Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, April 1974

A pretty average issue, nothing especially bad, nothing especially good.

Hot Spot • novelette by Brenda Pearce
A trip to the day side of Mercury. A scientist is taking important measurements while the crew of the vehicle takes care of flying. There is some sight-seeing, and eventually a crisis situation. The writing is fairly nice but the plot offers nothing new and the main character comes across as irritating and whiny. ***-
The Time-Traveler • [Callahan] • novelette by Spider Robinson
A Callahan’s place story. A former missionary has been imprisoned for years in a Latin American dictatorship. After he finally has been released he is facing a severe future shock, and finds himself at the Callahan’s place. At first, he tries to rob the bar, but he soon joins the “society”. It's not exactly science fiction at all, and nothing really unusual happens. A good story, though. ***½
A Kind of Murder • [Teleportation] • shortstory by Larry Niven
A woman is found murdered in her ex-husband's home. He has a good alibi, but what good is an alibi in a world where instantaneous travel by matter transmission booths is the norm? It's a fairly good story but the solution of the murder mystery is mostly based on the intricacies of imaginary technology that the reader cannot be aware of. ***
Scholarly Correspondence • shortstory by Charles Eric Maine
A fairly stupid pseudo-scientific paper about ghosts and a few replies to it, which are written in pseudo-scientific language. A pretty insignificant story. **-

Proofreading by eangel.me.

Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling): Käen kutsu ( The Cuckoo's Calling)

The first part of a detective series which is written by J.K. Rowling using an alias. A pretty good book with very fascinating and interesting characters. The second book in the series is better, though.

Ensimmäinen osa J.K.Rowlingin salanimellä kirjoittamasta Cormoran Strike-kirjasarjasta, Sarja kertoo yksityisetsivänä toimivasta jalkapuolesta entisestä sotapoliisista. Toisen osan olin jo lukenut aikaisemmin ja nyt tämä ensimmäinen täytti mukavasti tästä kirjasta jääneitä pieniä juoniaukkoja ja täydensi mielikuvaa päähenkilöiden persoonallisuudesta ja taustatarinaa.
Cormoran tutkii rikkaan ja kauniin mallitytön kuolemaa. Poliisi piti kuolemaa itsemurhana, mutta tytön velipuoli haluaa että asiaa selvitetään tarkemmin. Hän alkaa tutkia tytön viimeisten päivien tapahtumia ja erikoisia sattumia näistä sitten löytyykin. Salapoliisityössä apuna hänellä on tilapäistyötä välittävästä yrityksestä lähetetty nuori nainen, joka juuri mennyt kihloihin. Nainen on aina salassa haaveillut salapoliisin työstä, ja huomaa että tuleva vakavammin otettava ja paremmin palkattu toimistotyö ei oikein tunnu houkuttelevalta, vaikku sulhanen kovasti paremmin palkatusta ja vakaamasta työpaikasta yrittää vihjailla. Yhteistyöllä asiat sitten vähitellen selviävät ja murhaaja on yllätys. (itse tosin oli vahvat epäilyt tekijästä jo aika pitkään, ainoa vain, että motiivi oli auki). Kirjasta huomasi jonkin verran, että Rowling yritti ylläpitää mielikuvaa siitä, että kirja on miehen kirjoittama. Sen verran usein vaatteiden läpi kuullottavat tai muuten vain vilahtelevat söpöt nännit kirjassa mainittiin. Toisessa osassa, jolloin kirjoittajan henkilöllisyyden salaisuus oli jo paljastunut, ei tätä niin paljoa tuntunut esiintyvän. Kirja oli oikein mainio, mutta ei ehkä aivan yhtä hyvä kuin sarjan toinen osa. Ehkä jonkin asteista pientä tiivistämistä olisi voinut tehdä. Päähenkilöt oli kuitenkin kuvattu erittäin hienosti, ja henkilökuvaus oli kirjan selvästi parasta antia. Seuraavaa, eli sarjan kolmatta osaa odottelen mielenkiinnolla.
463 s.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January-February 2016

A large double issue. Fairly average as such, but once more several stories which feel like just parts of a larger tale. That has been a common failing in Analog lately.

