LAST UPDATE
9/25/24
I'm Starting
to Worry About the Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin, St
Martins, 2024, $30, ISBN 978-1-250-28595-9
Although
technically I suppose this is not science fiction, I'm reviewing it in
that category because it feels like it is. The protagonist is a Lyft
driver who gets a new customer who has a large box. The customer is a
woman who offers him an phenomenal fee to drive her and the box cross
country within five days. But there are rules. He cannot open the box.
He cannot ask questions about the box. But rumors about the box - and
their trip - spread through the internet and elsewhere. It is widely
believed that the box contains something with catastrophic consequences,
possibly the outbreak of a second American civil war. So there are
people who do not want them to reach their goal in time. I won't spoil
the ending, but the book is so full of surprising twists that readers
are likely to guess something of the nature of the climax. This was a
whole lot of fun, and pokes fun sharply at several contemporary targets.
9/25/24
Virgin Planet
by Poul Anderson, Beacon, 1959
Even
back in the 1960s when I first read this, I found it embarrassingly
naïve and frequently offensive. It has gotten even worse with age. A
lost colony is populated only by women who reproduce through cloning and
have a primitive tribe based culture. They have legends of men, but when
a lone male explorer lands on the planet, they don’t believe he could
possibly be one of the legendary creatures. He does have technical
knowledge which alters the balance of power, however, and he is spirited
away by three women who want to exploit his knowledge. Lots of swooning
women who have to learn the real meaning of love mixed with some not
very exciting adventures. 9/22/24
Guardians of Time
by Poul Anderson, Ballantine, 1960
The
first four adventures of Manse Everard, who is recruited into the Time
Patrol, an organization whose purpose is to prevent people from changing
the course of history. He visits ancient England to prevent an attempt
to organize the island into a nation well before it should have, to
ancient Persia searching for a missing agent who turns out to have been
trapped into being King Cyrus, to World War II London to intervene when
a fellow agent decides to rescue his lost love who died in a bombing
attack, and elsewhere. The stories all follow something of a pattern,
but they are different enough to be entertaining as a set and provide
glimpses at a number of historical eras. 9/22/24
Passions in Death
by J.D. Robb, St Martins, 2024
Although
I have enjoyed almost all of the sixty books in this series by Nora
Roberts, I found the latest very disappointing. First of all, even the
usual hints of SF - the stories are set several decades in the future -
are absent. This is essentially just a police procedural. The murder in
this case takes place at a party celebrating the imminent marriage of
two women. Internal evidence strongly suggests that the killer was one
of the victim's intimate friends, who claim to have a very strong bond
of friendship. Dallas quickly whittles the list down to two people. One
of them is so egregiously horrible a person that it is immediately clear
that she cannot be the killer. That leaves the other, who is eventually
arrested thanks to some evidence that conveniently falls into the hands
of the police. Repetitive dialogue, frequent side trips, and long
periods where nothing happens. 9/20/24
We Claim These
Stars by Poul Anderson, Ace 1958
Aka
A Handful of Stars. This was the first Dominic Flandry novel, and
probably the weakest in the series. The Terran and Merseian empires are
engaged in a cold war with occasional hot flashes. The Ymir are a third
empire that is not interested in either side because they can only live
in Jupiterlike planets. But it appears that the Ymir have provided
technology to a minor race such that they can conquer a human colony and
threaten to disrupt the status quo disastrously. Flandry is sent to the
occupied planet to foment revolution and gather information. He is a
kind of James Bond in outer space, but even more decadent. 9/17/24
Earthman, Go Home
by Poul Anderson, Ace, 1960
Aka
A Plague of Masters. This is one of my favorites by this author –
I’ve read it several times. Dominic Flandry makes an unofficial visit to
a little known planet and discovers that the government consists of an
oligarchy who rule repressively by holding a monopoly over the only drug
that lets people survive on that world. He becomes a fugitive and
engages in a duel of wits with the head of security. In a surprisingly
short time, we are shown several different parts of the planet in
considerable detail and meet a handful of actually interesting
characters rather than cardboard place holders. Flandry is still a bit
of a cad, but it does with the territory of being an interstellar spy.
9/17/24
The Enemy Stars
by Poul Anderson, Berkley, 1959
Aka
We Have Fed Our Sea. Starships have been launched to the stars,
but they do not have permanent crews. Thanks to teleportation, the crew
can be switched every month, which is useful since the voyage itself
will take centuries. But an unwise approached to an anomaly disables the
ship and the only way that the crew can return is by finding the right
minerals on a planet to allow them to rebuild the matter transmitter.
