Analog SFF, April 2010
Page 22
Viewed in this light, the whole matter of prisons and prisoners can be seen as another expression of one of the overarching themes of science fiction (and, for that matter, much of American mundane literature): the individual's place in society, and the tension between the two. Here the prisoner (like the alien, the psionic superman, the gifted genius, and the time traveler) is yet another manifestation of the Outsider. Unfairly separated from a society that doesn't accept or want him, the Outsider can flee that society altogether (escape from prison), integrate into the society (work for rehabilitation), attempt to overthrow the society (lead a revolution), or craft a version of society more to his liking (seek independence for the prison planet).
This month I have for you two books that deal specifically with prison, another that features themes of imprisonment, and a graphic novel that includes a prison planet.
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The Prisoner
Carlos J. Cortes
Bantam Spectra, 416 pages, $7.99
(paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-553-59163-7
Genre: Psychological/Sociological SF
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This near-future thriller plays with the concept of suspended animation in prisons. By 2060, the prison system is contracted out to Hypnos, Inc., a company that markets safe and virtually flawless cryonic hibernation. Inmates are frozen and stacked in Hypnos detention centers known as “sugar cubes,” to be reanimated when their sentences are completed.
As far as Congress and the public know, that's all there is to it. But Laurel Cole learns that there's more to the picture: undocumented prisoners who don't appear in any records, and who have no release date. Prisoners who have come to Hypnos without trial, political dissidents whose only crime is challenging the status quo. When Laurel finds that one of these inmates is reporter Eliot Russo, missing for eight years, she also learns that Russo has information that could expose both Hypnos and their secret government partners.
Aided by an oddball assortment of co-conspirators, Laurel enters the Washington, DC sugar cube as an inmate. Her first mission is to locate Russo and break him out.
But escaping from a maximum-security installation is only the first of Laurel's challenges. Once she has Russo, the race is on to bring down Hypnos its partners, and to do so before Laurel and her team find themselves permanently on ice.
As conventional as it sounds, The Prisoner is a gripping near-future adventure story, and the science behind it is well researched and nicely presented. The pages fly by quickly, the characters are compelling, and the ending is quite satisfactory.
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The Eternal Prison
Jeff Somers
Orbit, 406 pages, $12.99 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-316-02211-8
Series; Avery Cates 3
Genre: Adventure SF
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If you've met Avery Cates in his first two adventures (The Electric Church and The Digital Plague), then you won't be surprised that someone throws him in prison. In fact, you might think it's the best place for him.
Avery is a scary man . . . but he lives in a scary world. In this noir-flavored cyberfuture, Earth is ruled by the System of Federated Nations, policed by the dreaded System Security Force (SSF). Avery, an unwilling conscript in the SSF, is good with guns and has a droll sense of humor (one hears echoes of Sam Spade). After surviving killer cyborgs and bioengineered disaster, Avery now runs afoul of the wrong cops and winds up in Chengara, an inescapable prison with zero survival rate. So first Avery has to escape, then he needs to find out why people he's killed keep coming back to return the favor.
Avery Cates is foul-mouthed and violent, but somehow he manages to be likable as well. His friends and enemies are delightfully strange. And underneath all the blood and guts, the shooting and swearing, the holographic avatars and downloaded brains . . . one gets the distinct whiff of satire, and realizes that no one, least of all Avery Cates, is taking any of this entirely seriously.
A fusion of noir thriller, cyberpunk, and military sf, the bottom line is that Avery Cates is just plain fun. If that's what you're looking for, this is the right place.
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Destroyer of Worlds
Larry Niven & Edward M. Lerner
Tor, 368 pages, $25.99 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2205-0
Series: Known Space; Fleet of Worlds 3
Genres: Alien Beings, Bigger Than Worlds
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Prisons come in all sizes and shapes, but they share the same features: you're there against your will, and you want to escape.
Some decades ago, the alien race that humans call Puppeteers found out that they didn't want to be in the galaxy any longer. The galactic core had exploded, and in a few tens of millennia the wavefront will reach Earth's neighborhood, wiping out all life. So the Puppeteers (who call themselves Citizens) decided to escape. Fortunately, Puppeteer technology is perfectly capable of moving whole planets. Gathering up their homeworld and five agricultural worlds, the Puppeteers left their sun behind and headed for intergalactic space.
All of this is old news to anyone who remembers Niven's classic Ringworld. What we didn't know then, and found out only in the first book of this trilogy (Fleet of Worlds), is that one of the agricultural worlds is populated by the descendants of human castaways that the Puppeteers found centuries before. These humans are essentially Puppeteer slaves, working the fields to provide food for the Citizens.
In Fleet of Worlds and Juggler of Worlds, Kristen Quinn-Kovacs and her associates discovered Earth and the rest of humanity, and led the human agricultural world (now christened New Terra) to independence. New Terra continues to accompany the Puppeteer Fleet of Worlds in its exodus, while Kristen and her people act as explorers to make sure the way is clear of threats.