Wyatt Earp 2.0 • novella by Wil McCarthy
Wyat Earp is resurrected as a computer approximation which loaded to "printed" human body. He is supposed to help bring order to a Martian mining colony. He has some adjusting to do but eventually adjusts to future society. The writing is pretty good, but the concept is fairly ridiculous, even if it admittedly is entertaining and new. ***½
We Will Wake Among the Gods, Among the Stars • novelette by Tina Connolly and Caroline M. Yoachim
Apparently a planet has been colonized centuries (?) ago. Most of the settlements have lost the knowledge of developed technology and consider the remnants to be sacred gifts from the gods. An expedition is trying to find a mystical city, as to what happened to the earlier expedition, and especially what happened to the great amount of gold the expedition had brought with it for trading. They find what they were looking for, but it is not what they were expecting. A nice, well-written story but feels like a continuation of an earlier story and the background is too vague and the story isn't very original. ***-
Farmer • shortstory by Joe M. McDermott
A family of farmers produces organic food stocks. Apparently there are superbugs which are spread by food going around. One of their customers gets sick and they are facing a federal investigation and they might have something to hide. An average story with some irritating anti-GMO tendencies. ***-
Rocket Surgery • shortstory by Effie Seiberg
An intelligent and learning bomb turns out to be slightly too intelligent…A nice short story. ***+
Saving the World • shortstory by James E. Gunn [as by James Gunn ]
It turns out that reading science fiction alters the cognitive functions towards tolerance and creativity. Science has begun to be taught at schools and the world is saved. Ok story, I could have believed it before the rabid/sad puppies: if they read science fiction and are misogynist bigots, then apparently the science fiction doesn’t make people better. ***
The Persistence of Memory • shortstory by Rachel L. Bowden
Two nerdy young boys find a strange animal. Or do they? Nice writing, but not a lot of actual plot. ***-
Theories of Mind • shortstory by Conor Powers-Smith
A new recruit to the research base on a planet with really strange aliens runs into trouble on his first day. The concept of the alien’s language and thought patterns is very novel and interesting. On the other hand, the experienced leader of the research station should have been able to prevent the predicament in the first place. ***
Nature's Eldest Law • shortstory by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
An expedition is studying an extraterrestrial planet. They find strange plants which appear to simulate human thought processes, especially in decision making. One man isn't affected as strongly as others, as he has some dependency issues he is going through. But how is it possible that plants with such effects seem to appear so suddenly on an alien planet? A decent story, but far too short for all ideas. Once again, a little backstory is given, and the story ends when things become really interesting. ***
The Heat of Passion • novelette by Grey Rollins
A man is murdered. By chance, another man who is visiting his grandmother at an old people's home sees the murder. But there is a good reason why he can't contact the police. A pretty nice story in spite of some illogicalities. (If the genetic enhancements were so common among richer people, there would have been some powerful lobbying that the extreme persecution of the modified would never have happened). ***+
Woundings • shortstory by George Zebrowski
Men who live in space came down to stop coal fires used for energy, as that kind of pollution is apparently forbidden. The fire is used to power air conditioning of a library filled with original books no one can read anymore. More a philosophical discussion than a story. **½
The Shores of Being • novelette by Dave Creek
Continues an earlier series of stories where insectoid aliens with a hive mind have invaded Earth. Mike Christopher, who is an android, comes to examine an abandoned alien hive with a member of another alien species, a species that has also been invaded by the same enemy. They encounter some local militia men, who would like to keep the alien mound as a sacred place for those who died there. Ok story, not among the best of the series. Some of the attitudes of humans were more alien than most of the real aliens. ***
An Industrial Growth • novelette by David L. Clements
Feels like a second or third (or fourth) part of a series, but I am not aware of any previous installments. Earth has apparently been devastated by severe ecological catastrophes, and then by faulty nanotechnology, which was designed to overcome the first catastrophe. There is some sort of dangerous nanotech installation which should be destroyed. A group of people - two of them are people, who have mostly lived as computer uploads, go on the mission. The real humans blame them for the catastrophes as they did nothing to prevent them (that is not entirely logical at least from given scanty backstory). As such, a pretty decent story, but as there was no backstory it was hard to create any real emotional bond to any of the characters. If I don't know the world or the characters at all, why should I care about their mission or whether or not they survive? ***

Proofreading by eangel.me.

