NON SPOILER SUMMARY

Marjane Thompson has traveled through space and time to arrive on an alien planet and make first contact, to form a new history, to learn the life of another species.  Upon arrival, the  intention was to immediately establish communication.  But when the team learns that they can thrive without doing just that, the plan is thrown on the back burner, and new strategies emerge.  Will first contact ever actually be made?

MY THOUGHTS

This was a story beautifully written with tones of longing and unfulfilled desires.  The beginning paragraph set the mood for the story, describing how beautiful the ocean is, and how beautiful the language of an alien species is.  Marjane’s desire is palpable, as she longs to complete her mission.  Her disappointment is felt as she describes what happens to her team as the initial plan is put off, again and again.

INTERESTING TIDBITS

• Word Count: 2,530
• Page Count: 7
• About the Author: Martin Ivison has published song albums for Sony/BMG.  I couldn’t find any other information about this author, has anyone out there heard of him?

WHERE TO FIND THIS STORY

You can read Mail Order for free at AE Science Fiction.

Description:

Dawn Theocratis has been stuck for years. Her career is paused, her heart is stone and her dreams no longer breathe. Enter Bredmeyer Deed, co-worker.

When Dawn and Bredmeyer are assigned to fix the portal of the Director of Investigative Research, they witness an unprecedented system failure; apparently, each and every communication is revised, edited, changed before it reaches their computer screens. Are they living in a world of synthetic news? Are they in danger for discovering the truth?

Newly awakened, Dawn begins to question the world around her. Yet only when she explores the universe within her does she find the answers she seeks. Where will her hard-won knowledge lead her?

Where you can find it:

"The Deceptive Smiles of Bredmeyer Deed" is an eBook available on Kindle, Nook, iPad, and PCs at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Praise:

“This [novella] paints a picture of a world where Multi’s rule, people are segmented into classifications by virtue of their health and genetic status, news feeds are strictly monitored, and environmental damage is to be managed at all costs. Need I say the obvious? Scutti’s sci-fi future is both fabricated and eerily familiar as we walk with Dawn through her world and sub-world. This is a love story, a quest, a peek into the next millennium, and believe it or not— it is about hope. The alluring Bredmeyer Deed, with all his weaknesses and strengths, takes us on his journey as he faces down the challenge of a lifetime during the year 3017. I would highly recommend this book to fans of Aldous Huxley, Harlan Ellison, and Ray Bradbury.” – Lori Malvey

Author Bio:

Susan Scutti’s stories and poems are published in anthologies and journals, including CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and Action, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, The Christian Science Monitor, New York Quarterly, and Tamarind. In November 2011, Ravenrock Press produced her novella (with artwork by Sarah Valeri), "The Deceptive Smiles of Bredmeyer Deed". The Commute, her poetry collection, was published by Paper Kite Press. Susan grew up in New Jersey and lived in Alaska as well as the Boston area. Now she makes her home in New York City, where she often walks along the Hudson River.

Archaeology and Science Fiction – Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate!

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I am intensely fascinated by anthropology and archaeology. And when they are combined with a great science fiction story by an excellent author… well, let’s just say that its better than Reece’s Peanut Butter cups!

Non-Spoiler Summary

Ever since Simmilgord was a little boy growing up among the brightly colored savannas of Majipoor he has longed to study the planet’s history and tell its story. After many years of school and hard study he and his friend are given the chance of a lifetime – to excavate the tomb of the first Pontifex of Majipoor! He starts off as a skeptical scholar, but as they make several exciting discoveries his skepticism melts away and the two friends revel in their work – that is until the Superintendent of Antiquities becomes aware of their dig and stops by to (ahem…) help them out. Can their friendship survive the snobbish intrusion? Or will everything literally fall to pieces?

Some Interesting Tidbits

• Word count: 13,708 (34 pages)
• Did you know that Robert Silverberg has written more than 580 short stories? Yep. You can learn more about this prolific writer at majipoor.com.
• "The Tomb of the Pontifex Dvorn" is part of Silverberg’s Majipoor series. If you like it be sure to check out some of the other novels and stories set on this amazing planet – beginning with the award winning Lord Valentine’s Castle.
• Special thanks to the excellent Variety SF for pointing me towards this awesome story!

