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philippmichelreichold · 5 months ago

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on Tales of Time and Space, edited by Ross R. Olney

Tales of Time and Space, edited by Ross R. Olney, consists of a number of simply plotted little stories by some of science fiction's best. They are simply plotted yet enthralling. Don't know what passes for young adult fiction these days, but these stories fit the bill for me in days gone buy.

10. "Yesterday's Fantasy, Today's Fact-an Introduction". essay by Ross R. Olney No one has read much science fiction without having been told how imaginative/speculative/science fiction/fantasy foretold most common place advances long before they were made. This may have been the first book in which I read the idea.

15. "All the Time in the World". (1952). short story by Arthur C. Clarke Sir Author C. Clarke is best known for "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Childhood's End", and "Rendezvous with Rama".

Any offer that sounds too good probably has a catch, and so it is in this story. Say you're a thief by trade and someone offers a million pounds to hire you to clean out a national museum. They offer to lend you a bracelet that accelerates time around you so that you can be in and out in a flash. or a blink of an eye. You'd be a fool not to, right?

A tight little story about the thief's moral qualms. The ending was not surprising. Would have made a good Twilight Zone. It was an episode in the TV series Tales of Tomorrow. It was Clarke's first story adapted to TV.

34. "Puppet Show." (1962). short story by Fredric Brown. Fredric Brown also wrote "Arena", the story the Star Trek (TOS) episode of the same name was/wasn't based on. First contacts can be dicey. Say you're assigned by a vast Galactic Federation to evaluate Earth in general and the United States in particular. What questions would you ask and what assurances would you make? And what sort of tests would you perform? And what is a "master race" anyway? A pointy little story about ethnocentrism. It's one of Brown's last stories and one of several First Contact stories. Brown does a wonderful job of setting up the reader for the ending.

50. "Birds of a Feather" is a1958 novelette by Robert Silverberg

Robert Silverberg sold his first stories in 1953 and 1954. He still writes a column for Asimov's Science Fiction. The first story of his I remember reading is "Nightwings" in The Hugo Winners.

Birds are ruthless competitors. They are the surviving dinosaurs, and their survival instincts are hard-wired into their old reptile cortices. How fitting an analogy to describe the protagonist and antagonist in this story. Say you run a special sort of show. Non-humans line up to get in. You have to turn away most. But what if a con artist puts one over you and horns in under false pretenses? Now you've got an employee sharp enough to squeeze you out of a sweet deal. But he can't out-con a con, when you've got the goods on him.

This is a fun and imaginative read. The variety of xenomorphs reminds me of Poul Anderson's stories.

82. "Clutch of Morpheus" is a 1946 a short story by William Campbell Gault [as by Larry Sternig

Say you were born with a mutation. Not an obvious-to-the-eye mutation, but you don't sleep, haven't slept, can't sleep. Say you've been poked and prodded and examined by scientists and physicians and the public to the point of taking an assumed name to avoid further publicity. But you're curious-- what's it like? you wonder. What's it like to sleep? So you look up the leading anesthesiologist in the country and discuss it with him over dinner. Meanwhile, there's a comet in the sky, and Earth is situated in its tale, and will be for some time. Long story short, it has a soporific effect on everyone else. You get to figure out the solution to their problem, which happens to be the solution to your own, through an incredible string of co-incidences.

The story stretches the ability to suspend disbelief, which wasn't a problem when I first read the story, and which does not seem an insurmountable problem in most readers of science fiction. Mumblety-mumble years of reading this stuff means seldom being surprised by an ending, but I enjoyed it just the same.

105. "The Last Command" is a Bolo 1967 short story by Keith Laumer Dave Drake tells in his preface to Hammer's Slammers that he was heavily influenced by Laumer's Bolo's. The professionalism and dedication to duty that Drake describes in his own unit, the Viet Nam era Blackhorse , is seen also in Laumer's , "Unit LNE of the Dinochrome Brigade." It is the story of a Mark XXVIII Bolo and his former commander, Lieutenant Sanders.

Say you awaken buried and crippled, the blasting at a construction site 70 years after your burial has jarred you awake and triggered your Battle Mode Reflex. On escaping your tomb and finding yourself not only crippled but alone, you conclude that your unit has been annihilated by a counter attack. You do not realize 70 years have past and that the city ahead of you is a civilian city and not the enemy's stronghold. Your duty is clear. Whatever the cost, duty demands that you charge the ramparts and inflict as much harm on the enemy as you can before you succumb. Nothing now on planet can stop a BOLO Mark XXVIII. (The artillery and air strikes they lay on you just knock some of the debris off.) Your old commander, Lieutenant Sanders, is 90 years old and still has his old uniform. He sees your return on TV and knows that he will need to talk to you to stop this rampage. Communication from a distance proves not to be efficacious, and Sanders must climb aboard your hull to make contact. The problem with this is you are still incredibly radioactive from the hits taken during the late battle. (You don't know you and the others had been buried under 200 yards of rock because clean-up would have been too costly.) Sanders receives a far greater than lethal dose in making contact, but you recognize him despite time's ravages; you break-off and retire ten miles to the desert. Together you roll into the past of a world that no longer needs nor can appreciate your service.

