Frederik Pohl's "The Kindly Isle" (short story, biological weapons, free)

A government agency in cold war era US is building biological weapons for possible use against Russians. One of its researchers has developed a virus that affects a part of the brain that's supposed to drive the infected person nuts, only the effect is a bit different - it makes the infected person irritable & nasty. On the day of his triumph, the scientist vanishes with all the data - so the government no longer has the weapon.

Years later, a colleague sights the scientist on an idle isle, & suspects he has been testing the virus for selling to highest bidder. But subsequent investigation with throw up a completely different direction of his research...

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, November 1984.
Download full text from Baen eBooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Frederik Pohl.

Hal Clement's "The Nitrogen Fix" (novel, apocalypse)

This is an action packed adventure. Like many other stories of author, it's set on a world with atmosphere toxic to humans but not to their alien friends, only the world is earth! And unlike vast majority of stories of author, this one has real villains, in addition to his standard "nature is adversary enough".

This also has an apocalypse setting common to many modern stories: "a closed human habitat has limited oxygen & if you have a third child, someone from family will have to be thrown out ('nomaded')". Only it's far more readable than almost everything I've seen with this setting.

Story summary.

A couple of thousands years into future, much of the oxygen has vanished from earth's atmosphere, all large animals except humans are dead, even humans are very few & dwindling, nitric acid pollutes all open water sources, & there are violent nitrate based plants prone to explosion.

People live in "closed" cities, with water-pool based airlocks. There also are some hardy nomads, folks who were thrown out of cities because of overpopulation but survived. You cannot venture outside without breathing mask & oxygen tank.

There are also "natives" or "Invadors" or "Observers" - curious galaxy-traveling aliens well suited to this earth atmosphere.

This is the story of a nomad couple, their 5 year old daughter, & their alien friend, who arrive at a city somewhere near Boston coast with supplies of salvaged glass & copper nuggets produced from ocean by "pseudu-life" that still survives. Only the customers have some deadly ideas & all hell breaks loose soon after their arrival...

Fact sheet.

First published: 1980.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Hal Clement.

Alice Munro's "The Moons of Jupiter" (collection): Annotated table of contents & review

I think it's a non-genre collection, in spite of the title. Mostly excellent stuff, going by what little I've read.

Two stories - "Connection" & "The Stone in the Field" - are part of a series called "Chaddeleys & Flemings". While independent, they're best read in that order.

Where I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there.

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] "Connection" (A); Chatelaine, sometime in 1979: On how we protect our pride...
2. [novelette] "The Stone in the Field" (A); Saturday Night, sometime in 1979: Protecting yourself from a hostile world, by hiding in a shell...
3. "Dulse": Not read.
4. "The Turkey Season": Not read.
5. "Accident": Not read.
6. "Bardon Bus": Not read.
7. "Prue": Not read.
8. "Labor Day Dinner": Not read.
9. "Mrs Cross & Mrs Kidd": Not read.
10. "Hard-Luck Stories": Not read.
11. "Visitors": Not read.
12. [ss] "The Moons of Jupiter" (A); The New Yorker, 22 May 1978: A woman's relationship with her dad who's about to undergo heart surgery, & with her two grown up daughters.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1982.
Related: Stories of Alice Munro.

C J Cherryh's "The Pride Of Chanur" (novel, space opera): What if lions evolved into intelligence?

I won't call it a bad read, but I seem to no longer enjoy most space opera now-a-days. But this may be the first space opera I've seen that is almost entirely from aliens' point of view; humans play a very minor & junior role.

Story summary.

There is something called Compact - a region of space somewhere on the edge of human space. Many alien space traveling species live here, cooperating & fighting. One of the more villainous of them, "kif", had got hold of some human spacemen, whom they tortured to presumably get the coordinates of human homeworld. Three prisoners died, one escaped. The escaped one found sanctuary in a "hani" ship. Much of the story is the chase & fights across star systems to get hold of this human prisoner, sucking in other alien races in the fight too.

Hani look like intelligent lions. Through the story, I got an impression this was a feminist work because gender roles among Hani are reversed relative humans - females do outside work & earning, men keep homes. But a discussion at ClassicScienceFiction points out similarity of Hani culture with that of lions. In fact, the "Pride" of title might be a pun on pride of lions; "Chanur" is the hani clan to which the heroine, Pyanfar, belongs. Officially, "Pride of Chanur" is the name of the hani spaceship in the story.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1982.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 1983 in novel category.

Piers Anthony's "The Toaster" (short story, humor, free)

Some consumers don't welcome feature-bloat in their gadgets...

See also.

1. Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Twonky" (download): Very funny story of a feature-rich "radio".

Fact sheet.

First published: Piers Anthony's "Anthonology" (coll) (1985).
Read online at Scribd. (slow page load).
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Piers Anthony.

Lawrence Watt-Evans' "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers" (short story, parallel universe, free): Got a traveling itch?

This has what some Westerners describe as the "homey" feel of some of the Clifford D Simak's fiction. And nice language.

Story summary.

A diner somewhere at the edge of a small town often receives some very weird crowd late night - travelers from other parallel universes. Their talk overs the years has ignited a traveling itch in the narrator, a teenager employee of the place.

