Henry L Lazarus
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Philadelphia, PA 19143
Science Fiction for June 2017
Artificial intelligence has been a part of
Science Fiction and Fantasy since the invention of the computer, or
even earlier if you count Frankenstein’s monster. Lately some
Distinguished Celebrities have cautioned us that future A. I.’s will
kill us in our sleep.
E. William Brown looks at a
realistic far future with programable bots, androids who frequently
are used as slaves, and enhanced humans. Actual A. I.’s are rare and
usually quite mad. Teenage Alice Long is a Perilous Waif
(paper from Amazon) who was dropped by federation marines on a very
peaceful planet of only women who eat only vegetables. They’re
starving her enhancements, even though she goes out hunting the
local fauna. When they threaten to remove her enhancements, she
knows it’s time to run and crosses a few hundred miles of wilderness
to the nearest spaceport. She helps a crew member of the trading
ship Square Deal, and manages to get hired as ship girl. Finally her
enhancements get enough nourishment and she proves it when the ship
is attacked by a gang ship. That gets her trained in security, The
problem is that the Captain knows the location of a famous lost ship
destroyed in the last war. Treachery proves her new skill needed,
and a connection to the hulk controls actually gives Alice her
background. Very exciting tale and difficult to put down.
K.B. Spangler has a nice
mystery series about OACET Agent Rachel Peng. The agency consists of
people who had a quantum-organic computer placed in their brain to
connect them top all the computer streams around them. Alas only
three hundred and fifty of the five hundred victims survived the
first few years. Rachel lost her eyes from staring at the sun, but
the chip lets her see emotions, and through walls. The fourth tale Brute
Force (paper from A Girl and Her Fed Books) starts with
a kidnaping of an agent and her daughter for political
reasons. In this exciting tale, Rachel and her friends have to
not only locate the victims, but also tread carefully to keep their
agency from negative press. I really like the series and hope for
new tales soon.
Linda Nagata looks at the near
future of drone technology coming in many forms like snakes, and
insects, and birds. They are intelligent enough to accomplish tasks
with minimal control. True Brighton, a retired army veteran, works
for Requisite Operations. A routine hostage rescue in the ungoverned
part of the middle east leads to attack by Shaw Walker, a man with
the tattoo The Last Good Man (ebook from Mythic Island Press
LLC) who True and her boss thought long dead. Shaw had been there
when True’s son Diego, a soldier in Shaw’s unit, had laterally been
crucified by the bad guys. Finding what happened to her son becomes
very important. The technology described here feels very real and
turns what would be a normal thriller into something impossible to
put down.
Iskra tells the peddler at age
six, after her father and village died of starvation, that she wants
to learn magic and become a Susurrus (ebook from
Metaphorosis Books). In the world that B. Morris Allen describes
magic stays local with each area having unique magics. Iskra is a
bit different in that she can learn and use local magic elsewhere.
He drops her off in Alusia where magic is born after birth and
before the afterbirth. In a effort to save the peddler from disease
she loses a baby, but gains rapid healing. In Kalnar she learns the
magic of unbroken promises and some gets the magician killed who
forced her into a bad promise, When Kalnar gives up torturing her to
Ethrin where she learns to draw wind, and gets caught in a promise
that destroys her ship. In Tharr she finds a connection with the
connection the Tharrians make with animals. Until that land is
invaded by soldiers tied to a loyalty oath. Her soldiers conquer
that land and then she goes looking for magic to help her new land,
leaving a ruler to help. Unfortunately that starts a pattern that
goes on for decades. Iska, the sorceress, hunts for magic and
then returns as Empress for a bit. Eventually she is trapped
in a desert looking for a magic that may not exist. This is a dark
tale with a wonderful moral about life’s purpose that
resonates.
In the Vanguard (hard from
Ace) of the land rush following the discovery of a faster-than-light
drive, brings a lack of interstellar law. Neither the original
colonies , nor Earth want to enforce any regulations the new
colonists expect. Jack Campbell starts his tale on the new colony
world of Glenlyon which finds itself threatened by another colony
that had bought discarded destroyers to get tribute from weaker
worlds. Robert Geary, former fleet officer is asked to help defend
his new home and manages to capture the first ship. That’s when
Scatha decides to settle their own city. Glenlyon hires
ex-marine Mele Darcy to drive them away. At the same time
another ship is using orbital bombs on other colonies. Carmen Ochoa,
an ex-Earth bureaucrat , and Lochan Nakamura, a failed politician
have decided it is necessary to set up an alliance of these new
colonies to protect themselves. Sequels will follow this fun first
book.
Kat Falcone faces Desperate
Fire (paper from 47North) in the fourth installment of
Christopher G. Nuttall’s Angel in the Whirlwind tetrology. The War
with the Theocracy is starting to turn Kit is a Commodore whose
fleet is sent to recover the planet Hebrides as a first step to
defeating the Theocracy. But the enemy poisons the planet with dirty
bombs leading to a refuge problem for the commonwealth, and a
drastic change of plans; a direct on Ahura Mazda for which the navy
isn’t ready. There’s a hard fought battle, both on the ground and in
space and Kit faces loss of loved ones. This is very exciting and a
must for those who love space navy tales.
