The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

The first part of a series which apparently is very popular in China. The story starts during the Cultural Revolution and ends in the near future. It tells a story of a science project, which was started in the middle of political turmoil and produced results which will shake the whole world decades later. I don’t believe that if I reveal that the main theme of the book is a contact with extraterrestrial civilization spoils too much. There has been a contact with extraterrestrials and it seems they won’t be friendly. The book is told large part by flashbacks and by just telling what has happened. The book really doesn’t follow the common writing advice “show, don’t tell”.

In the afterword, the translator states that he aimed to preserve the structure of language. That probably explains part of at places awkward writing. I pretty much disagree- I believe that the translator should aim to convey the plot and characters as smoothly as possible and not care about the linguistic structures of the original language. And this translator apparently also believes that the readers are morons and inserted copious amount of footnotes, which not only explain cultural details - most of which should be pretty clear from the circumstances and from the common knowledge of the Chinese history even a westerner with a normal education should have - but also some pretty basic scientific concepts. I was almost insulted by some of them. There also were some pretty bad problems with science, for example the scene where police was evaluating which of (all very small, too far too small for reasonable critical mass + triggering device) several bombs contained a real nuclear explosive with a scale was jaw-droppingly stupid. There were some other very stupid details: A character who specializes in nanotechnology states that the only form they are able to create from nanomaterial consists of a single filament. On the next page it turns out they have flat sheets of material - did the author manage to forget what he stated a few paragraphs earlier? Also, antimatter apparently exists in space in amounts usable for collection for propulsion? If there were such amounts of antimatter in interstellar space, there should be very common occurrences of matter -antimatter collisions with heavy radiation. And a virtual reality computer game, which is pretty crucial for the plot, apparently involves mostly only observing and it is so intriguing, that it induced people to betray everything, literally everything, - and is at the same time so complex that only the most intellectual people care to "play" it? Also, in China tree saplings grow to a forest in three years after planting?

I do have some suspicions of what kind of plot twist might explain some of the stupidities, but that Matrix-like twist would be a reader betrayal of all times and I don’t think the author will go there. But if everything in the book turns out to be a computer simulation it would explain many things. In spite of its’ flaws, the book was entertaining. But is it worth a Hugo – I am not entirely sure.

400 pp.

My Hugo award votes 2015 part 1 – Novelettes

This is the first category where I have read all nominees. I am going to read all nominees of all fiction categories even if it might be hard - at least those two John C Wright stories I have already read, seem to be quite “interesting” and I am not exactly looking forward to reading the other nominees. All expect one of the nominees got their nomination from the “puppy lists”, lists which were designed by Americanocentric people from religious far right, who believe that recent nominees have been too diverse (and apparently far too well written, at least it seems so). And a mystic alliance of “social justice warriors” has been scheming to rob the valiant writers of “real” science fiction from well-deserved nominations. Those claims are pretty ridiculous as there have been several nominees and even winners which represent very well such science fiction they claim has been neglected. But those books were written by women - or worst of all, by John Scalzi, who writes mostly exactly the type of fiction the “dog lovers” claim has been neglected. But he happens to be a liberal and that is apparently one of the worst crimes there possibly can be. There is some evidence, that the more lunatic slate, the “rabid dogs”, which was organized by the openly racist Vox Day got its’ votes from the supporters of “gamergate” scandal – that is from those people, who have rotten their brains by playing too much computer games. The nominees of that list seem to be mostly pretty horrible, at least those I have read so far. In this category, there was only one nominee, which didn’t originate those slates – and that wasn’t very good. It is hard to understand how those sad wankers selected these stories for their lists. There were several from Analog (which actually _has_ been neglected in the nominations even in my opinion) – but they were nowhere among the best novelettes published last in the Analog magazine. None of them was even in the top two in the reader poll of that magazine. If either of those two stories (Life Flight by Brad R. Torgersen and Persephone Descending by Derek Künsken)– incidentally I nominated both of them for Hugos– were on the list, I would have put them above the “no award”. Due to bad or at best insignificant writing, I will vote “no award” for the first place in this category.


“The Day the World Turned Upside Down”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Lia Belt translator (Lightspeed, 04-2014)
The only story in the category which is not from either of the puppy lists. Unfortunately, it isn’t too good, either. A man has broken with his girlfriend and the world turns upside down. Literally. People who were unfortunate enough to be outside are falling up to the sky, fishes which jump up out from the water are trapped on air a fall upwards (the water itself doesn’t fall down strangely enough). The man starts a journey with his girlfriend’s fish to find his former love. A very metaphoric story, so implausible that it is laughable and with extremely irritating characters. In normal year, this would have a solid contender of fourth or fifth place.