Where To Find The Tomb of the Pontifex Dvorn

• This story first appeared in the Winter 2011 edition of Subterranean Online – where you can still read it for free.

Craving More SF Stories Like This One?

If you liked "The Tomb of the Pontifex Dvorn" then you may also enjoy “Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge” by Mike Resnick – a story set in the far future when a group of anthropological aliens are studying the long and brutal empire of mankind.

Description:

Ellie Simmons lost the love of her life, her husband Daniel. And now, two years later, baby Daniel is born — a clone of the man she lost. But human cloning is illegal, and Ellie must be very, very careful. Daniel’s and Ellie’s friend Greg knows Ellie’s secret. And his feelings for Ellie should keep him from betraying her. In fact, he can keep Ellie and little Daniel safe — if Ellie can walk the tightrope between his feelings and her own. Which would be tricky — even if the tightrope held still…

Author bio:

Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. She now considers herself a Hoosier. Wyle’s childhood ambition was to be the youngest ever published novelist. While writing her first novel at age 10, she was mortified to learn that some British upstart had beaten her to the goal at age 9.

Wyle is an appellate attorney, photographer, political junkie, and mother of two daughters. Her voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction. It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business.

Why readers should check out the story:

"The Baby" is the first of a planned series of stories dealing with issues that may arise if human cloning becomes feasible. For now, I’m offering these stories for free on Smashwords (and on Amazon when feasible).

NON SPOILER SUMMARY

Linguists, scholars, observers and travelers have studied the Asonu, trying to discover why the people become more and more silent as they grow older.  They have a language, it has been heard, it is taught to their children.  But the adults speak on such rare occasion that it has caused great debate.  Do they stay silent to prevent contention?  Do they carry such wisdom that they don’t need to speak?  The Silence of the Asonu is an unusual and interesting story that causes you to ponder these questions.

MY THOUGHTS

This story kind of felt like I was reading a documentary.. very informative and educational.. yet with the odd twist that the documentary was mostly guesswork (and fictional). The Silence of the Asonu was comical in parts, to think that others would go to such great lengths to force meaning into something so obvious.   I enjoyed the questions this raised in my mind, about how valuable speech really is.

INTERESTING TIDBITS

• Word Count: 2,347
• Page Count: 6
• Published: 1998
• About the Author: Did you know Ursula K. Le Guin is the winner of five Hugo and six Nebula awards!?  You can read more about this talented author at her website.

WHERE TO FIND THIS STORY

You can read The Silence of the Asonu for free at Lightspeed Magazine.

Be sure to read the Author Spotlight for this story, where Ursula K. Le Guin answers questions about her story.

Better Than The Movies

Do you remember all those “Earth gets destroyed by an asteroid (or comet)” movies in the 1990′s? I do. “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” come to mind. Some of them were good, some not so much. This story is, to me anyway, more proof that writing is always better than cinema! Yay – go written SF!

Non-Spoiler Summary

Captain Robert Singh is part of the crew that has been sent to the asteroid Kali. Their job is to build the thrusters that will alter Kali’s course enough to avoid collision with Earth. It has taken a long time, lots of money and plenty of politics to get to this point, and now that they are ready to start the burn that will push Kali out of its current orbit, the crew is about to discover that things don’t always go as planned. What’s that saying about the true measure of a man being shown when he is under pressure? Well, Captain Singh and his crew are about to find out what they are really made of – and all the people on Earth are hoping it’s the “right stuff.”

Some Interesting Tidbits

• Word count: 4,458 (8 pages)
• Did you know that Arthur C. Clarke spent some time as chairman of the British Interplanetary Society? Yep. You can learn more about this giant of science fiction literature at Wikipedia.
• This short story was the basis for Arthur C. Clarke’s 1994 novel also titled The Hammer of God.

Where To Find The Hammer of God

• This short story first appeared in October 1992 in Time magazine.
• You can read "The Hammer of God" for free online at the web site of Lightspeed magazine.
• You can find this story in many anthologies, including the prestigious book The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.

Craving More SF Stories Like This One?

If you liked "The Hammer of God" then you may also enjoy another of Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s stories: “The Star” – about a Jesuit astrophysicist aboard a starship that is investigating the Phoenix Nebula.

The Nature Of Man. Since the days of Pinocchio, inanimate devices seem mesmerized by Man and obsessed with trying to discover the answer to what it is and what it means to be human.

