Asimov's SF, August 2005
Page 21
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Marque and Reprisal
Elizabeth Moon
Del Rey, $24.95 (hc)
ISBN: 0-345-44758-1
A sequel to Moon's Trading in Danger, in which the daughter of a powerful merchant family broke away from her parents’ pacifist sympathies.
Kylara Vatta is nursing one of her family's transport vessels back to her home planet after getting herself involved in a shooting war. As she comes into one of the trading ports along her route, she learns that most of the family elders were killed in a sneak attack on the family home. Other attacks have taken out vital lines of inter-planetary communications maintained by her family. She herself barely survives an assassination attempt, combined with attempted sabotage of her ship. At that point, she determines to find the enemy and make them pay.
Ky's first priority is getting her ship and her crew in shape to protect themselves. She hires Staff Sergeant Gordon Martin—a man who's being pushed into retirement from his embassy guard job for being too conscientious—to oversee the ship's defenses, and to give her crew the rudiments of military training. At the next couple of stops, they take on new crew members—and a surprise passenger, Ky's older cousin Stella, long considered the black sheep of the family because of an embarrassing sexual liaison in her youth. Stella, Ky soon discovers, is much deeper and more competent than appears on the surface. And with Stella comes another passenger, her ex-lover Rafe—who turns out to have a full package of espionage skills at his disposal.
From there, Moon sends Ky and her ship on a roller-coaster ride of combat and intrigue, with a significant emphasis on the welding of her unpromising crew into an efficient team capable of handling itself when the chips are down. The characters are variations on more or less familiar types, but Moon makes them interesting enough to maintain interest. As with much of what we tend to think of as “military SF,” the shadow of Heinlein can be seen in much of the overall development of the story, although Moon is a mature enough writer to bring plenty of her own insight and experience to the book—including the very relevant experience of having been a woman in the military.
Fast-moving action set in a classic space-opera universe, with plenty of plot surprises and a likeably tough heroine. The final space battle is as good as I've seen.
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Parallel Worlds
Michio Kaku
Doubleday, $27.50 (hc)
ISBN: 0-385-50986-3
This book on cutting-edge physics has a strong SFnal theme, and while the nominal focus is on “theories of everything,” the scientifically literate SF reader who picks it up will find plenty to sink the teeth into.
Kaku is particularly interested in M-Theory, in which our universe is considered to be one of innumerable parallel universes separated by tiny distances in eleven-dimensional space. This spin-off from String Theory is at the moment a hot topic among physicists. Since it seems to offer a quick and easy route to parallel universes, it has been adopted by such SF writers as Alastair Reynolds.
Kaku spends a fair amount of time tracing the origins of the new theories in Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, the key formulations of modern physics. The historical section benefits from a wonderful cast of characters, including the irreverent physicists Gamow and Feynman, as well as the more familiar icons of Copernicus, Newton, and Einstein.
What sets this book apart from the dozens of others that cover similar territory is Kaku's obvious enjoyment of and familiarity with SF. To illustrate the ideas being discussed, he cites everything from Star Trek episodes to Niven's “All the Myriad Ways.” He also shows a willingness to speculate on the broader meanings of the physics; the last few chapters look at ways a sufficiently advanced civilization could exploit the existence of parallel universes to escape the heat death of its home universe. And he plays interestingly with the tension between the Copernican principle (we and our place in the universe are not special) and the anthropic principle (we could not exist if the universe were not somehow designed to make us possible).
While this certainly isn't the last word on the subject—physics and cosmology are changing so rapidly nowadays that some new theory or discovery is likely to shake things up even before this review gets into print—it's still a very good overview of where things are right now. Best of all, it's one of the most SF-friendly science books I've read in years.
