John Scalzi's "Pluto Tells All": What Pluto feels - about its "demotion" from the status of a planet!

This very short & somewhat humorous tale is told in the form similar to some school essays (Hindi word is aatmkatha - "self story"; I don't know the English word for this kind of story): own story of Pluto told by itself. There are some references to people that I didn't catch because of lack of familiarity - presumably those in appropriate country will find them humorous.

Readable but not a great story. Full text is available online.

First published: Subterranean magazine, Spring 2007.
Rating: B

Arthur C. Clarke's "The Lion of Comarre" (novella): A man resists the temptation of eternal pleasure

While this novella length story - among the earliest by Clarke - doesn't rank high in my book, your take might vary. Because the key theme of the story is now popular in cyberpunk - technology to let you eternally dream good dreams!

I have no taste for this theme, but if you like stories of this kind, Clarke presents it in a far more readable way than much of cyberpunk. "Comarre" of title is the machine to enable such dreams; lion refers to a tame lion that behaves like a dog & is actually a distraction in the story.

When introducing it in Collected Stories, Clarke tells us that this story "was written at around the same time as Against the Fall of Night". A rewrite of Against is "The City & the Stars"; I've read only later. Comarre & City share not only a young protagonist dissatisfied in a materially very well off society & who goes on a quest, they also are forerunners to very popular themes in modern cyberpunk. City has a machine where you can store your braindump, possibly with some editing, for safekeeping, & later restore it in a new body!

Story summary.

While presented as utopia, the far future earth of this story sounds like a nightmare to me - (world?) government, running from a space station in earth orbit, is supposed to comprise of good & well intentioned politicians, & government knows so much about you & your genealogy, they can pin point your expected behavior with very good accuracy! And arrange things so you are dissuaded from variant behavior! Though they sometimes fail - particularly if you are really smart & well determined, as is the protagonist in this story.

By the year 2600, craftsmen of all kinds have done their work so well, they are no longer needed. There are almost no engineers in this utopia - since machines do all they could have done. Best minds enter politics! Though some variants are still into sciences. The story is set 500 years later - sometime in thirty-second century.

Richard Peyton III is the young protagonist who wants to study engineering, much to the disgust of his dad & grandpa. During a family argument, he runs away to his friend Alan Henson II in Scientia, a city of science on some remote island in an unnamed ocean.

Alan will show Richard two illegally obtained confidential government reports - each a "character analysis" - one of Richard, other of an ancient legend called Rolf Thordarsen. The two are very similar. We learn that Rolf is Richard's "great-grandfather twenty-two times removed on the direct male line". And apparently both share the curiosity bug!

Rolf apparently was a great engineer who had founded the legendary city of Comarre. Location or fact of Comarre is generally not known, but Alan & his friends have formed a well connected club that has found the location. Government also knows the location & watches its perimeter, though it doesn't interfere with its internal affairs.

Isolated people have found Comarre at regular intervals, but no one who entered this closed city has ever returned. It is generally believed that no harm has come to them, & that they are very happy. Richard is enlisted to go there & investigate on behalf of club. They will help transport him near Comarre at a location where government monitors cannot see them, along with a wireless phone to stay in touch; from there on, he will have to walk.

While walking towards the city, he will encounter many automated warnings meant to dissuade him. But he won't be dissuaded. He will also meet a full grown & well behaved lion wandering around that will effectively become his pet!

Man & the lion reach Comarre - a closed environment - with entry gate open but no one around. Leaving lion there, Richard will go on adventure through the city. Passing through magical transfer gates popular in later science fiction stories, he will reach the interior. A bit baffled, then escorted by a robot to a chamber where he will go to sleep induced by some kind of force fields. And get into eternal pleasant dreams. Comarre apparently can read your mind remotely, figure out what you like, & then give you the right dreams!

But Richard is strong willed. He manages to get out of dream. Makes robots show him around. Awakens a sleeper or two who are angry at him to have awakened them! Figures out Comarre is evil. Bugs robots. Ends up in a sort of control room. Is prevented by a robot that is sort of master maintainer - and not the only one. I don't recall how lion got in to this control room, but he will restrain the robot from interfering with Richard who is hell bent on destroying Comarre.

