LAST UPDATE
9/30/23
Unidentified by
Michael McBride, Preternatural, 2022
This
is a novel about cattle mutilations. A group of people who were
traumatized by mysterious deaths and disappearances as youths return to
confront their past. Something is alive under the ground, and it is
dangerous and rather creepy. This had a lot less detail than the
author's other suspense/SF novels and I found it less convincing and
considerably less involving. There is never really a good explanation
for what is going on and the characters are never developed particularly
well. Perhaps this was a novel idea that went sour and got cut short.
9/30/23
The Merchants’ War
by Frederik Pohl, Del Rey, 1984
The
sequel to The Space Merchants is similarly a satire, and
similarly involves a corrupt protagonist who eventually is moved to
switch sides. In this case, he discovers that agents from the Venus
colony and some dissidents on Earth are planning to use a political
campaign to seize power over the advertising agencies. His conversion
comes very late in the story and is not very convincing. The best part
of the book for me was in the little details – the guy who compulsively
collected faux collectible items, for example. Satire had pretty much
gone out of style by the 1980s, and feels more anachronistic now that
real life has become far more of a caricature than even SF writers
imagined it could be. 9/28/23
Starburst by
Frederik Pohl, Del Rey, 1982
I
found the premise for this novel completely unbelievable. Eight people
are tricked into taking the first interstellar voyage to a planet that
actually does not exist. It is an experiment designed to see how their
minds can develop new abilities when they have nothing to do but think
about scientific problems. They become geniuses but then rebel against
the project purpose when they discover they are effectively under
sentence of death. Nope. Sorry. I don’t believe any of this is
possible, particularly in such a short time frame. They discover they
have been tricked and use their super intelligence to almost destroy the
Earth. They create a planet to replace the fictional one and begin
bringing colonists to live there. This is probably Pohl’s weakest – and
dullest – solo novel. 9/24/23
Regime Change by
Thomas Easton & Frank Wu, 2023, $13.99
This
near future psychic espionage thriller is available from Amazon in solid
and electronic formats. The story involves a group of four people, two
of them quite elderly, who have psi talents and who once worked for the
CIA but are now retired. They have to come out of retirement when the
Russians decide to set off a new hidden warfare using their own gifted
agents. Although telepathy is the main focus, there are clairvoyant and
telekinetic elements as well. The new head of the CIA is pragmatic and
determined to counter this new threat, even if it means making somewhat
unfair demands on those who have already served. Most of the story is a
series of thrusts and counterthrusts, but there is a rousing, violent
climax when everything comes to a head - although I notice the authors
are careful to set the stage for a possible sequel without leaving one
convinced that the present story is incomplete. Psi powers have pretty
much gone out of style in the genre, but maybe it's time for them to
come back. 9/19/23
Payback in Death
by J.D. Robb, St Martins, 2023
Eve
Dallas is back in a detective story that is only nominally SF. A retired
Internal Affairs officer is murdered in his apartment, and the death is
rigged rather ineptly to look like suicide. The obvious place to look is
people whose misdeeds were uncovered in the past, but there does not
seem to be any connection to any of them. But appearances are
misleading. Dallas, and the reader, will suspect the actual killers very
early, but the motive is concealed until the story is almost over. The
chief villain confesses at the end in a not very convincing scene but
otherwise the book is up to her usual quality. 9/18/23
Ruination by Michael
McBride, Preternatural, 2023
The
second half of this zombie apocalypse variation. It's the usual
scenario. The government collapses, shambling killers everywhere, a
small number of people immune to the plague gathering together and
attempting to survive. The story veers toward the supernatural at this
point because it involves an evil force that is drawing humanity toward
its ultimate challenge. To avoid spoilers, I'll be vague about its exact
nature. The story does not break any new ground, but McBride is very
skilled at weaving several individual storylines/protagonists into an
organized and usually very suspenseful narrative. And there does seem to
be an ongoing market for this particular type of story. 9/17/23
The Day of the
Doctor by Stephen Moffatt, Target, 2018
Novelization
of the author’s screenplay for the television series. Three different
Doctors are about to converge. The tenth Doctor is in Elizabethan
England battling the alien Zygons, who plan to take over the Earth. His