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, July 1987.
Read online at Google cache.
Rating: A.
Winner of Hugo Award 1988.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1987.

Octavia E Butler's "Speech Sounds" (short story, post-apocalypse survival, free): What if people could no longer speak or read?

This is quite a dark story, but with a somewhat hopeful ending.

Story summary.

An unspecified "illness" swept through the world, killing many, & seriously paralyzing others. Paralysis not only of body, but of intellect too - some lost ability to speak, some lost ability to read or comprehend, ...

This is the story of a woman who, having lost everyone she loved, is looking
for some kind of companionship in this mad world.

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, Mid-December 1983.
Download full text from Google cache.
Rating: B.
Winner of Hugo Award 1984 in short story category.

David Brin's "Bubbles" (short story, weird physics, free)

Caution: This is not a story for novice genre readers. You need to have some experience reading science fiction.

In Hindu mythology, our universe is cyclical & is run by a trinity of gods: Brahma creates the universe, Vishnu runs it, & Shiva eventually destroys it - so the cycle can repeat. Here we see science fictional treatment given to an intelligent entity that might be a simpler form of Brahma.

We also get an explanation of where all the dark matter of the universe might be hidden.

Story summary.

Serena, a planet sized living entity that carries "gifts" between galaxies, has had a traveling accident that moved her close to location of her universe's Big Bang (in the story, universe comprises of many "bubbles" with their own Big Bangs)! She's stranded for eternity; there is no way she can go back to civilization.

Here she'll meet an entity that might be instrumental in creating next iteration of the universe, & discover that she's not the first one who's accidentally wandered here.

Fact sheet.

First published: Byron Preiss (ed)' "The Universe" (anthology, 1987).
Download full text from Lightspeed. [via QuasarDragon]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of David Brin; weird physics.

Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's "Footfall" (novel, alien invasion)

While I found it easy to put it down in early parts, it gets far more gripping once aliens arrive.

Story summary.

Aliens, from somewhere in Alpha Centauri system, begin attacking earth ("Winterhome" to them) as soon as they arrive - after a 12 year stopover in Saturn's rings undetected. Aliens that look like & are the size of baby elephants, only with multiple trunks that one human character compared with tentacles & who have vocal apparatus similar to ours. They call themselves "fi'" (plural "fithp") but Americans call them "Snouts".

Their primary fight is with the US since they recognize it is as the most advanced country, & secondarily with USSR. I'm puzzled why they had to destroy India by throwing an asteroid in Indian Ocean; it wasn't a party at all till then. This asteroid is called "Foot"; throwing it down is "Footfall" ... sort of ... an elephant trampling someone under its foot.

Of course, US military will eventually beat them.

Notes.

1. During the brief discussion of India, there is a curious reference to "Vishnu, the elephant god"! Why quote foreign mythology with such gross errors? Makes me wonder about all non-US references in the book.
2. Story has "shotgun pellets made of spent uranium". I thought "spent uranium" is no longer uranium but is transformed to another element. What have I missed?
3. Story contains a whole chapter named after, & in spirit of, William Tenn's 1963 story "The Men in the Walls" (novel version called "Of Men & Monsters").

Fact sheet.

First published: 1985.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle.

Kim Stanley Robinson's "Venice Drowned" (short story, climate change, free)

This is the story of Venice after mysterious heavy rains, presumably global warming induced, & resulting floods: overnight, global sea levels rose. This story doesn't cover those events, however; it's about the life of people still living in the city in "roof houses" - structures built over roofs since most buildings are now underwater.

Main episode is about a couple of Japanese archeologists who intend to take a mosaic from a now-underwater church "brick by brick" & erect it again in Japan. Plus some adventure in sea during storm. Story is told from the point of view of a Venetian boat owner hired by Japanese.

Fact sheet.

First published: Terry Carr (ed)'s "Universe 11" (anthology, 1981).
Download full text from Webscription.
Rating: B. 
Nominated for Nebula Award 1982 in short story category.
Related: Stories of Kim Stanley Robinson.

John Varley's "Just Another Perfect Day" (short story, amnesia, free): Living many 1-day-long lives

Best part of this story is ... call it style? I was hooked from the start. Otherwise a rehash of old ideas.

"Martians" in the story were a bit of distraction & just lengthened the story without adding to it.

Story summary.

A man wakes up in a room with two doors & no windows, & neither door will open. He'll find a letter, & we begin learning about his circumstances...

See also.

1. John R Pierce's "Invariant": Another story where a man keeps winding down to his mental state as of a specific time.

Fact sheet.

First published: Rod Sterling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, June 1989.
Download full text from Lightspeed. [via QuasarDragon]
Rating: B. 
Related: Stories of John Varley.

Harlan Ellison's "Paladin of the Lost Hour" (novelette, fantasy, free): Two friends from different backgrounds but with a common destiny

This is one of the rare Ellison stories I liked - first 80% of it anyway, before the really fantastic elements ruined it for me.

This is one of the "lost time" stories - because a few days were dropped from Julian calender in 16th century when it became Gregorian calender. In his non-fiction article, author tells us the story idea came from the hour "lost"/"recovered" when clocks are reset in countries that have daylight saving time concept.

