Robert A Heinlein's "Double Star" (novel, politics): When an imposter became the ruler

This is a fast paced action story with a lot of election politics. I didn't like it as much as I wanted to because at some places the world view is too provincially Western; the thing that irritated me most was a small passage on the classification of world's languages - confidently told & totally bogus.

Story summary.

Here is a solar Empire spanning many worlds, dominated by humans though there are aliens on other worlds. It's a monarchy similar to British one - emperor is supreme but is a rubberstamp, & sits in a city on the moon. The parliament has the power & is elected; aliens can vote but must choose a human representative. Head of government is the "Supreme Minister", probably majority leader in Parliament.

Current ruling party has arranged the kidnapping of the leader of opposition at a time where he's absolutely required to be present at a Martian ceremony. So his underlings will recruit an actor, Lawrence Smith aka Lorenzo Smythe, to act as an imposter at the function. One thing will lead to another & new situations will keep coming up & the imposter will end up becoming the politician he's impersonating.

The story is, first & foremost, the character study of this actor, & evolution of his personality.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, Feb/Mar/Apr 1956.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Winner of Hugo Award 1957 in novel category.
Related: Stories of Robert Heinlein.

Hugo awards 2013 winners

[via Twitter]. All stories originally published during 2012.

1. [ss] Ken Liu's "Mono No Aware"; download: A Japanese town reacts in a very orderly manner to news that earth is soon to be destroyed by an asteroid impact.
2. [novelette] Pat Cadigan's "The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi".
3. [novella] Brandon Sanderson's "The Emperor's Soul".
4. [novel] John Scalzi's "Redshirts".

And among friends, SF Signal gets it for "Best Fanzine".

For other categories, see the twitter feed.

Related: Past & current nominees & winners.

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.

Joe Haldeman's "None So Blind" (short story, superman, free): Redeploying the human visual cortex

This very amusing story has its technological parts premised on this: if more than a third of human brain is devoted to dealing with visual signals from the eyes, why aren't the blind people geniuses as a rule (since this much brain capacity is lying "unused" in them)?

That leads to actual technology that lets a surgeon tinker with the optic nerves to help brain rewire itself - so we get intellectual supermen off the operating table!

See also.

1. John Wyndham's "The Day of the Triffids": Is based on the antithesis: however big a brain, without eyes, it's not much use. If most of the world were to go blind suddenly, our large brains won't save us from even small-brained menaces.

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, November 1994.
Download full text from one of the author's sites. [via an anonymous visitor of Variety SF]
Rating: A.
Winner of Hugo Award 1995 in short story category.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1995 in short story category.
Related: Stories of Joe Haldeman.

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.

John Varley's "The Persistence of Vision" (novella, utopia, free): Physical misfits create a society where they're the norm

While there are multiple themes here, a substantial part of the story is devoted to language & communications. Say no one had eyes & ears. How would you communicate?

Ending is very abrupt & arbitrary.

Caution: Story includes some sexually explicit scenes.

Story summary.

An epidemic ("German measles, or rubella") left some 5000 children born blind & deaf in its wake. Society is generally caring - in its own way, but they'll always be misfits, & objects of pity. On reaching adulthood, a few dozen of them set out to build a community custom-built for them; one where being deaf & blind is the natural state of being.

Story is the description of their commune, seen from the eyes of a drifter who'll be a drifter no more.

Quotes.

1. "To protest, one must be aware of the possibility of something better. It helps to have a language, too."
2. "nothing is moral always, & anything is moral under the right circumstances."
3. "Why is it that once having decided what I must do, I'm afraid to reexamine my decision? Maybe because the original decision cost me so much that I didn't want to go through it again."

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, March 1978.
Download MP3 podcast of the story, read by Spider Robinson. [via Boing Boing]
Note: I've'nt personally heard this MP3; I've only read the original text version.
Rating: A.
Winner of Hugo Award 1979 in novella category.
Winner of Nebula Award 1978 in novella category.
Related: Stories of John Varley.

Peter Watts' "The Island" (novelette, space opera, free): Life cannot be peaceful

I liked the punchline - about the motives of the alien. But most of it is a dark, though readable, cocktail of familiar tropes.

Caution:  Most Watts' fiction, including this story, liberally use swear words.

Story summary.

Life of an alien, in the shape of an enormous thin membrane fully enclosing its star, is threatened because a human ship going to lay a wormhole close to it. It will persuade the humans to lay it a little away, at safe coordinates it specifies, instead. Humans will learn its motives too late...

Much of the conflict in the story is, however, between the unnamed woman narrator aboard the ship, & the AI running the ship. AI has become mad, somewhat in the sense of HAL, from Arthur Clarke's "2001 A Space Odyssey".

Collected in.

1. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection" (2010, anthology).
2. David G Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Eds)' "Year's Best SF 15" (2010, anthology).
3. Rich Horton (ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2010 Edition" (anthology).
4. Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year", Volume 4 (2010, anthology).

Fact sheet.

First published: Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (eds)' "The New Space Opera 2" (2009).
Download full text from author's site.
Read online at publisher's site.
Listen to audio as par of a longer podcast at StarShipSofa.
Rating: B.
Winner of Hugo award 2010 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Peter Watts.

Ursula K Le Guin's "The Word For World is Forest" (novella): Natives throw out ruthless & evil colonists

I'll put it among the essential reads of science fiction on colonialism.

In some sense, this is yet another precursor to Hollywood movie "Avatar". While Alan Dean Foster's "Midworld", often cited as the prototype after which Avatar is modeled, focuses more on world building, Le Guin's version has a more strongly demarcated conflict: human colonists ("yumens" to natives) are far more evil, natives (derisively called "creechies" by colonists) are able to repel them by themselves - making the reader root more strongly for the natives.

Story summary.

Colonists from earth want wood from the forest world of Athshe ("New Tahiti" to colonists). So they set about razing the local forests, destroying native cities & villages inside the
forest. There is general genocide of natives, taking some as slaves, routine rapes of their
women.

Natives finally wake up via the hero, Selver. He & his wife were taken slave, his wife
raped & killed by Captain Don Davidson - official villain & personification of the ultimate evil. From this point on, the days of humans on this world are numbered, with Selver organizing & leading the local military raids against colonist camps.