successor is investigating an anomaly in time that causes a bridge from
one era to another. And a mysterious new doctor – not one in the regular
sequence – is involved in an intergalactic war between the Time Lords
and the Daleks – both sides of which are arguably villainous. This was
one of the better installments in the revival of the show. 9/15/23
Syzygy by Frederik
Pohl, Del Rey, 1982
This
is just barely SF, mostly because an artificially produced signal is
received in the final chapter. The novel itself is about several people
who get involved with the speculation that an alignment of the planets
will disrupt the son and have catastrophic effects on Earth,
particularly Los Angeles. There is a real estate speculator who plays up
the threat, a mobster who does not like seeing his equity drop, a couple
of politicians who use it to advance their careers, a Russian cosmonaut,
and three scientists who are affected directly because of the nature of
their work and the creation of a Senate advisory committee. It’s
actually pretty good even though very little happens. It is mostly about
their interactions, interspersed with science nuggets and some mild
melodrama. 9/14/23
The Cool War by
Frederik Pohl, Del Rey, 1980
This
is a fixup of three novelettes and some additional material. It’s a
semi-serious satire set in a near future where open warfare is virtually
impossible, so countries use sabotage and propaganda to weaken each
other. The protagonist is drafted into the US intelligence service known
as the Team and is sent on various missions, usually unaware of what he
is actually supposed to be doing. He eventually meets an underground
rebel who convinces him to switch sides. The story is not nearly as
series as the summary might indicate. It is filled with absurd
situations and dark humor, although the humor doesn’t always work. This
kind of satire has diminished in popularity, probably because reality
has become so surreal that it no longer feels pointed in its criticisms.
It also goes on for far too long and contains several unnecessary scenes
and some repetition. 9/6/23
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl, Del Rey, 1980
Sequel
to Gateway. An alien artifact that turns comets into food is
located beyond Pluto and a family of four contract to take the seven
year round trip and try to move it closer to Earth. The artifact not
only does not want to move, but it is linked to a much bigger alien
station which still has non-human inhabitants, although they are not the
Heechee but a less intelligent and now degenerate race. Various subplots
intertwine involving periodic waves of madness on Earth, family
tensions, a teenage boy who has been living alone on the main station
for ten years, and the political and financial maneuvering of various
persons on Earth. At the end we finally learn what the Heechee were
doing and where they are now. Not quite as good as the first book, but
thoroughly rewarding. 9/2/23
Contagion by Michael
McBride, Preternatural, 2022
This
was originally announced as the first in a trilogy but apparently ends
with the second book. It is a variant of the zombie apocalypse story
with a lot of enticing new tweaks and twists. An expedition unearths a
cave in Alaska which suggests cannibalism and some kind of mental
disease which affects a member of the staff. This coincides with a
number of peculiar events around the world, which precede the arrival of
the long dormant plague to more populated parts of the world. McBride
does this sort of thing very well indeed, with lots of viewpoint
characters to let us see the problems unfold from various vantage
points. It is essentially just what it seems, but the details and the
technique are distinctly McBride's and raise his work above a mob of
superficially similar novels. 8/27/23
The Tyrant Skies by
David Annandale, Aconyte, 2023
This
is an unusual Marvel tie-in novel that is essentially a battle between
two of the franchise's more popular villains. Dr. Doom still rules
Latveria, but he is concerned about the recent activities of the Red
Skull, an old enemy who has assembled a substantial force backed by
considerable wealth. The Red Skull has created a kind of floating island
nation which has been recognized internationally, and he plans to attack
Latveria, Doom's stronghold, which apparently he had done before - this
is the third book in a loose series by this author. There are lots of
battle scenes and some reasonably good mundane espionage sequences. It
was hard to think of Doom as the hero. 8/23/23
Wastelanders:
Star-Lord, Aconyte, 2023
This
is a kind of Marvel universe mash-up. Star-Lord and Rocket return to
Earth as they pass through middleage. During the interim, Dr. Doom has
somehow gained the upper hand and controls the Earth, much of which has
been converted into a wasteland. Then they discover that their former
comrades have been captured and are compelled to search for the Black
Vortex, regardless of the consequences. This leads to a competing quest.