Interesting parts relate to accidental friendship of two lonely men, one much older than the other. Only there is something mysterious about the old man, & he's carrying a weird gadget; we'll learn the secrets in the end. Story has black man/white man undertone that will likely mean something to US readers; also has loss of someone as a major sentimental element.

Fact sheet.

First published: Terry Carr (ed)'s "Universe 15" (anthology, 1985).
Download full text from Ellison Webderland. [via ClassicScienceFiction Yahoo group].
Rating: A.
Winner of Hugo Award 1986 in novelette category.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1985 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Harlan Ellison.

Joe Haldeman's "More Than the Sum of His Parts" (short story, free): A man's transformation into a cyborg, then monster

This story is ... sort of ... a very abrupt attachment of John Varley's "Bagatelle" (download) to the middle of C L Moore's "No Woman Born".

A serious accident victim is saved by transforming him into a cyborg. He begins to like the new body parts. Then he starts enjoying his new found power too much, & quickly becomes a monster. Monster is easily disposed off, of course, by a techno-gimmick.

Caution: Bits of the story have explicit sex scenes, & describe male anatomy in some detail.

Fact sheet.

First published: Playboy, May 1985.
Download full text from Lightspeed.
Rating: B.

Hal Clement's "Blot" (novelette, first contact): When Asimovian robots failed to distinguish "human" from "robot"

While there are many stories featuring robots that don't follow any "laws", the ones that feature "laws" seem to be almost exclusively about Asimov's 3 laws. Besides "Blot", I can off-hand recall only 2 stories that have laws-following robots but laws aren't Asimov's:

1. One of Asimov's own Spacer novels where robots are tweaked to recognize only some people as human - I think by recognizing the accent of their voice.
2. Jack Williamson's "With Folded Hands" (download MP3): A single law is enough!

This story has a twist on Asimov's laws: "Human" is defined as anything sentient & biological. In fact, some of the robots are of alien origin. It's their confusion on first contact with humanity that makes them label women as "human" & men as "robots" (or was it based on dress color? It's been some months since I read this.) So killing men is fair game.

Story summary.

First human expedition to Miranda, one of the moons of Uranus, comes across alien artifacts & alien (but humanoid-looking) robots guarding/handling them. Humans' curiosity trying to figure out artifacts & nature of robots provides some excitement in the story, & near death of a crew member at the hands of a robot. But all ends well.

Fact sheet.

First published: Martin Greenberg (ed)'s "Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov: Foundation's Friends" (anthology, 1989).
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Hal Clement.

Reginald Bretnor's "Unknown Things" (short story, horror, free)

Andreas Hoogstraten is a rich & eccentric antique collector - he buys antiques he cannot figure out the purpose of, & spends time solving the puzzle of what they were meant for. Once he figures out the purpose, he destroys them! And many kinds of objects qualify as worth collecting for him, as the narrator & antique dealer will eventually find, to his horror...

Fact sheet.

First published: Twilight Zone magazine, February 1989.
Download full text.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Reginald Bretnor.

Arthur Clarke's interview with Ken Kelley for Playboy, July 1986

Link. [via Free SF Reader]

Interview spanned a fortnight the interviewer spent in Lanka.

1. From introduction to interview: "There are some places over the equator where the earth's gravity is so strong that satellites placed there don't need fuel, because they never drift out of position. It turns out that one of the most stable places on the planet is directly above the piece of property that Arthur bought in Sri Lanka. It makes you wonder where this man came from."
2. On Neil Armstrong's statement, "That's one small step for man, one giant step for mankind"?: 'I took him up on that statement afterward, because he dropped out the "A." It was supposed to be "That's one small step for a man." He just fluffed it. When I talked with him about it later, he said, "That's what I thought I said, and that's what I meant to say."'
3. "I write science fiction only about things I know are reasonably true, even though the extrapolations may not be known."
4. "I like to think of the monolith as a sort of cosmic Swiss army knife—it does whatever it wants to do."
5. On space elevators:
   
   "Is anything as outlandish as that even remotely possible?"
   
   "Almost anything you can imagine that's feasible that is likely to be done is going to happen."
6. 'In several of your books—Childhood's End comes to mind—you bring up the idea of "nonmaterial minds"——'
   
   'That comes from William Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men. He's a science-fiction writer from the Thirties who's most influenced all my writing, when you come down to it.'
7. "One of my problems now is that I'm not just a private citizen anymore. I have to keep up certain standards, or at least pretend to, so that I don't shock too many people."

Related: Stories of Arthur Clarke; from Playboy magazine.

Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 5 (1943)" (anthology): Annotated table of contents & review

This is #5 of a series of 25 anthologies by these editors. This book collects stories first published during the year 1943.

Where I'm aware of online copies, I provide download links. My rating is in brackets. Where I've a separate post on a the story, link on story title goes there. Link on author or publisher yields more of stories from the source.

Table of contents (12 stories, best first, unread last).

1. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (as by Lewis Padgett) (A); download HTML, or read online at scribd; Astounding, February 1943; generation gap: Cognitive processes impossible to adults can be taught to very young kids.
2. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Proud Robot" (as by Lewis Padgett) (A); Astounding, October 1943; humor: Hilarious story about a robot in love with itself. Touches on some contemporary themes - video use in a way that annoys content owners, DRM (yes - in a 1943 story! - but in a manner technologically irrelevant to current times), & frivolous patents.
3. [novelette] Fredric Brown's "Daymare" (A); Thrilling Wonder Stories, Fall 1943; murder mystery: Two murders in town - both of the same man! And both in impossible circumstances. Solving them uncovers a bigger conspiracy.
4. [novelette] Eric Frank Russell's "Symbiotica" (B); Astounding, October 1943: Travails of inadvertently nasty human adventurers on an alien planet where animal & plant life-forms live in a much closer symbiosis than on earth, & where plants can be very nasty once provoked.
5. [novelette] A E van Vogt's "The Storm" (B); download; Astounding, October 1943; space opera: Long drawn human/robot wars now show promise to end amicably.
6. [novella] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Clash by Night" (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) (B); read online (no download); Astounding, March 1943; war: Description of a war in a society where countries don't keep militaries, but hire the services of independent military companies for both attack & defense! Set on Venus.
7. [ss] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Iron Standard" (as by Lewis Padgett) (B); Astounding, December 1943: When "man hour standard" replaced "gold standard" for currency valuations.
8. [ss] Edmond Hamilton's "Exile" (B); Super Science Stories, May 1943: When a science fiction writer had to live in the world he had imagined in a story!
9. [novelette] P Schuyler Miller's "The Cave"; Astounding, January 1943: Not read.
10. [novelette] Leigh Brackett's "The Halfling"; Astonishing Stories, February 1943: Not read.
11. [ss] Anthony Boucher's "Q.U.R."; Astounding, March 1943: Not read.
12. [ss] C L Moore's "Doorway into Time"; Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September 1943: Not read.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1981 (DAW).
Relevant entries have been added to the list of stories from John Campbell's Astounding.
Some of the bibliographical information here comes from ISFDB.
Legend: ss = short story.

Anil Aggarwal's "The Mysterious Old Man" (short story, forensic mystery, free)

An old man demonstrates a "trick" at a party: just by dipping his right hand fingers in a glass of room-temperature water, he can bring the water to a boil!

A forensic doctor present during the demonstration gets curious, & ends up unraveling the cause of a kind of death that has mystified doctors since antiquity.

Fact sheet.

First published: Spandan, 1989-1990. (Is the online copy a translation from Hindi?)
Rating: B.
Download full text from author's site. (Is it a translation from Hindi?)
Related: Stories of Anil Aggarwal.

Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 19 (1957)" (anthology): Annotated table of contents & review

This is #19 of a series of 25 anthologies by these editors. This book collects stories first published during the year 1957.

Where I'm aware of online copies, I provide download links. My rating is in brackets. Where I've a separate post on a the story, link on story title goes there. Link on author or publisher yields more of stories from the source.

Table of contents (15 stories, best first, unread last).

Among the 7 stories I've read so far, first 3 are very good. And "The Cage" has a cool idea near end.

1. [novelette] Poul Anderson's "Call Me Joe" (A); download audio or comic book adaptation; Astounding, April 1957: Human operator (via directly linked mind-to-mind interface) of an artificial animal adapted to live on Jupiter's "surface" becomes one with him, & would rather live in that healthy body on Jupiter rather than in his own withered human body.
2. [novelette] H Beam Piper's "Omnilingual" (A); download text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, or Feedbooks, or audio from LibriVox; Astounding, February 1957: A universal rosetta stone to decode the writings of a long dead civilization known to be at about our level of technological ability.
3. [ss] C M Kornbluth's "The Education of Tigress McCardle" (A); Venture Science Fiction, July 1957; humor: An unusual population control program!
4. [ss] Isaac Asimov's "Strikebreaker" aka "Male Strikebreaker"; Science Fiction Stories, January 1957: I'd read a long time back. Not sure, but I think it's something about a society treating sanitary workers as untouchables, who've a gone on a strike. A visitor breaks the strike by either talking to untouchables or doing their work, & himself becomes untouchable by doing this act.
5. [ss] A Bertram Chandler's "The Cage" (A); F&SF, June 1957: A shorter version of Pierre Boulle's "Planet of the Apes".
   
   The Crotchety Old Fan gives a hint on how to find the audio of an (unofficial) radio adaptation of this story online.
6. [ss] Brian W Aldiss' "Let's Be Frank" (B); download; Science-Fantasy, #23 (June 1957): How humanity became a hive intelligence.
7. [ss] C M Kornbluth's The Last Man Left in the Bar (C); Infinity Science Fiction, October 1957: Trivia in a bar.
8. [ss] Kate Wilhelm's "The Mile-Long Spaceship"; Astounding, April 1957: Not read.
9. [ss] Theodore R Cogswell's "You Know Willie"; F&SF, May 1957: Not read.
10. [ss] Carol Emshwiller's "Hunting Machine"; Science Fiction Stories, May 1957: Not read.
    
