Tim Pratt recently won the 2007 Hugo Award for best short story with Impossible Dreams. The story’s main character, Pete, is a huge movie buff that stumbles across a new video store in his neighborhood. He doesn’t seem to understand how he missed the store before, but ventures in and finds an odd selection of movies which he though had been canceled, or made by different directors with different actors. What follows is an interesting commentary on movies which either were never made, were lost, or simply done differently. This is a truly awesome story with an excellently planned ending. It was a pleasure to read from start to finish. From the writing it either the author is a huge movie buff or his writing is so good that you’d never even suggest he wasn’t passionate about movies. Visit the link above and read the full story at Asimov’s Science Fiction.
Impossible Dreams by Tim Pratt
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I came across a recommendation for Tau Zero by Poul Anderson on a top 10 list of science fiction novels. I was a bit intrigued because I recognized all of the authors on the list except this one. I did a little bit of research and found that this novel was more of “hard” science fiction. I wasn’t sure exactly what to except, and after just a few chapters I was pleasantly surprised.
A group of 25 male and 25 female scientists are selected to go on an interstellar colonization mission. Their ship, the Lenora Christine, is equipped with an advanced Buzzard engine. This engine is designed to feed off of hydrogen particles in its path while at the same time repelling other particles that would normally tear the ship apart at high velocities. The ship is designed to travel at near the speed of light, and relativity plays a significant role in the plot. After striking a nebulae that was a bit too dense for the Buzzard engine to redirect enough particles, the decelerator was damaged. There was no way to slow down. If they shut the Buzzard engine down to make repairs, they would be killed in minutes without the shielding. (more…)
Isaac Asimov’s Robot City Book 4: Prodigy by Byron CoverIsaac Asimov’s Robot City Book 4: Prodigy by Byron Cover
This review will most likely contain spoilers for any previous books in the series, read at your own risk.
Derec and Ariel (previously known as Katherine) finally were able to track down the cyborg known as Jeff Leong. The Human Medical Team of robots was able to repair Jeff’s body and place his brain back inside. They let Jeff use the escape pod Mandlebrot and Wolruf landed with to fly home and send for help if possible. Until then, they are all still stuck in Robot City.
This book revolves around a robotic renaissance that has emerged in Robot City. Derec and Ariel spot a huge new building that looks more like artwork than anything else. During their investigation they find robots that wonder what it is like to be human, comedians, artists, etc. In the midst of all this a robot is murdered and Derec must find the killer and figure out why these robots acting so differently. I’d say out of the series this is one of my favorite books because it reminds me a bit of the Bicentennial Man short story by Asimov.
Isaac Asimov’s Robots and Aliens Book 6: Humanity by Jerry OltionIsaac Asimov’s Robots and Aliens Book 6: Humanity by Jerry Oltion
This review will most likely contain spoilers for any previous books in the series, read at your own risk.
Humanity starts out with a very brief, and rather insufficient, summary of the events of the series. Derec, Ariel, Mandelbrot, Wolruf, Dr. Avery, and the three learning robots are on their way back to the original robot city. They are in for a big surprise when they enter orbit. As with previous books in this series we get to see a good portion of action, as well as discussion about what is meant to be human.
We do get to see how the whole series is tied together. For my taste, it seems that everything fits together a bit too nicely. Also, I was expecting a bit more closure toward the end. I was left with the feeling that yet another series or at least novel should fill in the gap between this series and the Tiedemann Trilogy (Mirage, Chimera, Aurora) which involves both Derec and Ariel. I’ll discuss this in more detail in my general Robots and Aliens review which will follow as I can’t do this without major spoilers for this last novel.