Kraven the Hunter also shows up. Although I enjoyed crossovers when I
was reading the comics, I actually preferred that the characters remain
largely in their own part of the Marvel canon. This is well written but
I never really felt as though I was reading something authentically in
the same tradition. 8/21/23
Jem by Frederik Pohl,
Bantam, 1979
This
is a rather unpleasant novel about human exploitation of an alien planet
where three sentient species have lived in balance with one another. The
humans kill specimens despite knowing that they are intelligent, and the
whole plan is to exploit the planet for human use. Back on Earth,
international tensions are trending toward a devastating war so the
establishment of colonies seems desirable. But the aliens learn to adapt
to the invaders and strike back. Almost all of the characters are
assholes so it’s hard not to sympathize with the aliens even if it
wasn’t their world to start with. Well written, but I can’t say I
enjoyed it. 8/20/23
Gateway
by Frederik Pohl, Del Rey, 1977
The
first and best in the Heechee series. Gateway is a hollowed out asteroid
containing ships built by a vanished alien race. The ships can travel to
distant star systems, and humans can use them, but there is no way to
understand the controls or predict destinations, and a large percentage
of those who try disappear or are killed. The protagonist is one such
explorer, but a rather cowardly one who is beset with a heavy load of
psychological problems. Much of the novel deals with the mechanics of
Gateway, the problems of sharply confined crews on long journeys, and
the protagonist's sessions with a computerized psychiatrist after he has
returned, rich, to Earth. One of Pohl's best. 8/14/23
Tomorrow and
Tomorrow by Hunt Collins, Pyramid, 1956
Aka
Malice in Wonderland. Collins is better known as Evan Hunter,
serious novelist, and Ed McBain, author of the 87th Precinct
novels. This early quasi-dystopian novel is set in a future world where
two factions contend for powers. The Rees prefer realism in their life,
which means few luxuries, no alcohol or drugs, etc., although in reality
they indulge in all of that. The Vikes are vicarious and drink, drug,
and have sex constantly and openly. The pressure grows as new factors
complicate matters and eventually the entire dual system collapses. I
couldn’t remember anything from having previously read the novel, not
surprising because it is boring and uneventful. 8/9/23
Mars Plus by Frederik
Pohl & Thomas T. Thomas, Baen, 1994
This
sequel to Pohl's Man Plus is largely, I suspect, written by
Thomas. Mars now has scattered colonies, plus a few dozen cyborgs who
are adapted to the hostile environment. A geologist arrives who is
secretly attempting to secure some land that may have access to
underground water. The cyborgs are annoyed that they are no longer
receiving benefits from the colonists. A group of artificial
intelligences has secretly taken control of their computer networks and
the results are sometimes strange. This is slow moving and includes
lectures on adaptation problems, technical problems, the way a colonial
society might evolve, and other matters peripheral to the plot. I was
mostly bored. 8/3/23
After the Tide by
Jessie Kwak, Fairwood, 2023, $9.00, ISBN 978-1-958880-11-1
This
is a very atmospheric novelette published as a chapbook, so nicely done
that I found the presence tense narration only mildly offputting, On a
distant world, the sea is about to recede from the land to an
unprecedented extent, revealing the secrets the water has hidden for
centuries. Since it is a brief event, never to be repeated in anyone's
lifetime, it becomes a special occasion for people in various ways.
