Cormac McCarthy: Tie (The Road)

Finnish translation of Road. Excellent but depressing book, one of the best books I have read this year. Translation was very good.

Mies ja poika vaeltavat pimenevässä tuhkan täyttämässä maailmassa tietä pitkin kohteena meri ja etelä. Lähes kaikki muut ovat kuollut, ja viimeiset ihmiset taistelevat sivilisaation jäänteistä. Ruokana ovat vain talojen raunioista pengotut vanhat säilykepurkit.

Kielellisesti kirja on omaperäinen, tyylikästä, hyvin lyhyistä, mutta paljonpuhuvista lauseista koostuvaa, etäännyttävää, ulkopuolelta tapahtuvaa kuvausta, mutta samalla se onnistuu olemaan tunteita herättävää. Henkilöiden nimiä ei missään vaiheessa paljasteta, mutta tämä pikemminkin tekee kuvauksesta henkilökohtaisemman tuntuista.

Tarina on osapuilleen niin synkkä kuin voi olettaa. Toivottomuus ja ahdistus ovat vahvasti mukana koko ajan ja toivonpilkahdukset ja mukavat hetket jäävät vähäisiksi.

Katastrofia ei tarkkaan kuvailla, mutta jokin on tappanut kaikki vihreät kasvit, ja tämän vuoksi myös kaikki eläimet ovat kadonneet. Lisäksi ilmasto vaikuttaa olevan jäähtymässä, aurinkoa ei juuri näy. Miksi ja miten jäävät avoimiksi kysymyksiksi.

Muutama asia katastrofissa jäi kyllä mietityttämään: Jos vähintään noin 98% ihmisistä on kuollut, niin miten ihmeessä saattoi olla niin kova puute kengistä? Kyllähän niitä olisi pitänyt löytyä taloista ja vähän joka puolelta enemmän kuin tarpeeksi.

239 s.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact January 2000

Pretty average issue. Hal Clement's novella was overlong and boring, but Brin'r novellette on the other hand was pretty exellent.

Under • novella by Hal Clement
A direct continuation to Hal Clement’s Mission Of Gravity stories. The same setting, the same characters, but unfortunately not same quality. The Mesklinites build a balloon. Not much happens very slowly. I wonder why most authors turn so long winded in their writing on their later years? I must admit I gave up in about 75% to the story. *½
Time Out of Joint • shortstory by Pauline Ashwell
A time traveler deals with antiques. Guaranteed to be genuine. When a 100% exact copy of a Greek vase turns up, the dealer has some explaining to do. An average story, part of a series? ***-
Greenhouse Chill • shortstory by Ben Bova
Post apocalyptic story. Sea levels have risen decades ago and old style life has almost been forgotten. But there is a new, even more catastrophic climate change coming. Have people learned anything? A pretty good story, might have been somewhat longer. ***+
Loki • shortstory by Larry Niven
A space ship functions as “black monolith” for generations upon generations of aliens. Very short story, not bad. ***+
The Cost of Having a Kid • shortstory by Brian C. Coad
It is possible to plan children beforehand by a computer simulation by analyzing the genomes of sperm cells and ovules, and making composites until you get the exactly right mix. Unfortunately it is very expensive to go to the real child from a simulation. Earning enough money is trouble in itself, especially if you and your wife don't agree on which would be the right child. ***
Tethys Deep • shortstory by Pete D. Manison
A family is diving on Saturn's moon Tethys, and the deep water station they are going to has disappeared. And their father was on board, and everyone must surely be dead – but are they? A bit mushy story, might have been better on slightly longer form. ***-
Pow'r • novelette by James E. Gunn 
Continues an earlier story. The humanity has gotten the secrets for unlimited power and for interstellar flight from an alien transmission. The secret of free energy has been taken to wide spread use. But nobody seems to be interested in space travel (everything in earth is supposed to be SO perfect, that no-one wants to leave earth. Yeah, sure. But in secret one group is preparing for spaceflight..Pretty loose story with some strange assumptions. Worse than the first part of the series. **½
Soapbox Cop Blues • novelette by Stephen L. Burns
A government cyber-crime unit works against hackers and restores net-sites which have been hacked. Most of the hacked sites are more deserving of being hacked, as most of them are racist or far right/left. Restore such sites is really getting on the nerves of a new worker. But the members of the unit have some nice free time activities... Pretty good and entertaining story. ***½
Stones of Significance • (1998) • novelette by David Brin
Singularity has passed, and near paradise has arrived for those who were ready merge with computers. Everyone has practically unlimited intelligence and wealth. One group of intelligences would like to grant citizenship rights to constructs made from fictional characters. Another wants to counter that proposition. Their representative finds a novel approach to find the best strategy to prevent that. Very good story, which was easily the best in the issue. ****

On Basilisk Station by David Weber

I read this book as a free download from Baen free library.

