Others 6

This book looks at a forgotten bit of the Cold War in 1980s Central America. In December, 1981, a US-trained battalion of the army of El Salvador entered the town of El Mozote, and surrounding hamlets, and systematically murdered everyone; over 700 people were killed.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Salvadoran army was in bad shape. There were numerous examples of guerrillas joining the army to get some military training, then intentionally deserting to join the rebels. The army was poorly-trained and poorly-led, except the US-trained Atlacatl battalion. In late 1981, an army operation was planned in Morazan province (where El Mozote was located) to squeeze the rebels out of the area, once and for all.

El Mozote, a town of evangelicals, barely tolerated the rebels. The townspeople were willing to sell corn or chickens to the rebels, but, when it came to joining the rebels, the people of El Mozote were not interested. When the rebels got word that the army was coming, they urged the people to head into the jungle until the army left. One of El Mozote's leading citizens said that he was assured, by the army, that the people were safe. The army was interested only in the rebels.

That day, several helicopters full of Atlacatl soldiers landed at El Mozote. The soldiers went from house to house, dragging everyone into the town square, and forcing them to lay flat on the ground. After a couple of hours of interrogation, accompanied by kicks and rifle butts, regarding rebel membership among the townspeople, the men were taken to the local church, and women and children were taken to one of the houses. The men were taken out of the church, a few at a time, into the nearby jungle, where they were all shot or decapitated. After all the men were dead, the soldiers came for the women and children. The younger women were taken into the jungle and gang-raped, by the soldiers, before being murdered. The small children were thrown into the air, and impaled on bayonets. When it was over, everyone was dead.

When word got out about what had happened, helped by front page stories in the Washington Post and New York Times, the reaction of the Salvadoran army and Reagan Administration was to dismiss the reports as nothing more than enemy propaganda. Congress was in the middle of debating further aid for the Salvadoran government, so the timing of the articles was hardly convenient for the Reagan Administration. A pair of officials from the US Embassy in San Salvador tried to go there to investigate, and got within a mile or two of El Mozote, before being turned back by the army (supposedly, guerrillas were in the area). They couldn't confirm reports of several hundred dead (the people from the area were hardly willing to talk), but it was pretty obvious to them that something huge had happened at El Mozote. The Reagan Administration used inconsistencies in the death toll, and the fact that it was first reported by Radio Venceremos, the rebel's radio station, as "proof" that it was not as bad as reported. The army said that there was a major gun battle with the rebels in El Mozote (untrue), so some townspeople got killed, but nowhere the reported number of several hundred. Was this massacre big enough to get the US Congress to reduce, or eliminate, funding for the Salvadoran military to continue their war against the people? No one in Washington wanted to "lose" El Salvador the same way that China was "lost" after World War II.

This is a first rate piece of investigative journalism. It contains nearly 100 pages of US Government documents about what happened to El Mozote. This may seem like an "old" book, but to bring a forgotten bit of the Cold War back into the collective memory, it is very much recommended.

Top of Page

Main Page

Interest shifts from the moon to Texas, headquarters of the United Nations Space Arm. The world's finest scientists are brought in, and they get a pretty clear idea about Charlie pretty quickly. He was human, or close enough to not make a difference. The next step is to speculate that he came from Earth, that there was a space-faring civilization here during the time of the earliest humans. If that is true, why is there no evidence that such a race ever existed?

While each separate department at UNSA, like linguistics or biology, is busy on their own piece of the puzzle, they aren't talking to each other. A tidbit from one department may be just what some other department needs. Victor Hunt, co-inventor of the Magniscope (the next generation in machines to look inside the human body) is brought in to be that link between departments. He is also ggod at thinking sideways, getting each department out of their own rigid dogma. Further research shows that the planet Minerva, between Mars and Jupiter, was dying; an ice age was coming. The need to leave turned into a major interplanetary war, with weapons that could vaporize cities in an instant. Things get very interesting with the discovery of a very large alien spaceship, not from Charlie's race, under the ice on Ganymede.