“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium”, Gray Rinehart (Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, 05-2014)
Humans have lived on an alien planet, but alien have come and conquered the colony. They control the level of technology humans can use. The aliens have a severe hang-up about any ditches or anything buried. A human dies and the burial causes some "slight" consternation among the aliens, so much that the trying to decide between exterminating the humans of abandoning the planet. A pretty stupid story. Takes its time to get going and then ends very suddenly. The writing felt clumsy and hard to get into and the ending was ridiculous.

“Championship B’tok”, Edward M. Lerner (Analog, 09-2014)
A group of aliens live on a moon of Uranus. They apparently tried to invade the Earth, but were defeated. The remnants live on the moon in a kind of reservation. They have had some accidents which are being investigated. They might also have some hidden agenda. And there might also be something even more secret going on. A part of a series and feels fairly separate as itself, but the story ends with a cliffhanger. I haven’t been a great fan of this series and I don’t love this instalment, either, but perfectly ok story. As a part of series, the story isn’t a really good nominee to begin with.


“The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale”, Rajnar Vajra (Analog, 07/08-2014)
A group of some sort of “space cadets” take part in a bar room fight. As a punishment, they must join a mission to a planet with apparently intelligent life, which has so far resisted all attempts of communication. Most life forms, especially the plants on the planet are extremely dangerous. One of the cadets claims that he will succeed at something dozens of scientists have failed: he is going to open the communications. Very much reminiscent of Heinlein’s juveniles - not as well and entertainingly written, but not too bad. Not great or unusual in any way, but readable in spite of somewhat irritating characters. In normal year a solid contender of third or fourth place.


“The Journeyman: In the Stone House”, Michael F. Flynn (Analog, 06-2014)
Continues an earlier story. A pair of friends are drafted to an army which fights against green-skinned men. The story apparently happens on a planet which was colonized by humans centuries ago and some high-tech relics might still be around somewhere. For most part the technology is medieval, but the green-skinned ones seem to have muskets and primitive cannons. Little happens in the story. The bulk of the tale is taken by a very detailed description of battle, which at places seems almost like a transcript of a war game which is interspaced with light humorous banter. The writing is pretty good, but again: where is the plot? As a part of series, the story isn’t a really good nominee to begin with and it doesn’t work very well alone.

My voting will be:

1. No award
2. “The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale”, Rajnar Vajra (Analog, 07/08-2014)
3. “The Day the World Turned Upside Down”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Lia Belt translator (Lightspeed, 04-2014)
4. “Championship B’tok”, Edward M. Lerner (Analog, 09-2014)

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2005

A nice issue with interesting stories.

Footsteps • novelette by Shane Tourtellotte
A dead man is found on the lunar surface. He wears ordinary clothes and he is far too far from any airlocks for a quick suicidal dash. And there are marks on the ground of any vehicle which might have dropped the body. Was it a murder? And if it was, how in hell it was accomplished? A pretty good detective story on moon. The main characters were strangely fascinated and even obsessive about fame. ***½
Death As a Way of Life • [Jack Sawyer's Doppelganger] • novelette by Grey Rollins
A detective who has a few copies of himself running secretly on computer networks studies a case where a man a killed himself in a TV show was not reviewed in a clone body as expected. It was first written down as a machine malfunction, but it turns out there was something else going on. A fairly standard detective story - not great literature but entertaining. ***+
The Inn at Mount Either • shortstory by James Van Pelt
A husband loses his wife in a mystical inn which seems to span several dimensions. He tries to find her, but he is lost more and more. A decent story but stupid characters: wouldn’t the visitors know where there going – even the most basic details? And some extremely badly planned safety features. ***+
Tainted • shortstory by Jerry Oltion
A single intelligent and immortal creature evolves on a planet where life is very different. He/she/it slowly explores the galaxy and fails to find other life until he finds Earth – which is destroyed by a nuclear war fought centuries or millennia ago. A nice bittersweet story. ***+
Tomorrow's Strawberries • shortstory by Richard A. Lovett
In a future earth, the entire surface of the planet is covered by a city – except a largish park. The right to visit is only by lottery. An old man (who body is in pretty good condition due to advanced medicine) gets the privilege. It affects him profoundly. A pretty good and well-written story. ***½
Smiling Vermin • [Jessie and Gus] • shortstory by Ekaterina Sedia and David Bartell
A retired genetic engineer decides to design some small pet dolphins for his wife as a present. Everything doesn’t go well…A light story, but unbelievably indifferent attitude to the spread of new and unpredictable life forms by people who surely should know better. ***+
High Moon • novelette by Joe Schembrie
Remote drones are used for prospecting palladium in moon. The drone operators for a society modeled (very closely ) on the wild west. An Evil Drone run by a Palladium Consortium is a bad guy. A stupid story. It might have worked better with less ridiculous western motives or going even more to the direction of crazy farce. I wonder why the prospectors didn't record the evil works of the evil drone. As they worked using remote viewing it should have been totally trivial. This way they would have had concrete evidence against the consortium – but then there would have been no story. ***+

