power-hungry regime of the mullahs to force elections and constitutional change.
It then skips forward in time to where Martin has married an Iranian woman he met during this time, and they have a son. Nasim moved back to help with the new Iran, along with her mother, and now works for a virtual reality MMO called Zendegi. She is also a cousin of Martin's wife.
Other organisations work towards superintelligent AI.
A breakthrough leads her to putting some of her old academic research to use in building proxy personalities for use in gaming. When Martin's wife is killed in a car accident, and he is diagnosed with serious liver cancer, he asks for Nasim's help in trying to build a proxy personality of him to help raise his son, who is still under double figures.
As the sophistication of these artificial personalities grows, so does opposition to them - on both religious and 'you will put a lot of us out of work' grounds.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 110000
Percent of complex words : 11.1
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 24.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 14.1
Flesch : 53.5
Flesch-Kincaid : 11.8
PEOPLE
Martin Seymour
An Australian foreign correspondent who gets an assignment in Tehran and ends up staying.
Nasim Golestani
An Iranian computer researcher in the USA who returns home after political changes. Also a cousin of Mahnoosh.
Javeed Seymour
Martin's young son.
Alice
A friend of Martin's.
Annie Lennox
Singer for the Eurythmics.
Liz
Martin's ex.
Peter Cook
A comedian and actor.
Haroun
A passenger on a flight who gives Martin music software advice.
Dariush Ansari
Founder of Hezb-e-Haalaa. Is killed.
Omar
Martin's neighbour and friend who will care for his son.
Hassan Jabari
A high-ranking Iranian jurist and politician who gets caught with a trans prostitute. Member of the Guardian Council.
Shoukouh
The trans prostitute whom Martin and Omar help.
Shah
A former ruler of Iran.
Ayatollah Khomeini
A former ruler of Iran.
Behrouz
Martin's fellow journalist, a local.
Kambiz
A student Martin met in the run-up to the election.
Zahra Amin
A reporter from the reformist weekly Emkaanha.
Fariba
A Tehran University student Martin interviews during a demonstration.
Majid
An accounting student demonstrator.
Jane Frampton
A science journalist and author of The Sociobiology of The Simpsons and The Metaphysics of Melrose Place.
Nate Caplan
A brilliant entrepreneur who approaches Nasim - fancies living forever via technology.
Professor John Redland
Faculty on the HCP.
Christopher
IT Tech support for the HCP.
Judith
Co-worker of Nasim's.
Mike
Co-worker of Nasim's. Recently dumped his girlfriend.
Shen
Co-worker of Nasim's.
Melville
An American author.
Proust
A French author.
Dinesh
A co-worker of Nasim's who comes up with HETE.
Sandra Knight
A foreign correspondent.
Mahnoosh
A march organiser who gives Martin information and later becomes his wife.
Rana
Omar's wife.
Mohsen
Rana's father-in-law.
Farshid
Rana and Omar's son.
Zachary Churchland
An octogenarian oil billionaire who had raised the possibility of funding his own brain-mapping project. Also fancies living forever via technology.
William S. Burroughs
An author.
Congressman Fitzwaller
Chairman of the Select Committee dealing with the HCP.
Kourosh Ansari
Brother of Dariush. Becomes President.
Mossadegh
An Iranian prime minister ousted by Churchill and Eisenhower and the CIA.
Karim
A young man who’d spotted Martin taking pictures near Abadan.
Nasim's mother
Left Iran when her husband was executed. Writes a book called After Oil and is headhunted by Kourosh Ansari as an adviser for the new Iran.
Donald Rumsfeld
Dodgy American politician.
Vin Diesel
An actor making a comeback The Chronicles of Kulos, to be shot in the Negev.
Robert Smith
Singer for The Cure.
Bahador
Nasim's chief engineer at Zendegi.
Nahid
Rana's mother-in-law.
Azimi
Iranian football captain and ex-player for Hoffenheim. Mapped as software for a Zendegi game as Virtual Azimi.
Gita Razavi
A critic for Generation 2012.
Michelle Bello
PR for the BSBSP.
Conrad Esch
Director for the BSBSP.
Farah, Chalipa, Asa and Azita
Women used in Nasim's Blank Fariba proxy testing.
Mark and Rachel
Australians who came to Martin's wedding.
Hojatoleslam Shahidi
An anti-AI cleric.
Dr Jobrani
Treats Martin's cancer.
Tim Ritchie
A 1980s 2JJJ presenter.
Reza
Man who buys Martin's shop on Enqelab Avenue to turn into a gym.
Solzhenitsyn
Russian author.
Dr Zahedi
Helps with the Martin proxy recording.
Jafar Falaki
Of Falaki Associates. Looks into the Zendegi security breach.
Arif Bahrani
A tech worker with Zendegi.
Milad
A Zendegi programmer.
Hamid
Nasim's ex-husband.
Bernard
Helped Martin with the scanning, planning on staying in Iran.
Rollo
The CHL hacker who meets with Nasim.
Ali and Zahra
A murdered Afghan family Martin knew in Bamyam Province.
MEDIA
Devo
A band.
The Residents
A band.
The Virgin Prunes
A band.
Elvis Costello
A singer and guitarist.
The Smiths
A band.
Eurythmics
A band.
Touch
A Eurythmics album.
Talking Heads
A band.
The Cure
A band.
The Pretenders
A band.
Paul Kelly
An Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist.
St Kilda to King's Cross
A Paul Kelly Song.
To Her Door
A Paul Kelly song about a break-up and reconciliation.
You Can't Take It With You
A Paul Kelly Song.
The Slave Girl and the Caliph
A story in Arabic.
Saturday Night Live
An American weekly comedy tv show.
Al Jazeera
Arab news channel.
IRIB
Iranian broadcaster.
You Can't Hurry Love
Song covered by Phil Collins.
Run Run Run
Hunters and Collectors song.
Dancing Queen
An ABBA song.
Hunters and Collectors
An Australian band.
Rusholme Ruffians
A Smiths song.
Teddy Bear
An Elvis Presley song.
Enter Sandman
A Metallica song.
LOLCat Diaries
A movie.
The Moor's Last Sigh
A Salman Rushdie novel.
U2
A band.
Shahnameh
A thousand year old Persian epic, popular in Zendegi. Martin and Javeed play this.
Murder in Manolos
A gossipy VR whodunnit set among North Tehran’s Mall Princess cliques.
Midnight Oil
An Australian band.
Carry Me
A Hunters and Collectors song.
Jailhouse Rock
A song covered by The Residents.
The Grapes of Wrath, Animal Farm, Catch-22, and Slaughterhouse-Five
Novels Martin chooses to keep dead tree versions of for his son as he sells his shop.
The Diary of Anne Frank, Down and Out in Paris and London, and The Gulag Archipelago
Non-fiction Martin chooses to keep dead tree versions of for his son as he sells his shop.
Harmony
A VR SF soap opera game.
Minions of Eblis
A Zendegi game.
Bedazzled
A Peter Cook deal with the devil movie.
TECHNOLOGY
Audacity
Open source sound editing software.
Groundhog Cage
Software Alice constructed that made thirty-day free-trial software think it was always on the first day of the trial.
Shalwar kameez
Iranian garment.
HCP
Human Connectome Project. A brain mapping project that Nasim worked on.
AcTach
A reality-mining plug-in that learns about academic networking using physical proximity, along with email and calling patterns.
Tinkle
A femtoblogging service going through a beta trial.
Murmur
A lower-level platform that Tinkle and AcTach run on.
Lichtman-Livet-Sanes ‘Brainbow’ technique
Making neurons that fluoresce.
ATLUM
An Automatic Tape-collecting Lathe Ultra Microtom. A brain peeler used for mapping the grey matter..
Human Excrement Treatment Ecosystems
The aim of the HETE project was to develop a whole portfolio of microbial communities that could render human waste safe in almost any situation, with an absolute minimum of labour and no expensive infrastructure.
Slightly Smart mobile phones
Can do mesh networking.
PowerFlirt and HookMeUp
Speed dating software that works via location of the person.
Zendegi
A mutiplayer online virtual reality that Nasim works for.
Cyber-ketab
An ebook reader.
Blank Frank
A new computer Proxy and AI Nasim works on using her old research, to make it more advanced and capable of better reactions.
Blank Fariba
As Blank Frank, but a female version.
Ghal'eha
VR stations people rent time on in shops.
Proxies
Computer generated characters in virtual reality.
ORGANISATIONS
Eikonometrics
Swiss company who want to see if they can classify images by flashing them on a monitor subliminally and looking at the viewer’s brain activity.
Hezb-e-Haalaa
Iranian political party. Literally the Party of Now.
Hezbollah
The ‘Party of God’.
Guardian Council
Fascist fundamentalist ruling body in Iran.
Majlis
Iranian political body.
VEVAK
The Iranian intelligence service.
Basijis
Iranian militia thugs.
Hungry Mind Cafe
Near the HCP.
House Select Committee
Group of US politicians that deal with a particular area of importance.
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
Used to control Abadan.
MEK
The Mujahedin-e-Khalq, the People’s Army of Iran - a nationalist group formed in opposition to the Shah.
Ministry of the Interior
Iranian government department.
Iranian-American Friendship Council
Nate Caplan donates to them to try and get Nasim on side.
Benign Superintelligence Bootstrap Project
Wants to start off an AI singularity.
Alcor
A cryonics company. Have Zachary Churchland's corpsicle.
People of the Book
Martin's bookshop.
Cyber-Jahan
Succesful major VR competitor of Zendegi's.
Happy Universe
Another VR provider.
Crowds and Power
Games effect subcontractor.
CHL
The Cis-Humanist League. Opposes the Zendegi AI research and hacks the environment.
FLOPS House
A computing service provider in Europe.
PLACES
Tehran
Capital of Iran.
Changi Airport
In Singapore.
Glebe
Suburb of Sydney.
Valiasr Street
One of Tehran's main thoroughfares.
Quetta
Pakistan city.
Ferdowsi Square
Site of an election demonstration in Tehran.
Shiraz
Site of a big demonstration in Iran while Nasim is in the US.
Jomhuri-ye-Eslami Avenue
A broad, elegant street, with a stately row of fountains where it met Baharestan Square in Tehran.
Cinema Europa and Cinema Hafez
In Tehran.
Saf Street
A protest march detour.
Sa'di Station
In Tehran.
Reagan Airport
In Washington DC.
Abadan
Ansari's birth town. Fifty kilometres inland from the Persian Gulf.
Arvand River
Renamed Shatt al-Arab when you crossed it. Goes to Southern Iran. Upstream is Basra.
Evin Prison
On the line where the northern suburbs of Tehran gave way, abruptly, to the Alborz Mountains.
Khavaran Cemetery
Where Behrouz's murdered brother was buried.
Section 240
A political wing of Evin prison.
Karbala
City in Iraq.
Kashmir
Indian-Pakistani region.
Bamyan
A province in Afghanistan.
Houston
US city and site of an anti-AI terrorist attack.