This novel gets pretty heavy on the science, but at least it's easily understandable. Here is a very good and thought-provoking story about the origins of mankind.

Top of Page

Main Page

One day, the makers of the ship, called Ganymeans (for Ganymede), show up on Ganymede. The humans had unknowingly activated a distress beacon. It is easy to imagine their reaction at being told by the humans that their planet was gone. They had gone to a nearby star to see if it could be artificially made brighter, to combat their carbon dioxide problem. It didn't work; the star went supernova. The propulsion system on their ship was working, but the braking system had failed. They spent 20 years of ship time traveling faster than light, before they could slow down. meantime, the universe was 25 million years older.

They were homeless, as well as physically and emotionally exhausted. They were welcomed on Ganymede, where they gave human science a huge boost, and were able to repair their ship. They were welcomed to Earth, to stay, if they wished. There was the usual bureaucratic nonsense about what country would host them; the Ganymeans decided to land in Switzerland.

The aliens were totally welcomed, practically as long-lost brothers. As time went on, they traveled all over the world, seeing everything, and speaking with many Earth scientists. After six months, Garuth, the leader of the Ganymeans, announces that they are leaving. The archives mention that a group of Ganymeans traveled to a place called Giants' Star. Admittedly, it is a very remote possibility, but if there is a chance that there are more of their kind at Giants' Star, it must be investigated. That is the official reason for their sudden departure, but it isn't the actual reason.

This book is also heavy on the science, but it is still a very interesting story, not just about the origins of mankind. It's very much worth the time.

Top of Page

Main Page

A dozen slow, multi-generation ships were sent to a distant star system called the Leffer System. Soon afterwards, mankind developed a star drive, so that by the time the ships reached their destination, mankind had been traveling around the galaxy for a hundred years. Of the dozen ships, two arrived empty, and two others never arrived at all. The ships were simply parked in orbit, and abandoned. Beta-2, one of the ships, even has its own ballad. Years later, as a college assignment, Joneny, a young researcher, is sent to find out just what happened.

Several of the supposedly indestructible ships show evidence of huge internal explosions. Some old audio recordings talk of being attacked by some sort of green humanoid that communicates by telepathy. Joneny meets the humanoid's half-human son, who is able to exist slightly outside of time, and live in hard vaccuum with no problem at all. He watches video from the other ships where the inhabitants have physically, and mentally, de-evolved to the level of an early human. "The Norm" is taken very seriously on the ships. If a person was found to be outside physical norms in any way, whether it's being too tall, or left-handed, or having the "wrong" eye color, they were immediately executed. By the end, Joneny understands just what The Ballad of Beta-2 is all about.

This is a short novel, but a very good one. It's an interesting story about how things on a multi-generation ship can go very wrong, and it's worth reading.

Top of Page

Main Page

The only way for Americans to get into space is to join the Colonial Defense Force (CDF). They guard human colonies, and go to war over disputed planets. The CDF only takes people who have reached their 75th birthday. A vague promise of being made young again is a pretty strong incentive to sign up. The catch is that joining the CDF is a one-way trip. If you survive your tour of duty, hardly a sure thing, you will spend the rest of your life on some colony planet; returning to Earth is not an option.

John Perry signs up. He just turned 75, his wife, Kathy, died several years previously, and his one adult son lives on his own. On the spaceship taking him, and several hundred others, to basic training on another planet, he learns just what the becoming young part is all about. His consciousness is transferred into a cloned body, in its mid-twenties, made from his own DNA, which was extracted from him several years previously. It's very much of a new and improved body with a green skin color. He also has a computer implanted in his brain, which can talk to him and communicate with anyone else.

After basic training, Perry and his squad travel from planet to planet. Friends die, and new friends are made. During one disastrous operation, Perry crash lands on a planet, and is rescued by. . . his wife. She too is green, but the resemblance is way too close to be a coincidence. She (her name is Jane) is part of the Ghost Brigades, actually clones of dead people. Having no conception of what life is like as a realborn, they are kept far away from the rest of the CDF. Perry is made part of a Ghost Brigades squad, and begins to tell his squadmates what it's like to be married, and to love another person.

