SF reviews
Louise Marley, The Child Goddess: A priest of the order of Mary Magdalene is called in to help a child who’s been found on a planet that was thought previously uncolonized. The corporation exploring the planet has stopped its potentially quite valuable work after an attack left another child dead and this girl in custody. Isabel, the priest, realizes that the girl is different - she is, indeed, hundreds of years old, despite being prepubescent. Can Isabel protect her from the world that is desperate for her secret? Interesting concepts, solid but uninspiring execution.
James Alan Gardner, Gravity Wells: Short stories by the author of the Expendable series, which I like. Gardner is attracted to ironies, reversals, betrayals by the highest and nobility in the lowest. The stories include fantasy, science fiction, and things in between - stories whose style is f/sf even if the content could appear in The New Yorker. Some were simply ideas, barely fleshed out, though there was a multi-POV novella about an extraterrestrial visitor exploited by many and understood by few. My favorite story was probably Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream, an alternate history in which early science mingled with religious doctrine, convincing much of humanity that there really were two incompatible kinds of people, whose divinely ordained separation cried out from the blood.
David Gerrold, Alternate Gerrolds: A collection of Gerrold short stories written for themed collections (Alternate Outlaws, Deals with the Devil, etc.). Perhaps because they were all written on cue, none of the stories are very inspired, though they often deliver a competent last-page reversal of fortune or similar punchline. Are there Gerrold completists? If there are, this would be a cheaper book than getting all the themed collections.
Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin, & Daniel Abraham, Shadow Twin: A prospector out in the wilderness of a frontier planet encounters an alien intrusion - and then discovers he’s been twinned by the aliens, the twin sent to hunt the original down before he can reveal the alien presence to other humans. This short novella packs so much into itself that the three cooks don’t really get a chance to show their individual flavors; I’d have been interested in more exploration of the differences between the original and the twin, and maybe a look inside both heads instead of just one. You can read it free here for the time being.
James Alan Gardner, Gravity Wells: Short stories by the author of the Expendable series, which I like. Gardner is attracted to ironies, reversals, betrayals by the highest and nobility in the lowest. The stories include fantasy, science fiction, and things in between - stories whose style is f/sf even if the content could appear in The New Yorker. Some were simply ideas, barely fleshed out, though there was a multi-POV novella about an extraterrestrial visitor exploited by many and understood by few. My favorite story was probably Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream, an alternate history in which early science mingled with religious doctrine, convincing much of humanity that there really were two incompatible kinds of people, whose divinely ordained separation cried out from the blood.
David Gerrold, Alternate Gerrolds: A collection of Gerrold short stories written for themed collections (Alternate Outlaws, Deals with the Devil, etc.). Perhaps because they were all written on cue, none of the stories are very inspired, though they often deliver a competent last-page reversal of fortune or similar punchline. Are there Gerrold completists? If there are, this would be a cheaper book than getting all the themed collections.
Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin, & Daniel Abraham, Shadow Twin: A prospector out in the wilderness of a frontier planet encounters an alien intrusion - and then discovers he’s been twinned by the aliens, the twin sent to hunt the original down before he can reveal the alien presence to other humans. This short novella packs so much into itself that the three cooks don’t really get a chance to show their individual flavors; I’d have been interested in more exploration of the differences between the original and the twin, and maybe a look inside both heads instead of just one. You can read it free here for the time being.