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 2015

The thousandth issue of Analog/Astounding ever. A pretty nice one. The theme seems to be aliens and alien influence. There are a few essays about the history of the magazine. The most of those were very good and interesting.

The Wormhole War • novelette by Richard A. Lovett
A wormhole experiment leads to apparent war against aliens (or perhaps against the whole galaxy) where humans are sending wormholes at relativistic speeds to prevent the alien wormholes reaching the earth. Ok story, but a little overlong. And it is hard to believe that the political leaders and different countries would be so unanimously for the continuing battle when the goals of the aliens aren't known and even the war itself is somewhat open to interpretation. ***+
Very Long Conversations • shortstory by Gwendolyn Clare
A joint expedition of humans and aliens explore a new planet which is supposed to be uninhabited. They find strange stick figures. Are they being pranked by some other members of the expedition or what is going on? A pretty simple and short story - a pretty inventive concept of language though. ***
The Kroc War • shortstory by Ted Reynolds and William F. Wu
Short personal viewpoints of soldiers, who fight at war between humans and ruthless aliens. But war changes those who take part on it. Too short pieces and about too many people. **
Strategies for Optimizing Your Mobile Advertising • shortstory by Brenta Blevins
A short and fairly stupid story about an age where advertising rules everything, including relations. **+
The Odds • shortstory by Ron Collins
Not a story – just a philosophical pondering about the likelihood of life in the universe. **
The Empathy Vaccine • shortstory by Charles Coleman Finlay [as by C. C. Finlay ]
A ruthless businessman wants to be really ruthless and goes for an undercover scientist, who has developed a "vaccine" against empathy. Not bad, with a couple of nice twists. Short, but doesn’t necessarily need to be any longer. ***½
Three Bodies at Mitanni • shortstory by Seth Dickinson
A story which seems to continue an earlier one. An expedition is checking human colonies which have been separated from Earth for centuries. If the colony might present danger for humanity as large, the expedition has been to exterminate it. There has been a close call, and now the next colony seems to be very malignant and powerful at the same time. A fairly nice story, but constant references to earlier events to something, what happened at “Jotunheim” with no real explanation feels kind of irritating. But the “culture” they encountered was refreshingly interesting and there were some real interesting moral points to ponder. ***+
Ships in the Night • shortstory by Jay Werkheiser
A spaceman, who travel with ships at relativistic speeds between solar systems, tell tall tales to locals at a bar. A simple story, not bad, but not especially good. ***
The Audience • novelette by Sean McMullen
A human ship encounters some very strange but powerful aliens who live under the ice which covers a rogue planet which passing fairly close to the sun at about Kuipier belt. The aliens seem to take an interest to humans with pretty unfortunate results for most of the crew. The lone survivor takes drastic measures to protect the earth from possibly devastating alien interest. A pretty good and interesting story. ****-

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

A Hugo nominated book which got the nomination for its’ own sake and was not recommended on either of voting blocks, not on the naïve but fairly understandable voting block favoring militaristic, “fun” books leaning on the right; or on the bloc run by racist who was kicked out of the Science Fiction Writers of America and who apparently drafted idiot gamers who have ruined they brains by playing computer games and who were responsible for the “gamergate” scandal to ruin this thing, too.

The elf king and his closest sons have been killed in an accident, which turns out to be sabotage. His only surviving son is a half-goblin who is a result of a political marriage (apparently, elves and goblins belong to the same species in this universe – which is kind of strange). He has lived a solitary life for most of his life and is more than a little overwhelmed when he ends up as the king of all elves. But he turns out to be a more capable ruler than anyone suspected.