The first book in an apparently pretty popular series about Honor Harrington, a spaceship captain in the Navy of the kingdom of Manticore. The popularity of the series is fairly hard to understand, as at least the first part wasn't too good. The book was really slow moving. Never, ever have I seen so much exposition in any book. There are literally pages and pages describing the background of the world in mind-numbing detail. And that is given as info-dumps of pages-long techno babble. Sometimes, in middle of a battle, there might be a description of the history and mechanism of space torpedoes covering a few pages. Another irritating and unusual feature of the book is the usage of internal monologue. It feels that most of the book is narrated through people speaking to themselves in their minds. Sometimes the character's viewpoint seemed to change pretty suddenly, and it wasn’t always easy to keep track of who was ”speaking.” The book starts when Honor Harrington gets her first command post. As the Manticore’s Navy is apparently run by idiots, her ship is crippled by a new weapons system that functions well only in very special circumstances. When it functions as expected (that is, doesn’t work at all) during exercises, she and her ship are banished to the most important junction point of the Manticore kingdom. As the kingdom and the Navy ARE run by complete idiots, that is somewhere where the most incompetent captains and ships are sent. At the same time, an enemy empire is plotting against Manticore. In the end, Honor naturally saves the day after a few fairly boring and long-winded space battles. (A few of the space battles in this book seem to employ surprisingly two-dimensional tactics, considering this is supposed to happen in space, not at sea.) Even if the Manticore kingdom really seems to be something worth complete destruction, with its nepotism and idiotic leadership, I strongly suspect that I won’t be reading the next dozen or so parts of this series.

464 pp.

Pat Cadigan: Mielenpeli (Mindplayers)

A translation of Mindplayers. As I read this book in Finnish, I am going to write the main review in Finnish. Let's just say that the book was ok, but I wasn't a great fan of cyberpunk before reading this book, and I am not a fan of that genre after reading this book. There were some slight problems with the translation, especially with the name of main protagonist.

En ole cyberpunkin erityinen ystävä. En kyllä kovin montaa tämän alagenren kirjaa ole edes lukenut. Tämä kirja oli ihan kohtuullinen, mutta ei minään erityisesti houkutellut lukemaan lisää saman tyylisiä teoksia. Kirja kertoo Alliesta, joka kaverinsa houkuttelemana kokeilee kahjohattua, joka tekee hulluksi. Hulluuden piti kadota, mutta toisin käy, ja Allie joutuu hakeutumaan hoitoon, jääden samalla kiinni laittoman laitteen käytöstä. Allie joutuu valinnan eteen, hän joko joutuu vankilaan, tai hänen on kouluttauduttava mielenhallinnan ammattilaiseksi. Valinta ei kovin vaikea ole. Kirja on varsin hajanainen, eikä siinä ole kovin selkeää juonta. Paikoitellen kirjan teksti on liian kikkailevaa, ja juoni viettää aivan liian pitkiä aikoja milloin kenenkin henkilön mielen sisällä, jolloin tarinankerronta on varsin sekavaa ja rasittavaa. Vähän johdonmukaisempi juoni, ja vähemmän erikoisilla, huonosti kuvatuilla termeillä kikkailua, olisi ollut paremmin minun makuuni. Käännös oli muuten kohtalainen, mutta Allien ”työnimi”, Salamieli Allie ei mielestäni ollut kovin onnistunut tulkinta alkuperäisestä Deadpan Alliesta. Vasta kuin sain tietää alkuperäisen nimen, tajusin kunnolla kirjassa esiintyneet kuittailut Allien nimestä. Muutenkin ammatti- ja muut termit tuntuivat enemmän kuin hiukan vaikeasti ymmärrettäviltä, mutta en tiedä olisinko niitä paremmin englanniksi ymmärtänyt (no, ainakin pathosfinder on selvästi tajuttavampi termi kuin ”lauhduttaja”). Ihan kohtalainen, keskitasoinen, ”kolmen tähden” kirja kyseessä oli.

352 s.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact September 2010

A very good issue – the best a long time. Most stories were excellent.

That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made • novelette by Eric James Stone
A Mormon missionary is working to convert aliens who live on the sun and are made from plasma. He has made some converts, but then a one of them has bad conscience about a sexual act.
A well written and good story, in spite of having a totally despicable main protagonist, who is trying to brainwash aliens to totally alien (to them) ideology. That point isn’t really discussed in the story; apparently the author doesn’t recognize the ethical problems. Personally, I think that all missionary work has some very racist connotations: OUR religion is so much better than YOUR religion. ****-

Pupa • novelette by David D. Levine
A story which is told from an alien viewpoint.
An alien child’s father is murdered just, when he was going to uncover an alien conspiracy. It is up to our hero to prevent that, and to take care of his siblings. Too bad, that he is in a larval stage, and has no rights what so ever and all other adult aliens totally ignore him, and are even ready to kill him. And the time to go to pupa is approaching. Another good story. ****-

Spludge • shortstory by Richard A. Lovett
Little green men come to earth on an April Fools Day. And they behave in a pretty strange way… An experienced prankster starts to have some suspicions… and starts to plan a prank of his own. A fun little story. ***½



