Young Dan has the stirrings of intelligence that is untapped in this world. It isn't just Liz's looks and attitude that keep Dan coming back. He isn't sure if she's different, or suspicious, so he keeps coming around. Liz, for her part, finds him an uncultured savage, and barely tolerates his attention, which of course makes Dan suspect even more.
Dan's suspicions and intelligence also come to the attention of his superiors, he is promoted, and life becomes too hot for Liz and family. They flee, only to return through another transposition chamber to try to continue their research. Unfortunately, as with all historical research, there is never a definitive answer.
Liz and Dan are fully fleshed-out characters, though most of the rest seem little more than ciphers to me. All in all, this is an interesting exploration of what a post-apocalyptic world might be, and how our more advanced descendants might interact with it.
* * * *
Year Million is a collection of essays, ostensibly describing what life will be like a million years from now. It's an excellent source of ideas for the writer looking for stimulus. For the reader interested in the future, there are a lot of thought experiments that involve the reader in the process of extrapolation. Ultimately though, the book falls victim to its incredibly long view of the future: given enough years, anything that is not forbidden will happen. And that's what we get when the contributors (mostly Analog authors and PhDs) start extrapolating too far into the future.
I was hooked when I found fascinating ideas that are broadly applicable in the first two essays. And for the most part, the essays maintained my interest and kept me reading through to the end. But at some point, it simply becomes a travelogue of all the wonders that may be, rather than extrapolation of how we get from here to there, and what will happen as we go.
Right off the bat, Jim Holt (in “The Laughter of Copernicus") grabbed me with his simple version of the Copernican Principle, which I found myself applying everywhere I could. His explanation, that “you're not special,” says the odds are that nothing we see has just started or is about to end (the odds of not seeing the first 2.5% or the last 2.5% are, by definition, 39-to-1). And the book is even littered with throwaway lines that will keep you thinking (for instance, Catherine Asaro's “The progress of the human race could be described as the history of how we didn't know what we didn't know"). Wil McCarthy scoffs at Star Trek's transporters, but offers an alternative possibility: sending ourselves all over the galaxy via fax. Robert Bradbury moves on to redesigning the solar system more to our liking (or to a form we can more easily make use of). Rudy Rucker's “The Great Awakening” talks of technological telepathy, which may be simply a by-product of ubiquitous nanotechnology, and he makes it sound good.
Broderick has divided the fourteen essays into four sections ("The Expanding Human Universe", “Deep Space in Deep Time", “The Mind/Body in Year Million", and “Into the Very Deepest Future"), but I see it as simply moving from more concrete extrapolations ("How will the human body evolve?” “How will we live among the stars?") to more abstract blue-skying ("Is the universe open or closed?” and “What form will intelligence take in a run-down universe?").
Most of the contributors to this collection should be well known to Analog readers. They include: Jim Holt, Dougal Dixon, Steven B. Harris, Lisa Kaltenegger, Catherine Asaro, Wil McCarthy, Robert Bradbury, Robin Hanson, Pamela Sargent & Anne Corwin, Amara D. Angelica, Rudy Rucker, Sean M. Carroll, Gregory Benford, and George Zebrowski.
* * * *
I'm a hard-SF guy all the way, so I read Naomi Novik's first Temeraire novel, His Majesty's Dragon, partly out of curiosity (who was this young author who'd sold her first three books as a trilogy, having never sold a novel before?). I read the second and third in rapid succession because the first grabbed me, and they were good.
Victory of Eagles is now the fifth book in the series that Peter Jackson has optioned for feature film production. This is a sequel that requires knowledge of the previous books to truly appreciate what's going on. In short form, the series is the Napoleonic Wars in a world much like ours, except that intelligent dragons are part of the fauna, and these dragons are large enough to carry tens or even hundreds of people.
In this volume, Lawrence is living with the results of his treason at the end of Empire of Ivory. Lawrence is the second son of a British noble, and therefore lives a life defined and circumscribed by duty and honor. They dictate his career, actions, relationships, dress; everything about him. And thus, having willfully committed treason for a higher purpose, he is forced to live as an unexecutable, but condemned, man under his codes of duty and honor. Temeraire, his dragon, is under no such strictures.
Novik has adroitly created the world of two hundred years ago, and then inserted dragons which not only change the face of warfare, but inject a much more modern sensibility. Temeraire understands, to a degree, the difficult circumstances Lawrence finds himself in, but the much more pragmatic dragon is at a loss as to why they do not simply leave the land where Lawrence is condemned, and live elsewhere in peace.
This is the most depressing book of the series yet, suffused as it is by Lawrence's dark mood and defeatist attitude. Even the high points are dimmed by his brooding fatalism. This book also seems to have the most fighting and military action per page.
Napoleon, with the help of the Lien (the Chinese dragon who defected in order to avenge herself on Temeraire) has finally invaded England, and Napoleon (only seen from afar) has apparently taken her counsel to heart and to head far more easily than the British. Allowing Lien to dictate tactics for efficient dragon use, the invasion seems almost unbeatable, until the British officers are finally browbeaten into accepting dragons as thinking beings, rather than speaking beasts of burden. Then Temeraire's nascent genius is allowed to shine, and the French suddenly find themselves with a worthy opponent.