Another individual that is sketched in some detail is colonists' anthropologist, Captain Raj Lyubov - the "good" human.

Quotes.

1. "The world is always new, however old its roots."
2. "For four years they've behaved to us as they do to one another. Despite the physical differences, they recognized us as members of their species, as men. However, we have not responded as members of their species should respond... We have killed, raped, dispersed, & enslaved the native humans, destroyed their communities, and & down their forests. It wouldn't be surprising if they'd decided that we are not human."
   
   "And therefore can be killed, like animals".
   
3. "The Athshean word for world is also the word for forest."
   "Athshe, which meant the Forest, & the World."
   
   This is where the title comes from.

Fact sheet.

First published: Harlan Ellison (ed)'s "Again, Dangerous Visions" (anthology, 1972).
Rating: A.
Winner of Hugo award 1973 in novella category.
Nominated for Nebula Award 1972 in novella category.
Related: Stories of Ursula K Le Guin.

Hugo Awards 2009 winners announced

Official Anticipation announcement. My congratulations to all the winners.
Update 11 August 2009: Final ballot numbers are also available now.

Links below on category fetches all nominees in category, ranked on my preference. I got only ss right, though novella nominee was my second. And novelette winner happened to be my last preference! Among the novels, I'd read only one & that's not the winner.

Link on author's, editor's, or publisher's name fetches more fiction from source. Link on story goes to my post on it, if there is one. Download links fetch the actual story.

1. short story: Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" (A); download text/MP3; Jonathan Strahan (Ed)'s "Eclipse Two: New Science Fiction and Fantasy"; entropy: A "man"'s quest for knowledge in an unusual universe reveals something unexpected & alarming. Included in my best of the year 2008 list.
2. Novelette: Elizabeth Bear's "Shoggoths in Bloom" (B); download text or audio; Asimov's, March 2008: In 1938, a US man has stumbled upon a still-living sea-based bioslave artificially engineered by a lost civilization dating from pre-dinosaur age!! He's going to use it against Germans in the coming war.
   
   Story has parts dealing with black man, white man issues that readers outside US may not find interesting. They also happen to be irrelevant to the story.
3. Novella: Nancy Kress' "The Erdmann Nexus" (A); download; Asimov's, October/November 2008; mysticism: Next evolution in human consciousness has made some people eligible to joint some sort of cosmic uber-consciousness. Story has strong Hindu influences.
4. Novel: Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book"; video of author's reading of the book; HarperCollins, Bloomsbury UK: Not read.

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.

Nancy Kress' "The Erdmann Nexus" (novella, mysticism, free): Next stage in human evolution is the last one

Whether it is seen as a mystic story probably depends on where you grew up. Indian readers will see unmistakable mysticism here.

Concept is very similar to later parts of Arthur Clarke's "Childhood's End"; & both stories are essentially the same as a major religious doctrine of Hinduism. Let's compare the three:

1. One of the major beliefs of Hinduism is: there exists some sort of omnipotent universal consciousness, & the ultimate purpose of life is for our existence to merge into this universal entity.
   
   Universal entity goes by many names depending on sect & locale, but brahm is a not uncommon name. The process of the merger of ... shall we say soul ... of a being with brahm is called moksha.
   
   Different sects preach their own ideas of good conduct that will let you achieve moksha. Sinners keep getting reincarnated - usually in a non-human body - till they ultimately attain moksha. Depending on sect, moksha can only be achieved from human body, or from incarnation as any animal.
   
   I've another note on the subject at the end of my "Childhood's End" post too, including a further link.
2. Clarke's story renames brahm as "Overmind". And eligibility for merger with Overmind is not righteous conduct but a fast-spreading mutation that makes small human children eligible.
3. Kress' story renames brahm as "the ship". Longer life spans have swelled the number of old people the world over. One fine day, the count of people over 80 years of age exceeds a critical limit, & a telepathic gestalt of these oldies is born. They're the ones whose consciousness is eligible for merger with "the ship"'s consciousness.

Title comes from the name of a central character - Henry Erdmann, one of the old people affected & among the first to recognize the birth of gestalt.

Collected in.

1. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection" (2009).
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, October/November 2008.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Winner of Hugo Award 2009 in novella category.
Related: Stories of Nancy Kress; religious science 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.

Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" (short story, entropy, free)

I've a feeling this is going to get listed among the all-time best of science fiction.

Story summary.

In an unusual universe, a curious "man", who's also the narrator & an "anatomist", builds a contraption to dissect his own brain! One thing leads to another, & he learns not only how his brain works but that his universe is dying. And that every universe must eventually die.

Explaining the title will spoil some fun; so I refrain from doing it.

Notes.

1. Couple of paragraphs in later parts of the story reminded me of Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves".
2. Hal Clement's "Answer": A man's efforts to understand how his brain works result in more success than is healthy!
   This story has been on my "to post" list for a while; might do one of these days.

Collected in.

1. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "Year's Best SF 14".
2. Jonathan Strahan (Ed)'s "Best SF and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 3".

Fact sheet.

First published: Jonathan Strahan (Ed)'s "Eclipse Two: New Science Fiction and Fantasy".
Rating: A.
Download full text in multiple formats from Night Shade Books; or MP3 audio from StarShipSofa.
Added to my "best of the year 2008" picks.
Winner of Hugo Award 2009 in short story category.
Nominated for BSFA Award 2009 in short fiction category.
Related: Stories of Ted Chiang; Apocalypse fiction.

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.

Isaac Asimov's "Gold" (novelette, free): Asimov's own fanfic!

This story is actually about two other stories: William Shakespeare's play "King Lear", & Asimov's own novel "The Gods Themselves". About half the text devoted to each. Jonas Willard is the director filming them (makes "compu-drama" - some sort of computer animation). An author named Gregory Laborian fills in the role of Asimov.

Reader's familiarity with those stories will likely affect reaction.

I'd not read "King Lear"; found this part boring.

While "The Gods Themselves" is among the better novels of Asimov, it's an unusual one. I'd read it years ago, & found this part the story easy to follow. Not boring, but not great either.

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, September 1991.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Webscription. [via Free Speculative Fiction Online & Best Science Fiction Stories].
Winner of Hugo Award 1992 in novelette category.