136. "Fog" is a 1951 a short story by William Campbell Gault

This is a somber tale that is hard to grip. Perhaps it would fit in today's idiom in which understanding of the goals and motives of the antagonist isn't important. It isn't important to understand how the protagonist got into this mess. The important thing is the courage and self abnegation of the protagonist. More subtly and appalling is the extremes to which the U.S. is willing to go to win. Russia lies a desolate, radioactive wasteland. So the means used to end the Veneran threat is a logical extension of a successful solution. I thought the story a little cheesy and the emotion rending (or not) ending reminded me of the ending of "A Question of Courage" by J. F. Bone.

Say you're an orphan. The only father you've known is the head of the Science Department, your boss, The Old Man. So The Old Man calls you to his office to send you to investigate a killer fog in San Francisco. Fog in San Francisco is not troubling. The dramatic increase in suicides associated with this fog is troubling, and it is accelerating. Unbeknownst to The Old Man is that you are secretly working for the Venereans, the inhabitants of the planet Venus. Of course, the Venereans are behind the fog. After allowing sufficient time for the significance of the escalating suicide rate to sink in, the Venereans issue an ultimatum-- surrender or else. Your job becomes to carry the response to Venus.

161. "The Martian Crown Jewels" is a 1958 a short story byPoul Anderson Poul Anderson is best known for his Technic Civilization and Time Patrol stories.

Say you're a Martian private detective who admires Sherlock Holmes. Say the Crown Jewels have been loaned to Earth and stolen during the journey home. The diplomatic situation that would result from knowledge of the loss of the jewels becoming public would be unfortunate. Through application of some physics, clear thinking, and deduction, you solve the mystery and expose the culprits.

189. "Of Missing Persons" is a short story by Jack Finney

Say you work at a mediocre little job and live a desperate little life. The meanness of your existence eats away at you a little more each and every day. Each and every day you yearn for something better. At last, the way out, the way home, the way to a better life is there for you to take. If you don't funk at the crucial moment.

Jack Finney's best known work is "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers". This poignant tale touches the reader because the protagonist's feelings of quiet desperation in this story written sixty years ago are the feelings many of us have today.

References

Tales of Time and Space, edited by Ross R. Olney.

On Ross R. Olney's Tales of Time and Space. Philipp Michel Reichold. 09/25/20

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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on Tales of Time and Space, edited by Ross R. Olney

15. "All the Time in the World". (1952). short story by Arthur C. Clarke Sir Author C. Clarke is best known for "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Childhood's End", and "Rendezvous with Rama".

50. "Birds of a Feather" is a1958 novelette by Robert Silverberg

Robert Silverberg sold his first stories in 1953 and 1954. He still writes a column for Asimov's Science Fiction. The first story of his I remember reading is "Nightwings" in The Hugo Winners.

This is a fun and imaginative read. The variety of xenomorphs reminds me of Poul Anderson's stories.

82. "Clutch of Morpheus" is a 1946 a short story by William Campbell Gault [as by Larry Sternig

136. "Fog" is a 1951 a short story by William Campbell Gault

161. "The Martian Crown Jewels" is a 1958 a short story byPoul Anderson Poul Anderson is best known for his Technic Civilization and Time Patrol stories.

189. "Of Missing Persons" is a short story by Jack Finney

References

Tales of Time and Space, edited by Ross R. Olney.

On Ross R. Olney's Tales of Time and Space. Philipp Michel Reichold. 09/25/20

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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on Tasha's Fail-Safe by Adam-Troy Castro

I thoroughly enjoyed Adam-Troy Castro's "Tasha's Fail-Safe." I like Andrea Cort a lot for a lot of reasons. It's always good to read about her. This is a story from early in her career, right after the business with the Zinn. Here is a quote from "Tasha's Fail-Safe" in the March 2015 Analog.--

"She was too good to make that kind of mistake. She'd walked in and out of war zones. She'd taken lives in order to preserve her own. She knew better."

If you thought New London was a safe place to work and play, as I did, you are in for a surprise. If you are sure Andrea is going to take care of business while remaining a very damaged, dragonesque-meets-prickly-pear, anti social bitch, as I was, you will not be surprised or disappointed. I don't agree with Lois Tilton's assessment in Locusmag. I found the story and the anticipatory building of its resolution delicious. Did I mention I like Andrea Cort? Maybe as much as Mr. Castro

References

Adam-Troy Castro's Tasha's Fail-Safe. Philipp Michel Reichold. March 1st, 2015

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2015. ed. Trevor Quachri. "Tasha's Fail-Safe." Adam-Troy Castro.

content is licensed according to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. A link to my content is sufficient for attribution.

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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on Stormtrooper by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Stormtrooper by Lawrence Watt-Evans mixes change storms and Wind Whales and Nazis and not very nice people and the victims of not very nice people in with New York City's finest. Readers of Glen Cook’s Annals of the Black Company will recognize the allusion. The characters in this story call the change storms reality storms. They don’t know what to make of the Wind Whales. The scientists have hopes of cloning one from the remnants.

The world is beset by these reality storms that drop off items from other places and sometimes take things/people with them. Items dropped include Nazis and a concentration camp in the Bronx and a castle on Coney Island. Lieutenant Gregory Mitsopoulas runs the Discontinuity Control Squad of the New York City Police Department. They are in charge of dealing with people/things brought to New York City by the storms.