Here is an excellent novel. It has space travel, it has weirdness, it has heart and it has a lot of great writing. This is highly recommended.

Top of Page

Main Page

It looks like Jim was packing for a trip (just before his wife was coming home?). A pair of one-way plane tickets to Rio would lead the average person to think that Jim was planning to run away with someone other than his wife. Myra, and Lucy, begs Mike to look into what's going on without involving the police. The police have to get involved, but Mike manages to stay one or two steps ahead.

Wallace was a partner in a local brokerage firm. Of the other two partners, Tomppkins is a bachelor with an eye for the ladies, who thinks of Shayne as some sort of barbarian, while Martin is the senior partner. In his investigation, Shayne meets up with a couple of women of, shall we say, questionable morals, one of whom, Lola, was in a relationship with Tompkins. A witness reports seeing Wallace in a local bar with Lola a few days previously. The obvious implication is that Lola was going to use the other plane ticket to Rio. Actually, Wallace was offering her money to stay out of Tompkins' life, once and for all. A few hours later, Lola is dead. Suspicion falls on Tompkins, maybe because Wallace was supposedly "interested" in Lola.

I don't read a lot of mysteries, but this one was pretty good. The reader can easily see this as a black and white noir fil, starring someone like Humphrey Bogart or Robert Mitchum. It's worth reading.

Top of Page

Main Page

The Trisz allow only one planet-wide organization, the Scarlet Order of Men. People begin training as children, and only the best of the best become Men. Those who don't make it become Blue brethren, instructing the people how to be loyal members of society under the Trisz.

Kor Danay is a new member of the Scarlet Order. It's actually a very secret resistance organization. The Trisz can read minds, so absolute care and discretion is vital. Danay also has some unique mental powers, like the ability to temporarily stop time, and to teleport himself from place to place.

The Trisz Extrapolator knew that Danay would cause trouble, so he is arrested and condemned to death on less-than-clear charges. He escapes from an atomic disintegrator, so he and Soma, a woman he met along the way and is also part of the resistance, flee into the mountains. They join "the organization," in their series of deep underground caverns. After several months of being poked and prodded to try to learn just how his brain works, Danay nearly begs for something to do. He and Soma are sent to a faraway planet to check it out as a possible home for Earthlings after Earth officially dies. Everything is great, the planet looks to be perfect, until the Trisz show up.

This is an interesting story that belongs somewhere in that large gray area of pretty Good or Worth Reading.

Top of Page

Main Page

Carrying a cheap, plastic man's ring (which is all that the professor gave him), Don gets to the orbiting space station to catch a ship to Mars, when it is taken over by rebels. Don is given a choice; go back to Earth, or go to venus. Returning to Earth is not an option, because the Federation security forces have taken an interest in Don (due to his unclear citizenship), the sort of interest no one wants.

It helps that Don lived for several years on Venus, so he can speak to the indigenous Venusians (multi-eyed dragons). He can't send a message from Venus to Mars to let his parents know he's alright, and his Federation money is worthless, so he gets a job as a dishwasher in a local Chinese restaurant. One day, the federation invades, and sets most of the town on fire. Don flees, and ends up joining the Venusian army. Weeks later, he finds himself in a palatial mansion, which is also the home of a dragon he met during the trip from Earth. He is facing a man named Phipps, who says he is part of the "organization," and who really wants Don's ring, because of the information carried inside.

This is a young adult novel (as the reader may have guessed), and it's pretty good. It's an interesting story, with a noticeable political subtext, and it's worth reading.

Top of Page

Main Page

Bobby Jackson looks like your average teenager in Anytown, USA (but he really isn't). He has his suspicions about the Martin's, a married couple that just moved in next door. It's as if they are trying too hard to fit in. He sees Mrs. Martin at the local supermarket, holding a tomato like she has never seen one before in her life. No one knows just what Mr. Martin does for a living. Invited into the house for a glass of lemonade, while staring into Mrs. Martin's eyes, Bobby suddenly finds his consciousness transferred into a neighborhood cat that wandered into the house.