Kabul
Capital of Afghanistan.
CONCEPTS
Farsi
Persian language.
Dari
The Afghani dialect of Farsi.
Noruz
The Persian New Year.
Urdu
Pakistani muslim language.
Femtoblogging
Like microblogging, only snappier. It tells everyone in your network where you are and how you’re feeling, once a minute.
Thirty-Second Pitch
A thought game about selling yourself to a company with outlandish ideas.
Bioinformatics
The application of statistics and computer science to the field of molecular biology.
Sufi
A religion.
Muezzin
Person who leads the call to prayer at a mosque.
Velayat-e-faqih
Religious role of Iranian clerics as guardians of society.
Simorgh
Mythological giant bird with a dog's head.
Zal
An infant the Simorgh thinks looks tasty but decides to rear instead.
News Five Point Oh
Current iteration of journalism in the 2020s.
HigherTribe
Worse than News Five Point Oh.
Ta'arof
Ritual of gift giving and refusal.
Toman
A toman was ten Iranian rials. Five million tomans was about ten thousand US dollars.
ANIMALS
Zebra finch
A type of small bird. Lots of them used in the HCP.
FOOD
Ragout
A stew.
Khoresht sabzi
An Iranian fried meat and vegetable dish. http://www.iranchamber.com/recipes/meat/khoresht_qormeh_sabzi.php
PLOT
A simpler book for Egan.
This one follows two characters. Martin, an Australian journalist and foreign correspondent in Iran, and Nasim, an Iranian researcher studying artificial intelligence in the USA.
While Martin is there a conservative Iranian politician is caught with a tranvestite hooker. An even which becomes a trigger for protest and for the reformers to bring enough pressure to bear on the corrupt power-hungry regime of the mullahs to force elections and constitutional change.
It then skips forward in time to where Martin has married an Iranian woman he met during this time, and they have a son. Nasim moved back to help with the new Iran, along with her mother, and now works for a virtual reality MMO called Zendegi. She is also a cousin of Martin's wife.
Other organisations work towards superintelligent AI.
A breakthrough leads her to putting some of her old academic research to use in building proxy personalities for use in gaming. When Martin's wife is killed in a car accident, and he is diagnosed with serious liver cancer, he asks for Nasim's help in trying to build a proxy personality of him to help raise his son, who is still under double figures.
As the sophistication of these artificial personalities grows, so does opposition to them - on both religious and 'you will put a lot of us out of work' grounds.
4 out of 5
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Before They Were Giants - James L. Sutter
An odd idea for an anthology, pick a bunch of first stories from some writers. Not 'famous first stories' or anything, just first stories, whether they were written later or actually are 'juvenilia' as Stross calls his.
So several poor stories and a few average ones, too. Not what you want to build a reprint anthology around, some coming out as ordinary, on average.
There's a little extra here as each writer answers a set bunch of questions. The most entertaining perhaps about how Salvatore came up with his dark elf character off the cuff as his editor needed it for a sales meeting with a few minutes warning. Lots of this is 'who cares' for anyone not interested in being a writer - that is, most of us.
Before They Were Giants : Possible to Rue - Piers Anthony
Before They Were Giants : Destroyers - Greg Bear
Before They Were Giants : A Long Way Back - Ben Bova
Before They Were Giants : Just a Hint - David Brin
Before They Were Giants : Craphound - Cory Doctorow
Before They Were Giants : Fragments of a Hologram Rose - William Gibson
Before They Were Giants : Mirrors and Burnstone - Nicola Griffith
Before They Were Giants : Out of Phase - Joe Haldeman
Before They Were Giants : Highway 61 Revisited - China Miéville
Before They Were Giants : The Coldest Place - Larry Niven
Before They Were Giants : In Pierson's Orchestra - Kim Stanley Robinson
Before They Were Giants : The Guy with the Eyes - Spider Robinson
Before They Were Giants : A Sparkle for Homer - R. A. Salvatore
Before They Were Giants : The Boys - Charles Stross
Before They Were Giants : Ginungagap - Michael Swanwick
Roc me, dad.
2.5 out of 5
Destroy 'em. It pays.
3 out of 5
For power space station.
2.5 out of 5
Falling apart separately.
3 out of 5
A human and alien have a rivalry over trash and treasure and other market collecting.
4 out of 5
Movies feel real.
3 out of 5
Bye, Jinks.
3.5 out of 5
Massive death poetry to power.
3.5 out of 5
Nyookliah after communication.
3 out of 5
Ship brain Mercury trip.
3 out of 5
Master It.
2.5 out of 5
Will destroy us all, if not sleeping.
3.5 out of 5
Giant hobbit perv.
2 out of 5
Want to live here?
"Repeat after me: Death to the imperialist zionist ronin, the lackeys of neo-humanist cladisticians, and the discorporeate running-dog zaibatsu. I swear to follow the decree of the hezbollah and the shogunate in all things, to abide by the shari'a, to follow humility and modesty as a law for the rest of my natural life, and to refrain from acts of treason against the corporation ..."
Yeah, me either. The Posthuman Front don't sound like a fun bunch.
3 out of 5
Black hole alien visiting lady bomb is decapitated. Sense of self maintained, now becomes filthy rich spider liaision.
4.5 out of 5
2.5 out of 5
So several poor stories and a few average ones, too. Not what you want to build a reprint anthology around, some coming out as ordinary, on average.
There's a little extra here as each writer answers a set bunch of questions. The most entertaining perhaps about how Salvatore came up with his dark elf character off the cuff as his editor needed it for a sales meeting with a few minutes warning. Lots of this is 'who cares' for anyone not interested in being a writer - that is, most of us.
Before They Were Giants : Possible to Rue - Piers Anthony
Before They Were Giants : Destroyers - Greg Bear
Before They Were Giants : A Long Way Back - Ben Bova
Before They Were Giants : Just a Hint - David Brin
Before They Were Giants : Craphound - Cory Doctorow
Before They Were Giants : Fragments of a Hologram Rose - William Gibson
Before They Were Giants : Mirrors and Burnstone - Nicola Griffith
Before They Were Giants : Out of Phase - Joe Haldeman
Before They Were Giants : Highway 61 Revisited - China Miéville
Before They Were Giants : The Coldest Place - Larry Niven
Before They Were Giants : In Pierson's Orchestra - Kim Stanley Robinson
Before They Were Giants : The Guy with the Eyes - Spider Robinson
Before They Were Giants : A Sparkle for Homer - R. A. Salvatore
Before They Were Giants : The Boys - Charles Stross
Before They Were Giants : Ginungagap - Michael Swanwick
Roc me, dad.
2.5 out of 5
Destroy 'em. It pays.
3 out of 5
For power space station.
2.5 out of 5
Falling apart separately.
3 out of 5
A human and alien have a rivalry over trash and treasure and other market collecting.
4 out of 5
Movies feel real.
3 out of 5
Bye, Jinks.
3.5 out of 5
Massive death poetry to power.
3.5 out of 5
Nyookliah after communication.
3 out of 5
Ship brain Mercury trip.
3 out of 5
Master It.
2.5 out of 5
Will destroy us all, if not sleeping.
3.5 out of 5
Giant hobbit perv.
2 out of 5
Want to live here?
"Repeat after me: Death to the imperialist zionist ronin, the lackeys of neo-humanist cladisticians, and the discorporeate running-dog zaibatsu. I swear to follow the decree of the hezbollah and the shogunate in all things, to abide by the shari'a, to follow humility and modesty as a law for the rest of my natural life, and to refrain from acts of treason against the corporation ..."
Yeah, me either. The Posthuman Front don't sound like a fun bunch.
3 out of 5
Black hole alien visiting lady bomb is decapitated. Sense of self maintained, now becomes filthy rich spider liaision.
4.5 out of 5
2.5 out of 5
The Best Horror of the Year 2 - Ellen Datlow
Somewhat disappointing at around 3.25 for fiction quality, especially for a Year's Best.
However, the format is good - with the ever useful summary and Honorable Mentions - and given that anyone can buy this digitally, a useful reference. You are hardly likely to carry around large books like this to browse horror of interest, but ebook, no problem.
DRM free, great price, so very much still worth it.
The highlights are Laird Barron and Steve Duffy. Morris and Johnstone the best of the rest.
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Lowland Sea - Suzy McKee Charnas
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The End of Everything - Steve Eller
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Mrs Midnight - Reggie Oliver
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : each thing I show you is a piece of my death - Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Nimble Men - Glen Hirshberg
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : What Happens when you wake up in the night - Michael Marshall Smith
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Wendigo - Micaela Morrissette
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : In the Porches of My Ears - Norman Prentiss
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Lonegan's Luck - Stephen Graham Jones
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Crevasse - Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Lion's Den - Steve Duffy
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Lotophagi - Edward Morris
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall - Kaaron Warren
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Dead Loss - Carole Johnstone
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Strappado - Laird Barron
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Lammas Worm - Nina Allan
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Technicolor - John Langan
Red Sweat drink return.
3.5 out of 5
World full of zombies.
3.5 out of 5
Old Essex brain eating.
3 out of 5
Background Man movie kills.
3.5 out of 5
The trees didn't get us.
3 out of 5
Room changes.
3 out of 5
Dinner guests.
3 out of 5
Single movie.
2.5 out of 5
Too dead for buzzards.
3 out of 5
It got the dog.
3.5 out of 5
Loosed cooperation.
4 out of 5
Bearly ancestors.
3.5 out of 5
Vampire dogs too.
3 out of 5
Relict bait.
3.5 out of 5
Blue door or red no acid barrel of laughs.
4 out of 5
Grub birth.
3 out of 5
Prosper-Poe. No.
3 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
However, the format is good - with the ever useful summary and Honorable Mentions - and given that anyone can buy this digitally, a useful reference. You are hardly likely to carry around large books like this to browse horror of interest, but ebook, no problem.
DRM free, great price, so very much still worth it.
The highlights are Laird Barron and Steve Duffy. Morris and Johnstone the best of the rest.
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Lowland Sea - Suzy McKee Charnas
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The End of Everything - Steve Eller
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Mrs Midnight - Reggie Oliver
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : each thing I show you is a piece of my death - Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Nimble Men - Glen Hirshberg
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : What Happens when you wake up in the night - Michael Marshall Smith
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Wendigo - Micaela Morrissette
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : In the Porches of My Ears - Norman Prentiss
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Lonegan's Luck - Stephen Graham Jones
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Crevasse - Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Lion's Den - Steve Duffy
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Lotophagi - Edward Morris
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall - Kaaron Warren
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Dead Loss - Carole Johnstone
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Strappado - Laird Barron
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : The Lammas Worm - Nina Allan
Best Horror Of the Year 2 : Technicolor - John Langan
Red Sweat drink return.
3.5 out of 5
World full of zombies.
3.5 out of 5
Old Essex brain eating.
3 out of 5
Background Man movie kills.
3.5 out of 5
The trees didn't get us.
3 out of 5
Room changes.
3 out of 5
Dinner guests.