Eejit: A Tale of the Final Fall of Man by Andrew Hindle

This is the first book in seven or eight years I didn't finish. I got to 38%, I and feel really uncomfortable abandoning it, but it irritates the hell out of me every time I try to read it. Stupid characters have endless extremely rambling discussions which lead to nothing. The book is unreadable and boring as hell. Little happens, and what happens is stupid - and any book where a space ship which travels in interstellar space comes to "full stop" should be rewritten completely after the author has been taught some fundamentals of relativity of movement and I really wonder how the characters imagine they could be using a sextant to find where they are in middle of space. I wouldn’t be surprised, if the main characters were also defective clones - they were certainly idiotic enough.

Proofreading by eangel.me.

App. 119 pages read.

Stephen King: 22.11.63

A Steven King book, one of the few I have read. A pretty nice read with descriptive writing style. The middle part might have needed some tightening, but not bad at all. I was expecting even grimmer ending.

Steven Kingin kirjoja en kovin montaa ole lukenut. Dark Tower-sarjan ensimmäisen kirjan luin jokin aika sitten, enkä ollut siitä ihan varauksettoman innostunut. Kun Elisa Kirjassa oli tarjous kirjailijan tuotannosta pikkurahalla, niin ajattelin vielä jotain kokeilla. Kohteeksi sattui tämä kirja “Kingin parhaat” -listojen lukemisen perusteella. (Ihan niitä parhaat arviot saaneita ei alessa ollut).

Jake, koulussa opettajana työtä tehnyt mies, on äskettäin eronnut vaimostaan. Hänen tuttavansa, hiukan nuhjuisen ja epäilyttävän halvalla pihvejä myyvän ravintolan omistaja, Al, vaikuttaa vanhentuneen silmissä. Hän väittää löytäneensä reitin menneisyyteen, vuoteen 1958 ja eläneensä siellä useita vuosia. Hänen tarkoituksenaan oli estää Kennedyn salamurha, mutta sairastuttuaan syöpään hän joutui palaamaan takaisin nykyaikaan. Hän oli halunnut odottaa lähemmäksi salamurhan päivää voidakseen olla varma siitä, että Oswald toimi yksin, mutta siihen hänellä ei sitten aikaa ollut. Nyt hän toivoo, että opettaja tekisi sen, mikä häneltä jäi kesken, eli estäisi Kennedyn murhan. (sinällään en ymmärrä, miksi Al ei vai suoraan tappanut Oswaldia - nykyaikaan paluun jälkeenhän olisi salaliiton olemassaolo automaattisesti selvinnyt.) Aikamatkailu toimii niin, että jokaisen matkan aikana tehdyt muutokset säilyvät, kunnes seuraavan kerran matkustaa menneisyyteen, jolloin tilanne “resetoituu”.. Joka tapauksessa Jake matkustaa pari kokeilun jälkeen menneisyyteen estääkseen salamurhan, joka Al:n arvion mukaan muutti kaiken huonompaan suuntaan. Sitkeyttä tarvitaan, sillä murhan tapahtumiseen on menneisyyteen saapumisajasta useita vuosia. Ja paljastuu, että aika ei pidä siitä, että tapahtumien kulkua yritetään muuttaa, vaan sattumat yrittävät estää asioiden muuttumisen. Aluksi aika pienet sattumat, mutta myöhemmin sattumat eivät enää ole pieniä eivätkä ihan tuskattomia.

Kirjan alku ja loppu olivat erittäin mukaansa tempaavia, kielellisesti teksti on erittäin luettavaa ja visuaalista – tapahtumat lähes näkee kuin elokuvaa katsoessa. Todennäköisesti tämä johtuu osittain TV-sarja tyyppisestä rytmistä jossa suvannot ja yllätykset sopivasti vuorottelevat toisiaan. Ongelmana kirjassa oli sen keskikohta, jossa elämää 50-luvulla kuvataan realistisen tuntuisesti ja kirjaimellisen realistisesti siinä mielessä, että muutamaan sataan sivuun tapahtui aika vähän. Tosin tämäkin oli kirjoitettu niin hyvin, että tapahtumattomuus ei hirveästi haitannut ja ihan mukava romanssijuoni siinä sivussa kehittyi. Kirjan loppu oli varsin tyly, tosin itse hiukan odottelin sen olevan vielä tylympi. Jonkinasteinen tiivistys olisi kyllä tehnyt hyvää, mutta kyllä sitä jonkin muunkin Kingin kirjan jossain vaiheessa voisi “pikaisesti” lukaista, taitavat kaikki olla suunnilleen tätä kokoluokkaa.