Bobby's intellectual abilities (his IQ is 150, but he doesn't act like a genius) have gotten Mr. Dyson, his teacher, very curious and a little spooked. After an encounter at the town library, where it seems as if Bobby has been telepathically communicating with Laura Hartley, the town librarian, she sees another man in the library re-arrange his face. She was not supposed to see that, so, soon afterwards, she is kidnapped by unseen forces, right through a blank wall. Bobby also talks to a local encyclopedia salesman, who, soon after ringing the doorbell at the Martin's, and hearing things he shouldn't have heard, finds his consciousness switched with that of a local cat.

The focus shifts to a complex of caves on the edge of town, where Bobby brings Mr. Dyson (with help from a telepathic suggestion planted in Mr. Dyson's brain). There they find "the Martin's", along with four other town residents who are not exactly what they seem to be.

This book is surprisingly good. It's a "quiet" tale of alien invasion, with real characters, that does a fine job of keeping the reader's interest.

Top of Page

Main Page

In many years of diligent searching, mankind has found a number of dead civilizations, but only two live ones, neither of which are interested in Contact with anyone. Saving this civilization suddenly becomes Top Priority. An exploration ship already in the area is able to sneak onto the surface, and the personnel plants many audio and video pickups, beaming language and customs to a ship full of linguists in transit. The ship, in bad need of an overhaul, is pressed into service too early, and breaks down before reaching the planet. A supply ship is able to join the exploration ship, and an attempt is made to fool with the planet's weather, hiding the cities under thick clouds. All other attempts to stop the cloud, or alter its course, fail.

For the humans already in orbit, how do they tell the inhabitants that they must immediately flee their cities? Who do they tell? Will their warnings be believed? How do they do it without violating the Noninterference Doctrine?

This story is well done from beginning to end. As usual with McDevitt, it has good characters, and has few, if any, wasted words. It does a fine job of keeping the reader's attention.

Top of Page

Main Page

Dominic Jedes is about to become president of ZahlenBank, the only institution more powerful than the coms. He isn't just the son of Richter Jedes, the bank's founder, he is an exact genetic copy of his father. He directs the bank to give two thousand protes their freedom, trappin them in a rusting, malfunctioning submarine at the bottom of the ocean. They are supposed to die, but they don't. They broadcast an untraceable and continuous message over the Net, encouraging others to join them. The free protes get thousands of takers.

Every minute that the message is broadcast, ZahlenBank's financial condition is damaged. Dominic is forced to go to the sub, and somehow shut off that message. For someone who has spent his life in filtered air, and with the finest in designer medicines in his bloodstream, when Dominic enters the sub, he feels like he has descended into hell. It's hot, stinking, packed with people, and the oxygen-generating system is on the verge of collapse. People are constantly putting up walls everywhere, so any attempt to reach the bridge quickly becomes impossible. Within minutes, Dominic feels like he has contracted some major disease. When he first reaches the sub, Dominic wants to reach the bridge, expose the sub's location, have everyone arrested, and get back to cleanliness as soon as possible. The longer he remains on the sub, the more sympathy he has for these people, and the more he wants to help them, instead of turning them in.

This is a strong, well done piece of writing. It has good characters, good society building, and an interesting story. The reader will not go wrong with this novel.

Top of Page

Main Page

A large part of the world's oil tankers have to travel through two geographic choke points: the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Indonesia, and the Persian Gulf. What would happen to the price of oil, and the world economy, if one was closed because a supertanker was sunk in the most inconvenient spot, and the other was closed because Iran decided to flex its political muscle?