Some discussion with robot, & the hero has shelved his destruction plans. He will be guided to the office of great Rolf - who had created both Comarre & these master robots, but never went to eternal sleep himself; he had died a natural death. And had entrusted some documents to robot - to be delivered to first man in Comarre who can resist the temptation of eternal pleasures!

It basically tells Richard that sentient robots as competent as humans should be allowed in human society! Rolf apparently had tried doing this but failed. He was hoping lawmakers of a later age will be more willing. So now Richard has a task to do after getting out.

Fact sheet.

"The Lion of Comarre", novel, review
First published: "Thrilling Wonder Stories", August 1949.
Rating: B

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.

Clarkesworld magazine, December 2007 issue: 3 stories, 1 good

All three are fantasies, & the last one is not an original (though the story doesn't mention it). First one has talking animals, second has ghosts, third is a fairy tale.

1. Lisa Mantchev's "Threads of Red and White" (A); download; anchor: An immigrant's confusion.
   
   This sequel to her "A Dance Across Embers" is set 20 years later. My interpretation of Ventsei's escape in original story turns out to be wrong; he escaped not to be a hero, but to find safe life elsewhere. I wonder if original story's ghosts were Nazis or some kind of communist police; I am not familiar with European history.
   
   We now meet Ventsei well settled in life as a doctor in a foreign land. Family includes his mother (Tereza), wife (Kimberly), & baby daughter (Damascena). That is when he is confronted with visitors from his now long forgotten past - his childhood friend Milena, her godmother, etc.
   
   Some remembrances, & a bit of tension. But all ends well. Not completely satisfactory for everyone, but well enough.
   
   What struck me about the story were two things. First, the immigrant in me could identify with some of emotions of Ventsei - yeah, there are happy memories of childhood but leaving current life doesn't seem to make sense.
   
   Second is the apparently Bulgarian practice called "martenitza" that the title is named for - a ritual of tying red & white colored threads to your wrist or some inanimate object nearby. This is supposed to bring luck. This is almost identical to the practice, called "mollie", rather common in many parts of north India - only the thread is just red colored, no white.
   
   I recall a very similar situation in Jostein Gaarder's novel "Sophie's World". Somewhere it tells a Norwegian folk tale that is identical to an Indian one! And I'm not aware of much historical contact between India & Bulgaria or Scandinavia. How far back in time the roots of these practices & folktales go?
2. Loreen Heneghan's "The Buried Years" (B); download; anchor: A man about to be married has a confession to make to his would be wife. Great prose, but the plot didn't quite strike a cord with me.
3. Samantha Henderson's "Curse" (C); download; anchor: Not an unreadable story, but you've probably read or heard this fairy tale before. A woman can weave gold from hay; king employs & exploits here for her unusual ability, etc.

Note: "anchor" links let me link to specific story inside this file from elsewhere, when necessary.

Brief posts: 8 stories, some good

1. Mike Resnick's "Distant Replay" (A); fantasy: An unusual love story.
   
2. Gene Wolfe's "Green Glass" (C), a fantasy, from Asimov's April/May 2007 - to big story list.
   
3. Two Lucifer Jones stories by Mike Resnick - "The Flame of Bharatput" (A) & "Secret Sex" (B) - to his "Exploits" collection contents. Neither is good enough to warrant its own post. Both are non-genre humor.
   
4. Cory Doctorow's "Printcrime" (B) & "Truncat" (C). Former is dystopic society based on an extreme case of US movie industry winning against file sharers; later is jargon filled utopia of long lived people where sharing (via file sharing networks) of somebody's braindump without owner's consent is common. To Cory's list.
5. Peter Anderson's "The Copper Responds" (B) - good but dark fanfic rejoinder to Cory's Printcrime. Assumes you've read Printcrime. To Cory's list.
6. Gregory Benford's "The Voice" (B) in David Heartwell's Best SF 3 anthology contents list. Science fiction story of a destopic far future.
7. Existing post of Arthur Clarke's "Maelstrom II" gets 2 more links: a slide show illustrating the story with pictures, & a 3-minute average quality movie showing the preparatory part of the story (till the crisis develops - not rescue).