They do so, although one man dies in the process, but ultimately they
cannot tune it properly and they actually transmit one of their number
onto a vessel operated by a previously unknown race that has the same
technology. The plot is burdened by long technical explanations and
scientific doubletalk. 9/12/24
The War of two
Worlds by Poul Anderson, Ace, 1959
Aka
Silent Victory. This was not one of the author’s better books. It
feels hastily and sometimes awkwardly written. Things happen so quickly
that they do not seem to be justified by circumstances. The premise is
that humans and Martians fought a twenty year war before Earth was
conquered. But actually a race of shapechangers has infiltrated both
governments and manipulated the war to weaken both sides. Our heroes
discover the truth and have to avoid being captured and find a way to
communicate with someone who has not been replaced by a doppelganger.
Very very minor. 9/12/24
War of the
Wing-Men by Poul Anderson, Ace, 1958
Aka
The Man Who Counts. This was the first appearance of Nicholas van
Rijn and the Polesotechnic League, a consortium of traders. Three humans
are stranded on a barely explored world and find themselves in the
middle of a war between two nations of winged warrriors. In order to
return to the only outpost on the planet, they have to arrange for one
side to defeat the other, which they do by introducing new concepts of
warfare. They are hampered by the fact that all metals are very scarce
on the planet, and both sides are so obsessed with ritual that change is
very difficult. Van Rijn is not a particularly pleasant person, but he
does manage to get things done. The two sides in the war have some
justification for their actions so there are no real villains, which was
a nice facet of the story. 9/10/24
Earthman’s Burden
by Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson, Avon Camelot, 1970 (originally
published in 1957)
The
biographies in this edition falsely claim that Anderson won a Hugo for
The Big Time – which was written by Fritz Leiber – and that
Dickson won a Hugo in a category that never existed. That said, these
are amusing stories about the Hokas, intelligent aliens resembling teddy
bears, who adapt various elements from human culture and history, but
who sometimes don’t get it quite right. The settings include the Old
West, the life of Don Juan, a children’s space adventure show, a
Sherlock Holmes pastiche, a pirate adventure and others. Mostly good
fun.. 9/7/24
The Snows of
Ganymede by Poul Anderson, Ace,
1958
A
group of engineers are hired by the reclusive religiously oriented
colony on Ganymede to help terraform the planet. At first things seem to
be going well, despite the obviously repressive and violent society, but
then the engineers discover that an outlawed group of social engineers
have created a secret dictatorship that lurks behind the publicly
accepted leaders of the colony. The conspiracy is revealed and a three
way battle ensues. Most of the engineers are killed but two survive to
reach a band of outlaws living in an underground base. The outlaws help
them seize control of an abandoned spaceship and turn the tables. Pretty
good novella. 9/7/24
Star Ways by
Poul Anderson, Ace, 1956
This
short novel is an interstellar mystery story. The Nomads are a group of
starships who trade among the worlds of the more settled string of
colonies more or less administered by Earth. They are considered a
nuisance by the government, but they rarely break the rules. Both
parties have become interested in a region of space where ships have
been disappearing, and where there are rumors of a mysterious alien race
that is quietly positioning itself for war. A government agent goes
aboard one of the Nomad ships and together they meet a race almost
indistinguishable from humans, who insist that they are benevolent and
only want to protect their peaceful civilization. Unfortunately, this
means exterminating any potential rivals. 8/30/24
Planet of No
Return by Poul Anderson, Ace, 1956
Aka
Question and Answer. An expedition is sent to a recently
discovered Earthlike planet to decide if it is suitable for
colonization. The first expedition vanished without trace. Their arrival
is unremarkable until a small part of kangarooish humanoids appears and
claims to be part of the indigenous population. It takes a long time for
the humans to discover that they are being scammed – even though the
aliens do not fit the biology of the planet and have left no signs of
their existence on the surface – they supposedly live underground. It’s
a ploy designed to leave the planet open for their exploitation and
scare off the humans. Not one of Anderson’s best early books. 6/30/24
Eva Fairdeath
by Tanith Lee, Headline, 1994
This
is a science fiction novel that Lee wrote before she sold her first
book. She refurbished the manuscript decades later. The setting is a
future Earth so polluted that the sky is a dirty yellow, civilization
has collapses, food is scarce, and life is cheap and barbaric. Eva is a
scavenger who endures the brutality of her surroundings without letting
it break her spirit. She becomes sexually involved with two men, Steel
and Sail. Steel is an assassin who is obsessed with death and Sail is a
petty thief who develops a sense of honor and loyalty as the story
proceeds. They have a series of mostly unrelated adventures and reach a
climax when they battle a gang of villains they have managed to offend.