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The SF Conventional Calendar
The July Fourth weekend is coming right up. And don't forget WorldCon plans. Plan now for social weekends with your favorite SF authors, editors, artists, and fellow fans. For an explanation of con(vention)s, a sample of SF folksongs, info on fanzines and clubs, and how to get a later, longer list of cons, send me an SASE (self-addressed, stamped #10 [business] envelope) at 10 Hill #22-L, Newark NJ 07102. The hot line is (973) 242-5999. If a machine answers (with a list of the week's cons), leave a message and I'll call back on my nickel. When writing cons, send an SASE. For free listings, tell me of your con 6 months out.Look for me at cons behind the Filthy Pierre badge, playing a musical keyboard.
—Erwin S. Strauss
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June
30-July 3—Origins. For info, write: 250 N. High St. #23, Columbus OH 43215. Or phone: (614) 255-4500 (10 AM to 10 PM, not collect). (Web) originsgames.com. (E-mail) custserv@gama.com. Con will be held in: San Antonio TX (if city omitted, same as in address) at the Airport Hilton. Guests will include: none announced. Year's big gaming con.
30-July 3—Starfleet International. ic2005@region3.com. Airport Hilton, San Antonio TX. Star Trek fan club annual meet.
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July
1-4—WesterCon. calgaryin2005.org. Westin, Calgary AB. S. M. Stirling, Dave Duncan, Tom Doherty, David Hartwell.
1-4—GaylaxiCon. gaylaxicon.org/2005. Hyatt, Cambridge MA. Lois McMaster Bujold. For gay fans and their friends.
1-4—Anime Expo. (714) 937-2994. anime-expo.org/. Convention Center, Anaheim CA. Japanese animation convention.
7-10—AnthroCon. anthrocon.org. Adam's Mark, Philadelphia PA. “Saluting ‘Heroes'” Anthropomorphics/furries.
8-10—ReaderCon. readercon.org. Marriott, Burlington MA. Kate Wilhelm, Joe Haldeman. Celebrating written SF.
8-10—Shore Leave. (410) 496-4456. shore-leave.com. Marriott, Hunt Valley (Baltimore) MD. Trek & SF media actors.
15-17—ConFluence, Box 3681, Pittsburgh PA 15230. parsec-sff.org/confluence. Airport Sheraton. Tamora Pierce.
15-17—Trinoc*Con, Box 10633, Raleigh NC 27605. trinoc-con.org. Marriott, Durham NC. J. R. Lansdale, C. Keegan.
15-17—Toronto Trek, Box 7097, Toronto ON M5W 1X7. (416) 410-8266. tcon.ca. Doubletree Int'l. Plaza Hotel.
15-18—ConEstoga, 440 S. Gary Ave. #45, Tulsa OK 74104. (918) 445-2094. sftulsa.org. Sheraton. G.R.R. Martin.
16-17—Japan Nat'l. Con, Nippon07, 4-20-5-604, Mure, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0002, Japan. hamacon2.com. Yokohama.
22-24—Earthbound: 2005, c/o Box 2213, Plant City FL 33565. earthbound2005.com. Tampa FL. “Space:1999” con.
22-24—ConMisterio, Box 27277, Austin TX 78755. conmysterio.org. Doubletree. Joe Lansdale, Derie. Mystery fiction.
27-30—Romance Writers Con, c/o 3707 Fm 1960 W. #555, Houston TX 77068. (281) 440-6885. rwanational.org. Reno NV.
29-31—Costume College, 2148 S. Fremont Ave. #24, Alhambra CA 91803. costumecollege.org. Airtel, Van Nuys CA.
29-31—HorroRama, Box 5948, Buffalo Grove IL 60089. flashbackweekend.com. Crowne Plaza, Rosemont (Chicago) IL.
29-31—Accio, 26 Discovery House, Newby Place, London E14 0HA, UK. accio.org.uk. Reading UK. Harry Potter con.
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August
4-8—Interaction, Box 58009, Louisville KY 40268. www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk. Glasgow Scotland. $195/£110.
5-7—Bindweed, 81 Western Rd., London E13 9JE, UK. York, UK. Low-key r
elax-a-con.