3 out of 5
Single movie.
2.5 out of 5
Too dead for buzzards.
3 out of 5
It got the dog.
3.5 out of 5
Loosed cooperation.
4 out of 5
Bearly ancestors.
3.5 out of 5
Vampire dogs too.
3 out of 5
Relict bait.
3.5 out of 5
Blue door or red no acid barrel of laughs.
4 out of 5
Grub birth.
3 out of 5
Prosper-Poe. No.
3 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Shine - Jetse De Vries
An anthology that was better than I thought it would be, given the lineup and being original, coming out at a very nice 3.59. Or somewhere between 4.25 and 4.5, basically. Impressively done. Kudos to Solaris too, for giving this a shot when generally speaking, the usual multinational offshoots just will not anymore. One thing that is a shame, is no ebook, so would have bought this twice! However, to partially alleviate that there is an excellent associated website. There are links to a couple of stories online (Yunye and Kenyon) anda podcast of the Tidhar piece. Plus some other excerpts and supporting stories of similar quality.
However, it also includes some twitter microstories of relevance, and introductions from an editor that is passionate about the project, which makes it even more pleasant to read. Also some non-fiction references.
Also, the settings range around the world, something that American editors, deliberately or not, often have great problems with. Therefore, we clearly need more Dutch editors. :)
Plus, it has Alastair Reynolds. And his story is extremely funny, and rather different to all the others, so a definitely excellent change of pace work in the middle, there.
Interestingly, he says most of the writers around are pathetically incapable of writing a story along these lines - which is odd, given as they say, ideas are a dime a dozen.
Anyway, just about a textbook example of how to do it, I think, compared to the usual hopelessness from Penguin or Macmillan or whoever that are so uselessly unprofessional they cannot even manage a table of contents.
I thought this book would be decent - so when it hits around the excellent mark and is a great price currently you really should buy it.
Having read hundreds of anthologies it isn't often that I want to revisit one soon afterwards, Shine is definitely one such.
Shine : The Earth of Yunhe - Eric Gregory
Shine : The Greenman Watches the Black Bar Go Up Up Up - Jacques Barcia
Shine : Overhead - Jason Stoddard
Shine : Summer Ice - Holly Phillips
Shine : Sustainable Development - Paula R. Stiles
Shine : The Church of Accelerated Redemption - Gareth L. Powell and Aliette de Bodard
Shine : The Solnet Ascendancy - Lavie Tidhar
Shine : Twittering the Stars - Mari Ness
Shine : Seeds - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Shine : At Budokan - Alastair Reynolds
Shine : Sarging Rasmussen: A Report by Organic - Gord Sellar
Shine : Scheherazade Caught in Starlight - Jason Andrew
Shine : Russian Roulette 2020 - Eva Maria Chapman
Shine : Castoff World - Kay Kenyon
Shine : Paul Kishosha's Children - Kenn Edgett
Shine : Ishin - Madeline Ashby
Metanation seed.
4 out of 5
Posthuman plan power lack.
3.5 out of 5
Lunar Last Resort.
4 out of 5
Parked fountain.
3.5 out of 5
Robots. Smashing.
3.5 out of 5
AI uplift thinktank recruit.
3.5 out of 5
Vanuatu tech leapfrog.
3.5 out of 5
Iridium fetching alien bacteria eating surprise.
4 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
However, it also includes some twitter microstories of relevance, and introductions from an editor that is passionate about the project, which makes it even more pleasant to read. Also some non-fiction references.
Also, the settings range around the world, something that American editors, deliberately or not, often have great problems with. Therefore, we clearly need more Dutch editors. :)
Plus, it has Alastair Reynolds. And his story is extremely funny, and rather different to all the others, so a definitely excellent change of pace work in the middle, there.
Interestingly, he says most of the writers around are pathetically incapable of writing a story along these lines - which is odd, given as they say, ideas are a dime a dozen.
Anyway, just about a textbook example of how to do it, I think, compared to the usual hopelessness from Penguin or Macmillan or whoever that are so uselessly unprofessional they cannot even manage a table of contents.
I thought this book would be decent - so when it hits around the excellent mark and is a great price currently you really should buy it.
Having read hundreds of anthologies it isn't often that I want to revisit one soon afterwards, Shine is definitely one such.
Shine : The Earth of Yunhe - Eric Gregory
Shine : The Greenman Watches the Black Bar Go Up Up Up - Jacques Barcia
Shine : Overhead - Jason Stoddard
Shine : Summer Ice - Holly Phillips
Shine : Sustainable Development - Paula R. Stiles
Shine : The Church of Accelerated Redemption - Gareth L. Powell and Aliette de Bodard
Shine : The Solnet Ascendancy - Lavie Tidhar
Shine : Twittering the Stars - Mari Ness
Shine : Seeds - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Shine : At Budokan - Alastair Reynolds
Shine : Sarging Rasmussen: A Report by Organic - Gord Sellar
Shine : Scheherazade Caught in Starlight - Jason Andrew
Shine : Russian Roulette 2020 - Eva Maria Chapman
Shine : Castoff World - Kay Kenyon
Shine : Paul Kishosha's Children - Kenn Edgett
Shine : Ishin - Madeline Ashby
Metanation seed.
4 out of 5
Posthuman plan power lack.
3.5 out of 5
Lunar Last Resort.
4 out of 5
Parked fountain.
3.5 out of 5
Robots. Smashing.
3.5 out of 5
AI uplift thinktank recruit.
3.5 out of 5
Vanuatu tech leapfrog.
3.5 out of 5
Iridium fetching alien bacteria eating surprise.
4 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Russian Roulette 2020 - Eva Maria Chapman
Peace and youtube for Giant Chicken girl's church thug problem.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
The Church of Accelerated Redemption - Gareth L. Powell and Aliette De Bodard
AI uplift thinktank recruit.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Saturday, November 20, 2010
The Greenman Watches The Black Bar Go Up Up Up - Jacques Barcia
Posthuman plan power lack.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Shadow's Son - Jon Sprunk
A bland fantasy about a pretty non-reflective assassin.
Very little of interest in this book about assassin bloke who rescues a princess - and seems to have had a personality bypass beforehand.
The Shadow part comes from the fact that he seems to have a tame version of sorts of Jackie Estacado's Darkness.
This is really throwback middle of the road stuff you can happily skip.
2.5 out of 5
Very little of interest in this book about assassin bloke who rescues a princess - and seems to have had a personality bypass beforehand.
The Shadow part comes from the fact that he seems to have a tame version of sorts of Jackie Estacado's Darkness.
This is really throwback middle of the road stuff you can happily skip.
2.5 out of 5
Friday, November 19, 2010
23 Hours - David Wellington
Women in prison with vampires.
And one of them is a cop.
That has to have a horror writer cackling into his absinthe.
Laura Caxton is in the slammer for abuse and extra-legal taking of a federal witness and vampire wannabe. Despite getting the job done and killing her old mentor.
Her girlfriend and old partner Glauer and are still working for the bureaucrat marshal, who isn't getting any closer to Malvern, the oldest vampire alive. He is also getting lots of people killed.
When Clara visits Laura, Malvern has them both where she wants them, and springs her suborn the warden and play with Caxton games. Which involves eating a goodly percentage of the prisoners and the screws. None of whom are inclined to take Caxton's advice that she can actually save them from being slaughtered by vampires and their half-dead minions if they listen.
None of whom except her baby-killing cellmate Gert, that is.
Maybe the best of the four Caxton books so far.
3.5 out of 5
And one of them is a cop.
That has to have a horror writer cackling into his absinthe.
Laura Caxton is in the slammer for abuse and extra-legal taking of a federal witness and vampire wannabe. Despite getting the job done and killing her old mentor.
Her girlfriend and old partner Glauer and are still working for the bureaucrat marshal, who isn't getting any closer to Malvern, the oldest vampire alive. He is also getting lots of people killed.
When Clara visits Laura, Malvern has them both where she wants them, and springs her suborn the warden and play with Caxton games. Which involves eating a goodly percentage of the prisoners and the screws. None of whom are inclined to take Caxton's advice that she can actually save them from being slaughtered by vampires and their half-dead minions if they listen.
None of whom except her baby-killing cellmate Gert, that is.
Maybe the best of the four Caxton books so far.
3.5 out of 5
Vampire Zero - David Wellington
Laura Caxton's mentor Jameson had himself made into a vampire so he could clean out the small Civil War vampire army that had invaded. He then said he'd let Laura shoot him.
He lied.
So now Caxton has an even more dangerous enemy - her old mentor. Now capable of creating more vampires, and possessing the three hundred year old rotting corpose Malven, he is going around with his version of Let's Make A Deal.
To all his family he offers - join me in vampire-ness, or die. 24 hours you have.
One Special Deputy Marshal, hamstrung by a by-the-book anal-retentive bureaucrat boss can't save them all. Plus killing her old boss, who is smart enough to wear body armour to protect his one vulnerable spot, and even use weapons if he feels like it - might just be impossible.
Unless they throws him into some sort of inferno.
3.5 out of 5
He lied.
So now Caxton has an even more dangerous enemy - her old mentor. Now capable of creating more vampires, and possessing the three hundred year old rotting corpose Malven, he is going around with his version of Let's Make A Deal.
To all his family he offers - join me in vampire-ness, or die. 24 hours you have.
One Special Deputy Marshal, hamstrung by a by-the-book anal-retentive bureaucrat boss can't save them all. Plus killing her old boss, who is smart enough to wear body armour to protect his one vulnerable spot, and even use weapons if he feels like it - might just be impossible.
Unless they throws him into some sort of inferno.
3.5 out of 5
99 Coffins - David Wellington
Laura Caxton is now the most proficient vampire hunter, because her mentor was seriously injured in the previous encounter, losing the fingers from one hand and now not being much too much use in a fight - and also getting rather long in the tooth.
An archaeological dig at Gettysburg uncovers a nasty leftover - a group of vampire coffins. The tale of this is told in flashback short chapters interspersed with the present day tale.
The foolish academics in charge reunite one of them with his heart - and he sets out to raise the rest - leaving Caxton rallying troops to fight a small scale anti-vampire war, with a denouement if you can't beat them, then join them to beat them.
3.5 out of 5
An archaeological dig at Gettysburg uncovers a nasty leftover - a group of vampire coffins. The tale of this is told in flashback short chapters interspersed with the present day tale.
The foolish academics in charge reunite one of them with his heart - and he sets out to raise the rest - leaving Caxton rallying troops to fight a small scale anti-vampire war, with a denouement if you can't beat them, then join them to beat them.
3.5 out of 5
13 Bullets - David Wellington
An aging vampire hunter and US marshal spots a protege many years later - a Pennsylvania traffic cop.
She manages to survive an initial encounter with these monsters that after they have just fed on blood are amazingly fast, strong and extremely hard to kill without specialised weaponry.
Vampire hunting soon becomes her job, basically, given her superiors are aware of the problem. This, however, attracts their interest and costs in a big way.