Related.

1. Stories/feed of Asimov.
2. Stories/feed of Analog/Astounding.
3. Hugo Award winning stories/feed.

Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God" (novelette, religion, free): What if Biblical Heaven/Hell/angels/souls were literally perceptible to humans?

Among the better stories of Chiang. And quite accessible to even those with a very minimal exposure to Christianity, even though its motifs are from Bible (I think).

It was tempting to compare this story with Roger Zelazny's famous "Lord of Light", the other story I know of on a generally similar theme, but the two are really very different. Zelazny's, based on Hindu motifs, has conmen & powerful posing as gods to the gullible & weak. Also Zelazny's story is from the point of view of gods - their in-fighting. Chiang's is a human story - Biblical magic from the perspective of humans, & a somewhat rational exploration of the idea of "devotion". Or rather, "Biblical devotion"; "devotion" or its equivalents tend to be seen differently among different religions.

Story summary.

Imagine a world where angels routinely visit earth. Where/when an angelical visit commences/terminates is unpredictable. Which angel visits when is unpredictable. Humans can experience the entire visit, & also see & identify the angel. Each visitation results in a few "miracles" - some people getting cured of a deformity or disease or something. But more importantly, each visit brings with it a major catastrophe - lots of people die or lose limbs during a visit. Some damage is due to earthquakes & fires the visitation creates, other due to traffic accidents when an angels suddenly manifests near a driver.

For a short moment, during commencement & termination of an angelical visit, "Heaven's light" penetrates down to earth. Seeing it nearly always destroys your eyes & visual apparatus, brainwashes you to eternal unquestioning devotion to god, & is believed to ensure that you will go to Heaven after death. It's the last part that makes a lot of people chase visiting angels around for a glimpse of this light at termination of angelical visit - even though it's more likely to kill you than give salvation. At the end of the story, we will see a case of access denied to Heaven even after seeing this light; that's the context in which my quote above appears: "God is not just, God is not kind, God is not merciful, and understanding that is essential to true devotion."

At the time someone dies, if you happen to be nearby, you can actually see with your own eyes the "soul" ascending upward to Heaven, or descending down to Hell.

Hell also makes itself manifest sometimes. Ground in your neighborhood becomes transparent, & you can see the Hell-dwellers down below. As far as anyone can see, Hell-dwellers are no worse than those on the "mortal plane".

We don't meet God throughout the story; He's described only indirectly. And He's not "aware" of the Hell (or is it just Hell's inhabitants?); that seems to be the only drawback to hell compared to Heaven - reason many people don't really care about need to avoid Hell.

This is the story of Neil Fisk, a man with a physical deformity in a leg since birth. Neil doesn't much care about God. His beloved wife Sarah died as part of collateral damage during one of the angelical visitations. And her soul went to Heaven. That is the motivation for Neil to now care about Heaven - to be ultimately united with her.

Much of the story is about his meeting various people & trying to find a reason "to love God". He hasn't really found a rational reason till end. Eventually, he decides to chase the heavenly light in the wake of an angel's visitation. He will die in the venture, but see the light before dying. In spite of seeing it, he will be denied admission to Heaven & end up in Hell - so he's forever separated from his wife.

See also.

1. Nicholas Whyte looks at this story from perspectives I'm not qualified to comment on.
2. In this interview with Jeremy Smith, Chiang describes this story as "straight fantasy ... It's a view of the world that many people have now, except that things are explicit rather than hidden. A lot of people, right now, believe that good and bad fortune are the result of supernatural intervention, and it's often based on what you deserve. In the story this intervention is very obvious". He also gives some more perspective on this story.
3. Ted Chiang in this interview with Lou Anders: 'as far as divine intervention goes, the world in "Tower of Babylon" operates the way I see our universe operating, while the world in "Hell is the Absence of God" operates the way certain other people see our universe operating. Good and bad things happen in both universes. In the former, it's unclear whether any of them are the result of divine intervention; in the latter, it's clear that many of them are.'
4. Ted Chiang in this interview with Gavin J Grant: "In our world, religion relies on faith because definitive proof is lacking... but if a particular god were here right now, we'd have to deal with him whether we liked him or not; faith would have nothing to do with it. I thought that would be an interesting scenario to explore."

Collected in.

1. Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life and Others".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Ed)'s "Starlight 3", July 2001.
Rating: A
Download full text.
Winner of Hugo Award 2002 in novelette category.
Winner of Nebula Award 2001 in novelette category.
Related: All stories of Ted Chiang.

Clifford D Simak's "The Big Front Yard" (novelette, science fiction): When aliens introduced humans into the cosmic community of rational beings

First half of this story is a better version of Henry Kuttner's "Housing Problem" - and among the most interesting sense-of-wonder stories by anyone. Transition between the two
halves is via a plot variant of Heinlein's "- And He Built a Crooked House" - an unusual home where passing through a door leads you somewhere unexpected. Last half explains the wonders, & didn't quite click as well with me.

I sometimes wonder why so few authors have emulated so obvious & effective technique of the masters of sense-of-wonder stories - the Kuttner/Moore gestalt: don't bother explaining the wonder; just find an appropriate place to terminate the story when still in wonder mode. Explaining the wonder so often leads to disappointment in reader.

Story summary.

Story is set in a village called "Willow Bend" & has 3 main characters:

1. Hiram Taine - a handy man, particularly at fixing home electronics; & a small time dealer in antique furniture. He lives in his ancestral home with his dog Towser.
2. H Henry Horton - the richest man in village, & a greedy businessman always on the lookout for opportunity. He owns "a small computer plant".
3. Beasly - a half-wit, & an abused servant in the household of Hortons. Hiram is the only one in the village who's kind to him. Part way through the story, he will quit his employment with Hortons, & come live with Hiram doing odd jobs.

First half is about the amazing things happening at Hiram household. His dog is restless, sensing something it cannot locate. Ceiling of his workshop in basement transforms into something amazingly smooth & hard. An old black-and-white TV of Horton household left for repair in workshop will not only get fixed by itself but converted into the world's most fantastic color TV! Erratic stove in his kitchen gets fixed; an old dead radio gets transformed into a fancy working one!