Mitsopoulas and his men go out to investigate a reality Storm from the night before. They find themselves next to St Agnes Catholic Church on 43rd Street in front of the New York City Internal Security-- Midtown “B U R O” building. (Catchy name, no?)

New York City Internal Security -- Midtown Buro are the people in charge of dealing with the leavings of reality storms in the New York City of their world. Commandant Fitzwater and the other fine officers of the Midtown Buro want to take Lieutenant Mitsopoulas and the DCS into custody to be dealt with accordingly. Somebody is in their New York; someone else has been brought to a different New York by a reality storm. The question is which.

All of my article content should be considered attribution required. A link is sufficient.

References

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine January 1992. Editor: Gardner Dozois. "Storm Trooper." Lawrence Watt-Evans.

"Stormtrooper by Lawrence Watt-Evans." Philipp Michel Reichold. APR 18TH, 2019.

Lawrence Watt-Evans at ISFDB

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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on Space Infantry by Dave Drake et al

Space Infantry is a Military Science Fiction anthology edited by Dave Drake, Charles G. Waugh and Martin Greenberg. It contains stories by a dozen authors spanning 3 decades. In order of appearance they are:

"The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears," by Keith Bennett;

His Truth Goes Marching On," by Jerry Pournelle;

But as a Soldier, For His Country," by Stephen_Goldin;

"Soldier Boy," by Michael_Shaara;

"Code-Name Feirefitz," by David Drake;

"The Foxholes of Mars," by Fritz_Lieber;

Conqueror," by Larry Eisenberg;

"Warrior," by Gordon R. Dickson;

Message to an Alien," by Keith Laumer;

". . . Not a Prison Make," by Joseph P. Martino;

"The Hero," by George R. R. Martin, and

"End Game," by Joe Haldeman.

Of the lot, Joe Haldeman, Gordon R. Dickson, Jerry Pournelle and Fritz Leiber are Hugo Award winners, though not for these stories. Mr. Drake and Mr. Haldeman served in Viet Nam. Their experiences color and inform their stories. Mr. Drake once said that his Hammers Slammers stories were partly therapy. Though clumped together as "Space Infantry," these stories run a wide gamut in attitude and outlook, and they need not strictly speaking be about Infantryman at all. Anyone simply seeking simple action adventure, bang-bang-your-dead, stories may be disappointed. There is so much more here than that. Anyone looking for high quality writing should read these stories. They stand out as excellent severally and separately. The book is essential to anyone with more than a superficial interest in Military Science Fiction-- especially anyone interested in the crafting or the history of Military Sci Fi.

The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears Mr. Bennett's story is not so much about ground sloggers as downed rocketeers who get the job done regardless of any obstacles and who coincidentally save their corps from absorption or disbandment. The basis for the title, according to Drake, is a song-- "The Mountaineeers Have Hairy Ears," whose lyrics I'll not reproduce here, and which carries the same emotional load of the Viet Nam Era, "don't mean nothin" in the context of having just had one's eye shot out. Mr. Drake was half a generation removed from Rocketeers, as I am from Drake's Slammers. In the context of today's milieu, the story is shockingly militaristic and imperialistic, much reflective of the attitude of the times in which it was written, 1950. No consideration is given to the real estate and no quarter to the natives. AS I said, the these admitted "Sons of bi-- er, Space" get the job done. There is of course a problem with some stories written in the 1950's. The idiom is changed. Readers of today may find it difficult to relate to.

His Truth Goes Marching On Dr. Pounelle is a Politcal Scientist and this story is as much a poli-sci treatise as it is a work of military science fiction. It is of course set in the Falkenberg's Legion universe before the collapse of the Co-Dominion and the ascension of Lysander to the Spartan throne, just prior to Ace Barton and Peter Owensford signing up with Colonel Falkenberg. Don't get me wrong, there's enough army life and gun play and slogging through mud for anyone's taste. There's also betrayal and a nuke.The story is well worth the read for anyone with a brain. But you won't know the truth till you read that last couple of paragraphs.

But as a Soldier, For His Country, Quoth the author, "It's a young man's story, venting frustration at the futility and lunacy of war." It grew into the novel, The Eternity Brigade. I'm one of those people made uncomfortable by this story. But guess what-- the purpose of good writing is not to make the reader feel good. Imagine the sheer unpleasantness and daily grind of war. Then imagine the worst parts. Imagine dying in battle. Then imagine being resurrected and even copied countless times for an age, till finally you meet yourself in battle. A well wriiten reductio ad absurdum.

Soldier Boy Michael Shaara won the Pulitzer Prize for The Killer Angels, a novel about the Battle of Gettysburg. "Soldier Boy" was also made into a novel; it tells the story of the lone soldier, at a number of disadvantages, that must come to grips with a superior opponent through his native intelligence and leadership skills. It's a well crafted story about a young man coming into his own. The antagonistis remarkable.

Code-Name Feirefitz Despite being in law school, David Drake was drafted to serve in Viet Nam. He eventually became a member of a Battalion Information Center with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. His experiences there form the basis of his Hammer's Slammers stories. The prime movers in "Code Name Feirefitz" are not the highly capable Captain Esa Mboya or his Golf Company Slammers, but two civilans. Their conflict is key to Mboya's own conflict between duty and conscience. The story contrasts the grittiness and hardness of the soldiers as they set about doing their duty with the composure and quiet persistence of Esa's brother Juma as he does his. Their dedication contrasts with the desperate selfishness of ben Khedda as he seeks to sacrifice anyone to survive. The faith of Jooma plays against that of the Kaid who will risk anything to save his people, and both stand out against the faithlessness of ben Khedda.

