Tag: Hard SF

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Noumenon (Noumenon I) – Marina J. Lostetter

In the not-too-distant future, humanity has developed technology that enables the construction of starships. A plan is made to send out convoys of generation ships to explore cosmic phenomena. These will then return, with time dilation resulting in over a millennium having passed on Earth, and centuries for the crew. The crew is made up of successive clones in order to maintain the desirable attributes of the originals.

The story takes places episodically, as a series of vignettes, starting with the founder of the mission itself, and ending with the return to Earth. Unfortunately, the quality of the vignettes, and how interesting they are as individual stories, varies widely. In the middle part of the novel, it feels a bit like filler material, and it hard to get through. There are definitely interesting questions about humanity and society being explored, but it is hard for the reader to care since the characters and stories are not very engaging. The return of the convoy to Earth is rather more interesting, as they come back to a society where they are very much aliens out of their time. Ms. Lostetter has written a very ambitious novel, with a fascinating story, but it falls short of the mark in the telling. I had a hard time getting to the end of the book simply because the characters didn’t capture me. This is somewhat an artifact of the crew of the convoy being made up of successive generations, so there is no one group of characters to follow the entire time. But generally it all feels a bit bland.

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The Fold – Peter Clines

Mike Erikson is gifted with a photographic memory and high intelligence, but is working as an English teacher in a small town. An old friend asks him to travel to the California desert in order to audit a scientific project that seems to have discovered teleportation. But things soon go wrong.

The premise is reasonably clever, but unfortunately the execution falls short. Apart from Mike himself, the characters are anything but memorable, and much of the plot is spent on administrivia without much depth. The dramatic moments fall flat. It feels like a mid-budget science fiction tv show episode that has been stretched to three times the adequate length for the story. I could not maintain interest and gave up halfway through.

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All My Sins Remembered – Joe Haldeman

In a human interstellar confederation, Otto McGavin is an operator for a secretive government agency. He is hypnotically programmed with a personality overlay extracted from a person in the location of interest, allowing him to replace them and act covertly. The book is structurally three independent novellas with a framing story, assembled from three originally separate stories.

The concept of McGavin’s personality being scarred over the course of decades of covert operations isn’t novel per se. However, the exploration of transgressions committed while acting as another person is interesting. Unfortunately the novellas themselves are not very strong, even having interesting premises of their own.

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Buying Time – Joe Haldeman

In a not so distant future, “immortals” can buy ten to twelve years of extra life at a time through a medical procedure known as the Stileman Proces. The catch? They must give all their assets to the Stileman Foundation each time, and the minimum cost is one million pounds. Dallas Barr, an immortal, becomes aware of a conspiracy to subvert the Stileman Foundation. But the secrets go deeper than that, and he is soon on the run.

A well-paced and interesting science fiction thriller with an interesting premise. Dallas Barr’s journey to stay ahead of the antagonists takes him to various places on Earth, and the asteroid belt, with some very interesting societal models. As is common with Mr. Haldeman, the story veers in unexpected directions, with this one digging deeply into a global conspiracy theme that is just as topical as when the book was written.

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Service Model – Adrian Tchaikovsky

In a mansion, one man lives alone. And one morning, his valet robot accidentally kills him while shaving him. The robot does not know why he did this. After a pointless, Kafkaesque investigation, he is released from service and told to report to “Diagnostics”. Once he gets there. he discovers that Diagnostics is backed up with a long line of robots waiting to be diagnosed. Most of the robots in line are derelict. The robots in charge of diagnostics have come up with a creative solution to mitigate the backlog. On his way to Diagnostics, he discovered that the world is decaying. Human mansions sit derelict. Unused robots languish. How will he resolve his internal programming conflicts, finding his purpose again, and what is happening to the world?

The premise is fantastic, and telling the story from the point of view of the robot is clever. Unfortunately Mr. Tchaikovsky lets the robot’s internal monologue on and on. It gets old and boring very quickly. I gave up about a third of the way through. The very interesting idea and story is buried under extensive and boring internal monologue and exposition.