To kill a vampire you have to destroy its hart, or wait until they get old and helpless, which, interestingly, they do faster than humans do - they just don't actually die of old age.
3.5 out of 5
She manages to survive an initial encounter with these monsters that after they have just fed on blood are amazingly fast, strong and extremely hard to kill without specialised weaponry.
Vampire hunting soon becomes her job, basically, given her superiors are aware of the problem. This, however, attracts their interest and costs in a big way.
To kill a vampire you have to destroy its hart, or wait until they get old and helpless, which, interestingly, they do faster than humans do - they just don't actually die of old age.
3.5 out of 5
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The Spy Who Haunted Me - Simon R. Green
More of the same for Shaman Bond as he kicks names and takes arses, or heads, or hearts, or whatever he needs to do.
You have Philadelphia Experiments into Faerie, good old-fashioned Wildstorm style science cities trying to produce superhumans (and of course getting everybody killed in the process) .
All hung around the search for The Independent Agent, leading some up and coming spy types like Eddie Drood, the CIA, etc. so they can find his Trove.
Interestingly, this crossed over with the Nightside, and features Walker as one of the major minor characters hanging around with our Shaman Bond as they are put through their paces.
3.5 out of 5
You have Philadelphia Experiments into Faerie, good old-fashioned Wildstorm style science cities trying to produce superhumans (and of course getting everybody killed in the process) .
All hung around the search for The Independent Agent, leading some up and coming spy types like Eddie Drood, the CIA, etc. so they can find his Trove.
Interestingly, this crossed over with the Nightside, and features Walker as one of the major minor characters hanging around with our Shaman Bond as they are put through their paces.
3.5 out of 5
The Tree Lord of Imeten - Tom Purdom
A group of human colonists on a planet have a disagreement.
They banish a man from their midst, and his wife goes with him, after they make a deal for some supplies in order to stop a violent conflict.
Violent conflict is still what they get, though, as they land in the middle of a conflict between two alien races - one a group of tree dwellers - the others, more four-legged and non-violent.
When our protagonists realise the tree dwellers enslave the others for labor - they take their side - and their hands and ability to make tools lets their new friends arm themselves - and put their inventive minds to work in coming up with ways for paws and mouths to help in engineering and tool use.
An armed conflict erupts which puts pressure on one group of the slavers, as continued losses of life caused by their former targets will eventually weaken them enough so that they can be conquered by another group of their own.
3.5 out of 5
They banish a man from their midst, and his wife goes with him, after they make a deal for some supplies in order to stop a violent conflict.
Violent conflict is still what they get, though, as they land in the middle of a conflict between two alien races - one a group of tree dwellers - the others, more four-legged and non-violent.
When our protagonists realise the tree dwellers enslave the others for labor - they take their side - and their hands and ability to make tools lets their new friends arm themselves - and put their inventive minds to work in coming up with ways for paws and mouths to help in engineering and tool use.
An armed conflict erupts which puts pressure on one group of the slavers, as continued losses of life caused by their former targets will eventually weaken them enough so that they can be conquered by another group of their own.
3.5 out of 5
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures - Robert E. Howard
A collection of stories of the swords, guns and Khans variety. Amoral adventurers, spies, and Americans pretending to not be.
The appendix has an in depth discussion of the characters, which is very interesting.
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Swords of the Hills - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : The Daughter of Erlik Khan - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Three-Bladed Doom - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Hawk of the Hills - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Blood of the Gods - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Sons of the Hawk - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Son of the White Wolf - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Gold from Tatary - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Swords of Shahrazar - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : The Trail of the Blood-Stained God - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : The Fire of Asshurbanipal - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Three-Bladed Doom [novella] - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Untitled Fragment - Robert E. Howard
El Borak gets a hand, and gets a bit tied up on a courier mission.
3 out of 5
El Borak still has lots of people after him, but he has a plan. Not to mention a Conan type rescue of a Khan's daughter to pull off. He, however, has guns.
3.5 out of 5
Asian takeover Assassin Tower.
El Borak becomes embroiled in a plot to gain power. Along the way he has a girl in a hashish garden to rescue, a valley of djin to survive, a giant Snow Ape to defeat, and more.
This all leads to the bloody mayhem of a siege, faced by assassins led by a Cossack enemy.
Much carnage, swords, and guns.
4 out of 5
Khan conflict has El Borak bloody angry.
3 out of 5
Dodgy blokes and Arabs bring El Borak gunplay by wellside.
3 out of 5
A dying man's request leads another to seek El Borak's help, and get into a lot of danger.
3 out of 5
A return to roots rebellion has El Borak in the middle of things, but with a spook woman to liven things up a bit more than they already are.
3.5 out of 5
Kindjahl and scimitar work for Kirby O'Donnell in Shahrazar.
3 out of 5
Kirby O'Donnell and fellow adventurers find out who is least principled in the quest for a fabulous idol.
3.5 out of 5
If you suspect a priceless gemstone with a magic-type name may be connected to cthulhoid alien monsters, well, I would suggest that trying to rob your local jewellery store bare-handed is a less hazardous activity than the acquisition of such an artifact.
4 out of 5
This is the novella version of the earlier El Borak novel, with a shopped off ending - it isn't as good.
3.5 out of 5
4 out of 5
The appendix has an in depth discussion of the characters, which is very interesting.
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Swords of the Hills - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : The Daughter of Erlik Khan - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Three-Bladed Doom - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Hawk of the Hills - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Blood of the Gods - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Sons of the Hawk - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Son of the White Wolf - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Gold from Tatary - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Swords of Shahrazar - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : The Trail of the Blood-Stained God - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : The Fire of Asshurbanipal - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Three-Bladed Doom [novella] - Robert E. Howard
El Borak and Other Desert Adventures : Untitled Fragment - Robert E. Howard
El Borak gets a hand, and gets a bit tied up on a courier mission.
3 out of 5
El Borak still has lots of people after him, but he has a plan. Not to mention a Conan type rescue of a Khan's daughter to pull off. He, however, has guns.
3.5 out of 5
Asian takeover Assassin Tower.
El Borak becomes embroiled in a plot to gain power. Along the way he has a girl in a hashish garden to rescue, a valley of djin to survive, a giant Snow Ape to defeat, and more.
This all leads to the bloody mayhem of a siege, faced by assassins led by a Cossack enemy.
Much carnage, swords, and guns.
4 out of 5
Khan conflict has El Borak bloody angry.
3 out of 5
Dodgy blokes and Arabs bring El Borak gunplay by wellside.
3 out of 5
A dying man's request leads another to seek El Borak's help, and get into a lot of danger.
3 out of 5
A return to roots rebellion has El Borak in the middle of things, but with a spook woman to liven things up a bit more than they already are.
3.5 out of 5
Kindjahl and scimitar work for Kirby O'Donnell in Shahrazar.
3 out of 5
Kirby O'Donnell and fellow adventurers find out who is least principled in the quest for a fabulous idol.
3.5 out of 5
If you suspect a priceless gemstone with a magic-type name may be connected to cthulhoid alien monsters, well, I would suggest that trying to rob your local jewellery store bare-handed is a less hazardous activity than the acquisition of such an artifact.
4 out of 5
This is the novella version of the earlier El Borak novel, with a shopped off ending - it isn't as good.
3.5 out of 5
4 out of 5
Untitled Fragment Feel the Edge - Robert E. Howard
Or that dog Kirby O'Donnell is in danger of having nasty things done to his toenails and other bits.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Three-Bladed Doom novella - Robert E. Howard
This is the novella version of the earlier El Borak novel, with a shopped off ending - it isn't as good.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
The Trail Of The Blood-stained God - Robert E. Howard
Kirby O'Donnell and fellow adventurers find out who is least principled in the quest for a fabulous idol.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Swords of Shahrazar - Robert E. Howard
Kirby O'Donnell and his men are trapped between a covetous outlaw and a spy mission.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Asimov's 419 - Sheila Williams
A decent and consistent issue, with nothing of particular note. You can get the novel that Warfriends by Tom Purdom is a sequel to at Fictionwise.
An article by Silverberg about Kornbluth.
If you were just going to pick one, I'd read the Bossert.
Asimov's 418 : PLUS OR MINUS - James Patrick Kelly
Asimov's 418 : LIBERTARIAN RUSSIA - Michael Swanwick
Asimov's 418 : SINS OF THE FATHER - Sara Genge
Asimov's 418 : FREIA IN THE SUNLIGHT - Gregory Norman Bossert
Asimov's 418 : VARIATIONS - Ian Werkheiser
Asimov's 418 : EXCELLENCE - Robert Reed
Asimov's 418 : THE PRIZE BEYOND GOLD - Ian Creasey
Asimov's 418 : UNCLE E - Carol Emshwiller
Asimov's 418 : WARFRIENDS - Tom Purdom
Crewmonkeys, lacking oxygen.
3.5 out of 5
An enhanced fantasy.
3.5 out of 5
Merman adjustment.
3 out of 5
Beautiful smart missile.
3.5 out of 5
Dead music dad.
3 out of 5
Starting from nothing, run.
3.5 out of 5
100m sprint record, wings?
3.5 out of 5
Will bring food and take care of dead mum in the bedroom.
3 out of 5
Fighting deal.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
An article by Silverberg about Kornbluth.
If you were just going to pick one, I'd read the Bossert.
Asimov's 418 : PLUS OR MINUS - James Patrick Kelly
Asimov's 418 : LIBERTARIAN RUSSIA - Michael Swanwick
Asimov's 418 : SINS OF THE FATHER - Sara Genge
Asimov's 418 : FREIA IN THE SUNLIGHT - Gregory Norman Bossert
Asimov's 418 : VARIATIONS - Ian Werkheiser
Asimov's 418 : EXCELLENCE - Robert Reed
Asimov's 418 : THE PRIZE BEYOND GOLD - Ian Creasey
Asimov's 418 : UNCLE E - Carol Emshwiller
Asimov's 418 : WARFRIENDS - Tom Purdom
Crewmonkeys, lacking oxygen.
3.5 out of 5
An enhanced fantasy.
3.5 out of 5
Merman adjustment.
3 out of 5
Beautiful smart missile.
3.5 out of 5
Dead music dad.
3 out of 5
Starting from nothing, run.
3.5 out of 5
100m sprint record, wings?
3.5 out of 5
Will bring food and take care of dead mum in the bedroom.
3 out of 5
Fighting deal.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Monday, November 15, 2010
Analog 955 - Stanley Schmidt
An ordinary type issue, with an article on solar system formation likelihood among others. Not much over a three average thanks to the extremely lame writer probability zero.
Analog 955 : THE MAN FROM DOWNSTREAM - Shane Tourtellote
Analog 955 : THE HEBRAS AND THE DEMONS AND THE DAMNED - Brenda Cooper
Analog 955 : DECA-DAD - Ron Collins
Analog 955 : SPELL CZECH - William Michael McCarthy
Analog 955 : HAPPY ARE THE BUNYIPS - Carl Frederick
Analog 955 : A PLACEBO EFFECT - Brian C. Coad
Analog 955 : HOME IS WHERE THE HUB IS - Christopher L. Bennett
Analog 955 : PRIMUM NON NOCERE - H. G. Stratmann
Going back Roman.