11. [ss] Robert Silverberg's "World of a Thousand Colors"; Super-Science Fiction, June 1957: Not read.
12. [novella] Lloyd Biggle, Jr's "The Tunesmith"; If, August 1957: Not read.
    
13. [ss] Isaac Asimov's "A Loint of Paw"; F&SF, August 1957: Not read.
14. [ss] Rog Phillips' "Game Preserve"; If, October 1957: Not read.
15. [novelette] Harlan Ellison's "Soldier" aka "Soldier from Tomorrow"; Fantastic Universe, October 1957: Not read.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1989 (DAW).
Relevant entries have been added to the list of stories from John Campbell's Astounding.
Some of the bibliographical information here comes from ISFDB.
Legend: ss = short story.

Spider Robinson's "Melancholy Elephants" (short story, copyrights, free)

What if current copyright law that gives owners rights for a finite number of years were to be extended to them & their heirs in perpetuity?

Story argues that much human creativity is actually discovery rather than creation; in fact, it is often a rediscovery. As population rises, years pass, & a bigger percentage of population joins the creators category, rediscovery is going to be even more important. Perpetual copyright bans rediscovery, & is bad for the psychic health of individuals.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, June 1982.
Rating: A.
Download full text from author's site or from Baen Books.
Winner of Hugo Award 1983 in short story category.

Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 6 (1944)" (anthology): Annotated table of contents & review

This is #6 of a series of 25 anthologies by these editors. This book collects stories first published during the year 1944.

Many famous stories here, but few superlative ones. All but one are from Astounding.

Not many stories seem to be online. Where I'm aware of online copies, I provide download links.

My rating is in brackets. Where I've a separate post on a the story, link on story title goes there. Link on a noun yields more of related stories.

Table of contents (13 stories, best first, unread last).

1. [novelette] C L Moore's "No Woman Born" (A); Astounding, December 1944: A fire victim gets a new metallic body but with her own brain, & is determined to get accepted in this form by society.
   
   Among the defining cyborg stories.
2. [ss] John R Pierce's "Invariant" (A); Astounding, April 1944: Serious consequences of rejuvenation treatment.
3. [ss] Lester del Rey's "Kindness" (A); Astounding, October 1944: A mutation has diverged humanity into supers & normal - normals dying out over time. This is the story of the last normal - his extreme discomfort in a society where he's too dumb compared to everyone else.
4. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "When the Bough Breaks" (as by Lewis Padgett) (B); Astounding, November 1944; generation gap: A variation on "Mimsy Were the Borogoves", with some darker shades of "Absalom" mixed in. A baby is a superman - the first of the new race "homo superior", causing much anguish & heartburn in his parents.
5. [ss] Clifford D Simak's "Desertion" (B); Astounding, November 1944: Earth-natives transformed into a Jovian body (by a magical machine) to help colonize the "surface" of Jupiter end up prefering their Jovian body to the original!
6. [ss] Fritz Leiber's "Sanity" (B); Astounding, April 1944: The idea of human sanity depends on what the society considers "normal".
7. [novelette] Fredric Brown's "Arena" (B); download text or comic book adaptation; Astounding, June 1944: In a war between humans & aliens, god-like aliens intervene to ensure a decisive conclusion.
8. [novella] Theodore Sturgeon's "Killdozer!" (B); Astounding, November 1944: An evil spirit buried by an ancient lost civilization is awakened in a Pacific island at the site of an airport construction project, & has possessed a bulldozer - a bulldozer with only one purpose: kill all humans at the site!
9. [ss] Clifford D Simak's "Huddling Place" (B); Astounding, July 1944: In a society where people live in countryside rather than cities, a man has developed an extreme phobia of open spaces.
10. [ss] A E van Vogt's "Far Centaurus"; Astounding, January 1944: Not read.
    
11. [novelette] Cleve Cartmill's "Deadline"; Astounding, March 1944: Not read.
    
12. [novelette] Leigh Brackett's "The Veil of Astellar"; Thrilling Wonder Stories, Spring 1944: Not read.
    
13. [novelette] Clifford D Simak's "City"; Astounding, May 1944: Not read.
    

Fact sheet.

First published: August 1981 (DAW).
Relevant entries have been added to the list of stories from John Campbell's Astounding.
Some of the bibliographical information here comes from ISFDB.
Legend: ss = short story.

John Varley's "Press Enter _" (novella, AI): Lifestyle of a computer hacker & criminal

Varley seems to specialize in horror that is accessible to people who don't have a taste for the gory! How many other authors can write almost fun stories that are clearly horror?

Caution: This story has some sex scenes.

Story summary.

Charles Kluge, a recluse, appears to have committed suicide & left his property to Victor Apfel, a neighbor (& the narrator) he barely knew. Forensic investigation of the vast computer installations at his home will reveal the lifestyle of a super-programmer & a super-criminal.

Through the investigation, we'll see two more apparent suicides: of Detective Osborne, the cop investigating the case, & Lisa Foo, the woman doing the forensic investigation of Charles' machines & software. And Victor will be left an absolutely frightened & broken man.