There is also a contest and one of the contestants is about to discover
that there is an alien intelligence that has been dormant and is now
awake. This is quite good, and from an author I'd never previously read.
7/31/23
The Blue,
Beautiful World by Karen Lord, Del Rey, 2023, $28, ISBN
978-0-593-59843-6
This
is a kind of first contact novel, although not what you might normally
expect from that term. It also deals with climate change - the face of
the planet is being transformed by the forces we are already seeing.
There are civilizations existing outside the solar system and they are
on the verge of making contact in earnest - although I actually wondered
a bit why they'd bother given our self destructive tendencies. The
author is rather more hopeful than I am, although she also recognizes
that we are consumed by our own contradictions and usually end up being
our worst enemy. A handful of prominent people want to prepare us the
world for contact, and they have found an entertainer who has some
unusual mental abilities that might prove to be crucial. But just as
humanity has conflicting desires, so do the individuals, and the outcome
is very much in doubt. I was thoroughly entertained and even a bit
uplifted, unusual for an old crotchety person like me. The author has
several previous novels which I will have to track down. 7/31/23
Man Plus by
Frederik Pohl, Bantam, 1976
I
vaguely recall not liking this when I originally read it, but it’s
actually pretty good. In a future in which the Earth appears to be on
the brink of war, a secret project is initiated to transform a man into
a cyborg who can live on Mars without lots of supporting equipment. Most
of the novel is about the project – they are only on Mars for the final
fifty pages - and the effects of the process on one man and then, when
he dies, a second. The transformation is bizarre – with bat wings to
collect solar power, artificial eyes, a tough synthetic skin, and
various implants. There is another secret power behind the whole project
which is not revealed until the closing chapter and which feels vaguely
like as cheat There was a sequel, co-authored with Thomas T. Thomas.
7/27/23
Monster by Peter
Crowcroft, Carousel, 1980
This
is the novelization of a really bad monster movie, Monstroid.
A nasty company pollutes a lake in South America, creating a gigantic
monster that goes around chomping on people and knocking things down
until it is finally destroyed. Or is it? The story ends with the lake
still waiting and planning to strike back. Both movie and book
ludicrously claim this was based on real events. Given how bad the
source material was, it is not surprise that the book was a complete
waste of time, filled with bogus local dialogue and bland action
sequences. 7/22/23
The Silver Metal
Lover by Tanith Lee, Orion, 1986
Although
this is a beautifully written futuristic romance novel, its presence
struck me as just too silly. The protagonist is a rather feckless young
woman who falls in love with a humanoid robot named Silver. Family and
friends are scandalized, but because of the way he is constructed, he is
a more faithful and effective lover than a human might be. There is an
uproar that eventually results in the company recalling him as defective
and melting him down for scrap. The heartbroken young woman attends a
séance and is able to communicate with Silver in the afterlife, which
proves that he has a human soul. There is a sequel which I have never
read. 7/20/23
Beyond Zoaster
by Dennis Talbot Hughes as Neil Charles, Curtis, 1953
A
wide ranging and ambitious space adventure that fails in almost every
way. Earth has been conquered by the alien Ginyas, who dominate the
galaxy. A few humans escape to a remote world where they decide to breed
super soldiers with which to retake Earth. The problem is that the
planet they chose has secret inhabitants who have greater powers than
either, and they decide to interfere in the course of events and turn
them in a different direction. Mercifully short. 7/20/23
A World of
Diffference by Robert Conquest, Ballantine, 1964
I
read this sixty years ago, so I didn't remember a thing about it. The
theme is serious and interesting - just how far should society rely on
psychological techniques to encourage acceptable social behavior. The
setting follows a third world war. The remnants of the communist empire
now exist as bandits lurking in the asteroid belts. Their existence
justifies the government conducting secret research and while it appears
that direct manipulations of personalities are rare and limited to
violent criminals, there is always the threat that its use could be
expanded. A small group of people with differing views of the dangers
are eventually involved in a possible solution, migration to other star
systems. Potentially quite good, but in practice, far too talky and
drawn out, and the actual issues are not illustrated particularly well.