Dog, Beasly, & Hiram will later locate an alien spaceship buried near Hiram's home: "Twelve feet wide by twenty long & oval shaped. About the size ... of a good-size living room... & ten feet deep." He will later see the aliens: "They were four inches high or so & they went on all four feet, although it was plain to see that their front feet were really hands, not feet. They had ratlike faces that were vaguely human, with noses long & pointed. They looked as if they might have scales instead of hide, for their bodies glistened with a rippling motion as they walked. And all of them had tails that looked very much like the coiled-wire tails one finds on certain toys & the tails stuck straight up above them, quivering as they walked... sixteen of them".

These aliens seem to have taken up residence in Hiram household - "living in the space between the basement joists", & appear to be helping him in odd ways to may be pay the rent - as the "little folks" did in Kuttner's "Housing Problem".

Enter Mr Horton - sensing business opportunity after seeing the TV's transformation. He is convinced Hiram is an amazing inventor. No problem Hiram cannot explain what happened to TV; Horton has a lot of engineers at his company to do the reverse engineering. Profits from any resulting business will be split.

Horton also almost forcibly hands Hiram a big computer lying unused at his company. No obligations, but if anything interesting results, they will split profits.

While Hiram is out digging the alien ship, computer is delivered to his basement by Horton's men. By the time Hiram returns home, front door of his home no longer exists! In fact, the front architecture has changed in subtle ways - strange curves, no opening anywhere! Panicky, he'll run around & find the back door intact.

Enters home from back door, & goes to where front door should be. It's very much there! Only after getting out from there, he finds himself obviously on a different world! Front door of his home has been transformed into an inter-stellar transfer gate! To travel to that world, you just walk through the door! Some windows of his home open to night of earth, others to day light of this alien world! In part of house on this alien world "there was no back to the house." Story gets its title from this - a whole world's worth of front yard.

That's about the first half - it's happened over a period of 3-4 days. Hiram will later find Horton's computer vanished; & part of his workshop walled off in an impenetrable way. Computer apparently played a role in creation of transfer gate.

During the early exploration of this world, Hiram will find another transfer gate to yet another world - with possibility of a big network of them. He will also see his little alien guests going out - their job done. A spaceship hanger near his home with 8 ready starships will get another ship used up as the little aliens go to yet another world to build another transfer gate.

Discovery of transfer gate had made Beasly panic. While Hiram was out exploring the new world, there was a lot of excitement in the village. Horton with Sheriff Hanson will find Hiram out in the country side of new world. Horton is convinced Hiram has again used his resourcefulness with the help of his computer - he's very interested in exploiting this world.

Some hours later, as a tired Hiram is coming out of his sleep, he learns indignant that government has tried appropriating his property, & tried razing some of his walls to make equipment pass. But aliens had apparently foreseen the possibility; they'd reinforced the walls with their impenetrable material.

More excitement. Other countries involved, UN involved. Eventually, Hiram will have 3 alien visitors (of a race different from ones that were his guests - these are "humanoid, to a degree at least") at his front yard - unwilling to enter earth, but willing to trade in "ideas". This is also where Beasly will find his ultimate vocation. We learn he's a telepath. There is an alien side telepath too - "a sort of man-size woodchuck". So to talk to aliens, you go via these two telepaths - each speaking the normal language of his end.

They will exchange ideas about an alien transport vehicle, in return for "paints" from human side. More negotiations are on...

See also.

1. Ralph Williams' "Cat and Mouse": Another story where aliens build a door on earth that you walk across to reach another world!
   

Collected in.

1. Ben Bova (Ed)'s "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two B".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding Science Fiction, October 1958.
Rating: A
Winner of Hugo Award 1959 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Clifford D Simak.

Walter M Miller, Jr's "A Canticle For Leibowitz" (fix-up novel): A collection of 3 related but independent novellas

It's funny - calling a book superb that is also simultaneously an extremely tedious read & an extremely dark one. Yet that is what it is.

The book makes two noteworthy points - neither original, but both well presented:

1. Given the cyclical nature of human civilizations through history, how to preserve whatever knowledge can be preserved from one enlightened era to next - kind of making some knowledge survive the intervening dark ages.
2. The pioneers' pain of handing over the baton to those who will run through the next stage of a project. If you've gone through incubating a project, & didn't realize when it was time for others to take over the growth stage after incubation, you know what I mean. I've gone through it, & it was quite a shock. This point comes across forcefully in the second story.

This is a sort of tie-up post. I've already posted a separate article on the first of the 3 stories separately, & will hopefully be doing so for other two too. This post is to give a kind of overview of the book.

Each of the 3 novellas included was originally published independently, & under a different name. The versions included in this novel are supposed to be edited ones.

All stories are set in the US, mostly in a single institution under the auspices of Roman Catholic Church. It's especially tedious read for those unfamiliar with Biblical faiths, but I doubt it will be smooth sailing even for the familiar.

Here are the 3 novellas, in order they occur in the story:

1. "Fiat Homo": Set about 600 years after the mid-twentieth century, it tells us of a nuclear war that annihilated much of mankind, & ended up creating way too many mutants.
   
   Riots followed targeting those who brought this about - government officials, rich, & even the educated: if knowledge has brought the world to this, we don't need it. And the world fell back to dark ages. Only a quasi-religious organization called the Albertian Order of Leibowitz has been trying to preserve the isolated documents from a better informed era - often under threat of death.
   
   This story traces the life of Brother Francis Gerard of Utah - a monk of the Order who has devoted his life to this document preservation, without understanding the document contents.
   
   This is a somewhat humorous story, in a dark background.
   
   This story is a fix-up of a novella titled "A Canticle for Leibowitz", originally from F&SF, April 1955. Variant title or original: "The First Canticle". This original qualified for SF Hall of Fame series but could not be included in published anthologies because copyright owners didn't want, according to Ben Bova's introduction to Volume 2A.
2. "Fiat Lux": Set 600 years after the events in Fiat Homo, we have a world that is beginning to shed its fear of knowledge & reluctantly getting comfortable with scientific pursuits. This is the story of a physical scientist, Thon Taddeo, who has discovered the treasures preserved by monks of the Order of Leibowitz.
   