The Foxholes of Mars Fritz Leiber has won numerous awards-- one of the great masters of Science Fiction. Leiber's opening imagery and setting creation is masterful. Leiber's prose is deep and lush with layers of meaning. War is just the setting for a deep and not terrible pleasnt look deep into a man's soul-- the soul of a budding demagouge. I find no indication that this story won Hugo or Nebula. It should have. It's shocking that an anthology containing this story should be available for a penny. This story in and of itsself is priceless.

Conqueror Eisenber crafts his story well, creating a believable setting and a sympathetic protangonis in a story that starts out being a story about the lone foot slogger a long way from home and in need of human contact, validation of his own humanity. Ends up as a story about successful psy-ops and asymmetric warfare against an occupying force.

Warrior The first Gordon Dickson I read was the short story "Soldier Ask Not" in The Hugo Winners. Warrior is a side piece to his Childe Cycle stories, about the Dorsai general Ian Graeme. It is included in the anthology Lost Dorsai.

Though the action of the story takes place far from the battlefields of the Splinter worlds, it is full of strategy, including the principle of calculated risk, and tactics. (Including "Tactics of Mistake"-- this is a Graeme we're talking about.) It portrays Graeme as the Dorsai archetype-- not only the consummate soldier, but a man who would cross all of Hell and half of New York City to pay a debt for good or ill. And all the more so to exact justice forhis soldiers. Dickson's prose can be a little pompous and overbearing-- his treatment of villains a little dismissive, mere stick figures lacking depth. But then he wants Graeme to be overpowering-- to his advesaries, to the helpless bystander cops, and to the reader.

Message to an Alien Keith Laumer is a Nebula Award writer who is porbably undervalued today. His Retief stories are based on his experiecnes as a military attache in Burma. His Bolo stories were part of the inspiration for Drake's Slammers. This story is about the lone and disgraced soldier who was turned out for being righter than his superiorsthe civillian authorities could ever admit. He acts alone again and totally without anyone else's support to nip an invasion in the bud and stop a war. Laumer's disdain those with authority but lacking the sense to use it shows through. Dalton's mastery of the situation, the authoirites, and of the invaders is a pleasure to read.

. . . Not a Prison Make Martino's novelette is based on the unique premise of guerilla warfare carried out by low technology aborigines. He builds the story thoroughly, exploring the occupying forces attempts to mount an affect defence. The key is to force to the negotiating table people who have no interest in negotiations. The solution is unique to he situation, and the resolution acceptable to all. The Hero The United States has reached the point in its decadence/decay where it is sometimes more convenient to ignore its veterans and treat them with disdain then to give them the consideration and rewards they deserve. And so it is in "The Hero." Kagan serves honorably and well. When his term of enlistment is up, he demands his desserts, and his superiors balk. Can't conceive of him going to Earth. George R. R. Martin uses overstatement to drive home his point, contrasting the soldier with his bosses. In the end, it's clear that they are as dishonorable as he is honorable, as undeserving of his service as anyone could be.

End Game Joe Haldeman won an award for The Forever War. In the End Game, we find out what it was all for. Time has past. A lot of time has past, and Man is more like the Taurans than veterans like Marygay and William. There's a place for people like them called Middle Finger, heh heh. Anyone familiar with The Forever War knows Haldeman is a great writer, that he despises the stupidity and waste of war, and that he makes his case very well.

References

Space Infantry. ed. David Drake, Martin Harry Greenberg, Charles G. Waugh. 1989.

Space Infanty by Dave Drake et al. Philipp Michel Reichold. UL 19TH, 2017.

Soldier, Ask not. Gordon R. Dickson.

Hammer's Slammers. Dave Drake.

The Prince (anthology) Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling.

The Forever War. Joe Haldeman

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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on A Statue for Father by Isaac Asimov

A Statue for Father is a 1959 story by Dr. Isaac Asimov. This, like many of Asimov's stories, was a light hearted fun to read bit of fluff. Think of it as a light literary snack. The narrator's father was a scientist committed to the notion of making time travel work-- so committed in fact that he'd sacrificed all of his worldly possessions to continue his efforts to prove time travel possible. This was after he'd lost his reputation as an academe and scientist, and had been fired from his university because of his fruitless pursuit of the seemingly impossible. His years of toil and sacrifice, his ceaseless experimentation, produced one successful result, thus Dinachicken became his gift to the world. A synopsis for the story was posted by DL Hegel.

References

Buy Jupiter. "A Statue for Father." Isaac Asimov.

"A Statue for Father by Asimov". March 26, 2015

"Synopsis." D. L. Hegel.

All of my article content should be regarded as attribution required. A link to my content is sufficient.

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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on The Song of the Whistling Crab by Michael McGlade

The Song of the Whistling Crab by Michael McGlade in kaleidotrope is a tale of a man (Cú) and his hermit crab. The man’s a hermit as well, so it works well for them. The crab whistles. Remember that.

They met after the man’s wife (Saoirse) ran off with a circus strongman and the man ran after her. Then he heard the song of the crab. A fair trade, a hermit crab for a hermit’s wife. They, man and crab, were soul mates, and the crab’s whistled song– mesmerizing.