Red Letter Day • shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
At fifty years of age, everyone gets to send a letter back in time for their younger counterpart. Some people get encouraging letters, some get letters that warn the recipient about something, but a few get no letter at all. A very good and though provoking story. ****+

Flotsam • shortstory by K.C. Ball
A problem solving story. How to back to earth after an accident on orbit? Ok effort for a new author (?), but fairly ordinary story. At places felt a little disorganized. ***-

The View from the Top • shortstory by Jerry Oltion
A scientist on ISS starts to have some emotional problems. They are getting so bad, that he is ready to ground himself. But might there be some other solution. A smooth, fairly good story. Average for Oltion. ***

Sandbagging • shortstory by Kyle Kirkland
Everything is controlled by a self-aware, giant computer in the name of functionality. The computer has apparently decided that there are about 50% too many people around. Is there anything that could be done to prevent that? A better than average story, but somehow felt somewhat disjointed. A longer form might have served better. ***+

Eight Miles • novelette by Sean McMullen
A steampunk story in Analog? Is this a first? A balloonist gets an interesting offer from a nobleman in 19th century Britain. The nobleman has found a strange woman, who is very lethargic and passive, and clearly is not a human. He assumes that she comes from the highlands of Tibet, and uses the balloon to get higher up to thinner air. Another very good story in an excellent issue. ****

Astounding Science Fiction December 1959

Not as bad as the issues from the beginning of fifties I read a while ago.

I have two copies of this issue (this is the main reason why I picked this issue for reading; I was traveling and wanted to have with something I could lose without actually losing something from my collection). So, I declare a competition. I will mail a copy of this issue to someone who asks for it, selected in random. So, if you want to have a copy, send me an email to tpietila@gmail.com, with subject line "Astounding" . After a month (end date 30th August 2010) I will select a winner in random, and I'll send the issue anywhere in the world post paid.

The Destroyers • novelette by Randall Garrett
A peasant in a feudal world is living a peaceful life when the world is invaded by off-worlders. The story goes about where I was excepting. Well told, readable story, but not consistent at all places. (If/ when the purpose of the invasion is to liberate a backward world, the tactics used by the invaders are not realistic or believable). ***½
The Big Fix • novelette by George O. Smith
Mixture of psi-powers, horse-racing and betting. Written in style of a hard-boiled detective story which is taken to ridiculous lengths. I even wondered if the story was meant as a parody, but I seriously doubt that. Extremely uninteresting story, which is not too well written. *+
Mating Problems • shortstory by Christopher Anvil
A colony on an alien planet has some trouble with a dangerous plant and with a wife and some daughters of obnoxious tourist, who got himself killed and at the same time manages to kill several of the females of the colony. There might be a way to kill two birds with one stone. ***+
Tell the Truth • shortstory by E. C. Tubb
An apparently violent alien race wants to test one single human to see if the humanity is a potential threat which should be destroyed, a potential ally, or just a nuisance to be ignored. A very typical Campbell story where humanity is always better and more cunning than any alien race. ***+

Analog Science Fiction and Fact February 1971

There have been worse issues, but there certainly have been better ones.

Polywater Doodle • novelette by Howard L. Myers
Seems to continue some earlier story fairly directly, so the beginning was a bit confusing as little back story was given. After that, the story was a pretty straightforward adventure story. The style was extremely pulpish, and it could easily have been written in 40s. Surprisingly lack security, and lunatic method of controlling spaceships. Anyone who happens to stroll along to a super secret, superpowerfull spaceship which have not yet been assigned to anyone can take control it just declaring to be its master. ***
Wrong Attitude • shortstory by Joseph Green
An expedition to another star has found an alien space ship with ftl-drive, which they are taking back to earth. And that is about it. (I was reading this as an electronic file, I “found” from somewhere. When I was reading this story, I thought that it was truncated somehow. As I do have the actual magazine, I dug it up and checked. The story did start from nowhere and ended in about the same place).**
The Claw and the Clock • interior artwork by Leo Summers
An alien fleet wants to conquest a planet which is inhabited by apparently completely pacifistic humans. They happen to have something in their back pocket – very literally. Campbell style story where resourceful humans beat aliens easily. ***+
The Pickle Barrel • shortstory by Jack Wodhams
An expedition from Mars is returning and has a lot of trouble with their life support system. They are able to adjust, until they return to earth...
Pretty stupid story with stupid ending.**+

I, Robot : The Illustrated Screenplay by Harlan Ellison

A movie scrip which is based on Asimov's short story collection. Unfortunately this movie was never produced, and the movie which uses the same name, as is supposed to be based on the same collection has nothing to do with this script (or with the story collection, either). This script follows fairly closely many of the stories, is bound together with a Citizen Kane – like story where a journalist tries to find out what kind of character the Susan Calvin really was. This could have been the best science fiction movie ever. The storyline is pretty good. However, the script would not work as written anymore – many of the stage directions feel very old fashionable and are directly from the seventies. Time lapse shots of sun moving through sky would probably feel pretty quaint in a modern movie.

288 pp.