Pretty minor but readable. 8/26/24
No World of
Their Own by Poul Anderson, Ace, 1955
A
primitive starship returns to Earth and its crew discovers that five
thousand years have passed. Earth and its former colony worlds are now
engaged in a power struggle and there are hints of war. They have
brought an alien visitor with them, and the alien escapes. He does so
because he has mental powers that allow him to disable weapons at a
distance and the authorities, as well as foreign spies, all want to
capture him to see if this can be turned into a weapon. The protagonist
finally chooses a side, but control of the situation swings back and
forth for a while. The ending is a bit rough – the hero manages to
convince three different powerful men that his unsupported theory of an
alien conspiracy is true and he and his girl run off into outer space to
find a new home. 8/22/24
Brain Wave by
Poul Anderson, Ballantine, 1954
Earth
passes out of a field that has been inhibiting our intelligence for
millennia and suddenly people have a major increase in intelligence,
which sometimes includes telepathy. Lower animals are similarly
uplifted. Chaos prevails for a time and then efforts are made to create
a new civilization – since no one is interested in boring jobs. There is
brief religious mania and a plot to recreate the inhibition
artificially. Various characters react in different ways. Most
governmental functions cease. Rather improbably, a faster than light
drive is developed within months and a ship is sent to investigate
nearby stars. A lot of good stuff in this one along with a few minor
problems not uncommon in early novels. I’ve read this four or five times
over the years and always find it entertaining. 8/16/24
Vault of the Ages
by Poul Anderson, Camelot, 1972 (originally published in 1954)
Five
centuries after a nuclear war, humans live in tribes and fight one
another with swords and spears. Two large tribes are engaged in warfare
because of dwindling resources, and other learn of a trove of ancient
knowledge hidden in one of the taboo cities. The priest class forbids
them to revive the ancient technologies, but some in both camps are
determined to break the rules. This was intended for young adults so the
main characters are all teenagers. It was Anderson’s first published
novel and is a surprisingly good YA effort, despite what is now a pretty
overused plot. 8/12/24
I, Zombie by Doris
Piserchia (as Curt Selby), DAW, 1982
No
relation to the television show. Despite the title this is not horror.
In the distant future, dead bodies are reanimated mechanically and used
as slave labor, even though some of the original personality remains.
The protagonist is one of these, but she retains all of her personality
and it is immediately obvious that something is fishy. She is sent to
another planet as part of a slave team but her presence stimulates the
personalities of the other workers and there is a series of small
incidents that annoy the sadistic guards. It turns out that she never
actually died and that her existence leads to the discovery of a plot to
increase the work force by altering the mentally ill. Very depressing
and the author's least interesting novel. 8/9/24
The Dimensioneers
by Doris Piserchia, DAW, 1982
A
wild and wooly extra-dimensional adventure that verges on fantasy. An
orphan is able to visit alternate realities when she teams up with a
mutant lion. There she meets a variety of other races, including the
aggressive Kriff, herbivores who need more living space and have no
scruples about seizing it. The Kriff may have her Earth on their menu,
where she lives in an orphanage and fights with the staff. There is also
a weak opposition group who sort of coerce her into helping them find
weapons to use against the Kriff, which she does while dodging agents of
the US Army who have discovered her ability to move between worlds.
