Science fiction is good. I have learned more about politics, economics, history, religion, sociology and plenty of other subjects that I otherwise hated in school because they were intensely boring, by reading science fiction.
Next scheduled update in October.
Title
Author/editor
ISBN
©date
Publisher
Summary
Past Imperfect
Martin Greenberg & Larry Sergiff
0-7564-0012-0
Daw Books
2001
A collection of short stories all involving some type of time travel. Some are science fiction, but many have that fantasy feel to them, neglecting to explain how it’s done. A few of the good ones are “Conmvolution” about a professor who makes a time machine and ends up messing things up badly; “Theory of Relativity” where a woman visits herself in another timeline; and “a Touch Through Time” about how a researcher brings a supposedly dead actress back to the future to help end a plague. Hit and miss with this book.
Flinx’s Folly
Allen Dean Foster
0-345-45039-6
Del Rey/Ballentine
2003
Flinx starts this adventure unconscious, a victim of his own weird physiology. Then, after foiling an assassination attempt, he goes to see his old girlfriend Clarity. they spend time together discussing the nature of the big bad evil entity coming to destroy the galaxy and everything in it. Clarity’s jealous fiancee tries to have him removed, but something bad happens to him instead as a couple old pals Mallory and Tru show up to save the day. Then Clarity is injured by an attack as they are leaving, so Flinx goes off alone in search of the great weapon that can save the day, setting the stage for the next adventure. Adventure and intrigue, and weird aliens.
Time for the Stars
Robert Heinlein
Ace books
1956
Tom and Pat are telepathic twins and are trained as a pair of communicators in a mission to explore local star systems for potential colony worlds. Tom goes on the ship, and Pat stays behind and tranceives messages. Tom writes the narrative of the adventure, and also fills in how Pat’s decedents replace him as the telepathy links. then they land on a seemingly nice planet and nasty sea monsters eat most of the crew. But all ends well as the telepathy research paves the way for FTL craft and Tom returns home to see his now elderly brother and ends up marrying his great grand niece. Great adventure with more science than advanced tech.
the Duke of Uranium
John Barnes
0-446-61081-X
Warner/Aspect
2002
Jak starts the story by finishing school, then going dancing with his friends. But his girlfriend is kidnaped, only it turns out she is a princess from Earth. Jak’s uncle belongs to a secret political order and encourages him to go on a secret mission to contact an old rival and give that man some information which will get her rescued. On the sailship to Earth he meets another girl and makes other friends. When he gets to Earth, things don’t go quite as planned, but with the help of new friends and old he manages to rescue the princess and saves the day. And he meets another girl. Great adventure yarn but the futurespeak is a little irritating.
the Getaway Special
Jerry Oltion
0-312-87777-3
2001
Tor/Tom Doherty Associates
Allen is a scientist and he invents a portable hyperdrive and when the feds try to oppress it he builds his own spacecraft out of a plastic septic tank and goes to the stars along with Judy, a space shuttle pilot. There they find intelligent butterflies and trees, and other oddities. Then some French appear in a submarine with a dire prediction of war on Earth, so they return with their new alien friends to straighten things out. Interesting aliens and mild adventure.
the City Who Fought
Anne McCaffrey & S.M. Stirling
0-671-72166-6
1993
Baen/Simon & Schuster
Simeon is a cripple stuck in a tube and wired to the space station in order to run it. He is assigned a new assistant, Channa. They start off hating each other, but then a nearly dead ship with a few survivors of an attack by evil pirate Kolnar arrives. Amos, their leader, warns of the impending attack and the station prepares as best it can, as Channa gets the hots for him. The pirates arrive and rape and pillage, as Simeon and the others fight back until the Navy arrives to save the day. Plenty of death and adventure, but also plenty of emotional tripe.
the Ship Avenged
S.M. Stirling
0_671_87766_6
1997
Baen/Simon & Schuster
Joat and her crewman Al take along security types to rescue Amos from the clutches of the Kolnari space pirates. Belazair, the head pirate, has infected him with a disease that will make people lose their minds. She gets caught up in smuggling as part of the plan and along the way she meets her uncle who sold her into slavery when she was a child. So, in a long and convoluted mess she manages to retrieve Amos and then go and rescue Bros. And as an added bonus, something better than death happens to her nasty uncle. Adventure and intrigue.
Old Soldiers
David Weber
1-4165-0898-8
2005
Baen/Simon & Schuster
Lazarus is an obsolete Mark XXVIII Bolo and Maneka is his commander. they are assigned to protect a seed colony of humanity sent out to lose itself among the stars. Along the way the convoy is attacked by the evil Melconians, humanity’s sworn enemy. Maneka finds herself military commander after everyone senior to her is killed in the attack. She leads the ships to what seems a safe planet, only to find the Melconians trailed them there and attack. Of course the Bolo saves the day and the colony prospers. Plenty of death and adventure, with a little emotional tripe.
3001 - the Final Oddesey
Arthur Clarke
0-345-31522-7
1997
Del Rey/Ballentine
Frank Poole is found drifting out of the solar system and is resurrected. He experiences life in this new future 1,000 years hence, noting how much of the new tech was anticipated if not actually expected. After spending some time on a mega skyscraper, he decides to go back to Jupiter and try to make contact with the Dave Bowman intelligence. He observes the life on Europa, and is the first Human to be allowed to land. Bowman warns him of impending doom, and humanity decides to infect the monolith with a computer virus with Bowman’s cooperation.
the Light Years Beneath My Feet
Alan Dean Foster
0-345-46128-2
2005
Del Rey/Ballentine
Marc the human, George the dog, Sque the squid and Braouk the lummox were all kidnaped by the evil Vilenjji slave trader to be sold for profit as slaves, but they escaped and after Marc learns to cook they are invited to Niyu so he can cook. But when they start asking for help to get home they are ignored and so the squid masterminds a plot to confuse and unsettle them to the point where they provide them with the means to return home. Tame adventure.
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