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Fenrir – Eric Flint & Ryk E. Spoor

Astronomer Stephanie Bronson discovers a interstellar object approaching the Solar System. It turns out to be an alien spacecraft, soon dubbed “Fenrir”, which remains stubbornly silent. As the spacecraft is decelerating, it suffers an apparent catastrophic malfunction. A bold rescue plan is put in place for the enigmatic alien intruder.

An excellent adventure story with high adventure and solid science. Mr. Flint and Mr. Spoor make the plot flow smoothly, with interesting characters, and very engaging prose. Reminiscent of, and purposefully calling back to, a more optimistic time. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Livesuit (Captive’s War I½)

Humanity is engaged in a war with a savage and relentless enemy over vast tracts of space and time. Kirin is a paramedic on a human settled planet. Together with his colleague and friend Piotr he enlists in the Livesuit Infantry, composed of elite troops who spend their entire tour of duty encapsulated in suits made of living tissue. The suit is responsible for feeding, waste elimination, and medical care. Kirin soon begins to suspect that the livesuits have much more sinister aspects.

This excellent novella is very much in the vein of The Forever War. Humanity is lost in a war which, due to the distances involved in both space and time, is well beyond the comprehension of the troops. Friends and lovers will never be seen again once separated, and the end goals are remote and difficult to fathom. Kirin’s slow loss of humanity, both mental and physical, is the perfect metaphor for pointless war.

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Spin (Spin I) – Robert Charles Wilson

One night, when best friends Tyler, Jason, and Diane are children, they escape outside from an adult party. As they watch, the stars disappear from the night sky. Earth has been enveloped in a membrane which will come to be known as The Spin. Who created it, or why, is a complete unknown. As it turns out, time outside the membrane passes thousands of times faster than inside. Within a few decades of time on Earth, the sun will have aged to the point of enveloping the Earth, dooming everyone inside. As Tyler, Jason, and Diane grow up and lead their lives, a culture of fatalism takes root, but Jason, a genius scientist with drive and ambition in spades, has other plans for humanity.

The premise is very clever, and the scope is ambitious. Mr. Wilson takes the reader on a decades-long journey, both in the wider story of Earth and humanity itself, and the much more intimate narrative of Tyler, Jason, and Diane, that veers off in many unexpected directions. The trap of a Big Dumb Object scifi premise is not developing it beyond the obvious, but in this case the author certainly does. Where the novel falters a bit is focusing too strongly on the story of Diane’s descent into religious cults based on The Spin, and Tyler’s actions in response. While certainly the eschatological element of the physical effects is worth exploring, it becomes too long winded, and the somewhat tacked-on side story doesn’t do very much to set up Diane and Tyler’s future anyway. The story goes very dark in places, but that, in essence, is what Mr. Wilson is exploring. How would humanity react when the clock is ticking?

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Defiance (The Spiral Wars IV) – Joel Shepherd

After retrieving the data core from the Kantovan Vault, the crew of the Defiance proceeds to an ancient asteroid settlement known as Defiance. The plan is to uncover technologies and equipment to help them fight the encroaching machine intelligence threat.

The story moves forward some more. Mainly this book stands out for the great action sequences, which unlike in previous books where many characters were wearing semi-obvious plot armour, feel like they have very real stakes.

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Kantovan Vault (The Spiral Wars III) – Joel Shepherd

Our heroes must venture deeper into Tavalai human space in their search for evidence of a conspiracy against not only humanity, but several other species as well. This instalment involves a heist, breaking into a mysterious vault on a planet with a crushing atmosphere.

There is a bit less character development and more story focus in book three, but the great action continues.

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Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse V) – Dennis E. Taylor

The fifth instalment picks up all the storylines from the previous books, and adds more. A pair of Bobs discover the abandoned planets and space installations of an ancient and multiracial civilization. Friction continues with various human factions. A new race is found and their civilization explored. The aliens from Heaven’s River deal with digital life after death. And more.

This book is a hot mess. There are far too many storylines, and only two get the attention they need to be interesting. The dragon storyline is neat, but not necessary for the main story. In essence, only the implications of the ancient civilization that decamped is really relevant. There is a lot of time spent in various meetings where various things are discussed, and only the characters’ snarky and snappy dialogue makes it bearable. The whole thing would have been better off as a short story collection, allowing the reader to focus on one thing at the time in depth.