This quirky yet wonderful novelette, written by Roger Zelazny in 1966, illustrates the frustratingly perplex struggle to correlate genius with folly, strength with frailty, and all the promise and pratfalls of what it means to be Man! (*)

Story Synopsis:

Long after the Last Man had perished from existence, the Earth is faithfully maintained by armies of robotized machines and computers dedicated to the rebuilding program initiated by humans before their demise.

Solcom orbits the Earth directing the effort .To aid him in this task, Solcom builds a super computer called Frost to rule the Northern Hemisphere and one called Beta to rule the Southern Hemisphere,

As a backup system, Man had created an Alternate to Solcom : Divcom. Divcom is activated prematurely and they have a constant battle to assert their claim to be the dominant force.

With no Man in existence to make the determination, Solcom and Divcom spend eons destroying each others’ rebuilding attempts.

Frost, having time and unused resources at his disposal, becomes interested in Man after unearthing some artifacts of this now extinct creature. Frost’s curiosity grows into a frantic obsession as his research produces more questions than answers.

In a parallel to God and Satan discussing Job, Solcom and Divcom make a deal between themselves based on the outcome of Frost’s insatiable desire to discern the Nature of Man.

(*) (If it’s any consolation, my dear Frost, we humans have pondered these very questions throughout our existence as well and have come away with pitifully few results.)

The Good:

• Very well written and does not suffer in the least for having no PEOPLE in the story.
• Provides us with a long hard look from the outside in, as it were, of ourselves.
• Suspenseful.

The Bad:

• Little action here and not a very complex topic.(**)
• The ending is a little corny but still a very enjoyable story.

This & That:

• Word count 11,249
• Page Count 28
• Similar Story: If you liked "For a Breath I Tarry" you’ll love “The Bicentennial Man” by Isaac Asimov!

Can be found here:

• The Last Defender of Camelot
• Science Fiction: A Historical Anthology
• You can read it free online here.

(**) This is the toughest part of doing these reviews…finding something negative to say! I agree with Rusty in his purpose for this site – namely ONLY THE GOOD STUFF! (I’m paraphrasing of course).

With very few exceptions, the only SF I read are short story anthologies and the only way I would review one here is if I feel it is one of the Best of The Best in the FIRST PLACE!

3 classic authors of short science fiction

When people think of science fiction, they usually imagine huge tomes with equally intimidating page counts and plot lines. Few people outside the sci-fi fan base consider the countless thought provoking sci-fi short stories produced every year by prominent and newfound writers. Below are three classic sci-fi authors with an impressive short story catalogue worth investigating.

Gene Wolfe

Throughout his prolific writing career, Gene Wolfe has quietly produced some of the best science fiction ever written. Neill Gaiman has famously touted Gene Wolfe as the greatest science fiction writer of our lifetime. He’s best known for his tetralogy The Book of the New Sun written in the eighties and more recently his novels The Knight and The Wizard, all of which showcase the author’s impressive vocabulary and his keen ability for constructing entirely new worlds that seem more real than our own.

But Gene Wolfe also has an impressive catalogue of short stories, including his 1979 collection titled The Fifth Head of Cerberus, a series of three novellas that chronicle the bizarre lives of characters ranging from mad scientists to jaded youths on dystopian landscapes. Though at first the novellas seem unrelated, the careful reader will unearth some chilling truths communicated about each world deftly drawn by Gene Wolfe.

Gene Wolfe also has a famous collection of sci-fi short stories called The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories, published to universal acclaim in the eighties. The title story concerns the mind of a young man reading a book loosely resembling The Island of Doctor Moreau with more than a few twists. The whole collection is a mesmerizing meditation on the art of storytelling, and definitely worth your time to read.

Isaac Asimov

Unlike Gene Wolfe, Isaac Asimov had long enjoyed material success for his writings, and rightly so. Considered by many to be the seminal sci-fi author for his Foundation series, Asimov made readers question the morals and motives that come into play when humanity creates ambitious new technologies.

But, like Wolfe, Asimov was also known for his impressive output of sci-fi short stories. The entirety of his short stories have been published in the span of two huge volumes, the first of which is simply called Isaac Asimov, the Complete Stories, Vol. 1. His stories focus on a variety of human social issues, often played out in a near future setting whereby superhuman technologies threaten to outmatch their human makers.  Among his best short stories are the classics “Nightfall”—which chronicles a planet, normally in a state of perpetual daylight, succumbing to darkness—and “The Last Question,” a morbidly amusing story about cheating death.