Muslim terrorists set off several black-market nuclear weapons in US cities. Beset with internal strife, China decides to take back Taiwan, once and for all. They also send diesel submarines all over the world, to cause lots of economic trouble for any country who considers doing something about it. The Pakistani government collapses, and some of its nuclear weapons find their way into the hands of the more fundamentalist members of the military. There's one about America dealing with a major cyberattack, and one about what will happen after America withdraws from Iraq (faster than it intended). Remember bird flu, from a couple of years ago? Well, it's back, mutated into a form that can be easily transmitted from person to person. Shopping malls and other public places are deserted, hospitals are flooded with the sick and dying, America doesn't have nearly enough retroviral drugs even for emergency personnel, and it takes time to make more. To make things worse, the White House has just gotten word of a human flood of 8 million sick Latin Americans, desperate to reach America. They are scheduled to reach the US-Mexican border in a couple of days.

This is avery sobering, and utterly fascinating, look at what the future may hold. It's not an attempt to predict the future, but to show the sort of things that senior planners at the Pentagon are, or had better be, thinking about. Highly recommended.

Top of Page

Main Page

Jet Morgan is the ace pilot, Mitch is an Australian who single-handedly designed the rocketship, Lemmy is the Cockney radio operator, and Doc, an American, is keeper of the diary (and narrator of this novel). The ship is jointly built by all nations of the British Commonwealth, and is launched from the Australian Outback. A couple of days into the mission, the radio suddenly goes dead. Lemmy (who designed the radio and supervised the installation) spends the next two days going through the radio, circuit by circuit, and can find nothing wrong, while the others try not to panic. At one point, weird musical tones, almost music, come out of the speakers, then the radio comes on, like nothing was wrong. Mission Control reports that they heard everything that went on in the spaceship.

They land on the Moon, and spend one lunar day, or 14 Earth days, collecting Moon rocks and taking pictures. As they are ready to leave, all systems on the ship suddenly go down. There is no ignition, no lights, no airlock, nothing. Many diligent checks of all ship's systems show no possible cause. After another 14 days on the Moon, trapped in their spaceship, the power suddenly returns. Just before they lift off, an alien spaceship shows up just outside, and they are contacted by an alien voice (speaking perfect English). The humans are encouraged to leave, and, on the dark side of the Moon, twenty alien ships lift off, and follow them. The human crew is rendered unconscious, and their ship is kicked off course. When they awaken, Earth and the Moon are nowhere to be found. Could the aliens have dragged them somewhere else in space or time? Their fuel is running low, so they have to find an Earthlike planet to land on, or forevere wander the galaxy.

Main Page

In 1994, George Montgomery "Ticker" Troon is part of the group secretly building the world's first space station. One day, a missile shows up, probably from the Soviets, that could easily destroy the station and kill a lot of people. Troon, who was outside at the time, manages to corral the missile, as in the film "Dr. Strangelove." He keeps the missile away from the station, but for him, things don't work out so well.

On the Moon, fifty years later, Michael, his son, runs the British missile station. The Northern Hemisphere, on Earth, is having an all-out nuclear war; the American and Russian Moon stations have been destroyed. The British station has fired only a few of its missiles, and the personnel are very concerned as to why more missiles haven't been launched.

Brazil was the largest country to emerge unscathed from the war, so they sign agreements with the other Latin American countries and create the United States of Brazil. The first manned mission to Mars, with Geoffrey Troon as part of the crew, does not go well. The ship tips over soon after landing, killing one of the three-man crew. The other suffers a serious head injury, and is convinced that Geoffrey is a Martian, ready to do him great bodily harm. He tries to launch the crippled ship, while Geoffrey is outside, but does not get very far. In 2144, Australia launches a secret mission to land on Venus. Brazil, which considers all of space to be one of its provinces, is not happy, and launches a military mission to arrest everyone involved and bring them back to Earth. Troon cousins are on both sides of the conflict.

This is an excellent book. It's an interesting and well done story that will easily keep the reader's interest.

Top of Page

Main Page

Kopra brings new meaning to the word "disgusting." The layers of trash are miles thick. The smell is overpowering. It has artificial gravity and an artificial atmosphere, so a few hundred people live on top of the trash. They are just as dirty as their surroundings, but they grew up there, so they like it.