869 s.

Astounding Science Fiction, August 1959

Stories in this issue were fairly well written, but the attitudes were extremely strange from a modern viewpoint. By the way, I'll give away this issue. Ask for it in comments and I'll mail it to anywhere in Earth. If there are more than one asking for it after a week, the winner will be selected in random. (the copy in question is tattered – strictly a reading copy only)


The Aliens • novelette by Murray Leinster
A human spacecraft encounters an alien ship for the first time. The humans behave extremely paranoid and eventually fire torpedoes at another ship on the flimsiest of excuses. The aliens respond extremely violently—they deflect the torpedoes back to the human ship. The humans, at least, consider this a very violent and aggressive response....Luckily the self-destruct mechanism of the torpedoes still works. Somehow the two ships collide and fuse together. It turns out that the ship is built from brass and pure metallic sodium and potassium and it is inhabited by chlorine breathers. (Somehow that particular chemical combination doesn't sound most likely...) In spite of rampant paranoia and xenophobia among some of the human crew (apparently there is no psychological evaluation for members of the space navy), humans and aliens finally manage to work together. It is pretty strange when the aliens feel less alien than the humans...and I get the feeling that it wasn't meant to be like that. The writing was OK, but the attitudes were really, really strange. ***
Dead Giveaway • novelette by Randall Garrett
A man returns from a long journey. Several messages from his friend are waiting. The first few are pretty frantic and hint at a significant discovery, but the last one takes everything back, though not very convincingly. And the friend can't be reached. Is there some sort of fool’s play going on? A giant alien city which was found years before seems to be involved somehow; a city which was built for an unknown purpose. It was an overlong story, where the "payback" was pretty poor and everything was just explained as a lecture by the disappeared person, after he was not-so-surprisingly found. **½
The Outsiders • novelette by A. Bertram Chandler
The crew of a spaceship gets a salvage reward and decides to buy a spaceship for themselves. On the first voyage, one newly-drafted member of the crew is a drunkard, who is very afraid of going towards the less-explored regions. He hints that he has experienced something horrible there. Soon he drinks himself to death. The rest of the crew ponders whether they should try to find out what was so strange. They first decide against it, but years later, when there is a slow spell in the business, they still remember... It's a very long setup for a fairly small payoff. (The secret is an alien device that tests if visitors are psychologically worthy. If they pass the test, there is a technological bounty to be had.) The writing was OK for its time, but the story could have drastically shortened. ***
Familiar Pattern • novelette by A. Bertram Chandler [as by George Whitley ]
A ship on sea encounters a spaceship, which has landed on water for minor repairs. The captains befriend one another and start trading things. The aliens are willing to trade only luxury items; they won’t even talk about space drives or any serious scientific inventions. The aliens eventually establish a trading mission, but soon things go badly, when an alien church is looted for being far too open-minded (they preach that all earthly pleasures should be enjoyed as much as possible) and things go then very, very badly. It was an okay story, but the set-up is very slow and then the end comes very suddenly in a few paragraphs. ***+
Day of Succession • shortstory by Theodore L. Thomas
An alien spaceship lands. A general orders that as soon as the hatch on it is opened, all possible firepower is to be turned on it. The ship is completely destroyed. Then a second one lands and the same happens again. When the third ship lands, the president prevents the attack. Not so surprisingly the third ship attacks everything nearby - which naturally “proves” that the aliens were hostile to begin with. And as the president slightly hesitates at the launch of an all-out nuclear strike against the ship, (which would destroy a significant part of the country) the general must take leadership to his own hands. A jaw-droppingly strange story. Apparently it is meant as it is, not as parody or irony. **
A Matter of Proportion • shortstory by Anne Walker
A war is going on, apparently against aliens. During a mission a commander notices that one of his rookies is performing very well—in fact, suspiciously well. It turns out that he is a famous war hero, who was paralyzed in action. His brain was transplanted to a new body and now he was able to fight again. The rest of story is the soldier telling his story. A surprisingly dull and longwinded story. I had trouble finishing it and I retain no memories of it even though I tried to read it twice. It was a pretty bad story with not-so-good writing. **-

Proofreading by eangel.me.