   You see hope in the story - the world seeing light after darkness. You see baton-bearer's pain - as the monks who have preserved the documents so far are quickly becoming irrelevant as the scientific method & the secular scientists takes over.
   
   But this story is told against extremely dark background of warlords & psychopaths.
   
   This story is a fix-up of a novella titled "And the Light Is Risen", originally from F&SF, August 1956.
3. "Fiat Voluntas Tua": Another 600 years have passed since Fiat Lux. World is in a technology state way beyond mid-twentieth century. Oh - and there is star travel, & some extra-Sol worlds have been colonized; this will play a part in the story,
   
   World has two major political polarizations - Atlantic & Asia. An uncontrolled nuclear war has began when the story begins, & by the time story ends, the world would have plunged back to where the background of story Fiat Homo started - annihilation of civilization, & promise of another long drawn dark age.
   
   We see pain & mutilation of victims of nuclear attack, & we see arbitrary & high-handed diktats of government.
   
   But Order of Leibowitz had a contingency plan ready for this eventuality. Memorabilia - the documents they have been guarding, presumably augment with new knowledge of this era - is sent along with a small group of monks to a colony in Alpha Centauri system. Mankind might die on earth, but its knowledge will live elsewhere.
   
   This story is a fix-up of a novelette titled "The Last Canticle", originally from F&SF, February 1957.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1960.
Rating: A
Winner of Hugo Award 1961 in novel category.

Connie Willis' "All Seated on the Ground" (novella, humor): Convincing alien visitors that humans are worth talking to!

Among the better stories from this year's Hugo list. Lot of occasions to make the reader smile.

While the story contains a huge laundry list of "Christmas carol" song names - none of which meant anything to me & I just kept ignoring them - that doesn't really come in the way of fun. Should be accessible to world wide audience in spite of this. Story is really about human behavior.

If you've kids at home, there is much material here to adapt for home story telling sessions. Replace aliens with talking animals; it's easy enough turn the episodes into locally familiar & many opportunities to play-act the scenes.

Full text of this story is available for download.

Story summary.

One fine day, an alien spaceship with 6 aliens ("Altairi", "because an astronomy professor at DU had announced they were from the star Altair in the constellation Aquila"; they are actually from "the star Alsafi in the constellation Draco") turned up on Denver University campus. They got out, & just stand there & glare at everyone. All attempts at welcome or communications have come to a naught.

Nine months down, it's the third commission working to crack the communications barrier. One of the members of the commission is Ms Meg Yates (the narrator). It's headed by Dr Morthman, a boor & a hopeless leader. Another interesting member is Reverend Thresher ("head of the One True Way Maxichurch") - a priest with his own agenda. Plus other less interesting members.

Only thing this commission has yet succeeded in is making the aliens follow on call. One fine day, they're taken to visit a crowded mall. Part way through the trip, aliens just sit down - something that never happened before! Obviously something in the environment has touched them.

While Dr Morthman is threatening to shut down the mall & get everyone inside detained & questioned by cops, Yates has quietly figured out the reason - with the help of Calvin Ledbetter, a choir director present there. It's apparently in response to a song "'While shepherds watched their flocks by night,' all seated on the ground", which also gives the story its title.

All her attempts to inform Dr Morthman of discovery fail - boss is just not willing to listen. Much mayhem ensues. Over the coming days, she will quietly work with Ledbetter on this track.

And eventually succeed. You see, the aliens have been dying to see any signs of cooperation among the humans & the commissions they've been interacting with have been too fractious. But a choir requires harmonious working, as does the slowly developing romance between Yates & Ledbetter.

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2007.
Rating: A
Winner of Hugo Award 2008 in novella category.
Added to my best of the year 2007 list.

Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon" (novelette): Don't make fun of the mentally retarded, please

First raw impressions: fabulous first half, ok to good next quarter, & good last quarter.

This note is based on the original novelette version of the story. This version was later expanded into a full length novel of the same title. There is a movie adaptation of the same title too. And innumerable other adaptations.

For a story this widely dissected, different people are bound to see different things in it. I was most reminded of otherwise sensible people making fun of a hapless mental retard - because I've actually seen it & felt bad.

For Indian readers - another take on this story: If you've seen last year's superb movie "Lage Raho Munnabhai", there is a scene where the girl in restaurant calls Munna at radio station seeking advise on how to judge the man she's about to meet at the advise of her dad. Munna consults the ghost of Mahatma Gandhi, & is given this advise: "If you want to judge a man, observe how he behaves with those below his social station." There are strong echoes of it in this story.

When I looked around the web, I found rather varied takes of different individuals from this story. Here are a few that I can still recall:

1. A case for being compassionate with your social inferiors.
2. Pain of an Alzheimer's patient. While the last quarter sees the protagonist getting into loss similar to this, it's super-quick compared to Alzheimer's & also has some differences if my experience with someone who eventually died of it is any indication.
3. Abstracting human growth - from child who finds everyone superior to decay in old age. Except that normal human children don't really consider themselves inferior, nor get defensive when they grow up with an inferiority complex vis-a-vis their elders.
4. There is a cross-section of readers that feels the last quarter is fantastic because it's a tragedy & it makes them cry.

I've collected some quotes from this story. They don't have many pearls of wisdom, but they probably give a feel of the story & sentiments.

Story summary.

Story is set in New York (I suppose "City" is meant).

It's is in the form of diary entries, dated "martch 5, 1965" to July 28, of Charlie Gordon, 37, mentally feeble at the beginning of the story & a janitor at "Donnegan's Plastic Box Company".

Over the course of the story, a new experimental surgery will transform him into a genius; & then a mental decay back to old state & almost certain death (as a side effect of surgery). He is writing diary at the insistence of Dr Strauss, neurosurgeon who performed the surgery. He is free to write whatever comes to mind.

Story is not really about surgery or what goes into making a supermind. It's about human issues - Charlie getting routinely mistreated by those he trusts; then recognizing this & getting bugged by it; then lapsing again & seeking company of those old "friends" - only the friends have also changed for the better.

Characters.