The book could be called “comfortable”. Most of the people behave peacefully, and even the bad guys who plot against the new king don’t seem caricatures, and their actions are understandable, at least mostly. The main character is very sympathetic, maybe even too much. He doesn’t really seem to have any real flaws – even his shyness and slight social awkwardness seem minor and sensitive features.

The book has a vast number of characters, and it is extremely hard to keep track of them, especially for someone who is bad with names, like me. The Kindle app on iPad makes an automatic list of all names in the book. It isn’t wholly accurate, but it gives a good ballpark figure. According to that analysis, this book has 136 different characters! That is kind of a high figure for 512 pages, especially when most people have fairly hard and complicated names. Another flaw is that fairly little happens in the book. Most of the book is filled with the fairly mundane matters of governing the state. A lot of space is used for the description of balls and other official events, and what kind of clothes everyone wears, and what the king should wear. Also, the discussions about the king’s marriage (the king’s marriage is done mostly to strengthen alliances) take up many pages. The book was readable, but it isn’t really “my style of book”. Somehow, the book felt pretty similar to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, which was nominated for the Hugo awards a few years ago. I think I prefer that book to this one, and I am not sure if this is an award-worthy book. This probably won’t be in the first place on my list.

512 pp

Suzanne Collins: Nälkäpeli (The Hunger Games)

One of the more popular books among the young people. Read in Finnish, so the main review is in Finnish. Entertaining and even addicting story in spite of more than a little unbelievable political and economic system. The concept itself wasn’t one of the most sensible in the literature – but I –who rarely remembers dreams and NEVER dreams about what I read – had a dream about this book when I was reading the most action filled parts. So there apparently IS something in this book which is able to get into your mind.


Tulevaisuuden Amerikassa totalitaarinen hallinto vaatii vuosittain jokaiselta alueelta yhden tytön ja yhden pojan osallistumista gladiaattorityyliseen kisaan, jossa oikeastaan ainoa sääntö on, että viimeisenä eloonjäänyt voittaa. Entinen Pohjois-Amerikka on jakautunut kolmeentoista eri alueeseen, josta jokainen on erikoistunut jonkin asia tuottamiseen. Osa alueista, pieninumeroisemmat, ovat rikkaita ja niiden teknologia on korkealle kehittynyttä, osa alueista on sorrettuja, edes ruokaa ei ole riittävästi ja elämän täyttää työ. Tämä jako on jäännöstä sisällissodasta, joka käytiin Panemia, keskusvaltaa, vastaan. Kapinaa johtanut alue 13 tuhottiin tuolloin täysin. Kirjan alussa päähenkilön, Katnissin, pikkusisko arvotaan osallistumaan kisoihin. Kaniss uhrautuu siskonsa puolesta ja lähtee taistelemaan henkensä edestä muiden alueiden nuoria vastaan.
Erittäin luettava kirja, joka oli oudon addiktoiva. Kielellisesti se ei ollut mitenkään erityisen luova, mutta tämä on toisaalta täysin ymmärrettävää, koska kirja on kokonaan 16- vuotiaan, suuren osan elämästään kirjaimellisesti metsässä asuneen tytön minä-muotoista kerrontaa. Kirjan maailma ei ollut kovin looginen, sillä poliittinen ja etenkin taloudellinen järjestelmä vaikuttivat enemmän kuin vähän epäuskottavilta. Myös se, kuinka suuria sektorit oikein ovat jäi epäselväksi, esim. sektori kaksitoista, josta kirjan sankari on kotoisin, vaikutti välillä lähinnä yksittäiseltä kylältä, jossa kaikki tuntevat toisensa, toisaalta tribuuttia arvottaessa oli arvonnassa mukana tuhansia arpalippuja ja muutenkin niin pieni koko kokonaiselle alueelle tuntui kummalta. Ja mitähän muulle maailmalle on tapahtunut, jos Panem pitää valtaa Pohjois-Amerikassa? Ihan kuin pelkkä Pohjois-Amerikka olisi ollut koko maailma. Ja mikä motiivi matalanumeroisten alueiden vapaaehtoisilla kisaajilla oli ylipäätään osallistua kisaan? Arviolta 90% todennäköisyys kuolla, panoksena yltäkylläinen elämä, jonka saa jo muutenkin ilman kisan osallistumistakin. Tosin sanoinkuvaamattoman ammattitaidottomia ammattilaisia kyseessä kyllä oli, sen verran huonosti he suoriutuivat. Mutta kirja oli kokonaisuutena oikein viihdyttävä välipala, minä näin jopa kirjasta unta. Ja minä en KOSKAAN näe unia siitä mitä luen.