You see, while having his hacking fun, Charles had stumbled upon a piece of software running on NSA's computers. We never learn the true nature of this software beast, but get enough indications that it's an AI run amok, that it exists without the knowledge of NSA, & that it is the real murderer of the 3!

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, May 1984.
Rating: A.
Winner of Hugo Award 1985 in novella category.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1984 in novella category.
Related: Stories of John Varley.

John Varley's "The Pusher" (short story, time dilation): This pedophile is no pedophile

Ian Haise, a spaceman, appears to be behaving like a pedophile - trapping a little girl in a children's playground. Towards the end we will learn his true intentions are honorable enough & that he's no monster; he's only looking for ...

See also.

1. James Blish's "Common Time": While the plot is totally different, this is the only other story I've read that is primarily about the weird behavior of time as travel speed increases sufficiently.

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, October 1981.
Rating: A.
Winner of Hugo Award 1982 in short story category.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1981 in short story category.
Related: Stories of John Varley.

J G Ballard's "The Autobiography of J.G.B." aka "The Secret Autobiography of J. G. B******" (short story, apocalypse, free)

It didn't really make sense to me, but well ... it's Ballard.

Story summary.

One fine morning, "B" woke up to strange quiet. Much of the story is of his discovery that the population of at least England & France (& perhaps the world) has mysteriously vanished without a trace (save himself)!

Fact sheet.

First published: First published: "in French in Etoile Mecanique, July 1981-March 1982" (under what title?) First English appearance in "Ambit, #96, Spring 1984".
This post is based on the English reprint that appeared online in The New Yorker, 11 May 2009, under the title "The Autobiography of J.G.B." This form of title seems to have been used for the first time by The New Yorker, which also doesn't acknowledge any previous publication.
Rating: C.
Download full text from The New Yorker.
Related: Stories of J G Ballard; doomsday fiction.

Lois McMaster Bujold's "The Mountains of Mourning" (novella, free): Fighting infanticide

This is the first time I've picked up a story based on an author's suggestion. And what a story! Blew me away. Download link is also courtesy of author; thanks Lois.

This is a very realistic story too. Many of the arguments from both sides are familiar, though the solutions (severe legal penalty + education) have had only a marginal success in India - instead of infanticide, we now have selective abortions based on prenatal tests (which again are illegal in combination when intent can be proven, but ...)! Real underlying issues tend to be very deep rooted in India - the marriage customs; other affected societies will probably have something equally deep rooted.

It also makes a very light read, for something that address such a dark subject.

Story summary.

Harra Csurik has approached authorities for justice: her little baby daughter Raina has been murdered, & she suspects by her husband Lem Csurik. Because the baby was a mutant, something rather common & shameful on this world - though it often doesn't affect the individual's ability to be a useful member of society, at least not anymore. Her village authorities are more interested in brushing the thing under the carpet because it's such a common local custom; so she has appealed to higher ups.

Miles Vorkosigan, a 20 year old super-smart aristocrat, gets assigned to the case. He will investigate & be the judge.

Miles himself has a development deficiency because his mother was poisoned when carrying him - a condition others equate to being a mutant. This condition of his will have a role in the story.

What the investigation unfolds is something far more sinister than what the petitioner was suspecting...

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, May 1989.
Rating: A.
Download full text in multiple formats, or purchase hardcopy, from WebScription.
Nebula Award 1989 winner in novella category.
Hugo Award 1990 winner in novella category.

Avram Davidson's "Dr Bhumbo Singh" (short story, humor)

Sick of paying maintenance to his divorced wife, Underhand Effendi has contracted Dr Bhumbo Singh - proprietor of an expensive shop that sells "spells, smells, & shrunken heads" - to prepare him a smell so vile it drives anyone around mad!

With the help of his wife's domestic help, he will smuggle the little bottle of smelly concoction in her kitchen, with very desirable results.

But the fate is conniving against Underhand too...

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, October 1982.
Rating: A.

Guillermo Martínez's "Vast Hell" (short story, non-genre, free): This little town loves gossip

Among the best I've seen so far from The New Yorker.

Story summary.

When the stranger pitched his tent outside the little town of Puente Viejo, & began visiting the barber Cerviño's shop everyday - the same Cerviño with the enigmatic wife known as "French Woman", it set the tongues wagging - about his affair with the "French Woman".

Then, one fine day, both disappear - stranger & "French Woman". There is talk of possible murder. Some people keep looking for bodies. What they finally find is far worse than anyone suspected.

Fact sheet.

First published: Probably as part of author's Spanish collection Infierno Grande (1989). At least this collection's title is translated to English as "Vast Hell". English translation by Alberto Manguel at The New Yorker, 27 April 2009.
Rating: A.
Download English translation by Alberto Manguel from The New Yorker.

Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 16 (1954)" (anthology): Annotated table of contents & review

This is #16 of a series of 25 anthologies by these editors. This book collects stories first published during the year 1954.

I haven't read many stories yet; will update as I move through the book. Where I'm aware of online copies of stories, I provide download links. My rating is in brackets. Where I've a separate post on a the story, link on story title goes there. Link on a noun yields more of related stories.

Table of contents (17 stories, best first, unread last).