12-14—Official Star Trek, 217 S. Kenwood, Glendale CA 91205. (818) 409-0960. creationent.com. Hilton, Las Vegas NV.
12-15—ConVersion, Box 20098, Calgary AB T2P 4J2. con-version.org. George R.R. Martin.
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September
1-5—CascadiaCon, Box 1066, Seattle WA 98111. www.seattle2005.org. NASFiC, while WorldCon's in Glasgow. $95+.
August 2006
23-27—LACon IV, Box 8442, Van Nuys CA 91409. info@laconiv.com. Anaheim CA. Connie Willis. The WorldCon. $150.
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August 2007
30-Sep. 3—Nippon 2007, Box 314, Annapolis Jct. MD 20701. nippon2007.org. Yokohama Japan. WorldCon. $160.
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Letters
Hello, Editor,
As you may guess from my stationery, I am visually impaired and “read” your magazine on tape. I look forward every month to hearing the great assortment of “SF."
You have my best wishes for a successful editorialship.
Kay Nyne Coyote
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Dear Ms. Williams,
I have always been impressed by the high caliber of the writing in the magazine, however ... that Lori Selke's story was printed makes me wonder if anyone on your editorial staff actually knows any science!
The crux of the Selke story is that the protagonist steals some blastulas of the future dodos, sneaks the frozen blastulas across international borders, and, after having them pass through airport X-ray, flies them home to his turkey farm where they are to be raised as un-improved (i.e., no pink feathers) dodos.
There is scant chance that any blastulae passing through airport X-ray machines could remain viable or sufficiently un-mutated by the X-rays to develop into the unimproved dodos he wants. Should they be viable, they're likely to be very, very deformed and/or cancer-ridden. It seems a pity that after all the high adventure and psychological distress that the protagonist and his computer-nerd acolyte go through, their efforts should be so soundly defeated by the teratogenic effects of X-rays.
I'm afraid that little flub spoiled my enjoyment of that story.
Perhaps someone should have caught this one earlier and suggested that the writer add a sentence or two to the effect that the protagonist takes a boat back (no airport X-ray) or even goes back to Mexico and then goes through customs by car to reach the turkey farm (again, no X-rays).
Oh well, maybe the changes could be made when the story's reprinted.
Manuella Adrian
Sunny Isles Beach, FL
The author replies...
Ms. Adrian is correct that there's a significant danger the X-rays would cause problems with the blastulae; that's one of the reasons Tomila mails Dr. Yeoh a back-up.
Lori Selke
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Hi Asimov's,
I just wanted say that “Shadow Twin” was probably the best science fiction story I've read in years. If that's any indication of what Gardner can do now that he isn't busy being the editor of the magazine anymore, then more power to him!
Robert May
Dublin, OH
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Sheila:
It was great seeing Shadow Twin in Asimov's. I did want to point out, for folks who might not have known, that Ellen Datlow originally had the story up at Scifi.com.
Thank you, and keep up the good work!
Daniel Abraham
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Dear Editor,
Norman Spinrad's “On Books” essay of April/May 2005 was interesting and thought-provoking.
However, if he is wrong about President Bush, he could be wrong about the purpose and future of science fiction. I do not read science fiction magazines about politics. I read political magazines and newspaper op-ed pages for that.
Carolyn Ostrom
Arlington, VA
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Norman,
I subscribe to all four of the Dell magazines as well as F&SF, so I read a lot of book reviews. Most reviewers, well, review books. You take me places where I have never lived. You take me inside the art of writing and inside the world of publishing. Your reviews give me views of other real worlds while pointing out new speculative worlds that I might like to read about.
Please continue writing book reviews.
Rich Waikel
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Dear Asimov's,
The same day I read Norman Spinrad's “No Surrender?” in your pages, I dropped by the nearest Barnes and Noble, and, sure enough, they've got a whole damned wall of “Star Trek” but not a single volume of Spinrad's. What's wrong with these people? There is no excuse for Bug Jack Barron ever to be out of print. It's as if you couldn't find Huckleberry Finn or The Grapes of Wrath. In my own library, on the shelves in the room where I now sit writing, I count twelve volumes of Mr. Spinrad's novels and stories, plus most of the Asimov's numbers in which his essays have been appearing these twenty-odd years.