Novik's military tactics are wonderfully rendered, and the infusion of dragons into the mix only adds to the spice.
* * * *
If you grab every new story of Larry Niven's “Known Space” as it comes out, you don't need to hear from me to know you're going to get this book and read it, too. And if you haven't read them all, but did read Niven and Edward M. Lerner's Fleet of Worlds, you're probably on your way to the bookstore simply knowing Juggler of Worlds is out. So I'm writing mostly for those who haven't completely immersed themselves in Niven's thousand-year set of stories set in a bubble nearly one hundred light-years across, encompassing dozens of planets, many species, and some big ideas (and all this is still two hundred years before the discovery of the Ringworld).
Juggler of Worlds takes up the story in a time-jumping fashion, moving ahead a year or three between chapters, and telling events that some readers have already seen in other stories. But for the newcomer, the authors do a good job of explaining who and what we're dealing with, without bogging down the narrative for experienced Known Space readers. To start, we meet paranoid Sigmund Ausfaller, a forensic financial analyst who is a natural recruit for ARM, the United Nations’ global police force. It's Ausfaller's new job to protect what is effectively an empire based on the foundations of the United Nations. And while his coworkers have to develop their paranoia through the use of drugs, Sigmund's innate paranoia makes him a natural at his job (who better to look for unknown threats than someone who suspects everyone and everything?). We truly feel the universe is out to get him (and us) as he investigates chains of coincidences and fortuitous accidents, and ultimately winds up unraveling planet-spanning plots.
The biggest problem is continued from the previous books: the galactic core is exploding, which will result in the end of life as we know it in several tens of thousands of years. While that's not such an imminent danger for humans who live a scant one- or two-hundred years (life extension is one of the minor technological improvements taken for granted in these books), for the Puppeteers (a race descended from herd-animals who are natural cowards), that's a danger which will cause them to mak
e their way out of the galaxy. But rather than stuffing a huge population (three orders of magnitude more than humans) into spaceships, the Puppeteers are taking their planets with them.
It's this sudden decision to leave the galaxy, allowing their massive General Products corporation (which makes the hulls for all the starships) to collapse and disappear, which causes massive economic and social repercussions throughout Known Space. And it's up to Sigmund and his ever-changing cadre of acquaintances (to call them friends would imply a lot less paranoia on Sigmund's part) to figure out where the Puppeteers have gone (their cowardice keeps their home worlds hidden and their actions always secret), why, and what can be done about it.
Throw in the Outsiders (an immensely old, immensely powerful, and very slow-moving race), who appear to know everything and are willing to sell that knowledge, and the wheels within wheels are big enough to crush even the strongest paranoid personality, or the largest worlds-spanning economy.
Sigmund investigates the disappearance of the Puppeteers, the causes behind the birth-license riots, how pirates are pulling ships out of hyperspace, and why the world's richest man seems to be in league with everyone on the wrong side of the law. And after Sigmund's death, the stakes get even higher.
Niven has been writing in this universe for more than thirty years. But even after that amount of time, he and co-author Lerner are telling a fresh story that is easily read and enjoyed, and it stands just fine on its own. In other words, if you haven't read the preceding stories, don't let that stop you from reading this one. You'll find a whole new universe of tales you'll want to read.
* * * *
Since it's a collection of reprint stories, I'll just briefly mention that Ben Bova's Laugh Lines is now available. The book is a collection of humorous SF stories that also attempt to make social commentary. This volume includes two complete novels and six shorter works originally published between 1974 and 1996, along with new introductions for each of the shorts.
"Crisis of the Month” talks about broadcast news, and specifically the need for bad news to keep eyeballs glued to the sets. “The Great Moon Hoax” is Bova's attempt to turn his own writing career on its head, explaining UFOs, NASA's dullness, and more. “Vince's Dragon” is his answer to The Godfather and The Sopranos, for, as he says in the introduction, “most of the guys in the Mafia were not the best and the brightest ... but they were unconsciously funny a lot of the time.” In “The Angel's Gift,” the deal is not with the devil, but with an angel.
The other pieces in the book are “The Supersonic Zeppelin,” “A Slight Miscalculation,” and the two novels, The Starcrossed and Cyberbooks. If you haven't read these, you'll want to pick up this book, and the Bob Eggleton cover is an added bonus.
* * * *
Brian Thomsen and Martin H. Greenberg's The Reel Stuff is the second edition of the reprint anthology that was first published ten years ago. That book collected eleven memorable, sometimes classic, science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories that were the inspirations for Hollywood movies. Thomsen is an excellent editor for such a volume; he seems equally interested in and enamored with written stories and filmed stories. He's come up with an excellent selection: some of the stories are by names everyone knows, some by authors more people should now. And they've resulted in a wide range of films.
You don't have to like or care about the movies that came from these stories in order to enjoy the book, but if you do, it'll be a doubly nostalgic journey through some of speculative fiction's great works.