Mars Xi suffered through surgery
after surgery to make her a human psionic weapon who can destroy
ships with her mind. Rescued from a dying ship by a small hauler,
she makes friends with the small crew and leaves them when a bounty
hunter comes after her. Eventually the crew of that ship is captured
by MEPHISTO, the group who made her and want her back. Blackmailing
her with her friends lives is worth it, even if she destroys a fleet
of ship protecting the prisoners. This tale of Killing Gravity
(ebook from Tor) by Corey J. White is fun and exciting and
promises fun sequels.
Simon R. Green’s tales
of Eddie Drood, aka Shaman Bond are always fun and
silly. Eddie is still dying from poison from Dr. DOA (paper)
who is Edward Drood from another reality Eddie and Molly
Metcalf have to track down his killer from the world he lived in to
the Drood mansion under attack, to Siberia on dragon back, and
finally to the moon where centuries before the Droods had created a
Moonbreaker (hard from ACE) device. I always enjoy these and
I’m glad there’s another sequel planned.
Sharon Lee and Steve Mills fun
tales set in the Liaden universe are more like episodes in a
continuing tale, like a television series, then self-contained
stories. Theo Waitely and her crew of the self-aware ship Bechimo
have been hiding at the Gathering Edge (hard from Baen) at a
point where flotsam is falling out of another universe. First is a
ship with a tree like the one that guides Clan Korval and no other
passengers. The second is a wreck from a major battle in the with
two soldiers who have been in stasis for centuries. With more junk
falling out of the other universe it is time for the Bechimo to head
for civilized ports. At Minot station. One of Theo’s previous
captain and friend has gotten himself in trouble with a thieving
crewmate and is in deep legal trouble, which takes some finesse to
get him out safely. Fans will be very happy with this episode.
Sean Danker continues his tale
about the Admiral with a kidnaping from a carriage going from one
space station to another. The Admiral is on a date with Salmagard,
the woman he met in the first tale. There’s another couple along.
The problem is that this is a Free Space (paper from Ace)
devoid of law. Someone is paying for captured women as prostitutes.
The brothel owner doesn’t want the Admiral (who goes unrecognized)
and the other gentleman who is a pilot so the kidnappers drag them
all over Red Yonder trying to get paid. Eventually they end up as
possible sacrifices for a religious ritual. Luckily their women
quickly escape and chase after them, causing all sorts of chaos on
their way. Fun.
When Julie Hall’s new baby,
Carson, turns into a wolf-cub on the new moon, its time to find the
father who was never informed of Julie’s pregnancy. In Graybull
Wisconsin she finds Carson’s grandparents who are part of a pack of
werewolves. This means that Julie has recessive genes for being a
werewolf, making her a Dark Moon Wolf (paper from The Wild
Rose Press, Inc) and her ex has been murdered in Las Vegas. With the
help of a close friend Sheila who turns out to be a witch, and
another werewolf, Eliza and a few other werewolves they start
hunting the murderers, something pretty hard to do with a four-month
old infant. Fun and exciting with lots of diaper changes.
John Scalzi sets his tale on an
Earth in which victims of violent death are returned naked to their
beds with all trauma for the last day removed. The Dispatcher ( hard
from Subterranean Press) of the tale, Tony Valdez, kills people
after surgeries go wrong, almost fatal traffic accidents, and other
near fatal events. His friend, another dispatcher, has been kidnaped
and the police want his help in finding his friend. The trail leads
through powerful gangs and a man whose elderly wife has just died.
At one point he gets tossed down a elevator shaft to his death as a
way leaving a building secretly. Yes, he wakes up naked in his bed
after dying. Light fun.
I’m always amazed at how empty
Sarah A. Hoyt’s future earth is. In the latest tale Darkship
Revenge (trade from Baen) Athena and Kit are on the darkship
Cathouse by themselves when her baby arrives. Then Kit gets kidnaped
and Athena and to go rescue him with new baby in hand. The mules
(sterile genetically engineered men) who were sent away on the Je
Revians centuries before, have returned and sent young clones
infected with a disease deadly to normal humans. Only attacking that
ship which has a cure on board, can save Earth. Fun.
I really like most of Seanan
McGuire’s work and she is very prolific. But her tale of identical
twin girls, Jack and Jill, who walk down magical steps to the land
of the Moors didn’t work as well for me. Down Among the
Sticks and Bones (hard from Tor) Jill becomes the protégé of
the Master, a vampire who rules a small village, and Jack becomes
the apprentice of the Doctor who can raise the dead like Dr.
Frankenstein. All goes well for five years and then a series of
events sets the two girls running. The ending is too abrupt for my
taste, but I think sequels are planned.
Baen has reprinted Eric James Stone’s fun
tale of an Unforgettable detective in paper.
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on June 9th 2017. Bob Walters and Tess Kissinger
author’s of Discovering Dinosaurs will speak.
The meeting starts at 8 p.m. at International House
on the University of Pennsylvania Campus. . As usual guests
are welcome.
Dr. Henry Lazarus is a local Dentist and the
author of A Cycle of Gods (Wolfsinger Publications) and
Unnaturally Female (Smashwords).Check out his unified field
theory at henrylazarus.com/utf.html that suggests a simpler way to
achieve fusion generation.