William Barton's "The Rocket into Planetary Space": Current state of the art in space travel

It had the feeling of an educational story - publicizing the current state of the art. Or may be one crying out for funding private space travel - there is a dialog to that effect. I like to look at it as former.

While I am no expert in evaluation of space travel jargon or technology, this novelette-length story has a feel of authentic (if brave!) about it - at least the parts related to their flying craft.

Plot was ok if already well hashed, but is badly executed. There is too much jargon for my taste. But I was not bored, & finished it in just two sittings. It has a bit of naivette & adventure on the part of protagonists that is kind of charming.

Best part was seeing it in Asimov's. Over the last couple of months, I've come to see it as essentially a fantasy magazine - there is so little science fiction, in spite of title. Seeing a hard sf story, even a not so readable one, was satisfying.

Story summary.

Narrator is Alan Burke - a 66 year old engineer, programmer, & part time story teller. He has got an idea while working on a story: he wants to go to a rock farther out than moon, & thinks current technology is good enough to allow a private adventure of this kind. Convinces his friend Willy Gillooly. Alan, Willy, & their wives Sarah & Minnie, respectively, end up founding a company called "Standard ARM", & also raise enough capital ("six hundred thirty million dollars") to fund the mission.

They scout around buying a component here & a subsystem there. Finally put together a usable craft 10 years after founding the company. And off they go for "near-earth asteroid UB(2009)/21", "eight million miles" from earth. Launch is low key, but they've arranged for publicity - televisions begin reporting the adventure once they are off earth. Their ship, named Excelsior, set off on September 7, 2016. Ship is equipped with two 2-seater landing machines - Smaug & Fafnir.

Plan is to land on asteroid, collect some rock samples, & return. On the way, they will name the asteroid "Quasimodo". It is a "contact binary" - two completely different heavenly bodies that once collided & have been sticking together since.

After landing, they will notice an anomaly where the two parts of the binary meet - some sort of liquid seems to be oozing out. A little poking around with drill, an accident from which all will eventually emerge well, & they have found a petroleum mine!

They stick their claim, some politicking is going on on earth, they receive offers to buy their rock on their way home, & looks like they will end up rich.

The part I didn't understand was: how will the mined oil be economically transfered to earth? And finding something mining-worthy on a more-or-less randomly selected rock had the feeling of contrived.

Fact sheet.

"The Rocket into Planetary Space", short story, review
First published: Asimov's Science Fiction, April/May 2007.
Rating: B

Larry Niven's "Intent to Deceive": Robots go bonkers because of a software bug!

Well - actually this humorous tale doesn't mention software bug. But if you are a programmer, you will know.

A reference to society of "The Jigsaw Man" suggests this story is a sequel, though it is quite independent.

Title comes from laws banning misleading advertising in this future society. I failed to figure out how it really relates to the story.

Story summary.

It's told as a frame story - by Lucas Garnet, 174 years old, to Lloyd Masney, half Lucas age. In a fully automated robots-where-you-expect-humans restaurant called Red Planet. Lucas, the narrator is uncomfortable in a no-humans restaurant, & tells a personal experience from "around 2025" with very early versions of such restaurants - that is the main story. Near end, Lucas tells us he had made up the main story. But made up or not, that is the main story.

Lucas & a friend Dreamer Glass visited a then new all-automated restaurant called Herr Ober. "The only human beings involved were the maintenance crew, & they only showed up once a week. Everything else ... was machinery."

And something went wrong with their order. "I must have typed wrong... I wanted two lunches, but the damn thing is bringing us two lunches each"! Unfortunately, the robot waiter kept bring two more lunches every time they finished! No chance to ask for bill! Cannot figure out how to complain to manager. And "The payment counter wouldn't let me by. There was a barrier. I tried to give it some money, but nothing happened. When I tried to go over the barrier, I got an electric shock!"

Major racket, because this order had somehow messed up other patrons orders too. Attempt to overpower a waiter would win you an electric shock & reprimand that robots are expensive!

They finally were able to get out when it was closing time, by paying huge sums. With several hurt, & Dreamer dead.

Fact sheet.

"Intent to Deceive" aka "The Deceivers", short story, review
First published: Galaxy Magazine, April 1968.
Rating: B
Series: "The Jigsaw Man" (A), "Intent to Deceive", "Cloak of Anarchy" (B).