1. Charlie Gordon: The protagonist. Initially feeble minded, but goes on to see greatness & mental decay.
2. Algernon: A laboratory mouse who also has got the surgical treatment to triple his intelligence. In the beginning of the story, Charlie has many "races" with him - of solving mazes. Algernon keeps beating Charlie, until the transformational point in Charlie's treatment. Charlie will develop soft feelings for the little mouse - even make a grave for him when he dies to decay that will eventually set as side effect of surgery. Title comes from the flowers Charlie regularly puts at the grave of Algernon.
3. Dr Strauss, 50, neurosurgeon who operated upon Charlie & is normally monitoring him.
4. Dr Nemur, 60, "psychoexperimentalist". He seems to have a key role in discovery of this treatment for intelligence, though we are not given details. Prodded by an overbearing wife, he is driven by social status & recognition from others.
   For a while, during his shining days, Charlie will give him an inferiority complex & will take his work further in the form of a paper titled "The Algernon-Gordon Effect: A Study of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence" that says the treatment is effectively no good & will always end up killing the subjects.
5. Miss Kinnian, 34. She teaches at a school for the mentally feeble. Charlie was her student, & she recommended him to Dr Strauss. During his shiny days, Charlie will fall in love with her but the relationship has always been doomed.
6. Joe Carp, Frank Reilly: Charlie's coworkers at factory. While Charlie thinks of them as friends, they treat him as joker. Relationship will strain when Charlie gets smart. In the end, with Charlie lapsing again, they will become real friend & defend him against those who now abuse him.
7. Amos Borg: Foreman at Charlie's factory. Another man who makes jokes at Charlie's expense. Has a very small role in story.
8. Mr Donnegan: Proprietor of Charlie's factory.
9. Mrs Flynn: Charlie's land lady. A woman with a golden heart.
10. Burt: A lab assistant at hospital. Will play a role in helping Charlie figure out the world as he gets smarter.

See also.

1. C L Moore's "Daemon" (1946): There is so much similarity between Moore's & this story that I'll be very surprised if Moore's version wasn't a major direct influence on Keyes'.
   
2. Ted Chiang's "Understand" (1991): Obviously inspired by this story of Keys'. While it's not the best of Chiang, now that I've read both, I think Keys' version is incomparably more competent.

Collected in.

1. Robert Silverberg (Ed)'s "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964".

Fact sheet.

"Flowers for Algernon", short story, review
First published: F&SF, April 1959.
Rating: A
Listed in Contento's Top Ten Most Reprinted Stories.
Winner of Hugo Award 1960 in "short fiction" category. This category is now-a-days split into short story, novelette, & novella. I didn't do word count, but I have a feel this story is novelette length.
This story was expanded in 1966 to novel length under the same title.

Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (novelette): Four time-travel "folktales"

This extremely readable story is written in the style of ancient framed folktales - story within story, & with a moral. It covers a theme I've already seen in at least two stories by Chiang - "What's Expected of Us", & "Story of Your Life" - interaction between events happening in different times.

And yet it offers a very different plot - ability to change yourself as well as history by influencing events of the past (in spite of constant denials by author that past cannot be altered by visitors from future).

Full text of this story is available for free download (text, MP3 (via teaoodle)). This note is based on text version.

Story summary.

Outermost story frame is tiny - Fuwaad ibn Abbas (the narrator) is pleading why he is innocent & should be released by the Caliph (English distortion of "khalifaa", sort of a king) in Baghdad.

Next frame is the protagonist's story - how Fuwaad ended up getting arrested by Caliph's cops. This is the story to which the title applies. This frame includes 3 related but independent stories, each with its own title - "The Tale of the Fortunate Rope-Maker", "The Tale of the Weaver Who Stole From Himself", & "The Tale of the Wife & Her Lover". I summarize each in its own section below.

The main story.

Fuwaad is a merchant of "fine fabrics". One fine day, he is taking a walk through the "district of metalsmiths" in Baghdad to buy a gift for a business associate, & enters a shop with amazing gadgets. During his conversations with the Bashaarat, the shop owner, he will learn that Bashaarat is an "Alchemist". But the term "Alchemist" is used very liberally - Bashaarat is actually a prolific inventor of fantastic gadgets.

One the gadgets he will be shown is the gate - a kind of time travel device. A "stout metal hoop ... mounted upright" where whatever enter from right ends up T time into future, & whatever enters from left ends up T time into past! T is a spec of the gate - there are gates of "several seconds" & there are gates of 20 years - later will play a key role in the story. Reminded me of Bob Shaw's "Light of Other Days" - but you could only see pictures of another time in its "slow glass", not actually go there as in this story.

Among the many cool demonstrations at "several seconds" gate, one I really liked was where Bashaarat gets to future, pulls out the ring from the hands of Fuwaad, comes back to past, & shows it to him - two rings for a time! After the requisite time has passed, a hand comes & actually pulls the ring from his hand - so he is only left with his ring with Bashaarat!

A key aspect of these Gates is - if you cross 20 years into future, you won't age - only the rest of the world would have aged! So you can meet your own older self!

Bashaarat invites Fuwaad to travel 20 years to future. Fuwaad is reluctant - that is when Bashaarat narrates the other 3 stories - of other time travelers that used his Gate.

Eventually, Fuwaad is willing, but wants to go 20 years back in time - not future. Not possible, according to Bashaarat, since this Gate was built only weeks back - you will be able to go back here only after 20 years have lapsed.

But Bashaarat has an older 20 years Gate still in operation - in Cairo, & run by his son. Fuwaad tarvels there, goes back to past because of a guilt he is carrying - blaming himself for her death 20 years back. He won't be able to save her even after time travel, & will get arrested for violating curfew - that is how he ended up the court of the Caliph.

The Tale of the Fortunate Rope-Maker.

Hassan, a poor rope maker, used the 20 years Gate at Cairo to meet his older self. Found he was very rich. Older self gives him minor tips but lets him actually experience the major events; he won't even get to see the wife of his older self - so courting can be fun.

He will eventually get rich after digging up a chest of precious gems hidden by thieves, on a tip from his older self. Sort of a loop here!

The Tale of the Weaver Who Stole From Himself.

Another loop story in the tradition of looping pictures by Eicher included in Douglas Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach"!

Moving story of Ajib, a poor weaver. Hearing of Hassan's tale, he will travel to future to discover that his future self is as poor, & stays in the same house with same lock! On investigating the house when older self is away, he will find a chest of gold.

