Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century by Robert Charles Wilson

Europe is overnight replaced with a strange land with strange plants and strange, most often poisonous animals. The geography is the same, but no trace of any human habitation remains. After a short period of puzzlement there is a scramble for new territory and resources. The main character is a photographer who takes part on an ill fated expedition to mountains which used to be called the Alps. The expedition finds a strange artificial structure before they are attacked by unknown villains. The few survivors keep a very low profile after their return, especially after some very unusual visitors contact them..

The later half of the book is pretty different from the beginning. There turns out to be strange factions fighting age old battles and the people find themselves drafted to take part of the fight. And by the end of the book things turn out to be very metaphysical and the world itself might not be what it appears.
The idea of the book is pretty good, and the first half is excellent. Unfortunately the second half is much worse. It covers a very long time – decades - in fairly sketchy manner and and even the final battle is over in a few pages and is described in very detached manner.


320 pp.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact July-August 2011

I read this issue weeks ago, but haven't had time to write the review. Stupidly I hadn't made any notes about stories, either – and had some real trouble remembering the details of some of them. That naturally tells something about the quality of those stories, also. Two goods ones, others less so.


Coordinated Attacks • novella by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Practically all leaders of the moon are assassinated or at least tried to assassinate with a very strange poison. A police officer investigates the crime. Her examination of an earlier crime (which almost ended very badly for her and her partner) is followed on another time level. There is a connection between those events, but a fairly loose one. A well-written story, but somehow not so well structured as it could have been. The ending was also a bit too open. ****-

Jak and the Beanstalk • novelette by Richard A. Lovett
A young boy wants to climb to the orbital elevator when he grows up. It takes some planning and maneuvering, but when he is a young man, he gets his chance. It is only 35,786 km vertically...
Surprisingly good story, but there a little too much (perhaps unneeded) drama at the end. ****-

A Witness to All That Was • shortstory by Scott William Carter
A married couple with serious issues find a lone robot from a desolate planet. The robot has a story to tell. Writing was fairly good, but the plot felt very familiar with some echoes from Star Trek TNG:s “Inner Light”. ***

Death and Dancing in New Las Vegas • shortstory by Ernest Hogan
Some extremely confusing happenstances in Mars. Some sort of band is supposed to perform on Martian city. I didn't get the story at all, or at least couldn't recall any real details when writing the review.. Apparently, it was supposed to be funny. **

One Out of Many • novelette by Kyle Kirkland
A brain stimulator which is supposed to be safe might have some unforeseen consequences after all. But why a legendary character, a possible crime lord, is interested in it and kidnaps a member science regulations bureau? A lot happens in the story and not everything in it is very logical. The world is fairly strange – you must wait in a line to get access to information databases and you are not supposed to take notes. Some pruning of some details or expansion might have served the story. ***-

The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head: A Psychiatrist's Stories of His Most Bizarre Cases by Gary Small

A collection of unusual cases from the practice of American psychiatrist, varying from a naked young woman standing on her head on the emergency ward to a slowly progressing dementia of a colleague. All cases are solved very neatly and quickly by the author, while most of his fellow doctors tend to be arrogant fools. Pretty interesting as such, but gives an impression that psychotherapy is a fast process which is most often based on a clever insight of the therapists. The book was entertaining to read in spite of a great amount simplification of the process.

267 pp.

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

The long waited installment of perhaps the best fantasy series there is or have ever been.
The story continues partly in parallel with the earlier book and deals with those characters who were not featured in it.
As usually, the story is seen from multiple viewpoints, perhaps from too many. For some reason there seemed to be a fair amount of fluctuation of quality between different chapters. Some of them (especially the most Reek/Theon chapters,) were extremely good, some less good, or seemed even superfluous.
As a whole, this book felt more than a little like a middle part of a series: the pieces are being set up for the more important events in the later books and the Real Events will happen sometime later. Well, there were some moving and surprising turns of the plot, but even they seemed to be more cliffhangers for the rest of the series and the consequences were not explored at all, and practically all characters were left to hang on cliffhangers. This was not the best book on the series, and it seems that GRRM has reached that point in his career that he doesn’t have to use an editor anymore. There are a fair amount of things which could have been condensed and even removed resulting in a more satisfying and entertaining book, not to say that this wasn’t one.

1040 pp.

Katja Bargum: Kutistuva turska ja muita evoluution ihmeitä

Excellent and entertainingly written book about the basic principles of evolution. Something every creationist should read, but probably wont.