Lightweight but fun. 8/7/24
The Deadly Sky
by Doris Piserchia, DAW, 1983
This
was the author’s final book, although she lived until 2021. It is
arguably fantasy. The author never explains what the setting is and
several characters have psychic powers. The protagonist has joined a
group that realizes that inimical creatures from another reality have
created a fault in the sky which is to become a gateway allowing them to
invade. They have some minor adventures before finding a way to close
the gate and save their world. The story often feels like a first draft
and the plot wanders considerably before the disappointingly bland
ending. 8/7/24
Doomtime by Doris
Piserchia, DAW, 1981
Another
very strange future Earth largely overgrown with vegetation. Two giant
trees, who are both intelligent, rule the world and war against one
another. Humans are pawns in their battle, although they take a more
active role late in the novel. There is an impressive array of strange
creatures - humans altered by the trees, fungus people, intelligent
whirlwinds, food vats that are alive, and so on. Piserchia was very
inventive and her settings are sometimes more interesting than her
plots. The story wanders a bit in this one, since we see it through the
eyes primarily of a human who discovers that someone or something is
trying to kill him. Not predictable at all. 89/4/24
Earth in Twilight
by Doris Piserchia, DAW, 1981
Piserchia’s
strange visions of a future Earth probably reached their height in this
very episodic novel set mostly in the branches of a gigantic jungle. The
characters include an oversized mutated beetle who thinks he is human,
an intelligent disease that can control a human body and has a mission,
a visiting astronaut cut off from his ship, a tribe of humans who have
turned green and another tribe of men who refuse to have anything to do
with women, although almost all of them have secret wives hidden away
some place. There is also a con man who is forced by circumstances to
become a minor hero and several minor but entertaining minor characters
and creatures. 8/4/24
Technical Slip
by John Wyndham, Modern Library, 2024, $17, ISBN 978-0593733493
This
appears to be a reprint of the very fine collection, Jizzle,
first published in the 1950s. The stories vary from humor to serious,
from optimistic to pessimistic. “The Wheel” is a very effective look at
an oppressive future. Other stories involve a dragon egg, the ultimate
perfume, an artificially designed life form, and others. There are two
fantasies – the Pied Piper’s instrument turns up and Arachne is alive
and active in the modern world - and a non-fantastic story. The real
treat for me is that this new edition includes Wyndham’s first ever
published novel, Curse of the Burdens. It’s a murder mystery – not an
outstanding one but quite readable – about a supposed curse that is
clearly the mask for a series of murders. Wyndham wrote one further
mystery novel a few years later, but then stayed mainly with science
fiction for the rest of his career. This is a high quality collection of
some of the best by one of the genre’s best. 98/1/24
The Fluger
by Doris Piserchia, DAW, 1980
A
powerful and aggressive alien stows away and arrives on Earth, where it
conducts a reign of terror in a megacity. A different alien is hired to
track down and destroy the invader. This character is rather
implausible. How could a race evolve so that it had three different
bodies – ursine, humanoid, and winged – only one body of which could be
active at any given time? That aside, it’s a competent thriller although
I thought it was significantly inferior to the author’s other novels.
8/1/24
The Seven Sexes
by William Tenn, Ballantine, 1968
This
is a collection of mostly Tenn’s later stories. There is a story about a
girl who can imprison people in her dream world, a boy who visits from
the future, an alien house that will do anything to keep its occupant
content – even if that means meddling with his mind, embassies
established in various time periods and how they deal with fugitives, a
man who unwittingly sells the entire planet Earth to an alien traveler,
and others. These are solid stories though perhaps not from the upper
tier of his work. 7/27/24
The Spinner by
Doris Piserchia, DAW, 1980
A
mining operation that uses a doorway to another reality disturbs an
incubating creature, humanoid but definitely not human, who crosses into
our world and cannot find its way back. It is capable of spinning
enormous, self sustaining webs that are strong enough to even hold
vehicles immobile. It is soon in control of an entire town despite
efforts to burn the webs and shoot the creature. The story focuses more
on the individual stories of the trapped humans than on the alien and
the various efforts made to contain it. I thought the restraint
exercised by the government was a bit too patient to be entirely
credible but otherwise the story is fine. 7/27/24
Lost Apollo by Allen
Steele, Amazing, 2024
Steele's
reimagining of the Captain Future series, created by Edmond Hamilton,
continues with this new adventure. An anomalous spaceship appears near
the Earth, apparently a primitive moon ship from the past. But there is
no record of such a ship and it is eventually apparent that it has
somehow crossed the barrier between different probabilities. Our heroes
have to find a way to return the ship and its crew to their own reality,
but that job is complicated by the presence of another force, whose
nature I won't reveal here. It feels a bit odd having such an old
fashioned story told by a more skillful writer but it's a fun ride.