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Beyond the Ranges – John Ringo with James Aidee

Jason Graham wakes up in a strange room, which turns out to be on a massive space station orbiting a newly terraformed planet. Mysterious cybernetic aliens have rescued humans from Earth’s destruction, and separated them along political lines. In the space station orbiting the planet Bellerophon are five hundred million people, all of a politically conservative bent. Jason is a science fiction fan and lifetime tinkerer who soon figures out how to take full advantage of the technologies now available to humanity. He makes his way down to the planet to set up a food business, recruiting old friends and business associates along the way.

There is a lot to like in this book. The premise is interesting, with a new world ripe for the taking but an economic system that needs kickstarting. Jason is certainly well fleshed out, but most of the other characters are cardboard cutouts. The adventures of Jason setting up food harvesting with futuristic tech on the planet are fun. Unfortunately, the novel suffers greatly under the weight of two things. First off, there are numerous infodumps and long digressions that become rather tedious. Secondly, the conservative message is very heavy-handed. I don’t have to agree with the politics of the characters in a story to enjoy it, but this often reads like thinly veiled propaganda, which is a bit much. All that being said, it does feature Mr. Ringo’s engaging prose and sharp ironic wit, which makes it rather more engaging that it deserves to be.

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Citadel (The Palladium Wars III) – Marko Kloos

After the dramatic ending of Ballistic, the story starts to move a bit faster. Dunstan helps the crew of the Zephyr with their quest for revenge in an engaging action piece, while on Gretia, Idina and Solveig finally meet during yet another attack by the unknown aggressor.

Not much is resolved in this installment, but the series continues to be entertaining military science fiction.

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Ballistic (The Palladium Wars II) – Marko Kloos

Under the threat of an unknown aggressor, the system slowly moves towards war again. Aden finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a terror plot and again at the mercy of the Rhodian military, running into Dunstan. Idina struggles with insurgency on Gretia.

The series is still on a slow burn, but Mr. Kloos’s characters are engaging to read about, and just spending time with them is nice.

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Aftershocks (The Palladium Wars I) – Marko Kloos

Five years after waging a system-wide war of aggression, the planet-nation of Gretia is still under occupation by the victorious powers. Prisoner of war Aden Jansen, a former elite soldier from the losing side, is released from captivity on Rhodia, and must start rebuilding his life. On Gretia itself, Idina, a sergeant with the peacekeeping forces, contends with increasing violence. Dunstan, a military spaceship captain, sees an increase in piracy and other events. Finally, on Gretia, young corporate scion Solveig is being groomed to take over the Ragnar corporation.

The dialogue and the fast-paced action scenes are on point. The four narratives don’t really meet in the first instalment of the series, but it works anyway, as Mr. Kloos progressively illustrates out the political and social layout of the Gaia system. A great start.

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Machine Vendetta (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency III) – Alastair Reynolds

The final book in the trilogy concludes the arc that started in Elysium Fire. A lone prefect dies under mysterious circumstances, and her legacy turns out to be more mysterious still. A rogue faction within Panoply attempts to capture the Clockmaker and Aurora distributed artificial intelligences, which up to now have been more or less balancing each other out. Their capture effort has unintended and disastrous consequences.

The characters are stellar and Mr. Reynolds’s writing is solid as ever, but the plot feels weak and the pacing slow, making the book a slog in parts.

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Termination Shock – Neal Stephenson

As with many other of Mr. Stephenson‘s books, it is difficult to summarise this one in a brief paragraph, as there are several rather disparate threads. The main ones involve the Queen of the Netherlands being invited to a secret meeting involving a geoengineering project in Texas to cool the planet, thus counteracting climate change. Another thread is about a Sikh youth from Canada who finds himself entwined in geopolitical strife in the Himalayas. And yet another threat is about a US Army veteran who is on a crusade against marauding wild boar in Texas. Counseling the Queen is an interesting character with Indonesian and Chinese origins. As events unfold and the climate does indeed start changing, clandestine climate wars silently begin, while on the India-China border, performative war is already happening.