Viihdyttävästi kirjoitettu johdatus evoluutioon ja sen perusmekanismeihin. Kirja lähtee evoluution perusmekanismeista ja päätyy siihen kuinka ihmiskunnan itsekkyys (joka on evolutionaarisesti ymmärrettävää) vaarantaa koko maailman. Loppupuolella ehkä mennään hiukan liiankin moralisoivalla puolelle. Parasta kirjassa ovat kuvaukset evoluution erikoisista ratkaisuista, mm tilanteissa joissa evoluutio on johtanut lajeja umpikujaan suosimalla yksilön selviämistä lajin selviämisen asemesta. Evoluution logiikka ja mekanismi selitetään kirjassa erittäin hyvin ja selkeästi. Jokaisen sekopää kreationistin lukulistalle tämä kuuluisi, tosin ei taida siitä olla pelkoa.


317 s.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact March 2006

A serial takes a lot of space. Pretty average issue.

The Little White Nerves Went Last • novella by John Barnes
A formed leader of some sort of military or espionage organization is woken inside another man's mind, so that important information can be retrieved. Most of the story is a story inside a story, a tale what happened to him as a very young boy ( mind eating robots attacked the planet) the framing story was a lot less interesting as the nested tale. ***+
The Skeekit-Woogle Test • shortstory by Carl Frederick
A slow and asymptomatic viral infection makes people more creative. A scientist who discovers that wants to be infected as he doesn't consider himself to be creative at all. A fairly nice idea, but execution didn't really work. I found it hard to believe that someone who has been studying synesthesia wouldn't recognize it when he himself has it. ***+
Wildlife • shortstory by Henry Melton
A nature photographer goes to the moon to take some pictures of the landscape there. He finds out that there is some ”wildlife” there, also. A simple, short, story. ***-
Playhouse • [Draco Tavern] • shortstory by Larry Niven
A Draco tavern story. The aliens have some difficulties with their stasis equipment and unload a bunch of alien children from different species to the Draco tavern. Some of them with some fairly unusual habits. Ok, average or above average story. ***
Wasting Time • novelette by Grey Rollins
A professor has some trouble keeping his office plants alive. Then the whole outside wall of his office crumbles, later when the workers are building a new wall it explodes. What might be causing that? Pretty good story, probably the best in issue. The sinister implications of the invention which was made in the laboratory in the next building are are also at least mentioned. ***½

Reijo Mäki: Kolmastoista yö

A detective novel about a PI working in Turku. Probably worst I have read in this series. The book has some serious problems with an overcrowded plot involving KGB sleeper agents, mafia hit men, nuclear weapons and bisexual love triagles.


Vares romaani. Tällä kertaa Vares kohtaa useampiakin entisen Neuvostoliiton ja nyky isen Venäjän sleeper- agentteja, oma osuutensa juonessa on myös mafialla ja ydinaseilla, epätoivoista biseksuaalista rakkaustarinaa unohtamatta. Ja Vareksella tietenkin kauniita naisia ja olutta riittää. Kovin suuri uskottavuus ei Vares-kirjoissa ole mikään perusvaatimus tavallisestikaan ollut, mutta tässä kyllä mentiin uskottavuudessa kaikkien järkevien rajojen yli. Kirjassa oli runsaasti vauhdikkaita tapahtumia, mutta niiden järkevyys kyllä oli siinä ja sinä. Useampia sarjan kirjoja olen lukenut, mutta tämä taitaa kyllä olla heikoin. Jotenkin kirjoitustyylikin oli jäykempää kuin muissa sarjan kirjoissa. Jonkinasteinen pettymys, joka tuntui vähän välityöltä, mutta menihän tämä kirja hyvin kevyenä ja nopeana kesälukemisena.

362 s.

Galaxy Science Fiction October 1953

A serial takes a lot of space. The short stories are clearly below average.

The Model of a Judge • shortstory by William Morrison
An extraterrestrial with impeccable taste judges a pie making contest. I wonder what the point of the story is supposed to be? **-
The Carnivore • shortstory by Katherine MacLean [as by G. A. Morris ]
Aliens show themselves after humanity has destroyed itself in a war. Aliens are herbivores and very timid, and are afraid of the warlike humanity. The end twist is something that could be expected - aliens have sterilized all remaining humans so that there can be no more so dangerous creatures.***-
With a Vengeance • shortstory by J. B. Woodley
A short story about a new American emperor, who as a young man wanted to by a newspaperman, but couldn't as his writing was so atrocious. Now he has a job for the editor who fired him.... The best story in the magazine, but still fairly mediocre. ***
Origins of Galactic Etiquette • [Origins of Galactic . . .] • shortstory by Edward Wellen
Short stupid vignettes of misunderstandings between Galatic races. The premise might be good, but the stories are overlong and really, really stupid and badly written. Supposed to be funny, but isn't. **
At the Post • novelette by H. L. Gold
Gambler's wife is in a mental hospital because of catatonic schizophrenia. He and some of his friends starts to suspect that she is able to travel to the future. As that would be really valuable for some whose main interest is gambling on horse races, he tries to get into the same state as his wife. It turns out that she isn't traveling to the future – she is working with aliens who want to preserve some of humanity's most important aspects before mankind destroys itself. A pretty bad story which is badly written. **-