One day the strongman and the hermit’s wife come for the crab, to take it back. And thereby hangs the tale of the man and the whistling crab.

“Cú” means “hound” in Irish. “Saoirse” means “freedom”. So it goes the freedom-seeking wife is at first hounded by the husband. The strongman with whom the wife seeks freedom sounds like a hero from epic poetry, mighty-thewed. The crab’s name is– Jules Verne.

This all sounds symbolic, like “The Yellow Wallpaper”, only with a crab who whistles a song about the sea. The sea is ever-calling, and the crab hears/whistles the song all the time. One day he’d like to return to the sea. It is a science fictional crab, to be sure. The song of Jules Verne would be science fiction, so perhaps the tale is about the transformative power of science fiction.

References

"The Song of the Whistling Crab by Michael McGlade." Philipp Michel Reichold. MAR 17TH, 2017

The Song of the Whistling Crab

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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Space Dreadnoughts by Dave Drake

Space Dreadnoughts is a Military Science Fiction anthology by David Drake, Martin H Greenberg and Charles G Waugh. The contents in order of appearance are:

"Introduction: A quick Look at Battle Fleets" by David Drake

"The Only Thing We Learn" by Cyril M. Kornbluth

"C-Chute" by Isaac Asimov

"Allamagoosa" by Eric Frank Russell (won the Hugo Award for bestshort story in 1955)

"A Question of Courage" by J. F. Bone

"Superiority" by Arthur C. Clarke

"Hindsight" by Jack Williamson

"The Last Battalion" by David Drake

"Shadow on the Stars" by Algis Budrys

"Time Lag" by Poul Anderson

The first Military Sci Fi story I remember is the Star Trek TOS episode "Balance of Terror," in which Enterprise duels with a Romulan interloper. The military conflict was setting to other conflicts between the crew, the story was full of suspense, and actual battle was a small part of the story. And so it is here.

The book's title is a misnomer. The back cover blurb is misleading-- "Massive and arrogant, they patrol the final war zone-- deep space. All great battleships before them-- . . . are mere toys in comparison." It goes on about "bristling artillery" and "battalions of souldiers." I expected fleet actions involving capital ships. Tactics. Maneuvers. Gunplay. While there are fleet actions and even battleships in some of these stories, they are mere backdrops on a stage where people play out the stories. Truly good Science Fiction involves people, and in all these stories, the people overshadow the military settings that serve only to bring out the characters and whatever lessons there are to be learned from them. All of these stories are well worth reading.

"Introduction: A quick Look at Battle Fleets" Mr Drake's introduction is a wonderful introspective about the history of the Dreadnought battleships with a mention of two 1950's Astounding essays on the armaments of spaceships-- one by Willy Ley, the other by Malcolm Jameson. If one is going to write stories about ship-to-ship combat, the introduction is a good starting point. But only a starting point. One should definitely read Mahan, and consider the lessons of Taranto and Pearl Harbor. And the US Navy's Harpoon's and Tomahawk's are wonderful arguments in favor of missles over guns. One should also consider the time honored techniques of ramming and boarding actions.

Perhaps the question of guns vs missles is mooted today. The arms race has continued in Sci-Fi beyond what could be imagined with a knowledge of 1950's physics. The Ley and Jameson essays were written before Empire of Man fighters raked Formoria, before rail guns, and CTD imploders, before GRASER's, X-ray LASER's and phaser banks, before the Moties bombarded Mote Prime with asteroids, and before Captain Sheridan laid a gigaton on Z'ha'dum.

"The Only Thing We Learn" Kornbluth tells a cautionary tale of faded Imperial glory. The barbarians at the gates will one day have descendants that are as decadent and prissy as the effete and ineffectual empire they deposed and replaced. History blurs and magnifies the epic tales of glory. The details are lost. The character is lost. One day a fresh wave of barbarians sweeps aside succcessors that their ancestors would be ashamed to acknowledge. The reader may decide what relationship if any there is between this story and the quote from Friedrich Hegel. A fun story despite the dire consequences for the past and future losers. In his column, "Rereading Kornbluth", Robert Silverberg calls The Only Thing We Learn, "a subtle, oblique, elliptical, sardonic piece of work."

"C-Chute" Dr. Asimov wrote this story in 1951. It is a psychodrama set aboard a passenger ship taken as a prize by a race of chlorine breathers in Earth's first intersteller war. Each of the passengers is sketched by Asimov to reveal their several flaws of personality, physicality or character. Each has reasons why he should not exit the cabin via the C-chute, EVA, and enter and retake the control room from outside the ship. The reason for the dubious hero to take the heroic action required to retake the ship is one unlikey to appear in the work of any author but Dr. Asimov.

"Allamagoosa" This story won the 1955 Hugo for best short story. It's a farcical look at officious bureaucracy of the greatest gravity. It's sort of a shaggy dog story, wink, wink. This story in and of itself is worth buying the book for. The build up and so obvious in hindsight ending is fresh enough to be as enjoyable today as it was then.

"A Question of Courage" Sometimes flair and heedless risk taking can be mistaken for true personal courage. When the genuine article appears, there's no mistaking it. Bone craftliy deveops his characters and sets the reader up for the old maidish Captain "Cautious Charley" Chase of Lachesis to reveal his true nature. It is available from Project Gutenberg.

