At a time when much contemporary SF seems to be about tomorrow, Greg Benford has put together a superb collection of five original novellas about the Far Future, when the Earth, or even the Universe itself, is vastly older, maybe even at the end of its life. Every one brilliantly evokes the scope of immense age and size, whilst still telling a good human story.
rating : 4 : passes the time
review : 9 August 2008
A collection of Benford novellas and short stories from the 1980s and 90s. Some of these depict well the sheer incomprehensible alienness of the aliens, from the nomadic Chupchups in "World Vast, World Various", to the electrical hexagons in "A Dance to Strange Musics". Generally good stuff, but nothing leaps out as extra special.
Karl P. Cohen, a chemist and mathematician who is a junior partner of the Manhattan Project, has discovered an alternate solution for creating the first atomic bomb, but his plan is shot down as other more august personages—household names even then—preferred another method. But time has shown us that this chemist was right.
Combining espionage with fascinating science, New York Times bestselling author Gregory Benford has written an astounding thriller that reimagines history.
What would have happened if the atom bomb was ready in time to be used as the Allies invaded on D-day?
It’s 2008, and Charlie, in his late forties, is a bit of a sad-sack professor of history going through an unpleasant divorce. While flipping the cassette of an audiobook he gets into a car accident with a truck end wakes up, fully aware as his adult mind, in his sixteen-year-old body in 1968.
Charlie does the thing we all imagine: he takes what he remembers of the future and uses it for himself in his present, the past. He becomes a screenwriter and producer, anticipating the careers of Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg.
Charlie realizes that there are others like him, like Albert Einstein, Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein. In fact, there is a society of folks who loop through time to change the world for their agenda. Now, Charlie knows he has to do something other than be self-indulgent, and he tries to change one of the events of 1968 in this clever thriller.
rating : 4.5 : passes the time
review : 28 November 2023
Rachel, a beginner Librarian, must talk to alien minds—who have aggressive agendas of their own. These conversations will open doors into strangeness beyond imagination—and catapult Rachel into life threatening danger in her quest for understanding.
Rachel Cohen wins a coveted assignment as a Librarian on the moon, where she will work on deciphering alien messages encoded in various alien AIs. She manages where others have not, and ends up far beyond her original goals.
This is a bit of a mess. There are lots of potentially fascinating ideas here, but it’s very episodic, and those episodes don’t really gel together. It feels like they are there to give a tour of the ideas and various exotic places. The consequences of Rachel’s discoveries don’t seem to form any coherent plot; they are just one thing after another. It also feels poorly edited, with some repetition, and inconsistencies between episodes.
And there is several specific aspects that really bugged me. For example, early on there is what is essentially a rape-by-AI scene, but, no consequences. Another example, more technical. There is some sort of anomaly moving towards the solar system, threatening the Earth. It has got as far as the orbit of Jupiter, causing problems there. One of Rachel’s discoveries allows a solution, which is implemented at Jupiter, stopping the anomaly’s progress and protecting the inner solar system. Maybe I missed something, but I don’t see how this works when Jupiter has orbited to the other side of the solar system, and is no longer between Earth and the source of the anomaly.
There are other examples, but I’ll stop there. Disappointing.
expansion of "Against the Fall of Night"
A landing party reaches the vast lands of this spinning world, only to be captured. But some escape the gigantic inhabitants to seek answers to what this place means. Who built it? Where? When? Why?
Their discoveries transform human understanding of our universe and imperil our destiny.
To survive they must escape the alien inhabitants known as the Folk. What they discover along the way will transform the way mankind understands its place in the universe.