1. [novelette] Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" (A); download text/MP3; Astounding, August 1954: An innocent girl is to be executed due to apathy of administration (according to author, due to nature's laws, but that's not how it comes across in the story). Intensely emotional.
2. [ss] Arthur C Clarke's "The Deep Range" (A); Argosy (UK), April 1954: I haven't read this short story version, only its 1957 novelization. Among the better Clarke novels in my book. Novel is about taking agriculture to the seas - mostly raising whales as meat animals, but there are also other minor threads.
3. [novelette] William Tenn's "Down Among the Dead Men" (A); Galaxy, June 1954: A team leader builds a team out of hostile recruits.
4. [ff] Fredric Brown's "Answer"; download; Fredric Brown (Ed)'s "Angels and Spaceships" (anthology); humor: It's not safe to invent god!
5. [ss] Mildred Clingerman's "Letters from Laura" (A); F&SF, October 1954; humor: A woman buys a time-travel tour to ancient Crete.
6. [novelette] Alfred Bester's "Fondly Fahrenheit" (B); F&SF, August 1954: A man has the ability to unconsciously transplant his own violent nature to his robots, making robots violence prone.
   TBD: I appear to have originally rated it C. At this time distance, I seem to think a bit better of it. Will touch old posts later.
7. [ss] Chad Oliver's "Transformer" (B); download; F&SF, November 1954: Anguish of a toy at manhandling she receives at the hands of her human kid owner!
   
8. [ss] Richard Matheson's "The Test"; F&SF, November 1954: Not read.
   
9. [ss] Damon Knight's "Anachron"; If, January 1954: Not read.
10. [ss] Gordon R Dickson's "Black Charlie"; Galaxy, April 1954: Not read.
11. [novelette] Randall Garrett's "The Hunting Lodge"; Astounding, July 1954: Not read.
12. [ss] Donald A Wollheim's "The Lysenko Maze"; F&SF, July 1954: Not read.
13. [novelette] Edgar Pangborn's "The Music Master of Babylon"; Galaxy, November 1954: Not read.
14. [novelette] Algis Budrys' "The End of Summer"; Astounding, November 1954: Not read.
15. [ss] Philip K Dick's "The Father-Thing"; F&SF, December 1954: Not read.
16. [ss] Anthony Boucher's "Balaam": Not read.
17. [ss] H L Gold's "Man of Parts": Not read.

Fact sheet.

First published: August 1987 (DAW).
Relevant entries have been added to the list of stories from John Campbell's Astounding.
Some of the bibliographical information here comes from ISFDB.
Legend: ss = short story; ff = flash fiction.

Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 18 (1956)" (anthology): Annotated table of contents & review

This is #18 of a series of 25 anthologies by these editors. This book collects stories first published during the year 1956.

I haven't read many stories yet; will update as I move through the book. Where I'm aware of online copies of stories, I provide download links. My rating is in brackets. Where I've a separate post on a the story, link on story title goes there. Link on a noun yields more of related stories.

Table of contents (15 stories, best first, unread last).

1. [ss] Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question" (A); download; Science Fiction Quarterly, November 1956: An AI is given a rather fundamental problem - figure out a way to reverse entropy without expanding energy!
2. [novelette] Mark Clifton's "Clerical Error" (A); download; Astounding, February 1956: In a society that doesn't value innovation, a man inflicted with demons formed by an understanding of the nature of his society & his upbringing is cured by a kind psychiatrist.
3. [novelette] Murray Leinster's "Exploration Team" aka "Combat Team" (A); download; Astounding, March 1956; adventure: A rebel helps tame a dangerous world. Winner of Hugo Award 1957 in novelette category.
4. [ss] Algis Budrys' "Silent Brother" (A); Astounding, February 1956; symbiosis: First human expedition to Alpha Centauri has returned with an unusual gift...
5. [novelette] Alan E Nourse's "Brightside Crossing" (A); Galaxy, January 1956; adventure: An unsuccessful trek over the "sun-facing" side of Mercury at the time that planet is closest to Sun.
   PS: It's now known that Mercury is not tidally locked to Sun. But it's a good adventure anyway.
6. [ss] Damon Knight's "The Country of the Kind" (C); F&SF, February 1956; fantasy: A peaceful society boycotts a man prone to violence.
   
7. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Rite of Passage"; F&SF, May 1956: Not read.
8. [novelette] Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Came Early"; F&SF, June 1956: Not read.
9. [novelette] James Blish's "A Work of Art"; Science Fiction Stories, July 1956: Not read.
10. [ss] Margaret St Clair's "Horrer Howce"; Galaxy, July 1956: Not read.
11. [ss] Mack Reynolds' "Compounded Interest"; F&SF, August 1956: Not read.
12. [ss] Reginald Bretnor's "The Doorstop"; Astounding, November 1956: Not read.
13. [novelette] Damon Knight's "Stranger Station"; F&SF, December 1956: Not read.
14. [ss] Michael Shaara's "2066: Election Day"; Astounding, December 1956: Not read.
15. [novelette] Theodore Sturgeon's "And Now the News..."; F&SF, December 1956: Not read.
    PS: I recall having seen it online, & probably have it saved on hard disk. But don't have URL off hand. Try a Google search.