374 s.

Kurt Vonnegut: Teurastamo 5 (Slaughterhouse Five)

This is probably my favorite book ever. Tells a story of a man unstuck in time while commenting on war, human condition, philosophy and almost everything. Well worth of re-read after 20 years.

Tämä on ehkä suosikkikirjani kautta aikojen. Edellisestä lukukerrasta oli jo kulunut varmaan 20 vuotta, joten ihan tarkkaan tapahtumat eivät ihan kaikki mielessä olleet, mutta pääkohdat luonnollisesti kyllä. Itse asiassa muistin, että kirjassa olisi ollut enemmänkin tapahtumia kuin siinä oikeasti oli, todennäköisesti Vonnegutin muut teokset olivat hiukan sekoittuneet tähän. Kirjahan kertoo epälineaarisesti miehestä, joka koki toisen maailmansodan aikana sotavankina Dresdenin kaupungin pommituksen (kuten Vonnegut itsekin). Mies joutui myöhemmin avaruusolioiden sieppaamaksi ja eli eläintarhassa heidän katseltavanaan. Kyseiset alienit näkevät ajan kokonaisuutena ja viettävät aikaansa lähinnä elämänsä hyvissä hetkissä. Jouduttuaan pahaan onnettomuuteen ja saatuaan aivovamman mies päättää kertoa kokemuksistaan maailmalle omaksuen saman filosofian ja alkoi pudota ajassa elämänsä tapahtumasta toiseen. Koko kirja kerrotaan lyhyinä parin kappaleen välähdyksinä miehen koko elämän varrelta ja ne voisi teoriassa lukea missä järjestyksessä hyvänsä - käytännössä palat tietenkin muodostavat loistavan kokonaisuuden juuri siinä järjestyksessä kuin ne ovat. Kirjan pääteemana voinee pitää sodan turhuutta ja elämän hyvistä hetkistä nauttimista. Teos on Vonnegutin pääteos, johon suuri osa hänen muista kirjoistaan liittyy tavalla tai toisella; kirjan ohimennen mainitut sivuhenkilöt ovat myöhempien kirjojen päähenkilöitä. Rakenteellisesti kirja on erittäin omaperäinen ja todella miellyttävä ja mieltä kiehtova lukuelämys.
189 s.

Astounding Science Fiction, October 1958

A fairly good issue – including one Hugo award winner.


The Big Front Yard • novella by Clifford D. Simak
A man who fixes appliances and trades with antiques first finds that a few things which were waiting to be repaired have been repaired and vastly improved, for example an old b&w TV is turned to a color set. And his house is being enforced by unscratchable plastic-like material. And then a portal to an other world appears…Another story with thematic similarities with the Waystation. A well-written story, but perhaps slightly too disjointed at places. ****-
The Yellow Pill • shortstory by Rog Phillips
A man has killed several people in a supermarket. He is brought to see a psychiatrist. The murderer behaves very calmly and explains to the shrink that he is the sane one and he has just saved their space ship from Venusian lizards, who tried to board the ship. And the psychiatrist is his friend and crewmate, who has some severe mental troubles and tends to imagine strange things - like living on earth and being doctor. A pretty amusing short story. ***½
Big Sword • novelette by Pauline Ashwell [as by Paul Ash ]
Human explorers live on an unknown planet. They are slowly exploring the planet but aren’t aware of a sentient species with an unusual life cycle and means of communication. And the aliens can’t contact humans with their telepathic powers as human minds are always so busy. But the commander’s son is a curious young man, and he might be able to bridge that gap. A pretty good story, but slow and overlong at places. I wonder if Orson Scott Card has read this story before he wrote Xenocide, there are some slight similarities. ***
... And Check the Oil • novelette by Randall Garrett
A chemist is drafted by a friend to a secret government project: They are studying an alien spacecraft and are trying to make friendly contact with its’ crew. There seems to be a fair amount of distrust between humans and aliens, but a female scientist finds an innovative way of proving good intentions. It involves something which sounds pretty risqué for this time period’s Astounding: stripping naked to prove you are not carrying any weapons. A fairly nice story, perhaps slightly overlong, but writing ok and the plot isn’t bad. ***½
False Image • shortstory by Jay Williams
Explorers meet strange giant aliens whose behavior is strange. The aliens turn out to be humans (in the past) and the explorers are aliens. About as bad and stupid it sounds. **+