Henry L Lazarus
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Philadelphia, PA 19143
Science Fiction for January 2020
It is easier to read Fantasy and Science Fiction
and flip pages to find out how cultural changes will end, then it is
in real life. I hate waiting till November to find out if Democrats
use of Impeachment will help or hurt them and what it will mean for
the future.
In the 2060's the troubles began
and Leif Grettison survived seven years fighting in the harsh war
zones. As a civilian, he’s living quietly, working as a technician
in a hibernation lab and as an EMT for a team flying out of a
hospital. After the troubles, various nations have worked
together to send a small expedition to a nearby star that might have
a livable world, and Lief won the lottery for an extra space on the
starship. The problem is that between hibernation and time dilation,
thirty years will pass on Earth while he lives one. Colin Alexander
has a fun tale of a Starman's Saga (ebook from Alton
Kremer). It’s a journey that starts with someone trying to blowup
the antimater facility supplying the ship fuel. The crew is mainly
academics and separate into national groups. Lief is seemingly the
only one with common sense, and that helps save lives on the planet
with breathable air and water that also has deadly life forms. The
only other person with a sense of mission is Yang Yong, the Chinese
pilot who had piloted the plane that had killed the rest of Lief’s
unit in the war. This one kept me up till 2:30 in the morning.
Jennifer R. Povey tells a tale of
Earth’s second starship, sent out not knowing that the first
starship, the Atlantis, had found alien ships and managed to
crash land on an icy planet. José Marin, a veteran of the Earth Mars
war with ptsd from having to kill children on Mars, joins the second
ship the Endeavor. Labeled a filthy Araña (paper from
Aitune Press) because of the webbing inside him that gave him extra
strength and speed, he’s an odd fit among the scientists on board.
However he can link to hyperspace because of his webbing and is
added to the list of navigators. The endeavor rescues the crew of
the atlantis, but in hiding from the ships that almost destroyed the
Atlantis, finds a world dying because one of the huge outer planets
in their system somehow moved near that planet’s orbit. Despite
being hunted, the Endeavor decides to find a way to help these
mole-like intelligent aliens leave their planet. Lots of fun and
apparently tied to an earlier book that tells of Earth’s direct
contact with aliens while this tale is taking place.
Deep in the Louisiana swamp is the
last surviving dragon. Once known has Lord Highfire (hard
from Harper Perennial), Vern has his television, whisky and
breakfast cereal and is just as happy to avoid humans who killed all
his relatives three thousand years ago. Into his life comes
fifteen-year-old Everett Moreau, known as Squib since blowing off
one of his fingers. He got there being chased by Regence
Hooke, a crooked constable, who had just murdered Squib’s potential
employer. As boy and dragon find ways to get closer, Hooke spies on
the dragon and thinks to use him to attack his enemies, a plan that
involves kidnapping Squib. Vern is a very old and crotchety , but
even he can come to care for the young boy. Eoin Colfer tells a tale
that rooted in the deep south and lots of fun.
Patrick Chiles suggests that in
1991 the USSR improbably sent a ship to Pluto using atomic bombs for
thrust. For some reason the cosmonauts stayed in Frozen Orbit
(Trade from Baen) and the USSR, now breaking up, decided to keep the
mission secret. Forty three years later NASA sends mission out
to find out what happened. The trip goes as expected with some
technical problems, and political ones at home. This is a solid hard
science tale, though I wasn’t happy with the ending.
S. K. Dunstall has a fun melodrama
in the far future where people can be put into slave contracts and
corporations run most planets. The corrupt Justice department
provides the police for those worlds. Stars Uncharted
and Stars Beyond (both paper from Ace) together. Nika
Rik Terri is a famous body modification artist who, whose accidental
discovery of a way to temporarily take over another person’s body,
got an assassin to use her body to murder someone. On the run, she
ends up on the Hassim, whose captain, who hasn’t aged in eighty
years, and is dying and only she can save him. Her
apprentice Bertram Snowshoe is on the run from the crew of a
mercenary ship, whose captain will stop at nothing to recapture and
crew who flees. Then there’s Alistair Laughtron, a Justice Agent who
had taken a few years off to help mine the very rare transurides,
and barely gotten away from a company trying to steal their load and
sell their contracts. The Ort aliens on the planet he had been
mining need Nika’s expertise to help cure their plague. Another
agent, Leonard Wickmore wants Nika’s body stealing technique and
will stop at nothing to get it. What follows is lots of shooting,
near escapes, and pulse pounding excitement with a heavy dose of
coincidence. Fun.
Deborah Teramis Christian tells a
tale of the far future Sa'adani Empire in which fast cloning with
memory transfer is available to the rich and used by the Army to
create soldiers. Hinano Kesada (kes) is the Winter Goddess, a
dominatrix in a guild sex house with rich clients. One of her
clients, Janus who is a triumvir of the Red Hand Cartel is marked
for death by Ilanya Casini Evanit the Emperor’s right hand. Ilanya
decides to use an experimental cloning technology called Splintegrate
(hard from Tor) which will destroy the subject and create three
clones with differing personality aspects, one of which might kill
Janus in his session. Kes is treated by the process without her
consent of knowledge of what is going on. The process works
correctly, but nothing else goes as expected. There’s a hidden AI in
the research station trying to excape, two of Kes clones who
shouldn’t exist, and a scientist robbed of his research. Add in
members of the triad with their own needs and the result is a fun
tale of dark political ambition. Fun.
Seanan McGuire’s fifth tale of
doors that send children to horrifying worlds, returns to the tale
of Jack and Jill, twin sisters who found their way to the world of
the moors. Jack had apprenticed to a mad scientist who can bring the
dead back to life. Jill was being mentored by the master vampire.
The new question is which sister can Come Tumbling Down (hard
from Tor). Jill was reanimated after her death and thus not able to
be turned vampire. So the Master Vampire switched Jack and Jill’s
bodies. Jack opens a door to our world at Eleanor West's School for
Wayward Children to get allies to help her get her body back. This
whole series is very dark, but still fun.
Baen has collected the first three of Lois
McMaster Bujold’s fantasy tales of Penric’s Progress in hard
cover.
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on January 10th meeting starts at 8
p.m. at the Rotunda on the University of Pennsylvania
Campus. This is the regular election meeting. As usual guests
are welcome.
Dr. Henry Lazarus is a retired 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 fusion generation requires
less energy because only one frequency is needed rather than a full
spectrum. It also explains dark matter, the proliferation of
subatomic particles, and the limit of light speed for matter