Reijo Mäki - Siivellä eläjä (Reijo Mäen novellikirjailija Luusalmi)

A really rotten book, where a failed idiot author talks about stupidities with various people - mostly with his own delusions. Avoid at any cost. One of worst books I have ever read.

Wares- kirjojen sivuhenkilö novellikirjailija Luusalmi pääsee oman kirjansa kertojahahmoksi. Jostain käsittämättömästä syystä kustantaja on värvännyt hänet kirjoittamaan parisuhdekirjan.
Asia ei oikein etene pariin vuoteen, mutta mitäs siitä, pseudofilosofisia tyhjänpäiväisiä heittoja sentään voi raapustella.
Kuvittelin että kirja olisi ollut dekkari, vähän toisesta näkökulmasta kuin yleensä Wares kirjat ja odotin kirjalta aika paljon. Petyin pahasti. Kirja oli yhdenpäivästä turhaa lätinää, jossa varsin vastenmielinen minä-hahmo kävi typeriä keskusteluja eri ihmisten tyhjänpäiväisistä asioista, tosin paljolti kyseiset keskustelut tapahtuvat päähenkilön omien juoppohulluus harhojen kanssa. Ylivoimaisesti huonoin kirja mitä olen pitkään aikaan, ehkä muutamaan vuoteen lukenut. On typerää markkinoida tallaista kuonaa Vareksen ja tunnetun kirjailijan nimellä, tuli vastenmielisyys edes lukea Reijo Mäen kirjoja, vaikka niitä pari on hankittuna odottamassa. Tosin kirja laatu on niin surkea, että Reijo Mäen väitteet siitä, että kirjan on kirjoittanut joku muu vaikuttavat uskotavilta. Tosin ei kukaan täysijärkinen tätä kuonaa varmasti vapaaehtoisesti myöntäisikään tuottaneensa. Missään nimessä tätä ei kannata hankkia eikä edes ilmaiseksi lukea, elämä on liian lyhyt.

191 s.

The End of All Things (Old Man's War) by John Scalzi

This is the sixth part of an ongoing series. The earlier books have been fairly separate and have worked alone to at least some degree, but this continues the story pretty much from the last one and probably would be very confusing for a random reader. Humans have divided to two main factions: the colony worlds are ruled by a military colonial union, CU, and the Earth itself is governed by nation states more or less similar to today. The relations of the CU and Earth have gone very bad since apparently CU destroyed a space station in Earth’s orbit. At the same time, the Colonial Union is facing unrest on its’ own turf as several colonies are straining for independence. Also, a vast consortium of alien races, The Conclave, has gained influence and is trying to form a union of several different species, many of which have been bitter enemies and competitors. The relations between the Conclave and CU have never been very warm, but they are getting worse as they apparently attack each other’s ships. However, it turns out (or turned out in the last book) that there is a third group, a very secret organization called Equilibrium, with an unknown agenda that is working behind the scenes. At first, little is known about what its’ aims are, but by a fortuitous event, there is a chance to learn at least something. Is there time to prevent what Equilibrium is trying to do? Is it possible that former enemies are able to forget their differences and do the unthinkable – to trust each other?

It is a pretty good book, even better than the previous part.
There were a lot of shades of grey in most of the factions in the book– with the exception of the main villain, Equilibrium. Its’ motivations were left pretty unclear. It has always been refreshing to read military science fiction, where humans aren’t clearly the good guys, or at least not the only good guys. In this book and series, the single group with most identifiable agenda has been the alien Conclave, but now even the CU was less of a “bad guy” than in some of the earlier books. An enjoyable read and I am looking forward to next instalment – if there will be any. There weren’t any major cliffhangers left at the end of this book.


384 pp.

Proofreading by eangel.me.