"Superiority" Sir Arthur requires no introduction for this story, a reductio ad absurdum about the principle of Illusory Superiority. Technology and bedazzlment with the latest, most theoretically wonderful advances are no substitutes for common sense and sound military doctrine. Perhaps this should serve as a cautionary tale at a time when Iraqi insurgents hack into our drones. According to Wikipedia, this gem was required reading at West Point. The reader easily empathizes with the narrator and his plight, revealed at the end.

"Hindsight" Jack Williamson has won both the Nebula and the Hugo Awards, and had a career that spanned about seventy years. This story involves temporal mechanics and love, oppression and liberation, and meeting engagements. Incidentally, the guns employed by the Astrach's fleet are of 20-inch caliber and fire four salvos per second. It's a tightly written story, though I think the ending is a little drippy.

"The Last Battalion" Imagine that Hitler did not die in a bunker in Berlin, but escaped via U-Boat to a secret Waffen-SS base in New Swabia. There German scientists built flying saucers from which they reached the moon to to mine aluminum and build more flying saucers. Now imagine them getting into a war with aliens. With things not looking so good, they kidnap a US Senator to let him know what is going on, intending to drag the US into the conflict. Before they can get where they're going with the Senator, the aliens lay a nuke on their Antartic base. They drop the Senator off to find his own way home. He asks them what they will do. Their colonel replies, we are SS-- we will fight.

"Shadow on the Stars" Budrys's Farlans are felinoid aliens who at first blush look like humans in cat suits. But they are, on a closer look, "raving paranoid quote." The paranoia is pathological and eventually fatal for Farla-- any military leader with sufficient ability to be effective cannot be trusted by Farla's rulers, and will be killed at the earliest sign of that fatal disease, military competence. The story is a retrospective, the central character telling how he and Farla came to be in their present straits. It is too late for him to convey the warning against trusting Earth, and to late to avoid the inevitable dissolution of Farla.

I have a problem accepting the plot device Budrys uses to set up the narrative, but otherwise the story is interesting and fun to read. The prose is a bit over decourous and affected, but that brings out the effeteness and pretentiousness of the Farlan culture. At the start, the Farlans are hard-pressed by a barabarian culture, the Vilk, and need a strong, capable leader to drive them back. OF course the strong, capable leaders keep their heads down so has not to find themselves assassinated by the Ministry of Preparedness-- and then comes L'Miranid. A previously unknown reservist, he quickly dominates the Fleet and whips them into shape. Victory follows victory until the Vilk host is driven back, their subject planets pounded to rubble, and a Farlan imposed king seated upon their throne.

The real story action is not fleet engatgements and daring raids, though. The story is related by Henlo, one of those capable leaders who has balanced command of a capital ship wtih avoiding notice by the governmental hunters down of competence. He starts the story as having a clear understanding of Farla's problems and the steps necessary to remedy them, but can't afford to be noticed. He becomes L'Mararind's aid, admirer, vice-admiral, intended assasin and successor, and finally, his unwilling co-conspirator and successor. Unwilling to be assasinated himself, he seizes control of the Farlan government. By this time, the sad (for Farla) truth is known to him, but (I love Latin quotes.) "alea jacta est." This is a fine little story with a lovely twist toward the end.

"Time Lag" Poul Anderson has won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Time Lag is a study in contrasts-- evil, greedy invaders against noble, selfless defenders. Chertkoi is a heavily overpopulated industrial planet, drowning in pollution and resource starved. Vaynamo is pristine, with a population sustainable through resource management. Vayanmo is never the less technologically advanced, with the technology's goal as preservation rather than exploitation. Expolitation is the name of Chertkoi's game. It's people conquer other worlds to fuel the industrial fires that smother their world under a cloud of pollution.

The archetype of the Chertoi is the Admiral commanding the invasion fleet. He is matched against the story's view point character, Elva. Elva is the widow of a Vayanmoan noble and prisoner of the Admiral. He is gross, vulgar and uncouth. She is pretty, cultured and well-mannered. He is a love struck boor, hopelessly smitten by her. She subtly endures his presence to manipulate him so that she an return herself and the other captives to Vayanmo in a portrayal that is believable and sympathetic. The invasion is a leveraged takeover in three stages-- a scouting raid, a strategic strike to destroy what little industry the Vayanmo posses, and a full-scale invasion. The title relativistic time lag (fifteen years) gives the Chertkoi time to build their invasion fleet and the Vaynamo time to prepare their reception.

References

Space Dreadnoughts by Dave Drake. Philipp Michel Reichold. JUL 19TH, 2017

Space Dreadnoughts. ed. David Drake, Martin H. Greenberg, Charles G. Waugh. July 1990.

Star Trek. "Balance of Terror."

The Mote in God's Eye. Jerry Purnelle and Larry Niven.

Various Polity universe stores. Neal Asher.

Babylon 5. "Z'ha'dum"

The Battle of Sauron. John F. Carr and Don Hawthorne.

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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Snow in the Desert by Neal Asher

Neal Asher's "Snow in the Desert" is not about precipitation. It’s cyberpunk. Snow is an albino whose testicles are worth a great deal of money in certain quarters. He lives on a desert world called Vatch in the Polity universe. The story concerns those who would have said anatomy in a stasis box versus Snow’s desire to remain anatomically intact. Along the way, he meets a remarkable young woman with a third agenda.