3 out of 5
Predator prey colonist diplomacy.
3.5 out of 5
Transfer gate job.
3 out of 5
No editor.
2 out of 5
First contact zoo test.
3.5 out of 5
Villain or hero for the country.
3 out of 5
Dead Scout or not.
3.5 out of 5
ELF undercover MLM have doughnut and eat them too agent.
3.5 out of 5
3 out of 5
Analog 955 : THE MAN FROM DOWNSTREAM - Shane Tourtellote
Analog 955 : THE HEBRAS AND THE DEMONS AND THE DAMNED - Brenda Cooper
Analog 955 : DECA-DAD - Ron Collins
Analog 955 : SPELL CZECH - William Michael McCarthy
Analog 955 : HAPPY ARE THE BUNYIPS - Carl Frederick
Analog 955 : A PLACEBO EFFECT - Brian C. Coad
Analog 955 : HOME IS WHERE THE HUB IS - Christopher L. Bennett
Analog 955 : PRIMUM NON NOCERE - H. G. Stratmann
Going back Roman.
3 out of 5
Predator prey colonist diplomacy.
3.5 out of 5
Transfer gate job.
3 out of 5
No editor.
2 out of 5
First contact zoo test.
3.5 out of 5
Villain or hero for the country.
3 out of 5
Dead Scout or not.
3.5 out of 5
ELF undercover MLM have doughnut and eat them too agent.
3.5 out of 5
3 out of 5
Primum Non Nocere - H. G. Strattman
ELF undercover MLM have doughnut and eat them too agent.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
The Hebras And The Demons And The Damned - Brenda Cooper
Predator prey colonist diplomacy.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
The Dervish House - Ian McDonald
A novel with a short timeframe, following the events of a week in Istanbul. The story follows several characters.
A dodgy finance trader and his dodgy art dealer wife.
A young boy with a heart condition and a nanotech shapeshifting pet toy.
A Greek retired professor of economics.
A youth with a trouble violent past.
A fresh out of business college young woman.
A suicide bomber detonates on a tram in odd circumstances - the only person killed is herself. As the story unfolds the various strands of the book link together. The troubled youth was at the scene, affected by the nanotechnology delivery that the bomb was for. The young boy notices a robot watching the scene and begins to track down some information. The professor is a friend of his, taken a grandfatherly interest in the young lad and realises he has discovered something disturbing.
The dodgy trader and his mates are planning a short term gas price coup when they find out the company they work for is ridiculously insolvent - and are also the company that our young marketer has approached as a financier for the nanotech dna information writing project the two young men who have hired her have going.
And a gas pipeline is the final target for the terrorists who snatch the troubled youth to test the effects of their ideological conversion nanotech.
The problem with having so many disparate sections is that it feels somewhat fractured at times, compared to say, Brasyl, which does get a bit annoying.
A good book though.
4 out of 5
A dodgy finance trader and his dodgy art dealer wife.
A young boy with a heart condition and a nanotech shapeshifting pet toy.
A Greek retired professor of economics.
A youth with a trouble violent past.
A fresh out of business college young woman.
A suicide bomber detonates on a tram in odd circumstances - the only person killed is herself. As the story unfolds the various strands of the book link together. The troubled youth was at the scene, affected by the nanotechnology delivery that the bomb was for. The young boy notices a robot watching the scene and begins to track down some information. The professor is a friend of his, taken a grandfatherly interest in the young lad and realises he has discovered something disturbing.
The dodgy trader and his mates are planning a short term gas price coup when they find out the company they work for is ridiculously insolvent - and are also the company that our young marketer has approached as a financier for the nanotech dna information writing project the two young men who have hired her have going.
And a gas pipeline is the final target for the terrorists who snatch the troubled youth to test the effects of their ideological conversion nanotech.
The problem with having so many disparate sections is that it feels somewhat fractured at times, compared to say, Brasyl, which does get a bit annoying.
A good book though.
4 out of 5
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Terminal World - Alastair Reynolds
Martian gate fix.
An Angel plummets to the lower levels of Spearpoint, the last city on Earth. Not literally, as the angels are not supernatural, and Earth is not. You pick this up as you realise some odd things - a 'split moon', that the circumference of the planet is smaller than it should be, that a terraforming project is failing, etc. In a few thousand years that would not happen to our planet. Plus, a couple of space elevators.
The title has two meanings then, that of a dying world, and that of one hosting an Earthgate to the stars, thanks to a space elevator or two.
Most of the characters seemed to be named after bits of edged weaponry. Although if you unscramble Curtana's name, you get un carta, too. The captain of the Swarm fleet. Called the Sky Princess by Quillon's escort. She is, of course, a Space Princess in that sense, being Martian. Whether Reynolds chose that name to unscramble like that as an extra nod to Burroughs, who knows.
The space elevator at Spearpoint's characteristics make it more than it looks - to travel along it you need to take drugs to survive going from zone to zone, and the technology levels also change, a la Grimjack's Cynosure. Down far enough, it is horses and flintlocks for you, sonny jim.
Quillon, who finds the 'fallen angel' is also not what he seems - an angel himself, and an experiment in infiltration for those Celestial Level dwellers - to see if they can pass and adapt long-term to living in another zone. Which again takes modification and a lot of drugs to prevent reverting to avian-like form. The worsening instabilities means everything will collapse into complete chaos and carnage if nothing can be done.
Zonal instabilities are worsening, and Quillon ends up leaving Spearpoint and venturing into dangerous realms of skullboys and carnivorgs, and the Swarm - a city-fleet of airships. Here he meets a mother and her daughter - the latter having a strange power to change these zones. Called a tectomancer, they are generally accused of being witches. After dissension with their new Swarm allies they realise she needs to go to Spearpoint, to take her place in the machine and try and start to put things back in livable conditions again.
4 out of 5
An Angel plummets to the lower levels of Spearpoint, the last city on Earth. Not literally, as the angels are not supernatural, and Earth is not. You pick this up as you realise some odd things - a 'split moon', that the circumference of the planet is smaller than it should be, that a terraforming project is failing, etc. In a few thousand years that would not happen to our planet. Plus, a couple of space elevators.
The title has two meanings then, that of a dying world, and that of one hosting an Earthgate to the stars, thanks to a space elevator or two.
Most of the characters seemed to be named after bits of edged weaponry. Although if you unscramble Curtana's name, you get un carta, too. The captain of the Swarm fleet. Called the Sky Princess by Quillon's escort. She is, of course, a Space Princess in that sense, being Martian. Whether Reynolds chose that name to unscramble like that as an extra nod to Burroughs, who knows.
The space elevator at Spearpoint's characteristics make it more than it looks - to travel along it you need to take drugs to survive going from zone to zone, and the technology levels also change, a la Grimjack's Cynosure. Down far enough, it is horses and flintlocks for you, sonny jim.
Quillon, who finds the 'fallen angel' is also not what he seems - an angel himself, and an experiment in infiltration for those Celestial Level dwellers - to see if they can pass and adapt long-term to living in another zone. Which again takes modification and a lot of drugs to prevent reverting to avian-like form. The worsening instabilities means everything will collapse into complete chaos and carnage if nothing can be done.
Zonal instabilities are worsening, and Quillon ends up leaving Spearpoint and venturing into dangerous realms of skullboys and carnivorgs, and the Swarm - a city-fleet of airships. Here he meets a mother and her daughter - the latter having a strange power to change these zones. Called a tectomancer, they are generally accused of being witches. After dissension with their new Swarm allies they realise she needs to go to Spearpoint, to take her place in the machine and try and start to put things back in livable conditions again.
4 out of 5
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Zendegi - Greg Egan
A simpler book for Egan.
This one follows two characters. Martin, an Australian journalist and foreign correspondent in Iran, and Nasim, an Iranian researcher studying artificial intelligence in the USA.
While Martin is there a conservative Iranian politician is caught with a tranvestite hooker. An even which becomes a trigger for protest and for the reformers to bring enough pressure to bear on the corrupt power-hungry regime of the mullahs to force elections and constitutional change.
It then skips forward in time to where Martin has married an Iranian woman he met during this time, and they have a son. Nasim moved back to help with the new Iran, along with her mother, and now works for a virtual reality MMO called Zendegi. She is also a cousin of Martin's wife.
A breakthrough leads her to putting some of her old academic research to use in building proxy personalities for use in gaming. When Martin's wife is killed in a car accident, and he is diagnosed with serious liver cancer, he asks for her help in trying to build a proxy personality of him to help raise his son, who is still under double figures.
As the sophistication of these artificial personalities grows, so does opposition to them - on both religious and 'you will put a lot of us out of work' grounds.
Call it a not-quite 4.
4 out of 5
This one follows two characters. Martin, an Australian journalist and foreign correspondent in Iran, and Nasim, an Iranian researcher studying artificial intelligence in the USA.
While Martin is there a conservative Iranian politician is caught with a tranvestite hooker. An even which becomes a trigger for protest and for the reformers to bring enough pressure to bear on the corrupt power-hungry regime of the mullahs to force elections and constitutional change.
It then skips forward in time to where Martin has married an Iranian woman he met during this time, and they have a son. Nasim moved back to help with the new Iran, along with her mother, and now works for a virtual reality MMO called Zendegi. She is also a cousin of Martin's wife.
A breakthrough leads her to putting some of her old academic research to use in building proxy personalities for use in gaming. When Martin's wife is killed in a car accident, and he is diagnosed with serious liver cancer, he asks for her help in trying to build a proxy personality of him to help raise his son, who is still under double figures.
As the sophistication of these artificial personalities grows, so does opposition to them - on both religious and 'you will put a lot of us out of work' grounds.
Call it a not-quite 4.
4 out of 5
Friday, November 12, 2010
Heroes In the Wind - Robert E. Howard
A collection of Howard tales, featuring his sword and sorcery work in the main, but with some horror examples, and, oddly, a Western. Vultures would seem to be out of place, here.
Almost the 4.0 average, so you really can't get much better than that unless you pick them yourself.
There's an introduction by John Clute, the compiler of this collection.
Heroes In the Wind : The Shadow Kingdom - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Kings of the Night - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Worms of the Earth - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : The Dark Man - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : The Footfalls Within - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Pigeons from Hell - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Graveyard Rats - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Vultures of Wahpeton - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : The Tower of the Elephant - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Queen of the Black Coast - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : A Witch Shall Be Born - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Red Nails - Robert E. Howard
There is evil treachery afoot in the time of Atlantis, the serpent priests are stirring, and a cunning old king brings them to the attention of a somewhat restless Kull. More pity them. With a stalwart Pictish spear-slayer at his side, he wreaks bloody havoc among them, and vows to take the war to them. No-one else would ever have copied this plot later on, would they?