One day, a survey ship from the Federation lands on Kopra. Larkin, and Oliver, his assistant, tell the residents that a temporary evacuation is needed. The gravity generator needs replacing, requiring the drilling of a hole into the center of the asteroid, and installing a new one. If not, some of the trash could fly off of Kopra, and land on the pleasure worlds (heaven forbid). Anyone left on the asteroid could be killed by the new gravity generator, before it stabilizes. That's the official story, but, as Oliver discovers, it's not the real story.

Larkin thinks of the Koprans as little better than animals, for choosing to live like this, but Oliver isn't so sure. He volunteers to take a truck into the wilderness, to collect anyone he can find, to get them off the asteroid. Oliver takes Isaac Gaylord, headman of Kopra's only village, and Juliette, his daughter, along as guides. The truck breaks down miles from the village (sabotage), and after barely escaping from a giant mutated slug living in a mud lake, the three have to walk back to the village. By this time, any inhibitions or phobias that Oliver may have about cleanliness are long since gone; falling in love with Juliette certainly helps. When they get back to the village, Oliver discovers the real reason for getting everyone off Kopra. It involves turning the residents into "good" Federation citizens, with help from some personality surgery.

There are very few novels of any genre that take place in a garbage dump. This belongs in that large gray area of Pretty Good or Worth Reading.

Top of Page

Main Page

Something in the water causes the one-celled creatures in the water, like bacteria and protozoa, to grow and multiply much faster than normal. All known chemical and biological tests show nothing. It can only be sen in its effects on other creatures. Some of the local agricultural workers have been drinking the water, and reports surface that it amplifies their natural human tendencies, toward good or evil, pessimism or optimism.

During a Senate inspection tour, Senator Cumberland, an elderly man, drinks the water, and then dies of a heart attack. At the same time, Senator Bannerman, an enemy of the project, drinks the water, and is convinced that he has been poisoned. After recovering in the hospital, he, and several colleagues, return to California for a full-fledged Congressional hearing. All that Bannerman cares about is proving that he has uncovered this monstrous plot to rid the world of "undesirables."

Finally, the scientists are able to isolate it (they call it Spectralium), though they still don't know just what it is. At a dramatic moment in the hearing, Madeline Angus, one of the technicians who helped isolate Spectralium, and Senator Bannerman, each drink a highly concentrated glass of it, with different results (No, the Senator does not turn into a hideous monster).

This is a very good novel about mankind's future. There are echoes of Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End"; if you can find a copy, it's worth reading.

Top of Page

Main Page

Matthew Wright, science prodigy, is brought in to figure out what is in the metal suitcase clutched in the Stone Age man's arms. It's some sort of time machine, involving what look like many glass marbles. One day, Matt gets it to work, and takes himself, Susan Wright, who is taking care of a herd of elephants involved in the cloning plan, the elephants, and a Santa Monica warehouse, about 12,000 years in the past. After several days in the past, Matt gets the time machine to work again, and brings himself and Susan back to the present, along with a herd of half a dozen mastodons that happened to be nearby at the time. A baby mastodon, nicknamed Little Fuzzy, and Big Mama, his mother, are the only survivors when they appear in the middle of L.A. traffic.

Five years later, Little Fuzzy is the star of a multi-media extravaganza of a circus in Oregon. Susan is still his handler, because Little Fuzzy won't work with anyone else. She comes up with the idea of kidnapping Fuzzy, and freeing him in the wilds of northern Canada, where he could have something resembling a normal life. But Howard Christian is not about to let that happen.

Does any circus, no matter how progressive, automatically equal mistreating of animals? That's one of the questions explored in this fine piece of storytelling. It is more than just a really good time travel story, and it's well worth reading.