Snow ponders many things as the story progresses.Why is Snow so sought after? Why can’t people just leave him alone? What does the girl really want? Is the desert a metaphor? Neal Asher continues to explore the meaning of “human” in a story well worth reading. It is really a love story.

Refrences

The Gabble and Other Stories. "Snow in the Desert." Neal Asher.

"Neal Asher's Snow in the Desert ." Philipp Michel Reichold. March 11, 2015.

content is licensed according to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. A link to my content is sufficient for attribution.

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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on Siege of Earth by John Faucette

I read John Faucette's novel " Siege of Earth 30 years ago and have thought about it frequently over the years. Whenever I read military fiction involving planetary bombardment and/or siege, I think of this story as an example of just how hard and deep you can bury your defenses and resources. And how much a damage a determined resistance can inflict on an invader. For instance, incinerating Earth's surface doesn't deter her defenders one bit. It just infuriates them and fills them with a terrible resolve. That furious resolve and knowing they face extermination only makes them fight harder, and the loses the invaders suffer become unsustainable.

I saw a copy of Siege of Earth in the bookstore while my mom was getting her hair done and grabbed it. It is a gripping fast paced story that establishes the background economically and pulls the reader into the desperate action quickly. I read the whole 158 pages of the book in a single sitting.

Faucette shows and tells us that the central character, Dane Barclay, is a passivist first and a brilliant strategist out of sheer desperation. His predecessor has bungled hideously in attacking but not defeating the alien Spartan Empire, and Barclay has conducted a masterful retreat back to Sol System and then back to Earth. Earth stands alone against an empire.

The Spartans are in a decreasing returns trap. The time and resources they expend against Earth weaken them on other fronts. They must finish humanity quickly enough and while preserving sufficient strength to deter invasion by their neighbors. The urgency to destroy humanity totally rather being contented to drive them back to a ravished earth is from their knowledge of the insane and insatiable warlike nature of humanity. This is the story's main theme- man's insane and insatiable warmongering. The Spartans know humanity must be exterminated, or they will attack Sparta again. Humanity has been beaten back to subterranean bunkers and caves, but remains unbowed.

The story offers a masterful portrayal of the escalation of the conflict as the Earthers' defenses exact an ever increasing toll on the overwhelmingly powerful Spartans and as Barclay repeatedly counters the Spartan commander's attacks brilliantly. Interspersed are glimpses of Barclay's humanity and hatred of war seen in poignant vignettes as members of his family become casualties and he is wounded. Things are getting hopelessly fraught when at last Earth's defenses finally begin to crumble, but I won't spoil the ending.

References

on Siege of Earth by John Faucette. Philipp Michel Reichold. Apr 29th, 2019.

John Faucette

Reviews on Goodreads

Siege of Earth. John Faucette. Belmont Books. 1971.

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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on Shark Ship by Cyril Kornbluth

Shark Ship, better titled “Reap the Dark Tide," was the first to deal with population explosion, the environmental impact of humanity, and harvesting the sea to extend the food supply. The attention to detail given to the descriptions of the Convoy Culture and the degeneracy of the Land Culture is remarkable. The story certainly was ripe for expansion to novel length, but was written in 1958, the year of Kornbluth's death.

The Captain of a ship must violate centuries old tradition to save his crew. Centuries earlier, to ease population pressures, large numbers of people set out in great ships upon the sea. They take their living wholly from the sea, sailing east to west and back to east, from 10 miles of one coast to ten miles of the other.

Because all of their sustenance comes from the sea, they are dependent upon the harvest of their nets for food and for raw materials with which to manufacture all their goods. The metals of the hulls and nets is irreplaceable. To lose a net means death by slow starvation for a crew. The rest of the Convoy hasn't enough to spare.

The ship is part of one of a number of convoys. The Convoys have over-harvested their grounds to the point where only plankton and krill are plentiful. These are harvested twice a year in spring and fall.

The Fleet has been at sea for centuries, and have over-fished their ranges. They are down to harvesting plankton. The Charter has gone from a social compact to holy writ in the minds of the rank and file, and traditional approaches, though failing, carry the force of absolute edicts.After the end of one harvest, a sudden squall destroys the net. The traditional options are are mass suicide and death by cannibalism. Not only will no help come forth from the rest of the Convoy, the ship is exiled from the Fleet. They set of without so much as a good luck or a fare-the-well.

According to the Compact that established the convoys, <> The quote has been inculcated into the very fiber of every member of the crew's being for so long that it is taking on the nature of Holy Writ. The notion of seeking succour from the land is very nearly sacrilegious. Unwilling to accept death by starvation of death by civil war culminating in cannibalism, the Captain decides to see what the Land may hold in store for them.

They make landfall in New York Harbor. The Captain places his exec in command of the ship and leads a party ashore. Once landed, they find that overpopulation is no longer a problem there. A religious fruitcake has arisen and spread a new religion across the Land. The population has been dropping rapidly, because having more than one child is a sin punishable by death. The permeating death cult is also severely crippled in its attitudes towards sex and the human body. This comes in handy after the shore party is surrounded and cones under attack.

References

Shark Ship by Cyril Kornbluth 80 Vanguard June 1958.