The two new stories in this edition are: “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, which first appeared [in Astounding] in 1938, and was the basis for two movies called The Thing (1951 and 1982); and “The Minority Report” by Philip K. Dick, which was published in 1956 and became a movie in 2002. The rest of the contents include: “Mimic” by Donald A. Wollheim (originally published in 1942, the movie by the same name came out in 1997); “Second Variety” by Philip K. Dick (1953, became Screamers in 1996); “Amanda and the Alien” by Robert Silverberg (1983, became a cable movie with the same name in 1995); “Sandkings” by George R.R. Martin (1979, became an Outer Limits episode with the same title in 1995); “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick (1966, became Total Recall in 1990); “Air Raid” by John Varley (1977, became Millennium in 1989); “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker (1985, became Candyman in 1992); “Johnny Mnemonic” by William Gibson (1981, became a movie with the same name in 1995); “Enemy Mine” by Barry Longyear (1980, became a movie with the same name in 1985); “Nightflyers” by George R.R. Martin (1980, became a movie with the same name in 1987); and “Herbert West—Reanimator” by H.P. Lovecraft (1922, became Re-Animator in 1984).
Copyright © 2008Ian Randal Strock
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Reader's Department: BRASS TACKS
Hi Stan,
As you can tell, I'm running a bit behind in my Analog reading.
I wanted to comment on your April 2008 editorial, “Mirrors and Might-Have-Beens.” At the end, you said, “In any case, however we get it, more knowledge about how individuals are related to the cultures that produce them should be valuable and potentially useful."
I am a management consultant and a part-time (as Indiana Jones might say) professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. There is quite a bit of research in I/O Psych on culture, what it is, and how individuals behave as part of a culture.
MIT's Ed Schein defines culture as the residue of success: it is the accumulated lessons of things that worked or are perceived to have worked. Over time, these lessons become encoded as the way to behave in various situations; the original decision or experience may be long forgotten. Eventually, the behavior becomes taken for granted by members of the culture. Culture is a touchstone for how to behave; in that capacity, it reduces anxiety and provides a measure of perceived control over the world. From a purely practical perspective, the cultures in which we grow up, live, and become part of through our professions all contribute to our perspectives and beliefs about the world. Consider how upset you might become if you walked into a social situation in which you thought you knew all the rules, but suddenly found them different in small or large ways.
Groups within a larger culture draw from the parent culture in establishing their own nascent group culture. A group can inherit from several parent cultures, leading to unexpected behaviors by members of that culture. To give a very real example, there exists an American non-profit educational corporation that has its roots in Japanese martial arts training. This organization draws from three separate primary cultures: American egalitarianism, Japanese martial arts with all its hierarchical structure, and the American education subculture. Ask a question of some of the older members of this organization and your response will depend upon which cultural antecedent you activate. Your question might get answered, you might get a lecture about being excessively formal (if you activate the American egalitarian meme), or a lecture about the correct protocol for asking your question (if you activate the Japanese meme).
Cultural artifacts are very deceptive. People will adopt the apparent trappings of a culture, but not the deeper meaning. For example, the example of Japanese politeness is one I hear frequently. Susan Wheelan, a psychologist specializing in group dynamics, found that group development is culturally independent. The exact forms of some of behaviors may vary, but the stages appear in every culture. At the point where American businessmen would be yelling epithets at one another, the Japanese businessmen are engaging in the culturally equivalent behavior. It may look polite to us, but to them it is anything but. The particular way they are being polite means something very different in Japan than in America.
There are, in this model, no good or bad cultures. There are merely cultures that are or are not well adapted to their environment. You can see this manifestation best in businesses. Every business forms its own culture. That culture tends to change slowly as the business matures and the envir
onment changes. Sometimes, though, the environment changes rapidly and the culture cannot adapt. Digital Equipment Corporation is a primary example: their aggressive engineering culture catapulted them from obscurity to a preeminent position the field of computer hardware. In the 1980s, they were seen as the primary competitor to IBM. The market changed, they grew too fast, and the culture could not adjust fast enough. DEC is now a part of HP.
The effects of culture are deep, subtle, and often taken for granted.
Stephen R. Balzac
* * * *
Hi Stan,
In your October editorial, “RSVP,” you comment on arguments made by a correspondent about the temperature profile of the troposphere, particularly in the tropics. This has indeed been a problem for global warming modelers. The theory says that the troposphere should be warming up faster than the land surface, but that wasn't being observed.
The dispute, however, turns out to be a perfect example of your main point, which was that in looking at complex phenomena, scientists don't expect everything to line up perfectly, and need to be careful not to throw babies out with bathwater.
In this case, follow-up studies wound up strengthening the global warming model, not weakening it. That's because, in a paper in Nature, on May 6, 2004, Qiang Fu et al, of the University of Washington and the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory in Silver Spring, MD., found that the anomaly was actually the result of a measurement error. When the measurements were corrected, they fit the theory nicely.
Analog SFF, January-February 2009 Page 38
