Garrett WollmanHere's a deep- #althist scenario for you:
What if, when H. sapiens came over the Bering land bridge, they found the Americas already inhabited by sophont descendants of the New World monkeys?
Has anyone written this yet?
bokDescriptions of the novels, repeated from the weekly posts. Footnotes have been removed, so some parts lack further explanation. For descriptions of the shorter works, see the weekly posts.
●●●◐○ Grand Central Arena - Ryk E Spoor {Arenaverse 1} (nov) 2010
Seven people are on the first crewed ship to test Earth's new FTL drive. Things do not go well, when they find themselves appearing in a vast artificial volume, with their fusion drive and FTL offline. Their AI assistants and implants are also disabled, which was a difficult adjustment for some, and leaves the most-cybered crew member catatonic.
They learn that the Spheres and other areas are ruled by five big Factions, and innumerable smaller ones, and that periodic Challenges are enforced, whereby lives and status can be lost and won. Can seven humans stand against a thousand different races in this artificial space tens of light-years wide, a place constructed by unknown beings such that any use of an FTL drive anywhere will bring them to the Arena?
●●●○○ A Choice of Gods - Clifford D. Simak (nov) 1972
One day, 99.99% of humankind Disappeared. The survivors gained long life, telepathy, and interstellar self-teleportation. Over five thousand years later, John Whitney (who was a boy at the Vanishing) and his wife Martha are content in their robot-tended manor, while John's boyhood friend Horace Red Cloud and his tribe went back to older ways, a combinations of the woods life and the plains life.
Most other descendants of the humans left behind are out star-roving. Some of the robots have grown increasingly religious over time, while humans have largely let religion lapse. Another group of robots has constructed a large super-robot brain that they follow.
Now one of the star-roving Earth humans has found where the Disappeared went: to three Earth-like worlds near the galactic core. Worlds that had figured out where Earth was, and sent out a survey ship to check the planet out prior to recolonization. Something which the various groups of Earth were decidedly not in favor of. Could anything be done?
●●●○○ The Gourmets of Grantville - Bethanne Kim (nov) 2021
When the West Virginia town was dropped into central Germany during the Thirty Years War, many things had to change, food among them. This is a tale where uptime and downtime women get together to learn about each other's food and cooking techniques. Many things resulted at the club level: a newspaper column, a TV cooking show, a radio show, cookbooks being published.
Individually, women founded bakeries and coffee shops and restaurants. They specialized in gingerbread and bagels and all manner of foodstuffs. And they lived their ongoing lives. The diabetic woman who survived two years after she lost access to insulin. The older couple who adopted orphans from the ongoing war. Various marriages and births. This is a story told on the level of ordinary people, with a patchwork of events to fill in the quilt.
●●●●○ Too Like the Lightning - Ada Palmer {Terra Ignota 1} (nov) 2016
A complex tale of the world of 2454, where most people belong to one of seven Hives (and some smaller groups), non-geographic states. That world teeters when one of the annual Seven-Ten lists (published by the top news organization in each Hive, showing who they think are the most influential people in the world) is leaked. It eventually reveals a web of corruption linking the top levels of the Hives.
Separately, the bash'house (co-housing collective, from the Japanese i-basho) controlling the world's network of aircars gets involved, with its own security issues. As does Bridger, the thirteen-year-old boy some people have been raising in secret, since he can do miracles, making representations real. He can bring toy soldiers or a stuffed animal to life, or make a folded-paper bottle labeled "healing potion" real.
The novel has dense storytelling, many philosophical sections, and examines government, gender, free will, and more. Parts seem pointlessly convoluted, but the overall ride is enjoyable.
●●●◐○ Spheres of Influence - Ryk E. Spoor {Arena 2} (nov) 2013
Ariane Austin, spacing racer, was the Leader of the Faction of Humanity, in the view of the Arena, the artificial mega-volume that forced all FTL traffic to via it, by means far beyond human science. When Captain Ariane and some of her crew returned to Sol System, she found some people weren't crazy about that. They assigned her some ambassadors, which didn't go well.
And of course events in the Arena went on. More examination of the powers Ariane had obtained, and the ability Simon had gotten trying to help her control them. Kidnapping. A twenty-against-one space battle. Three more Hyperions show up, one on Humanity's side, the other not. More Challenges, more learning, more Orphan. Solid adventure #SciFi.