4 out of 5
Introspection and philosophy are not cures for what ails a bored warrior-King. Neither are wizardly mirrors or Lovecraftian elder races.
Thankfully, the stout, pragmatic Spear-Slayer is there to remind him.
4 out of 5
Bran Mak Morn has leadership problems. Wulfhere's Northerners will not follow him, or Cormac, prince of Erin, they demand a King. Consulting with Gonar, who talks to his ancestor in Kull's time, and summons Kull, King of Valusia! Kull likes Bran, as he reminds him of Brule, and agrees to lead the Northerners. Wulfhere challenges him to combat. Big mistake for Wulfhere.
With Kull's help, Bran manages to hold the Romans for now, at some significant cost.
4 out of 5
One of Bran Mak Morn's subjects is being crucified while he is visiting some Roman commanders. This does not sit well with him or his aide, as he feels the punishment does not fit the crime, and the Romans are making a joke of doing what they will with the barbarians.
Bran has a plan for revenge on the Roman who gave the order, but Gonar cautions him against using mystic means. Bran ignores here, and seeks the Black Stone with the help of a were-woman. What he unleashes is a lot more than he bargained for.
4 out of 5
Turlogh Dubh O'Brien gets some inspiration from Bran Mak Morn in beach side battle.
3.5 out of 5
Kane is following a band of slavers, and is unable to help himself when he sees them stop and start to whip a girl to death. Despatching many, he is overcome by the dozens of others, and forced to march as a slave.
A nasty supernatural end awaits his captors, where his possession of the Bast-headed staff of N'Longa in the past is no bad thing.
4 out of 5
A man is murdered, and in no ordinary fashion. When law enforcement investigates this is the story he gets from a witness:
"and my God, sir, he was dead! His head had been split open. I saw brains and clotted blood oozing down his face, and his face,,,"
It appears there is a zuvembie in town, the long awaited aftermatch of a property that had white women mistreating their black slaves, badly.
4 out of 5
Turlogh Dubh O'Brien gets some inspiration from Bran Mak Morn in beach side battle.
3.5 out of 5
The titular bunch are a gang of murderers, and they have their eyes on half a million in gold.
3 out of 5
Conan is in thieving mode here. In a tavern, he is asking the assembled crowd of nogoodniks why no-one has stolen a famous jewel from this tower.
They tell him because it is guarded by some very nasty things.
He, of course, investigates, and meets a master thief attempting the same thing.
Humans, animals, a giant spider and a wizard are to be encountered, not to mention an alien.
4 out of 5
One of the classic Conan stories. The barbarian goes a-reavin', and finds another of the rare women that can match him. Belit has fire, and presence, and command, but again, it does not end well. Highly recommended.
4.5 out of 5
A bad problem to have - how do you tell which of two women is the very evil twin. Luckily, our favorite barbarian is a very pragmatic man.
4 out of 5
Conan is travelling, finds a dead woman, and then encounters Valeria of the Red Brotherhood. After trading some insults, they have the misfortune to stumble across a dragon.
Then they have fun in an abandoned city full of crazed warriors, two evil, leering royals, and a third undead type one. Capture, bondage, slayage, all the great stuff in this tale of a fantastic partnership.
5 out of 5
5 out of 5
Almost the 4.0 average, so you really can't get much better than that unless you pick them yourself.
There's an introduction by John Clute, the compiler of this collection.
Heroes In the Wind : The Shadow Kingdom - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Kings of the Night - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Worms of the Earth - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : The Dark Man - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : The Footfalls Within - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Pigeons from Hell - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Graveyard Rats - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Vultures of Wahpeton - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : The Tower of the Elephant - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Queen of the Black Coast - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : A Witch Shall Be Born - Robert E. Howard
Heroes In the Wind : Red Nails - Robert E. Howard
There is evil treachery afoot in the time of Atlantis, the serpent priests are stirring, and a cunning old king brings them to the attention of a somewhat restless Kull. More pity them. With a stalwart Pictish spear-slayer at his side, he wreaks bloody havoc among them, and vows to take the war to them. No-one else would ever have copied this plot later on, would they?
4 out of 5
Introspection and philosophy are not cures for what ails a bored warrior-King. Neither are wizardly mirrors or Lovecraftian elder races.
Thankfully, the stout, pragmatic Spear-Slayer is there to remind him.
4 out of 5
Bran Mak Morn has leadership problems. Wulfhere's Northerners will not follow him, or Cormac, prince of Erin, they demand a King. Consulting with Gonar, who talks to his ancestor in Kull's time, and summons Kull, King of Valusia! Kull likes Bran, as he reminds him of Brule, and agrees to lead the Northerners. Wulfhere challenges him to combat. Big mistake for Wulfhere.
With Kull's help, Bran manages to hold the Romans for now, at some significant cost.
4 out of 5
One of Bran Mak Morn's subjects is being crucified while he is visiting some Roman commanders. This does not sit well with him or his aide, as he feels the punishment does not fit the crime, and the Romans are making a joke of doing what they will with the barbarians.
Bran has a plan for revenge on the Roman who gave the order, but Gonar cautions him against using mystic means. Bran ignores here, and seeks the Black Stone with the help of a were-woman. What he unleashes is a lot more than he bargained for.
4 out of 5
Turlogh Dubh O'Brien gets some inspiration from Bran Mak Morn in beach side battle.
3.5 out of 5
Kane is following a band of slavers, and is unable to help himself when he sees them stop and start to whip a girl to death. Despatching many, he is overcome by the dozens of others, and forced to march as a slave.
A nasty supernatural end awaits his captors, where his possession of the Bast-headed staff of N'Longa in the past is no bad thing.
4 out of 5
A man is murdered, and in no ordinary fashion. When law enforcement investigates this is the story he gets from a witness:
"and my God, sir, he was dead! His head had been split open. I saw brains and clotted blood oozing down his face, and his face,,,"
It appears there is a zuvembie in town, the long awaited aftermatch of a property that had white women mistreating their black slaves, badly.
4 out of 5
Turlogh Dubh O'Brien gets some inspiration from Bran Mak Morn in beach side battle.
3.5 out of 5
The titular bunch are a gang of murderers, and they have their eyes on half a million in gold.
3 out of 5
Conan is in thieving mode here. In a tavern, he is asking the assembled crowd of nogoodniks why no-one has stolen a famous jewel from this tower.
They tell him because it is guarded by some very nasty things.
He, of course, investigates, and meets a master thief attempting the same thing.
Humans, animals, a giant spider and a wizard are to be encountered, not to mention an alien.
4 out of 5
One of the classic Conan stories. The barbarian goes a-reavin', and finds another of the rare women that can match him. Belit has fire, and presence, and command, but again, it does not end well. Highly recommended.
4.5 out of 5
A bad problem to have - how do you tell which of two women is the very evil twin. Luckily, our favorite barbarian is a very pragmatic man.
4 out of 5
Conan is travelling, finds a dead woman, and then encounters Valeria of the Red Brotherhood. After trading some insults, they have the misfortune to stumble across a dragon.
Then they have fun in an abandoned city full of crazed warriors, two evil, leering royals, and a third undead type one. Capture, bondage, slayage, all the great stuff in this tale of a fantastic partnership.
5 out of 5
5 out of 5
Analog 954 - Stanley Schmidt
I thoroughly enjoyed this issue with the article after the Phantom Sense story talking about the developments there, and Kooistra on Non-Einsteinian clocks and relativity.
Best of the year, fiction-se at 3.67.
Analog 954 : PHANTOM SENSE - Richard A. Lovett and Mark Niemann-Ross
Analog 954 : THE ZOO TEAM - Allen M. Steele
Analog 954 : CONTAMINATION - Jay Werkheiser
Analog 954 : THE DEADLIEST MOOP - Michael A. Armstrong
Analog 954 : HOWL OF THE SEISMOLOGIST - Carl Frederick
Analog 954 : OUTBOUND - Brad R. Torgersen
Bug feeling withdrawal kid rescue.
4 out of 5
Non high-strung joker success.
3.5 out of 5
We actually want to colonise the place, son.
3.5 out of 5
Space squid sneak mining.
3.5 out of 5
Tevataron LHC spacetime quake Shepherd quake stop.
4 out of 5
Earth war station search boy upload download.
3.5 out of 5
5 out of 5
Best of the year, fiction-se at 3.67.
Analog 954 : PHANTOM SENSE - Richard A. Lovett and Mark Niemann-Ross
Analog 954 : THE ZOO TEAM - Allen M. Steele
Analog 954 : CONTAMINATION - Jay Werkheiser
Analog 954 : THE DEADLIEST MOOP - Michael A. Armstrong
Analog 954 : HOWL OF THE SEISMOLOGIST - Carl Frederick
Analog 954 : OUTBOUND - Brad R. Torgersen
Bug feeling withdrawal kid rescue.
4 out of 5
Non high-strung joker success.
3.5 out of 5
We actually want to colonise the place, son.
3.5 out of 5
Space squid sneak mining.
3.5 out of 5
Tevataron LHC spacetime quake Shepherd quake stop.
4 out of 5
Earth war station search boy upload download.
3.5 out of 5
5 out of 5
Howl Of The Seismologist - Carl Frederik
Tevataron LHC spacetime quake Shepherd quake stop.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Phantom Sense - Richard A. Lovett and Mark Niemann-Ross
Bug feeling withdrawal kid rescue.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2010 - Rich Horton
There's a brief introduction and a list of recommended reading at the end other than what is in the book. Touching on types of stories, where they came from, etc.
Knowing that the editor writes at length about this sort of thing, there is a failure to use the digital possibilities properly - that is, you could put more in this than you can fit into the economically and materially limited dead tree version.
'Extra bonus stuff' in this version may get people interested in both, perhaps.
This is an extremely weak anthology for a Year's Best though, mustering a measly 3.24, with more than half the stories average or worse. Absolutely nothinga t the top end, at 4.5 or 4, and only a few 4 out of 5s.
Partly this is due to the last couple of years being weaker on the short story front, but this bunch is disappointing.
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : A Story with Beans - Steven Gould
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Child-Empress of Mars - Theodora Goss
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Island - Peter Watts
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance - John Kessel
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Logic of the World - Robert Kelly
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Endangered Camp - Ann Leckie
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Sylgarmo's Proclamation - Lucius Shepard
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Three Twilight Tales - Jo Walton
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Secret Identity - Kelly Link
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Necroflux Day - John Meaney
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : This Peaceable Land or The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe - Robert Charles Wilson
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Technicolor - John Langan
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Eros Philia Agape - Rachel Swirksy
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : A Painter a Sheep and a Boa Constrictor - Nir Yaniv
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Catalog - Eugene Mirabelli
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Glister - Dominic Green
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : On the Human Plan - Jay Lake
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Dragon's Teeth - Alex Irvine
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew - Catherynne M. Valente
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Qualia Engine - Damien Broderick
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Long Cold Goodbye - Holly Phillips
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Wife-Stealing Time - R. Garcia y Robertson
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : As Women Fight - Sara Genge
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Images of Anna - Nancy Kress
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Mongoose - Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Crimes and Glory - Paul McAuley
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Living Curiousities - Margo Lanagan
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Death of Sugar Daddy - Toiya Kristen Finlay
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Bespoke - Genevieve Valentine
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Persistence of Memory or This Space for Sale - Paul Park
Metal eating bugs, Word.