Is it time to get seriously pissed off at this crap?
From 1988 to 1994, two women named Judy and Phoebe ran a science fiction bookstore in Richmond, Virginia. A labor of love, subsidized by their day jobs. A great store, the kind of place where I asked for J.G. Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition and they had it. They had plenty of Spinrad, too. They had everybody. Kim Stanley Robinson came for a signing. Lois McMaster Bujold.
After five years, they were doing well enough, they were ready to quit their day jobs. Then Barnes and Noble opened a “superstore” two miles up the road, and, in six months, Judy and Phoebe were out of business.
Readers, writers, citizens—the Thought Police are here. There's a war on, and I don't mean the war across the sea.
I hear you, Norman. Readers know and care, if publishers and booksellers don't.
No surrender!
Hank Roberts
Richmond, VA
We agree that the out-of-print status of so many classic science fiction novels is disconcerting. We can happily report, however, that Norman's Bug Jack Barron is enjoying a new trade-paperback edition, available from Overlook Press.
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Dear Sheila,
How welcome it is to have you stepping on the scene at Asimov's! I'm liking what I'm reading!
I wanted to shore up the magazine and the writers of the magazine in their choice to write literature instead of washed-out, cleaned-up stories that pussyfoot around other people's sense of “decency” and “family values.” While the subject of what, exactly, these words can and has taken up libraries of text, let me just say that it is not hard to figure out that the modern construction of these words—and the polemic they originate from—both render our world colorless, static, and homogenous, and imply a cultural elitism. Also, in harkening back to antiquated (or invented) ideas of how society should function, we lose our ability to explore and re-invent ourselves. Isn't exploration and re-invention what Asimov's is about?
In your April/May 2005 issue, a correspondent writes, “Lastly, since I'm a Christian, I don't like the profanity and immorality that some writers insist on using in their stories and columns."
I work for one of the largest not-for-profit Christian institutions in the world, and my job involves seeing hundreds of Christian families each year. Let me tell you something: being “Christian” does not preclude anyone from profanity. Nor does not being a Christian mean that you love the profane. Nor, really, does shivering from the use of profanity ensure a happy, Christian, or “moral” life.
I have seen numerous Christian leaders and evangelists curse and damn people in the name of God (as if they knew the mind of God—which is profane in itself), while many people who pro forma “curse” do not actually wish anyone burned eternally in hell. Which, I ask, is the real profanity?
Were I an author writing a story about my life as a C
hristian man helping Christian families, I would include profanity, because profanity and the people who use it are very much a part of my “Christian” world. Likewise, I want Mr. Silverberg and other writers including it in their stories. Profanity's part of life. It's in the universe that is, the universe that can be, and the universe that was. In short, any writer who writes of a science fiction future where everybody lives “morally"—and “profanity"—free would be creating a world that was damn hard to swallow.
More importantly, by imposing one moral viewpoint, we are precluding that morality can evolve with us. Just as five hundred years ago, in Europe, it was moral to marry children, abandon your wife, divest her of her earthly goods, etc., today that's not permitted. Rightly so! Science fiction with an all-encompassing static morality is not only ludicrous, but also heavingly dull. Morals change with the times, and if you think “traditional values” aren't post-modern constructions, you'd better put down Asimov's right away and pick up a history book to see what your no-so-distant ancestors thought was moral and just!
Kristian Jaech
Seattle, WA
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Dear Sheila,
Perhaps there's a typo in Tom Robbins's letter in the April/May issue: “Lastly, since I am a Christian, I don't like the profanity and immortality that some writers use...” I can't understand what a Christian doesn't like about immortality. I always thought one of the aims of all beliefs is to obtain exactly that in the afterlife?
Martin Schrijvershof