What is miser this future self is! So he steals the chest from his own future & returns to present - living lavishly. Spends a lot, marries his lady love Taahira. Gets notices by bad elements who kidnap his wife, & take away all the remaining fortune he brought from future as ransom!

When asked by his wife, he will tell her someone gave him money & he need not return. Wife will have none of this - he must return the money. So he will spend next 20 years saving the money so his younger self can steal it!!

The Tale of the Wife & Her Lover.

This is where travelers from future tinker with the past - to change the course of history.

This is the story of Raniya, wife of Hassan the rope make who got rich.

While she was never introduced to younger Hassan, she was intrigued by the young visitor to her home. Pestering her husband, she learns the time travel story. When older Hassan is away for a while on business, she travels back in time to younger Hassan, & lusts him. Younger Hassan is yet to meet his lady love.

While tailing him, she will follow him to a jewelery store where Hassan is trying to sell one of the necklace from fortune he dug up - sale is agreed for next day. As it happens, two of the thieves whose fortune Hassan stole are also in the shop - she overhears their conversation about looting Hassan after he sells the necklace, & will also force him to give up rest of the stuff. Sounded a bit like the story of "Alibaba & 40 Thieves" from a school text book - original is probably from Arabian Nights.

She knows no harm will come to Hassan - since he lives in future & had actually given her the same necklace. She decides to take care of thieves. Goes back to her own time, & then another 20 years into future - to meet her even older self. The "two" women will both come to shop next day when Hassan is visiting with thieves waiting with their chief. They will come with their own & the same necklace - trying to sell when Hassan is selling. Multiple copies convinces thieves & shop owner it's common stuff. Hassan's deal goes sour, but thieves are off his back.

+40 version will return to her time; +20 will spend some time in this past. She will befriend Hassan & teach him the joys of sex - before eventually returning to her own time.

Collected in.

1. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection" (2008).
   

Fact sheet.

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", short story, review
First published: As a short book by Subterranean Press, July 2007. Immediately after that, republished in F&SF, September 2007.
Rating: A
Winner of Nebula Award 2007 in novelette category.
Winner of Hugo Award 2008 in novelette category.
Among the finalists for BSFA Award 2007 in short fiction category.
Added to my best of year 2007 picks.
Related: All stories of Ted Chiang.

Anne McCaffrey's "Weyr Search" (novella, fantasy): A low-status woman ends up a queen

You probably will like this very readable story even more than me if you like stories about dragons & feudal lords. Surprise was Hartwell's labeling of it as "hard sf"; it's much closer to a fantasy.

Story summary.

Story is set on an extra-Sol planet called Pern at an unspecified date. Pern is generally indistinguishable from earth. It was colonized by humans & lost touch with other colonies. It's now a human world fallen to barbarism.

Pern orbits a star called Rukbat, "in the Sagittarian sector". It's third of the 6 planets.

Rukbat has another planet, called "Red Star" by Pernese, that is in a wild elliptic orbit that brings it rather close to Pern every 200 years. This coming close affects Pern in a rather strange way. Turns out this other world also has native life - "Threads", apparently unintelligent but alive. And Threads like going to Pern whenever the two worlds are close. How Threads travel through still vast interplanetary distance & vacuum is left as an exercise for the reader.

These Threads are a big threat to local ecology of Pern. "Not one Thread must fall to the rich soil, to burrow deep and multiply, leaching the earth of minerals and fertility." Why they haven't done so till Man arrived at this world is not explained, but humans must prevent them from touching the surface of their world!

Now Pern has a native life form indistinguishable from familiar dragons! They are not only winged & fire-breathing - they are smart & telepathic! And some of the humans are able to communicate with them telepathically. These humans will become dragon-riders. During the raid of Threads, these humans will ride the dragons up in the air, & make dragons burn the Threads with their fire!! We are not told how the few dragon riders with only natural vision will ensure no thread falls anywhere on the planetary surface.

Because they are planet saviors, the dragon riders are held in high esteem - so high, they are practically kings. These kings live high in inaccessible mountain caves. The region they live in is called Wyrn, as far as I can make out. Or is it the kingdom they rule? And they are benign good rulers.

Problem is: threat from Threads is once in 200 years event. After the event, in this primitive world, people tend to forget about it. It becomes myth. At the time the story is set, only one Wyrn ("Benden") survives of the original 6 - now protecting the entire planet.

A peculiar aspect of Wyrns plays a key role in the story. Among the dragons they control is a queen dragon - probably the only female dragon. For some reason, she must be paired with a human female, the "Weyr woman" - I could not figure out why. Because of the importance of female dragon, the human woman controlling her is extremely important - effectively the queen of Wyrn.

Under Wyrn are local lords, ruling territories called Holds. These are typical barbaric feudal lords. One of these Holds is called Ruath. Fax, originally the ruler of a neighboring Hold, had raided some half dozen neighbors; all those Holds are now ruled by Fax, "Lord of the High Reaches".

When raiding Ruath, Fax had killed entire family of rulers. Except Lessa, heroine of this story. She was very young then, & somehow survived; Fax doesn't know that she survived.

She is a very smart lady, out to get revenge. On the surface, she is a lowly servant; underneath she is working to make Ruath such a financial burden on Fax that he will disgustedly give it up.

Ten years have lapsed since the fall of Ruath. Red Star is about to approach. Current Weyr-woman has died. A new one must be quickly found - to be paired with queen dragon's about to be born daughter. Queen dragon herself will die after giving birth - not only to future queen, but many male dragons too. The dragon/human pairing, called "First Impression", must be done as soon as the chicks hatch - so time to find the future Weyr-woman is running out.

So a Search is mounted by Wyrn over all Pern - to locate the next "Weyr woman". F'lar, the current head of Wyrn, with his deputy F'nor & some others have arrived at Fax's headquarters riding their dragons.

They quickly figure there won't be a suitable candidate in Fax's own Hold. Next stop is Ruath. Lessa will contrive a knife duel between F'lar & Fax. Fax will die in the fight.

Predictably, F'lar finds Lessa suitable, convinces her to come to Wyrn, etc. Wise rulers are appointed at Holds now without a lord. We are shown a bit of Wyrn. End scene is where kids are paired with just born dragon chicks; Lessa, of course, gets paired with the future queen dragon.