Fact sheet.

First published: August 1988 (DAW).
Relevant entries have been added to the list of stories from John Campbell's Astounding.
Some of the bibliographical information here comes from ISFDB.

David Brin's "The Crystal Spheres" (short story, first contact, free): An answer to Fermi's Paradox

This story is high on imagination & low on logic. Didn't really work for me, but it's a Hugo winner.

Story has a lot of irrelevant invented compound words that may irritate or appear exotic, depending on taste. I got irritated.

Story summary.

If the universe is teeming with intelligent life, why haven't we met aliens? Brin's answer is close to intelligent design of the universe, but leaves the possibility open of a remote physical explanation.

You see - each solar system is enclosed in a kind of physical container - a crystal sphere. I guess that would make the container may be a light year in radius & centered at the star. This is some sort of invisible barrier with special properties.

Crossing the sphere requires breaking it. And it cannot be broken from outside, but can be from inside provided the impact is powerful enough. Like if a local world develops life, that life gets intelligent, & sets out to stars - their first ship will eventually get destroyed by hitting this invisible barrier, but will also break the barrier for later ships! Ditto for signals - local signals can get out, but external signals cannot get in till the barrier is broken. It's a kind of cocoon protecting any local life of each star from outside interference till locals are ready.

An anomaly I couldn't resolve: a ship hits the sphere from inside & breaks it. The sensible thing will be some sort of local break in the sphere - not the whole sphere shattered! Means subsequent ships from inside should find it extremely tough to locate the break; odds of anyone from outside locating the break ought to be near zero!

There is more in the story.

1. Comets etc are but Shards of the broken sphere, or absorbed material from external attempts to enter the sphere!
2. When we reach a broken sphere & investigate its solar system, what we find is signs of abandoned civilization - their world is ours for the taking. You see - the intelligent aliens looking for other intelligent life eventually get so desperate they abandon their own worlds to "sleep at the edge of their timestretched black hole", waiting for other aliens to come join them later!

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, January 1984.
Rating: B.
Download full text. [via Best Science Fiction Stories]
Winner of 1985 Hugo Award in short story category.
Related: Stories of David Brin.

Online movie: Michael Radford's "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

Streaming at Free Movies & Documentaries.

Michael Radford is the director. Movie was originally released in 1984.

Based on George Orwell's well known novel of the same name.

Disclaimer: I've not seen the movie yet, though I'd read the dystopic novel long back. I think this novel that coined the phrase "big brother".

[via QuasarDragon]

James A Michener's "Space" (novel), Chapter 2: "Four Women" (part 2 of 2)

Context: novel main page; part 1 of this chapter.

This is the story US taking charge of the spoils of war: German engineers transferred to US as prisoners, along with German weapons design documents & actual physical missile hardware. Initially to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas; later to Huntsville, Alabama, where they will begin settling down.

A lot of text is devoted to prisoners' hardships because (apart from their status as prisoners):

1. They were brought without any documentation but 'With the knowledge of the President.' To get the paperwork straightened, they will eventually be driven in a bus to Mexico without exit formalities, & immediately reenter on temporary permits - to be regularized in 3 months!
2. Their wives are still in Germany. This will let the story wander for a while over ruined Germany immediately after war - a lot of broken families & misery.

This part will also see the beginning of US Army's interest in German missiles. Initial tests are with looted hardware. Original US work begins in ch 3 - that's past 1950.

There are 6 major characters that we'll likely see more of in later chapters:

1. Prof Stanley Mott & his wife Rachel Lindquist. We meet Rachel for the first time in this chapter. We're also told Mott is "a genius in aviation" & "he wasn’t a real professor, only an assistant". The couple will help German prisoners settle down.
2. Dieter Kolff, the brilliant German mechanical genius captured in ch 1, & his wife Liesl Koenig. We met both in ch 1; here they will be reunited after much drama.
3. General Helmut Funkhauser, one of the more brutal Hitler men we met in ch 1, & among the prisoners. He will be a man to reckon with in US aviation industry by the end of this chapter - "a troubleshooter for Allied Aviation, specializing in their rocket and space ventures".
4. von Braun, the brilliant German ideas man whose fate was indeterminate at the end of ch 1 is among the prisoners.

There are two male babies born among them, first of which will have a distracting role in next chapter: Millard of Motts & Magnus of Kolffs.

Notes.

1. Union of Dieter & Liesl drags on for a while because she doesn't have marriage papers. "Marriage papers"! Sounds weird in India where hardly anyone has marriage papers. In fact, court registration is looked down upon & signifies rebellion.
2. Once US Army decides to get into rockets in a big way, they choose Huntsville, Alabama, for building their big facility.
   
   "Why there?"
   
   "Because Senator John Sparkman lives in Huntsville."
   
   I thought this happened only in India!
   

Quotes.

1. "Hitler appreciated me for the same reason your people do. I can fix rockets, that's all."
2. "We are all Americans now, even General Funkhauser, and I want to hear no more about the past... Now we must occupy ourselves with other matters."

Related.

1. Novel main post.
2. All posts about this novel on a single page.
3. Feed that collects only posts about this novel.