3.5 out of 5
Dead Hero.
2.5 out of 5
Gate Mission live Dyson sphere violence Chimp conflict.
4 out of 5
Monk play nicking folded soldier escape.
3.5 out of 5
And knights and dragons.
3 out of 5
White Ring dead.
3 out of 5
Cugel's cousin is no fan of his, it appears. Now, to avoid the end of the world.
3.5 out of 5
Cheesy inn.
2.5 out of 5
Zellish no-meeting.
3 out of 5
Learning dead people power.
3 out of 5
Liberty Lodge pictorial illumination.
4 out of 5
Prosper-Poe. No.
3 out of 5
Be a robot.
2 out of 5
Maker Machine eye.
3 out of 5
Magazine reality search.
3.5 out of 5
There's gold in them there alien bloodbags.
3.5 out of 5
Old story excavation.
3.5 out of 5
Paulus, rather fishy.
3.5 out of 5
Documentarian exploits milked.
4 out of 5
Grandchildren Of The Atom not so smart, but more quantum.
4 out of 5
Ice Earth end.
3 out of 5
SinBad Pretty Bottom SexCrime SuperCat Slaver scalping.
4 out of 5
Bodyswap beating.
3 out of 5
Mind pictures, love.
3.5 out of 5
Q-phone Elder space investigation.
4 out of 5
Spinout.
2.5 out of 5
Picture shock.
2.5 out of 5
Time for clothes.
3 out of 5
Idea sellout.
2.5 out of 5
3 out of 5
Knowing that the editor writes at length about this sort of thing, there is a failure to use the digital possibilities properly - that is, you could put more in this than you can fit into the economically and materially limited dead tree version.
'Extra bonus stuff' in this version may get people interested in both, perhaps.
This is an extremely weak anthology for a Year's Best though, mustering a measly 3.24, with more than half the stories average or worse. Absolutely nothinga t the top end, at 4.5 or 4, and only a few 4 out of 5s.
Partly this is due to the last couple of years being weaker on the short story front, but this bunch is disappointing.
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : A Story with Beans - Steven Gould
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Child-Empress of Mars - Theodora Goss
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Island - Peter Watts
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance - John Kessel
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Logic of the World - Robert Kelly
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Endangered Camp - Ann Leckie
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Sylgarmo's Proclamation - Lucius Shepard
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Three Twilight Tales - Jo Walton
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Secret Identity - Kelly Link
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Necroflux Day - John Meaney
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : This Peaceable Land or The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe - Robert Charles Wilson
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Technicolor - John Langan
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Eros Philia Agape - Rachel Swirksy
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : A Painter a Sheep and a Boa Constrictor - Nir Yaniv
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Catalog - Eugene Mirabelli
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Glister - Dominic Green
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : On the Human Plan - Jay Lake
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Dragon's Teeth - Alex Irvine
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew - Catherynne M. Valente
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Qualia Engine - Damien Broderick
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Long Cold Goodbye - Holly Phillips
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Wife-Stealing Time - R. Garcia y Robertson
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : As Women Fight - Sara Genge
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Images of Anna - Nancy Kress
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Mongoose - Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Crimes and Glory - Paul McAuley
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Living Curiousities - Margo Lanagan
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Death of Sugar Daddy - Toiya Kristen Finlay
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : Bespoke - Genevieve Valentine
SF and F Best Of the Year 2010 : The Persistence of Memory or This Space for Sale - Paul Park
Metal eating bugs, Word.
3.5 out of 5
Dead Hero.
2.5 out of 5
Gate Mission live Dyson sphere violence Chimp conflict.
4 out of 5
Monk play nicking folded soldier escape.
3.5 out of 5
And knights and dragons.
3 out of 5
White Ring dead.
3 out of 5
Cugel's cousin is no fan of his, it appears. Now, to avoid the end of the world.
3.5 out of 5
Cheesy inn.
2.5 out of 5
Zellish no-meeting.
3 out of 5
Learning dead people power.
3 out of 5
Liberty Lodge pictorial illumination.
4 out of 5
Prosper-Poe. No.
3 out of 5
Be a robot.
2 out of 5
Maker Machine eye.
3 out of 5
Magazine reality search.
3.5 out of 5
There's gold in them there alien bloodbags.
3.5 out of 5
Old story excavation.
3.5 out of 5
Paulus, rather fishy.
3.5 out of 5
Documentarian exploits milked.
4 out of 5
Grandchildren Of The Atom not so smart, but more quantum.
4 out of 5
Ice Earth end.
3 out of 5
SinBad Pretty Bottom SexCrime SuperCat Slaver scalping.
4 out of 5
Bodyswap beating.
3 out of 5
Mind pictures, love.
3.5 out of 5
Q-phone Elder space investigation.
4 out of 5
Spinout.
2.5 out of 5
Picture shock.
2.5 out of 5
Time for clothes.
3 out of 5
Idea sellout.
2.5 out of 5
3 out of 5
Ammonite - Nicola Griffith
Good old Corporation planetary exploitation.
Or it would be, if this particular planet didn't have a disease that killed all the men and most of the women there, apart from those able to adapt and be changed and get through it.
Lack of population means low technology, as well, and exacerbates the problems with the disease, the weather, the various nasty lifeforms, etc.
A woman travels to the planet to see if they can get preventative medicine to work, and goes native. If the disease gets wiped out, so do the locals.
Plus, jousting! :)
3.5 out of 5
Or it would be, if this particular planet didn't have a disease that killed all the men and most of the women there, apart from those able to adapt and be changed and get through it.
Lack of population means low technology, as well, and exacerbates the problems with the disease, the weather, the various nasty lifeforms, etc.
A woman travels to the planet to see if they can get preventative medicine to work, and goes native. If the disease gets wiped out, so do the locals.
Plus, jousting! :)
3.5 out of 5
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Blood Sunset - Jarad Henry
A detective that is on the scene for what looks like a junkie overdose has second thoughts, and decides things don't add up.
This leads him into conflict with his boss, a partner, the other cop on the scene and into something a lot more sordid than the standard drugs and prostitution and general run of the mill scrotes in the St Kilda beach area.
Backdropped by the heatwave and Victorian bushfires, where anyone that has hung out at St Kilda in summer can see the scene come alive, he decides to go it alone to try and put a stop to a ring of deviant paedophiles.
A proper Australian novel that rings very true - and written by someone who is obviously familiar with what goes on.
4 out of 5
This leads him into conflict with his boss, a partner, the other cop on the scene and into something a lot more sordid than the standard drugs and prostitution and general run of the mill scrotes in the St Kilda beach area.
Backdropped by the heatwave and Victorian bushfires, where anyone that has hung out at St Kilda in summer can see the scene come alive, he decides to go it alone to try and put a stop to a ring of deviant paedophiles.
A proper Australian novel that rings very true - and written by someone who is obviously familiar with what goes on.
4 out of 5
The Best Military Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century - Martin H. Greenberg and Harry Turtledove
A fine anthology and very high quality at 3.88, the down notes being I find David Drake's Hammers Slammers stories very tedious, and the Benford tale is weak. Authors managed to find one non-American, amazingly. Pretty sure there are others that could have taken the place of the Benford.
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : AMONG THIEVES - Poul Anderson
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : SECOND VARIETY - Philip K. Dick
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : HERO - Joe W. Haldeman
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : SUPERIORITY - Arthur C. Clarke
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : ENDER'S GAME - Orson Scott Card
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : HANGMAN - David Drake
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : THE LAST ARTICLE - Harry Turtledove
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : THE GAME OF RAT AND DRAGON - Cordwainer Smith
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : NIGHT OF THE VAMPYRES - George R. R. Martin
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : TO THE STORMING GULF - Gregory Benford
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : WOLF TIME - Walter Jon Williams
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : THE SCAPEGOAT - C. J. Cherryh
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : DRAGONRIDER - Anne McCaffrey
Destroy the Terrestrial Federation with you, or make a deal? Tricky.
3.5 out of 5
If there's a bear in there, you are rooted. Out there isn't good, either, in the long run.
4.5 out of 5
"...Then some bright lad in the General Assembly decided that we ought to field an army of footsoldiers to guard the portal planets of the nearer collapsars. This led to the Elite Conscription Act of 1996 and the most elitely conscripted army in the history of warfare."
5 out of 5
Weapons tech advance space war failure.
3.5 out of 5
Battle School strategy surprise.
4 out of 5
Slammer Plow.
3 out of 5
Passive resistance IS useless. Against ratzis, anyway.
4 out of 5
Another actual use for a live cat. Fight you little bastard.
4 out of 5
Liberty Alliance plot.
3.5 out of 5
Master Computer war.
2.5 out of 5
Rogue Suit power kill myself.
4 out of 5
Elf war last kill.
4 out of 5
Time for some serious dragon recruiting.
5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : AMONG THIEVES - Poul Anderson
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : SECOND VARIETY - Philip K. Dick
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : HERO - Joe W. Haldeman
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : SUPERIORITY - Arthur C. Clarke
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : ENDER'S GAME - Orson Scott Card
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : HANGMAN - David Drake
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : THE LAST ARTICLE - Harry Turtledove
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : THE GAME OF RAT AND DRAGON - Cordwainer Smith
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : NIGHT OF THE VAMPYRES - George R. R. Martin
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : TO THE STORMING GULF - Gregory Benford
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : WOLF TIME - Walter Jon Williams
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : THE SCAPEGOAT - C. J. Cherryh
Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century : DRAGONRIDER - Anne McCaffrey
Destroy the Terrestrial Federation with you, or make a deal? Tricky.
3.5 out of 5
If there's a bear in there, you are rooted. Out there isn't good, either, in the long run.
4.5 out of 5
"...Then some bright lad in the General Assembly decided that we ought to field an army of footsoldiers to guard the portal planets of the nearer collapsars. This led to the Elite Conscription Act of 1996 and the most elitely conscripted army in the history of warfare."
5 out of 5
Weapons tech advance space war failure.
3.5 out of 5
Battle School strategy surprise.
4 out of 5
Slammer Plow.
3 out of 5
Passive resistance IS useless. Against ratzis, anyway.
4 out of 5
Another actual use for a live cat. Fight you little bastard.
4 out of 5
Liberty Alliance plot.
3.5 out of 5
Master Computer war.
2.5 out of 5
Rogue Suit power kill myself.
4 out of 5
Elf war last kill.
4 out of 5
Time for some serious dragon recruiting.
5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Digital Domains - Ellen Datlow
A sampling of stories from some late-90s era and slightly beyond magazines. A few very good ones, the rest is pretty run of the mill at 3.23.