Collected in.

1. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF".

Fact sheet.

"Weyr Search", short story, review
Alternate titles: "Pern"?
First published: Analog, October 1967.
Rating: B
Hugo Award 1968 in novella category.
Nebula Award nomination 1967 in novella category.

Larry Niven's "The Borderland of Sol" (novelette, science fiction): Hunting the space pirates

I am sort of puzzled - whatever made this story win a Hugo Award? This is among of the more muddled & incomprehensible pieces from Niven!

Story summary.

Dr Julian Forward is from high gravity human colony world called Jinx. Because of high gravity, its natives have a body build rather heavy compared to earthlings - sometimes making them butts of jokes. These jokes have ensured that Julian has an inferiority complex. But he is a talented scientist. Decides to take it on the world. He is based on "Forward Station" - a research facility in the outer reaches of Sol, & is running a space piracy racket from there.

His technique is rather exotic. If there is comprehensible physics to it, it went over my head. But here it is.

Creation of the universe also created many "quantum black holes" - very tiny ones - of atomic scale in size, & of mass about that of an asteroid. One such lives within the vicinity of Sol. Julian has not only located it, but tamed it with a complex device called "Grabber". It's normally parked at its alloted place outside the asteroid housing the research station.

He has space mining tugs that can drag this black hole around! When in looting mood, he parks them near the trading routes used by ships moving between earth & colony worlds. When there is an incoming unarmed ship with booty (traveling at interstellar speed!), he can guide this black hole through a path that will make the ship's drive vanish!!!

His men will then board the ship, loot it, & throw the ship & its crew into the black hole! And then tug the black hole back to its parking place!

Of course, there are heroes that will bring the villain to book. Sigmund Ausfaller, Carlos Wu, & Beowulf Shaeffer are coming from Jinx in an armed ship disguised as harmless trading ship - as a sort of bait. When they are attacked, they lose their hyperdrive (but not normal space drive). Carlos is a physicist who has an idea of what happened, but won't tell anyone. He will make some calls, & contrive an appointment with Julian on his research station - not far from current location of space ship (minus its hyperdrive)..

After some James Bond movie style action at research station, heroes will escape somewhat damaged but recoverable, while the villains & their research station is eaten up by the black hole.

We are also treated, during story build up, to a lot of trivia about Jinx. I found these boring, but your tastes might differ.

Fact sheet.

"The Borderland of Sol", short story, review
First published: Analog, January 1975.
Rating: C
Winner of Hugo Award 1976 in novelette category

Hal Clement's "Uncommon Sense": Curiosity saves a man his life on a weird world

Clement seems to specialize in imagining weird worlds & their weird life forms. While I find his worlds interesting, I'm not so sure of his weird life forms - consistent with the world, but... Later plays a key role in this story.

Read this with a bit of suspended credulity when you are in wild imagination mood, & it'll be an interesting story. Large parts feel like distractions, but are not - their rationale will be visible near end.

Story summary.

Laird Cunningham is a rich man with a curious hobby - he likes to travel to distant worlds in the galaxy "in search of bizarre life forms", & is an amateur collector of sorts.

On one of these trips with two assistants - one named Malmeson, & other unnamed - he overhears their plan loot the ship after they get rid of him. He forces a crash landing on a (presumably nearby) world, sabotages the drive unit of ship, & escapes in a light space suite before the villains can get him. It's local night. The crash has seriously damaged the hull, & the two companions don't yet know of sabotaged drive unit. The hull can probably be repaired - but we are not sure yet.

This is a weird world - unnamed through the story. For, its sun - Deneb - is "one of the fiercest radiating bodies in the galaxy". While planet itself "had much in common with Luna as regarded size, mass, & airlessness, its landscape was extremely different. The daily terrific heatings which it underwent, followed by abrupt & equally intense temperature drops each night, had formed an excellent substitute for weather... As on the Earth's moon, the products of the age long spalling had taken the form of fine dust, which lay in drifts everywhere. What could have drifted it, on an airless and consequently windless planet, struck Cunningham as a puzzle of the first magnitude".

He finds refuge in a cave a half mile from ship. It affords him a clear view of ship, but he himself is invisible to the two companions. They can, however, talk via suite's radio. Both Laird & the villains realize getting stuck on this planet is sure death; how does Laird outsmart the two?

Next day, we find Laird distracted by local life - plants, plant eaters, & carnivores. He spends a while observing them, even dissects a few that enter his cave. Turns out the "blood" of local animals on this super hot world is liquid metal! And they seem to have curious "eyes" - sort of small peepholes that are more akin to nose rather than eye we are familiar with. While there are no molecules to sample by nose on this world, gas released in its vacuum is apparently seen by these local life forms! Not only that - they can use it distinguish between interesting & uninteresting stuff - e.g., edible local life releases metallic stuff, the human space suit leaks small quantities of light gases. Later is not only uninteresting, but to be wary of - because of its unfamiliarity.

We learn these attributes of local life through musings & some action scenes - including a hunt inside cave that could have killed Laird. But this local anatomy will form the basis the plan that will save our hero.

In the meantime, his companions have been assessing damage to ship's hull & doing some welding. They are not yet done when night falls. They go inside for rest.

At night, Laird kills two little animals that have wandered into his cave, collecting their "blood" in a small groove in dust that is everywhere. Metallic blood immediately freezes in the cold of the night. He will take these little bars of metal & attach them to faults in the ship's hull.

Next morning, the villains have come down to weld the faults. This melts the local "blood" attached to faults - also helped by rising sun. This smell attracts many local predators, giving Laird chance to enter the ship with a sprint. His companions easily fend off predators with a "flame pistol" & welding unit. In a rather idealistic ending, Laird allows them inside the airlock, but not inside the ship - so they don't die but cannot do him harm.

He has summoned help, now on its way.

Fact sheet.

"Uncommon Sense", short story, review
First published: Astounding Science Fiction, September 1945.
Rating: A (Actually, I think it deserves a B rating rather than A. But that puts it below many stories worse than it in my big short story list by quality. Perhaps I've been more liberal with A's than I should have been. Will look into it later.)
Hugo Award 1946 awarded retrospectively in 1996 in short story category.