7/24/24
Machine Vendetta
by Alastair Reynolds, Orbit, 2024
The
third novel of the Prefects and the Panoply has a bit of police
procedural mixed in, but it's mostly about a detective who is aware that
two artificial intelligences are loose in the computer systems that
connect all of the worlds and that they hate each other even more than
they hate humans. Limited but deadly attacks begin to occur and it is
not clear who is responsible. The setting sometimes steals the show away
from the plot, but the plot itself is excellent, not surprising in a
Reynolds novel. The characters are interesting, the puzzle allows the
author to build suspense, and the resolution satisfies not only the
questions raised in the book but some of the lingering mysteries from
the earlier books in the series. I don't recommend reading this as a
standalone. There are too many references to earlier events. 7/23/24
The Human Angle
by William Tenn, Ballantine, 1956
Another
solid collection. The stories include a secret moon project that
discovers it has been pre-empted. A man receives a build a man set from
the distant future. There’s a great spoof of bug-eyed monster stories,
and another humorous piece about an intelligent amoeboid alien trying to
peddle pornography. In a world where children have to be approved in
advance, a family must put a child up for adoption when the husband
receives a cut in pay. A famous artist disappoints when a time traveler
comes to visit. 7/18/24
The Wooden Star
by William Tenn, Ballantine, 1968
Another
fine collection. After the next war, Native Americans take over North
America. The human race decides to be governed by the mediocre instead
of the talented. A family becomes obsessed with their bomb shelter. An
alien deserts from the forces attacking Earth. An astronaut decides to
decline an honor because the radiation will render him infertile. Very
careful attempts to look into the past nevertheless change everything in
the present. A man discovers that there are aliens among us, with
hilarious consequences. Also included is a satire on gender roles which
is frequently misunderstood and occasionally reviled. Aliens try to
swindle humanity, but are ultimately outwitted. Time travels change
history whether they wish to or not. 7/18/24
The Square Root
of Man by William Tenn, Ballantine, 1968
Probably
the weakest of the Tenn collections, but still excellent. It contains
two stories that are not fantastic – one about people thinking witches
are real and another about LSD in the water supply of New York. Included
is his first professional sale, in which a man tricks people into going
to the moon. Another story has space explorers encountering
extra-dimensional bacteria. A professional comedian commissions a robot
to supply him with ad libs, but the robot ends up with the career. Two
men are abducted to Mars, which is looking for an ambassador. In a
matriarchal future Earth, the only place where men can express
themselves is on the jungle planet Venus. 7/12/24
Spaceling by
Doris Piserchia, DAW, 1978
Some
human mutants are able to see floating rings of light which are actually
portals to other realities. The protagonist is one of them, and she has
unusual gifts as she can actually draw the rings toward her. She also
has amnesia and interacts with a number of characters who may or may not
be allies, including a doctor, a reclusive scientist on the run,
enforcers for criminal elements, guards, etc. Movement from one universe
to another changes one’s physical nature, so she can find herself as an
armored mooselike creature capable of breathing a poisonous atmosphere,
or even a kind of diminutive mermaid. But then she learns about a large
scale operation to create oil from water, headed by a ruthless killer,
and she discovers that she has a mission. Pretty good, with a few pacing
problems. 7/12/24
Of Men and
Monsters by William Tenn, Ballantine, 1968
This
was Tenn’s only novel, expanded from “The Men in the Walls.” Aliens so
strange that they cannot be comprehended have conquered the Earth. The
remnants of humanity exist in small bands who sneak into the alien
buildings to steal supplies and souvenirs. The protagonist is a young
man whose coming of age is the first part of the novel. There is turmoil
when some of the bands finally meet and eventually decide to sneak onto
alien spaceships and spread to the stars, but the best parts of the
novel for me were the expeditions into alien territory. Humnas are very
much the rats in the walls in this one. 7/9/24
Earthchild by
Doris Piserchia, DAW, 1977
It
is millions of years from now. Earth is covered by two different
environments. One is a kind of sentient protoplasmic ocean. The other is
a jungle with thousand foot high trees. Reee is possibly the last native
human on Earth, although the Martian colony has sent teams of observers
who are trying to “rescue” humans and take them to Mars, whether they
want to be rescued or not. The jungle is filled with giant predatory
creatures, but the ocean – Indigo – is slowly gobbling up Earth. Reee
has various adventures, is kidnapped to Mars, returns, helps establish
humans on Earth again, reaching arrangement s with Indigo, and meets
various odd characters along the way. Very imaginative and much easier
to follow as a story than were her earlier books. 7/9/24
Time in Advance
by William Tenn, Bantam, 1958
Four
longish stories, all of them excellent. The title story’s premise is
that in the future, you can serve a murder sentence in advance and then
commit the crime at your leisure. Things do not work out for the two
protagonists. “The Sickness” turns out to be a Martian bacteria that can
promote superhuman mental powers in those that contract the disease.
“Winthrop Was Stubborn” is about a time traveling future who decides not
to return to his home time, even though that means his entire party will
be stranded. “Firewater” takes place after incomprehensible aliens visit
Earth, and a subset of humanity appears to go insane after communicating
with them.
Of All
Possible Worlds by William Tenn, Ballantine, 1955
A
collection of classic stories by one of the best in the genre. Included
are stories in which a military commander has to find a way to reach
common ground with his new crew, who have been assembled from the bodies
of dead soldiers, a satiric tale in which Earth is conquered and
reconquered, always in the name of liberation, by powerful interstellar
races, and the last man on Earth discovers new meaning for his life.
“The Tenants” is a fantasy about someone who rents the non-existent
thirteenth floor of an office building. Time travel has unexpected
problems in two of his best stories. 78/6/24
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