Greg Egan

More contemporary than the previous two authors, Greg Egan is a meticulous writer with a high threshold for detailed and technical prose. He’s somewhat of an enigmatic author, with little known about his personal identity since he rarely makes interviews and never attends sci-fi conventions. The ambition of his works only adds to his mystique, as Egan constructs entirely new planets with painstakingly explained ecosystems and technologies that in turn often work as commentaries on those present on Earth.

One of his more famous short stories, “Oceanic,” concerns a young man named Martin in a futuristic society on an aquatic planet where a satirical religion plays a pivotal role. The human race exists on the oceanic body known as Covenant, and everyone’s on the lookout for the mythical land called Earth. The change in Martin’s religious beliefs from his childhood to his career as a scholar mark the focus of this story, as he discovers the disturbing realities of Covenant and the mythical Earth espoused by the world’s religion.

Byline:

This is a guest post from Jacelyn Thomas. Jacelyn writes about identity theft protection for IdentityTheft.net. She can be reached at: jacelyn.thomas @ gmail.com.

It’s a Bunch of Stories!

This is a strange story… if you can even call it a story. It’s more like an article written by an alien researcher who is describing the views and beliefs surrounding star drives. It is cool though, and some of the ideas are truly unique ones that I have never seen before – and that is worth something indeed.

Non-Spoiler Summary

Mrithaya, Mother of the Conflagration, and her priests believe interstellar travel to be one thing. The Iothal, who bind forest chronicles, believe it to be something entirely different. The same goes for the Dancers, the Kiatti and the civilization whose star drive always kills them. That doesn’t stop any of them from traveling among the stars, though. Learn all about their strange and exotic beliefs in this short but fascinating piece by an excellent author.

Some Interesting Tidbits

• Word count: 1,966 (5 pages)
• You can learn more about Yoon Ha Lee by reading her author profile on Tor.com.

Where To Find A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel

• This short story first appeared in August 2011 on the web site Tor.com – where you can still read it for free.

Craving More SF Stories Like This One?

If you liked "A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel" then you may also enjoy another excellent story by Yoon Ha Lee: “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” – about an ancient woman who possesses a uniquely powerful weapon.

Time Travel. What a compelling, uniquely seductive science fiction theme! The chance to correct a wrong, witness an historical event first hand, or simply escape to a better time when the world made sense; you know – the “good old days”.

Often described as the “sequel” to H.G. Wells’ “The Time Traveler”, this 1976 short story by Richard Cowper breathes new life into the classic tale and extends the adventure.

Told in a rich, antiquated British literary style, Cowper adds an authentic feel to this masterful tale as he transports us back to 17th Century England.

The Story In A Nutshell:

Upon the death of his Great Aunt Victoria (a dealer in old books and antiquities), Francis Decressie is left the Hertford Manuscript – a volume written and produced in the late 17th century.

Serving mainly as an historical register, this boring volume would remain undisturbed, collecting dust if not for the inexplicable fact that, bound up with the original contents, Francis discovers several sheets of different paper, written in a different hand, outlining a journal of someone from the early 20th century!

The journal unfolds thus;

The journal goes on to detail his desperate attempt to effect repairs and return to his own time.

The Good:

• Very well researched and written.
• A vivid portrayal of the period is presented and our vicarious journey is enhanced greatly in 2 ways:
  1. The diary/journal format creates the belief that this is indeed a factual account.
  2. The overall style with which the story is told lends a degree of credibility for the period in which it takes place.

The Bad:

• Those who want great “Science” in their S.F. won’t find it here. Personally the Science factor is a non issue unless it is key to the story and THEN it better be at least good. A great plot, human drama, wonderful characters are all more desirable to me than the mechanics of how light speed or anti-gravity is achieved.
• For those who are NOT Dicken’s fans, the old British style used here may be a turn off.
• My absolute favorite Science Fiction theme is Time Travel so I am heavily biased in my love of this story!

Some Interesting Tidbits

• Word Count 13,493
• Page Count 18
• Appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction October 1976
• Included in Donald A. Wollheim Presents The 1977 Annual World’s Best SF