7/17/23
Alphanauts by J.
Brian Clarke, Edge, 2006
Like
his first book, Clarke's second and final title is actually a series of
related short stories. In this case they involve early human efforts to
explore nearby star systems. Predictably the encounter enigmatic aliens,
which causes conflict before an understanding is achieved. Then the free
colonists are menaced by an influx of settlers from Earth who want to
set up a fascist dictatorship. The stories tend to repeat points, the
planet never seems like a real place, and the aliens are rather
uninteresting. 7/15/23
The Age of
the Pussyfoot by Frederik
Pohl, Ballantine, 1969
The
protagonist is wakened from suspended animation five centuries from now
and has to adjust to a society that is highly technologically,
uninhibited, and has a radically different economic system. His
adventures include encounters with a hostile alien race, a society of
Luddites, personal bankruptcy, and a determined assassin. Most of his
problems result from his failure to ask questions, take advice, and
learn from his own mistakes, and in fact this is so overdone that he
never feels like a real person. He ends up sort of saving the world. Not
one of the author’s better novels. 7/14/23
Pre-Gargantua
by Dennis Talbot Hughes as Neil Charles, Curtis, 1953
This
rather dull adventure is set on the planet Kliron, a bleak place which
hosts a small way station but no real colony. The arrival of a
mysterious spaceship precipitates an alarm. Soon the lifeless planet has
produced flowering plants which turn out to be inimical to human life.
The slight tension the plot manages is dissipated when we finally
discover the ship belongs to a race that intends to conquer the Earth
using vegetable soldiers. This was almost tolerable. 7/14/23
A Plague of
Pythons by Frederik Pohl,
Ballantine, 1965
Pohl
later revised this as Demons of the Mind. Religious fervor has
transformed the world, not for the better, after a rash of what are
considered to be demonic possessions. They are actually, of course, the
use of mind control by humans using a revolutionary new technological
device. Our hero survives a variety of dangers before being taken to the
headquarters of the group, known as execs. There, after more adventures,
he acquires one of the headsets and uses it to kill off the others and
free humanity. Sort of. The story ends with him realizing that he will
never relinquish the power. 7/9/23
Research Opta by
Dennis Talbot Hughes - writing as Neil Charles, Curtis, 1963
A
Frankenstein variant with science so bad it is often funny. A scientist
discovers away to create miscroscopic life forms - through manipulation
of DNA - and creates an intelligent race of creatures. He suspects that
something is wrong and recruits another expert. Together they discover
that the newly created race is superintelligent and has an inherently
evil nature. It is quite possible that they will find a way to conquer
the greater universe of humans if they are not stopped. And of course
they are. Unreadable. 7/4/23
Planet Tha by Brian
Holloway - writing as Neil Charles, Curtis, 1953
A
pulpish British SF novel published under a house pseudonym. This one is
barely readable. Due to a poorly described and implausible technical
problem, a spaceship launches to the unknown planet Tha without its full
complement of specialists and, worst of all, there is a woman on board!
Tha is inhabited by intelligent beings with a kind of group
consciousness, but due to an imminent catastrophe, the aliens are
planning to abandon their planet and invade a new one. The freshly
arrived humans are able to find a peaceful solution to their problems.
Blah. 7/3/23
Sabella by Tanith
Lee, DAW, 1980
A
science fiction vampire novel. Sabella lives on a colony world where she
drinks blood, blisters in the sunlight, and lives alone. Her victims do
not rise, she is not undead, and she has no fear of religious objects.
Her late aunt, however, died convinced that she was an evil being and
set in motion a series of events designed to destroy her. She is also
troubled by the brother of a man she inadvertently killed, escapes him
for a while, and eventually discovers the truth about herself and her
vampirism, which is completely rationalized.. One of her better novels.
7/1/23
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