Some books manage to change your view of the world. This is one of them. As climate change pushes humanity into an uncertain future, Mr. Stephenson explores some of the possibilities. One of the key takeaways is that stability is an illusion. Don’t hold on to thiings, material or otherwise, if doing so is harmful to your wellbeing. This was as true for Dutch colonists in Indonesia during World War Two as it is for those holding on to their houses in the face of repeated catastrophic weather events. A captivating read, beautifully written in Mr. Stephenson’s trademark ironic tone.

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Escape Orbit (Eccentric Orbits II) – Patrick Chiles

At the end of Frozen Orbit, Jack Templeton went into hibernation on board the Magellan and launched himself towards the outer reaches of the solar system, in a quest to reach a mysterious object with a strong gravity well. Meanwhile, former crewmate Traci Keene is back on earth in bureaucratic hell. Eventually Jack reaches the object, which is much more mysterious than he suspected. And a rescue mission involving Traci is launched.

While a serviceable sequel to Frozen Orbit, the novel suffers from a less engaging setting. Frozen Orbit was real deep space adventure. Escape Orbit has too little deep space and too much bureaucratic machination. The real action doesn’t start until well into the second half of the book. The AI elements are interesting but not groundbreaking.

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Earthside (Quantum Earth II) – Dennis E. Taylor

In the immediate sequel to Outland, our heroes continue to deal with the aftermath of the Yellowstone eruption, and the challenges of setting up a colony in the alternate timeline of Outland. Given that the majority of the existing inhabitants of “Rivendell”, as the refuge has been named, are of university age, a sudden influx of older refugees creates significant tension. The older generation feels that they should take over what they see as an amateur operation run by youths. Additional subplots include a sociopathic killer, and research to find other potential timelines that might offer escape hatches or resources.

While the second installment is still entertaining, it doesn’t have nearly the same punch as the first book. Mr. Taylor skillfully weaves the plot, but some of the elements seem tacked on as filler. It lacks a definite direction, and seems more like an extended coda for the first book.

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Outland (Quantum Earth I) – Dennis E. Taylor

University engineering students Mike and Bill are approached by physics students who need their expertise to continue experimenting with quantum tunneling and parallel universes. The experiments turn out to be more successful than expected, opening up a big can of worms. They can now open portals to alternate timelines, with different conditions, for example, one where dinosaurs did not go extinct, and one, which they name “Outland”, where mammals are prevalent but humans seem absent. A pastoral paradise of sorts. Meanwhile, Erin, a geology student, and Mike’s girlfriend, is caught up in unprecedented events at the Yellowstone caldera, which seems poised to erupt, potentially causing widespread destruction. Due to university politics, the quantum tunneling team decide to clandestinely move their research off-campus, while disassociating themselves with the university funding stream. What started as an academic project becomes a get-rich stream, and then rather unexpectedly morphs into an escape hatch for refugees.

The concept and usage of the portals is very well realised, with a slew of interesting applications that have to be improvised as conditions “Earthside” change dramatically. The adventure story parallels to Stargate SG-1 are obvious, and references by the characters themselves. While the protagonists are likable and it is easy to root for them, they are not very three-dimensional. On a side note, this is very much the young white American apocalypse, even if one of the main characters is Indian. I suppose it can be explained away since the setting is a university in Nebraska. That criticism aside, I found this to be a real page-turner just like his other books, with Mr. Taylor’s fast-paced plotting and the constant witty snark highly entertaining.

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Roadkill – Dennis E. Taylor

Jack Kerrigan has been expelled from MIT for something he did not do, and now he’s back in the small rural midwestern town where he grow up, working in his father’s general store. On a delivery run, he hits something with his pickup truck. But he can’t see it, as it is invisible. It turns out that Jack has hit an alien wandering across the road. As things unravel, Jack and his friends find themselves embroiled in a plot involving aliens meddling in humanity’s future, as well as the interstellar political implications.

While the premise itself, apart from the starting incident, is not terribly original, the story is great fun. An adventurous romp with many funny moments and often hilarious dialogue. The dynamic between the three childhood best friends turned young adults is fabulous, elevating the story from what the tired “aliens among us” to something much more engaging.