But now, ten years after Juggler of Worlds, a new threat has arisen: an alien race fleeing the same galactic disaster, leaving whole planets devastated in their wake. These newcomers are headed for the fleet, and it's up to Kristen to deal with them.
If you like Larry Niven's Known Space stories, you'll find plenty here to enjoy. There are bizarre aliens both old and new; there's more advanced technology than you can shake a neutron star at; there are ideas to make your head spin. Characters? Nobody reads Larry Niven for character depth and development—if you want to read about well-rounded characters dealing with complex human problems, this isn't the book for you. But if you want interesting aliens, planet-size and larger threats to overcome, and stirring space adventure, then you should give this one a try.
Of course, this is the third book of a trilogy, and as with any other Niven book, you're expected to do your homework first. You'll probably want to have read the other two before you dive into Destroyer of Worlds. And while an encyclopedic knowledge of Niven's Known Space milieu is not absolutely required, it wouldn't hurt.
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Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds
Geoff Johns, George Pérez, Scott Koblish
DC Comics, 176 pages, $19.99 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2324-3
Genre: Alternate Worlds, Graphic Novels, Superheroes
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In addition to being top pre-Golden Age science fiction writers, Edmond Hamilton and Otto Binder both worked in comics. A bit more than fifty years ago, the two of them had a hand in creating a science-fictional team of superheroes that has survived to this day.
The Legion of Super-Heroes (LSH for short) exists more-or-less a thousand years from now, in the 31st century. In a universe of starships, aliens, and an interstellar government called the United Planets, the LSH is a team of (originally) teenagers, each with a different power or ability. Often they are offworlders whose people developed these abilities to cope with alien planets—for example, settlers on the planet Braal genetically engineered magnetokinetic powers to deal with the hostile metal-boned creatures that inhabit the world, while all inhabitants of Durla are shape-shifters.
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Over the decades the LSH (in the fashion of all comic-book teams) has grown increasingly detailed and more and more baroque. There have been several mutually exclusive versions of the team, as their universe was “rebooted” to attract new readers with a fresh start. But one thing has remained constant: the LSH has always been set in the future, and has always used the tropes and concepts of science fiction: alien beings, other worlds, time travel, alternate universes; they are even inextricably linked to that other science-fiction-based superhero, last survivor of doomed Krypton: Superman. As a boy, Superman traveled into the future and had many adventures with the Legion.
And Legion they are: various incarnations of the team have had dozens of members.
In Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, writer Geoff Johns pulls out all the stops to bring all the previous versions of the LSH together in a space opera like no other. And legendary artist George Pérez is right there with him, his intricately detailed pages teeming with literally hundreds of characters.
The plot is fairly straightforward. A powerful, malevolent entity known as the Time Trapper desires to wipe out the Legion, and finds a perfect weapon: an evil version of Superboy from a universe that no longer exists. The Trapper brings this Superboy Prime to 31st century Earth. The boy—whose unimaginable powers exceed even those of the mature Superman—learns of the existence of a Legion of Super-Villains and liberates them from the prison planet Takron-Galtos. This evil Legion heads to Earth for a final battle with the good Legion.
The LSH calls in Superman from the 21st century, but they know even his power will not be enough. They turn to Brainiac 5, whose super-power is his “twelfth-level intelligence.” Brainy summons two alternate versions of the LSH from other realities; he also resurrects some heroes who died fighting Superboy Prime in the present day. For good measure, the outer-space Green Lantern Corps enters the fray.
It's good Legions vs. evil Legion, with the all-powerful Time Trapper manipulating time to his benefit, until Brainiac 5's machinations bring about a deliciously over-the-top ending that proves, once and for all, that there's still fun left in comics.
If you haven't experienced the Legion of Super-Heroes and their fantastic future universe, you owe it to yourself to give them a try. Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds is a great way to get acquainted with the team that Otto Binder and Edmond Hamilton created, all those years ago.
Copyright © 2010 Don Sakers
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Don Sakers is the author of A Rose From Old Terra and Dance for the Ivory Madonna. For more information, visit www.scatteredworlds.com.
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Reader's Department: BRASS TACKS
Dear Stan Schmidt:
In Analog's November 2009's Alternative View, “Lessons from the Lab,” Jeffrey D. Kooistra offers a valid criticism of data from the National Weather Service's temperature monitoring stations. But before I conclude this inaccurate data alone throws into question the existence of global warming, I would ask Mr. Kooistra his views on the accuracy of National Geographic magazine's photographic archives, which appear to document a significant worldwide shrinkage of glaciers (and polar ice caps) over the past hundred-odd years. Something is causing those ice deposits to go away, and it isn't Invisible Ice Thieves from the planet Zorgul.