Digital Domains : Thirteen Phantasms - James P. Blaylock
Digital Domains : Mr. Goober's Show - Howard Waldrop
Digital Domains : Get a Grip - Paul Park
Digital Domains : The Girl Detective - Kelly Link
Digital Domains : Pansolapia - Jeffrey Ford
Digital Domains : Harbingers - Severna Park
Digital Domains : Frankenstein's Daughter - Maureen McHugh
Digital Domains : The Pottawatomie Giant - Andy Duncan
Digital Domains : What I Didn't See Karen - Joy Fowler
Digital Domains : Daughter of the Monkey God - M.K. Hobson
Digital Domains : Tomorrow Town - Kim Newman
Digital Domains : There's a Hole in the City - Richard Bowes
Digital Domains : All of Us Can Almost - Carol Emshwiller
Digital Domains : You Go Where It Takes You - Nathan Ballingrud
Digital Domains : Russian Vine - Simon Ings
Spooky subscription.
3 out of 5
Old tv.
3 out of 5
Second hand vice fake life.
3 out of 5
Better than reminding you of the mother-in-law, I suppose.
2.5 out of 5
Doggy style voyeur.
3 out of 5
The Seven Grubs Of Olduvai.
3.5 out of 5
Slow clone.
3 out of 5
Champion escapology oversight.
4 out of 5
Gorilla hunt horror.
4 out of 5
Right brain damage.
3 out of 5
This is another Diogenes club adventurers adventure : resplendent with
see through plastic suits and floral print bikinis. Set in 1971, a
renowned 50s SF writer has been murdered in a 'City of Tomorrow'
community that has been set up. Beaten to death with a Hugo, no less!
Amusing, but certainly not as good as some others by Newman.
3 out of 5
Toasty ghosty.
3.5 out of 5
Unlearning to fly.
3 out of 5
Folded people laundry leaving.
3 out of 5
Illiterate people are easy, if you are aliens with territorial designs on Terra.
4 out of 5
3 out of 5
Digital Domains : Thirteen Phantasms - James P. Blaylock
Digital Domains : Mr. Goober's Show - Howard Waldrop
Digital Domains : Get a Grip - Paul Park
Digital Domains : The Girl Detective - Kelly Link
Digital Domains : Pansolapia - Jeffrey Ford
Digital Domains : Harbingers - Severna Park
Digital Domains : Frankenstein's Daughter - Maureen McHugh
Digital Domains : The Pottawatomie Giant - Andy Duncan
Digital Domains : What I Didn't See Karen - Joy Fowler
Digital Domains : Daughter of the Monkey God - M.K. Hobson
Digital Domains : Tomorrow Town - Kim Newman
Digital Domains : There's a Hole in the City - Richard Bowes
Digital Domains : All of Us Can Almost - Carol Emshwiller
Digital Domains : You Go Where It Takes You - Nathan Ballingrud
Digital Domains : Russian Vine - Simon Ings
Spooky subscription.
3 out of 5
Old tv.
3 out of 5
Second hand vice fake life.
3 out of 5
Better than reminding you of the mother-in-law, I suppose.
2.5 out of 5
Doggy style voyeur.
3 out of 5
The Seven Grubs Of Olduvai.
3.5 out of 5
Slow clone.
3 out of 5
Champion escapology oversight.
4 out of 5
Gorilla hunt horror.
4 out of 5
Right brain damage.
3 out of 5
This is another Diogenes club adventurers adventure : resplendent with
see through plastic suits and floral print bikinis. Set in 1971, a
renowned 50s SF writer has been murdered in a 'City of Tomorrow'
community that has been set up. Beaten to death with a Hugo, no less!
Amusing, but certainly not as good as some others by Newman.
3 out of 5
Toasty ghosty.
3.5 out of 5
Unlearning to fly.
3 out of 5
Folded people laundry leaving.
3 out of 5
Illiterate people are easy, if you are aliens with territorial designs on Terra.
4 out of 5
3 out of 5
House of Shards - Walter Jon Williams
Having Allowed Burglars and other colorful characters on a space station holiday venue means headaches for their security, and fun and frivolity for the rest :-
""Pearl Woman. You are looking very dashing."
"Maijstral. It's been years."
"The matched swords are very elegant. What are they, small sabers?"
"Cutlasses. I thought they'd add a swashbuckling touch." Pearl Woman snicked one sword from its scabbard, performed a figure, returned it. Like the claws of a kitten, a touch of fear moved along Maijstral's nerves. Someone had tried to hack him to bits with a sword just recently, and the presence of edged weapons made him more than usually nervous.
He and Pearl Woman clasped hands (three fingers each) and sniffed one another's ears as, around them, the entry concourse bustled on. Maijstral was slightly taller than average, but he had to raise his head to reach the Pearl's neck.
Drake Maijstral's dark hair waved to his shoulders. He was dressed in grey. Lace floated casually at neck and wrists. He wore a large diamond on one finger, and leather buskins on his feet. His eyes were green and heavy-lidded; they gave an impression of laziness, or at least languor. He seemed to be in his mid-twenties.
Maijstral turned and indicated a restless young man dressed in violet plush. "My associate, Mr. Gregor Norman."
"Charmed, Mr. Norman," said Pearl Woman, "This is Advert, my companion."
"Mr. Maijstral," she said, pointing. "Your desk is over there."
Disembarking from second class, a nondescript, portly man named Dolfuss picked up two heavy suitcases from the robot baggage carrier and began moving toward customs.
"Excuse me, sir," the robot said. "I will be happy to carry those."
Dolfuss ignored the robot and moved on.
The room glowed blue. Mr. Sun, sitting in his padded chair behind a U-shaped console, found it a soothing color.
He looked with satisfied eyes at his security monitors. Individual media globes had tagged everyone who had just disembarked, and images of each decked the walls. A hologram projector set into Mr. Sun's desk showed a file labelled Known Associates.
Gregor Norman, it said. Human male, age 20 yrs. The picture was an old one and showed Gregor wearing vulgar earrings and a grossly offensive hairstyle. A short arrest record was appended.
Next to Gregor floated the hologram of a Khosalikh wearing a subdued dark suit with a fashionable braided collar. Roman, it said. Khosali male, age 46 yrs. Bodyservant. No arrests or convictions.
Mr. Sun touched an ideogram on his console. Two of the video monitors flashed. Match, the console reported, and made a pleasant chirring sound.
Mr. Sun smiled. He touched another ideogram to transmit the pictures to Khamiss at the entry concourse.
Acknowledged, flashed the response.
Mr. Sun looked down at his uniform, brushed away a speck of lint. A simple touch, he thought. A simple gesture like this, he thought, and like the lint, the thieves are brushed away.
In his view, this set of burglars had a lot to atone for, and he intended the atonement start now.
"Mr. Norman," said Khamiss. "Your line is over there."
"I'd count those rings if I were you," Pearl Woman said.
Advert glanced in surprise at her fingers, and Pearl Woman smiled. Advert was so easy.
"Sometimes they'll take the jewelry right off you, right in public," Pearl Woman said. "It's vulgar, but sometimes Allowed Burglars like to show off."
"That Gregor person was vulgar enough, heaven knows." Advert looked dubiously at the trademark that dangled from the other woman's ear. "Aren't you worried, Pearl?"
Pearl Woman touched the matched silver hilts of her swords. "Not at all, Advert," she said. "It's for other people to worry, not me." She looked at Advert. "If Maijstral ever bothers you, there's something you can do to get rid of him."
"Yes?"
"Ask him if his mother is well."
"That's all?"
"It's always worked for me."
3 out of 5
""Pearl Woman. You are looking very dashing."
"Maijstral. It's been years."
"The matched swords are very elegant. What are they, small sabers?"
"Cutlasses. I thought they'd add a swashbuckling touch." Pearl Woman snicked one sword from its scabbard, performed a figure, returned it. Like the claws of a kitten, a touch of fear moved along Maijstral's nerves. Someone had tried to hack him to bits with a sword just recently, and the presence of edged weapons made him more than usually nervous.
He and Pearl Woman clasped hands (three fingers each) and sniffed one another's ears as, around them, the entry concourse bustled on. Maijstral was slightly taller than average, but he had to raise his head to reach the Pearl's neck.
Drake Maijstral's dark hair waved to his shoulders. He was dressed in grey. Lace floated casually at neck and wrists. He wore a large diamond on one finger, and leather buskins on his feet. His eyes were green and heavy-lidded; they gave an impression of laziness, or at least languor. He seemed to be in his mid-twenties.
Maijstral turned and indicated a restless young man dressed in violet plush. "My associate, Mr. Gregor Norman."
"Charmed, Mr. Norman," said Pearl Woman, "This is Advert, my companion."
"Mr. Maijstral," she said, pointing. "Your desk is over there."
Disembarking from second class, a nondescript, portly man named Dolfuss picked up two heavy suitcases from the robot baggage carrier and began moving toward customs.
"Excuse me, sir," the robot said. "I will be happy to carry those."
Dolfuss ignored the robot and moved on.
The room glowed blue. Mr. Sun, sitting in his padded chair behind a U-shaped console, found it a soothing color.
He looked with satisfied eyes at his security monitors. Individual media globes had tagged everyone who had just disembarked, and images of each decked the walls. A hologram projector set into Mr. Sun's desk showed a file labelled Known Associates.
Gregor Norman, it said. Human male, age 20 yrs. The picture was an old one and showed Gregor wearing vulgar earrings and a grossly offensive hairstyle. A short arrest record was appended.
Next to Gregor floated the hologram of a Khosalikh wearing a subdued dark suit with a fashionable braided collar. Roman, it said. Khosali male, age 46 yrs. Bodyservant. No arrests or convictions.
Mr. Sun touched an ideogram on his console. Two of the video monitors flashed. Match, the console reported, and made a pleasant chirring sound.
Mr. Sun smiled. He touched another ideogram to transmit the pictures to Khamiss at the entry concourse.
Acknowledged, flashed the response.
Mr. Sun looked down at his uniform, brushed away a speck of lint. A simple touch, he thought. A simple gesture like this, he thought, and like the lint, the thieves are brushed away.
In his view, this set of burglars had a lot to atone for, and he intended the atonement start now.
"Mr. Norman," said Khamiss. "Your line is over there."
"I'd count those rings if I were you," Pearl Woman said.
Advert glanced in surprise at her fingers, and Pearl Woman smiled. Advert was so easy.
"Sometimes they'll take the jewelry right off you, right in public," Pearl Woman said. "It's vulgar, but sometimes Allowed Burglars like to show off."
"That Gregor person was vulgar enough, heaven knows." Advert looked dubiously at the trademark that dangled from the other woman's ear. "Aren't you worried, Pearl?"
Pearl Woman touched the matched silver hilts of her swords. "Not at all, Advert," she said. "It's for other people to worry, not me." She looked at Advert. "If Maijstral ever bothers you, there's something you can do to get rid of him."
"Yes?"
"Ask him if his mother is well."
"That's all?"
"It's always worked for me."
3 out of 5
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