"SHARK SHIPS AND MARCHING MORONS: THE BEST OF C. M. KORNBLUTH." BlackGate Magazine. February 6, 2018 James McGlothlin.

"Shark Ship by Cyril Kornbluth." Philipp Michel Reichold. JUL 20TH, 2017

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philippmichelreichold · 6 months ago

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on Science Fiction Felinoids

One of the challenges of science fiction writing is populating the stories. One can use humans, but human motivations and cultures can be limited in scope and range. The anwser lies in using other physical forms than the human-- the lizard-like Gorn from Star Trek TOS co mes to mind. I imagined but never wrote about kangaroo-like aliens. A popular shape for aliens is that of the cat-- felinoids. Here are 5 Science Fiction felinoids of my acquaintance--

Even when cat-like in shape, aliens can be very human in values, thought patterns and motivations. It's not easy to create and alien mind from the inside out. We can create an alien with human like thoughts and then set its behavior and one end of the spectrum of human behavior and play it off humans whose personalities stand in contrast to that of the alien. And so it is with " van Vogt's Coeurl. Coeurl in Black Destroyer/The Voyage of the Space Beagle is the last survivor of a dying race. He is decadent and depraved and not nearly as bright as he thinks, despite his abilities. After first conatct, he kills a number of the human explorers, not realizing how obvious he is. We can see the smugness of the house cat in him, but he also fits within expectations for human depravity. He is contrasted by the scientifically and intellectually trained and incredibly well adjusted humans of the Beagle. They have him neatly sorted and classified fairly quickly. He is however not without resources and builds a tiny spaceship with which to escape the humans when his luck turns. Despite ihs briilliance in adaptating human technology, he is emotionally and fundamentally disabled by his depravity. This disability leads to the sort of despair which is seldom a survival trait.

An alien way of thinking can still be human in nature but insane by human standards-- to the point that what we consider normal would be regarded by them as hopelessly and tragically deluded. " Algis Budrys created such a race for "Shadow on the Stars." Farlans in Shadow on the Stars are militaristic and inherently paranoid-- to the point where anyone militarily skilled enough to pose a political threat to his superiors is dealt with quickly and terminally. It is thus that Farla has become beset by a younger, stronger enemy while her Navy is led by preening idiots. Seeking remedy, the Farlans turn to a reservist named L'Maranid. L'Maranid makes short work of Farla's enemy with a series quick victories that shatters them into a collection of successor states. But the paranoid nature of the Farlans is destined to work to wily Earth's advantage.

Some aliens seem not so alien in thinking once one gets past cultural biases. " The Hani of CJ CHerryh's Compact Space are traders in a multi species trading compact. They are newcomers to the game and feel inferior to Compact members who've been around longer. Their society is matriarchal, with males treated as inferiors as a matter of course and dispossessed after their male children are grown. Much of Hani literature is dedicated to the poignant brevity of males. C.J.Cherryh often writes about strong women coming to their own. Human examples are Signe Mallory of ECS Norway and Ari of Cyteen. And then there is Pyanfar Chanur. Chanur's rise parallels and powers the Hani's rise in Compact Space. Of as great an import as Chanur's elevation of the Hani in Compact space is the sexual revolution initiated by her taking her dispossessed and disgraced husband aboard as working crew.

The Kzinti of Larry Niven's Known Space are more alien in their thinking than the others, though they weren't always so. Larry Niven describes the Kzinti of his first story, "the Warriors," as humans dressed up in cat suits. A telling conversation occurs when the Kzin captain askes if they should be running from Angel's Pencil, the human ship and intended prey of the story. Kzinti in later stories would never consider asking such a question. They would "scream and leap" into battle as a matter of course. This impetuosity leads them into a series of defeats, especially in the First Man-Kzin War with its destruction of five invasion fleets in battles in Sol system and then off Wunderland in Alpha Centauri space. The reimagining of the Kzin in the many volumes of the Man-Kzin Wars should make and interesting paper or two.

The itiji, the cats in Golva's Ascent (Asimov's March 2012) by Tom Purdom are alien in culture and motivation. Though they lack hands, they posses sophisticated language abilities and understanding of advanced math, logic, ethics and tactics. They have evolved as hunters with a strong sense of ethics and compassion. Their natures stand in stark conquest to that of the brutal human interlopers on their world. Golva, like the jaguar in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," is compelled to climb the heights and explore. Unlike that famous jaguar, he lives to tell about it.

Golva is a young itiji polymath and visionary. He has decided to be the first to scale the heights above his home. He encounters and is captured and experimented upon by a group of human explorers. They are unhindered by any conscience or compulsion. Eventually the brutality gets to be too much for one member of the expedition and she assists him to escape back to the lowlands. Golva's erstwhile tormenter makes the mistake of pursuing them. He shortly learns that superior tech and cruelty need not suffice in having one's way. The itiji are very good at coordinating rescue and the use of force. While his captors had thoughtlessly spared Golva no pain in interrogating him, the itiji response to the human attackers is carefully considered and limited to only that which is needed to stop the attack.

References

Felinoids in Science Fiction. Philipp Michel Reichold. Apr 30th, 2019

These five are but a small sample of fictional felinoids. A longer list is on Wikipedia

Black Destroyer at baenebooks

Aldrys Budris on Wikipedia

Gorn at Memory Alpha

Larry Niven

On Sexism and Feminism among the Hani

The Coeurl Award

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