Richard M. Boothe
Seal Beach, CA
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Dear Stan,
Regarding the Alternate View column in the November 2009 issue: Kooistra exposes himself as a single data point physicist. Not only do we know that there's increased CO2 in the atmosphere (it's at this moment higher than any time in the last 300,000 years and increasing daily), but we also know CO2's absorption spectrum and like glass, it acts as a greenhouse material! We also have a pretty good idea of what the conditions on this planet were the last time CO2 levels were as high as they are now. We also notice the melting of glaciers all over the world as well as the permafrost in at least Alaska, not to mention the Artic Ocean. Looks like we can think about using the fabled Northwest Passage and still be skeptical about global warming? As an engineer, I was trained to look at the big picture in relatively simple terms. The way I see it, we live in a sphere that has several sources of heat energy influx, a blanket of insulation (which we're increasing with the CO2, etc.), and at least one source of loss of the heat that's coming in (radiation to the almost perfect “black box” of outer space). If we are increasing our insulation blanket, and at the same time releasing huge amounts of heat energy, there's only a single path for the immediate future. The only thing we have left to worry about is what the planet will do in response, as there are more feedback mechanisms built into our environment than I can get my mind around—some are positive and some negative. As a pragmatic and conservative old school engineer, I caution Jeffrey not to look at only one data point and to especially not mess with Mother Nature! (Or predict the future from a biased perspective!)
I've been reading Astounding/Analog since I was a kid, when my dad would bring it home in the early ‘50s, and this is the first time I thought I needed to be even a little critical.
Thanks for the many thoughtful reads over the years.
Ron Miller
Colorado Springs
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Dr. Schmidt:
I always enjoy reading Jeffery Kooistra's Alternate View and this one, citing the inaccuracy of the temperature measurements made by the NWS in support of his skepticism of global warming, was no exception. I downloaded and read the report he cited, written by meteorologist Anthony Watts. I agree with the conclusion that almost none of the temperature-sensing probes are sited for accurate readings of the ambient air temperature. However, given the fact that such things as asphalt-paved parking lots, air conditioner exhausts, and concrete walls exist in the world, one must admit that they contribute to the increase in temperature of the ambient air as, apparently, do all of the sources of greenhouse gases. While admitting that the placement of these temperature probes is neither ideal nor even in compliance with the Nation Weather Services own specifications, I find it hard to say that there is no such thing as global warming when reports are coming in that glaciers are melting all over the world and trees are taking over the tundra. Something is happening to cause all this. By all means, we should fix the siting of the temperature probes to accurately record the ambient air temperature. I'm definitely in favor of gathering good data, but in the meantime, I still plan to do everything I can to make my own energy use as efficient as possible and keep my “carbon footprint” as small as I can.
Paul Baker
Browns Valley, CA
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Dear Stan:
In the 2009 November issue, Jeffery Kooistra latches onto some poor data collection practices for air temperature to support his skepticism about global warming. The errors quoted don't seem to justify saying that global warming doesn't exist, just that it's not proceeding quite as fast as that particular data implies. One doesn't need sophisticated averaging of daily and seasonally fluctuating air temperatures to know that Earth's heat balance is not in equilibrium. Just look at the ice.
The upper part of a container of ice water may stay close to the freezing point as long as some ice exists, but melting of the ice clearly indicates that the container is absorbing heat. Similarly, melting of ice at both poles and in almost every glacier on Earth clearly indicates that more heat is being added to Earth's surface than is being radiated away into space. The real issue is not so much a question of “warming” (yet); it's a matter of how big the imbalance is now, how fast it is increasing, and what we can do to reach equilibrium or better before much of the current land area becomes uninhabitable desert or ocean floor.
Chuck Gaston
Lancaster, PA
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Dear Dr. Schmidt,
Mr. Kooistra has again raised some interesting issues. He suggests that evidence for recent global warming that is based just on thermometer readings may be flawe
d due to local heating affects. This urban affect on local temperatures has long been known, and if that were the only evidence for global warming, then I would agree that some skepticism of global warming might be justified. However, that is not the case, and there are many other means of estimating temperature changes of our planet.
For instance there is one recent article (Kaufman et al. 2009. “Recent warming reverses long-term arctic cooling.” Science 325: (5945, 9/4) 1236-1239) which estimates past temperatures by several different techniques, none of which involve direct thermometer readings. They find that data from each technique supports the conclusion that there has been an unusual rise in arctic temperatures in the past century, consistent with recent global warming. Perhaps Mr. Kooistra might review the techniques used in this study. If he finds flaws in any of the techniques used by these researchers, then he might share them with Analog readers in the future?
Otherwise it should be noted that all means of measuring temperature, or anything in science, have technical issues. That is why in science there is cross checking of results, repeated by other workers, and done using different techniques. When many different workers, using many different methods, see the same trends, then it is very likely that something is up. That is the current state of affairs with global warming. The article I note above is merely one of a vast number of studies on this topic. While thermometers are still used to measure temperature, the technical problem that Mr. Kooistra notes has long been recognized. The use of these other techniques has served as a cross check, and the consensus it that global warming is happening.