Top of Page

Main Page

Zarth Arn is part of the ruling family of the Mid-Galactic Empire, the biggest interplanetary empire. Its foe is the League of Dark Worlds, led by Shorr Kan. War is coming between the two, and the smaller empires are getting very nervous. Narrowly missing a kidnap attempt by League soldiers on Earth, Arn is taken to the Empire's home world, a long way away. He finds that he is supposed to marry Lianna, empress of one of the smaller empires. It's a purely political marriage (Arn already has a wife), but, at least, Lianna is gorgeous.

Arn/Gordon orders a spaceship to take him to Earth, where he has a secret laboratory. Just before departure, Arn Abbas, Zarth Arn's father and leader of the Empire, is murdered. Suspicion immediately falls on Arn/Gordon. He and Lianna are hustled on the ship, and, instead of going to Earth, they are going to the League's home world. Shorr Kan discovers Arn/Gordon's real identity pretty quickly, and Gordon tries to pass himself off as an amoral adventurer interested in himself first. He has no intention of returning to the past and give up all this wealth and power. Let him go to Earth, and he will convince the real Zarth Arn to give up the secret of the Disruptor. It's an ultimate weapon that is the only thing stopping the League from attacking the Empire. Gordon will give the secret to Kan, in exchange for a high position in the new League of Dark Worlds.

On their way to Earth, Arn/Gordon and Lianna are rescued by Empire forces. They are ready to execute Arn/Gordon immediately, convinced that he really did kill his father. He convinces them to let him clear his name back on the Empire's home world. Arn/Gordon succeeds in clearing his name; the League suddenly starts its attack against the Empire. The only chance for the Empire, and the only way to keep the smaller empires from joining the League, is to use the Disruptor. Arn/Gordon has little idea how to use it, but he has it installed on a ship, and goes out to meet the League armada. Can Gordon save the galaxy? Does he return to his own time?

This would make a wonderful radio serial or Saturday afternoon TV movie. It may be rather light in the area of scientific plausibility, but its exciting and a very fast read.

Top of Page

Main Page

"Black Jack" Geary was famed for his heroic "last stand" in the early days of the war. He was thought dead, but was revived after a century in survival hibernation. He is totally disgusted with the absolute hero worship that has grown up around him during the century that he was in hibernation. He becomes the reluctant commander of the fleet when the former commander is murdered during "negotiations" with the Syndics.

In their present condition, any sustained battle with the Syndics would be a disaster for the Alliance. Geary takes the fleet into a nearby wormhole to another star system. They are able to replenish their supplies at a Syndic base before the Syndics show up. Mankind does not have faster-than-light travel (or communications); the most frustrating thing for Geary is having to deal with the communications delay. Geary takes the fleet into another star system by wormhole, not taking the route that would get them back to Alliance space the fastest. The Alliance has a couple of weeks before the Syndic arrival, so Geary drills the fleet on flying in formation and basic tactics. Some of the ship commanders are not happy with what they consider constant retreats; for them, the Alliance tactical plan can be reduced to one word: Attack!

First of a series, this book is really good. The characters, especially Geary, are real people, and not just square-jawed stereotypes. It has action, it has believability, it has a good story and the reader will not go wrong with this one.

Top of Page

Main Page

Carson's World is a vital part of Earth's defense. It is inabited by large, blue creatures, with teeht and claws, called ezwals. Trevor Jamieson is the only human who knows that the ezwal are highly intelligent and telepathic. It's best for everyone, human and ezwal, if no one else knows this. The ezwal want all humans off their planet, so there is plenty of hatred, mistrust and dead bodies on both sides. For humanity, the only criterion to determine a civilization's intelligence is whether or not they will assist in defense against the Rull.

A lifeboat crashes on a very hostile jungle planet, carrying Jamieson and an adult ezwal. It's the sort of place where all sorts of disgusting and carnivorous creatures come out at night, and Jamieson's blaster is almost depleted. The ezwal would like nothing more than to tear Jamieson into lots of little pieces, but they end up having to work together to get off the planet.

A ship crash-lands in Alaska, carrying an adult and baby ezwal. The mother is murdered by a human in revenge for the carnage on Carson's World. The baby survives, and is hunted by humans all over the Alaskan landscape. It is rescued by Jamieson, and is willing to tone down its conditioned hatred of humans.

A Rull survey ship, and Jamieson, who seems to have nine lives, crash land near each other on a desolate mountain. Neither ship is going anywhere, so Jamieson uses this once-in-a-lifetime chance to conduct some psychological experiments on a captive Rull, to see what makes them tick.

This is a fine piece of space opera from science fiction's early days. It's got intelligence, weird alien planets, and lots of good writing. Nearly anything by van Vogt is recommended, and this is no exception.

Top of Page

Main Page

Jak Rebo's mission is to deliver a young boy to a faraway planet, to find out for sure if he is a legitimate religious apostle (based on present-day Buddhism). This religion has two sects, and members of the other sect have plenty of reason for wanting to make sure that Rebo and his human cargo never reach their destination.

Things get more complicated when a female "sensitive," (a clairvoyant and channeler) named Lanni Norr joins the group. With the reverting of mankind away from interstellar travel, science has been reduced to the level of a religious cult. Milos Lysander, the long-dead founder of the Techno Society, seems to have chosen Norr as his way to communicate with this world. The present-day members of the Society want Norr very much, because they think that Lysander has the secret to the location of the long-lost interstellar travel portals. If necessary, they are more than willing to kill anyone who gets in their way.

First of a series, this one is very good. The author has written a number of military/action SF novels in the past, so he very much knows what he is doing. This novel does a fine job of keeping the reader's interest.

Top of Page

Main Page

Human activities have attracted the attention of the Inhibitors, alien machines whose mission seems to be the elimination of all intelligent life. They have come to the star Delta Pavonis, home to the planet Resurgam, populated by over 200,000 people. The Inhibitors start to systematically take apart the system's gas giant, plus several of its moons, in order to build an immense device of unknown capability (imagine if Jupiter and several of its moons were systematically taken apart, and a growing alien device could be seen every night in the sky). What ever it is, it's not good for the people of Resurgam.

An attempt is made to evacuate the people of Resurgam, a few hundred at a time, onto a ship called Nostalgia for Infinity, to take them to another system. Years ago, the ship's captain, John Brannigan, became a victim of the Melding Plague. He was put into cryogenic sleep to try to slow the effects of the plague; it did not work for long. Now, Captain Brannigan has become the ship.

The ship also contains a number of huge cache weapons, some of which can be measured in kilometers. They are the only thing which can possibly stop the Inhibitors; they are not called "hell-class weapons" for nothing. Several factions want those weapons for their own purposes, including a renegade named Clavain. The weapons themselves may have other ideas. If the Inhibitors are not stopped now, it won't take long, in cosmic terms, for them to find Earth.

This is a wonderful piece of writing. Normally, I would look at a 700-page paperback book and say No Thanks; not when Alastair Reynolds is the author. He does a fine job from start to finish, writing on a grand millions-of-years scale. For those who like mind-blowing storytelling, this is very much recommended.

Top of Page

Main Page

The participants are given random, anonymous identities (Robin is turned into a woman named Reeve). Along with Sam, her "husband," they are placed into what looks like Smalltown, USA. They are given little, or no, idea as to just what they are supposed to do. All the couples are electronically monitored; during mandatory church services on Sunday, any faults or misdeeds are pointed out to everyone. Reeve is one of the few who begins to realize that something is really wrong. Their contract specifies a minimum amount of time to be in the study, approximately 3 years, but does not specify a maximum amount of time. The town has become a very high-tech panopticon. The women have suddenly become fertile, and several female participants have become pregnant. Perhaps the idea is to create a new race of people who don't know that there is an outside world. Perhaps it has to do with this new race re-infecting the rest of humanity with a new and improved version of Curious Yellow.

Here is a wonderful piece of writing. The best part is the author's look at present-day life. He does not just needle it or poke fun at it, he rips it to pieces and stomps on what is left. The rest of the book is also very much worth reading. This gets two strong thumbs-up.

Top of Page