●●○○○ The Silent City - H.G. Suren {Alignment 1} (nov) 2015
Horror #ScienceFiction. All humans in the city (world?) vanish except five thirty-ish men who were playing cards and cooking khash half the night. Mark's apartment magically retains electricity, even though the rest of the building, and the city, does not. There's a dome over the city, and the five friends eventually encounter two other humans – a 22 year-old woman and a 15yo boy – and find out that human-shaped white clouds with large black eyes and black claws are hunting people.
The misplaced humans have no clue why or how they got here, but they surmise that they're not in the real world. They also find out that the reset storms that sweep through every 5½ hours instantly move cars and window shades, which they surmise is their environment somewhat keeping up with outside reality. More things are learned, but the story stops abruptly, unresolved, to be continued in the next volume. And now none of the author's books are visible on Amazon.
●●●○○ Murder in Snydersville - Valleri Saint Matthew (nov) 2023
A cozy time travel #mystery with Twilight Zone vibes. Two drivers seek shelter in an abandoned diner from a really bad hail storm, but when they get inside they find themselves back in 1952 just after a murder occurred. They leave 1952 after awhile, but researching the murder, find two more followed it. The pair decide to go back to 1952 to see if they can prevent the additional deaths.
There are many oddities in the tale. Paul buys a diner meal, and Ember an apple pie from a bakery to help with her questioning a missing girl's mother. No one notices their future money, and this isn't a story where it magically changed, since their clothing didn't. Sheriff Andy simply lets two strangers hang around the courthouse where he works, and even tag along on investigations. And the ending relies on aspects of the timeslip portal that had never been demonstrated.
●●●○○ Seven Surrenders - Ada Palmer {Terra Ignota 2} (nov) 2017
Complex narrative of the seven days that led to the fall of Earth's 2454 system of government, leading to whatever emerges in the next book. Institutions fall, people die, secrets are revealed, people learn about themselves and others.
Not as good as the previous book, because I feel the author chickened out. It's a matter of having a too-powerful character: the story should end before it begins, given what they can do. So you have to artificially restrain them. Or, when you realize you don't know what to do with them, remove them from the story altogether.
●●●○○ The Artifact - David Collins {Artifact 1} (nov) 2024
Can you go wrong with the "present-day human finds ancient alien spaceship" trope? Not really. Why the USA, Russia, and China would go along with this very-recent college graduate, providing four people for his crew, while he and his friends were the first four, seems odd.⁴
The ship's AI needs a crew so it can deal with other people, and not be seen as rogue (which it is, having vastly and illegally increased its capabilities while stuck on the Moon for 2300 years). They visit what turns out to be a pirate's waystation, salvage platinum from a wreck, and become involved with a dangerous princess. Decent action adventure.
●●●○○ The Crucible - M L Maki {Fighting Tomcats 11} (nov) 2024
#AltHist where a US naval group from 1990 ended up in World War Two. A dozen-plus books in (there was a side-series), pilot Samantha Carter is acting as a Commodore commanding the invasion fleet taking control of Italy while D-Day is ongoing in France.
There's lots of military jargon, and too many characters to keep track of, but I enjoy the series for the sociological bits of modern women (and non-white and non-straight 1990s characters) dealing with the 1940s.
●●●◐○ The Second Artifact - David Collins {Artifact 2} (nov) 2024
In the first book, the ancient alien spaceship that a human had linked up with travelled outside the regular travel routes, and encountered a damaged ship, and rescued a powerful figure. This book, they stumble upon an experimental ship from an unknown race with a hyperdrive vastly better than the galactic standard. This finding a new artifact each time is going to seem increasingly silly, but the series is light, fast-paced adventure, and I'm enjoying it.
●●◐○○ Prominent Author - Philip K. Dick (ss) 1954
A bureaucrat at a research center gets a Jiffi-scuttler (a teleportation ring) to test on his daily commute, before it goes into wide release. He turns out to be a terrible tester, so bad he makes history.
●○○○○ For Sale, Reasonable - Elisabeth Mann Borgese (ss) 1959
In a time when computer brains are getting so advanced that they refuse to do dull work, and often go on strike, an educated human sends a company a letter offering his own services, showing all the ways he'd be a better choice.
●●●○○ Seven Surrenders - Ada Palmer {Terra Ignota 2} (nov) 2017
Complex narrative of the seven days that led to the fall of Earth's 2454 system of government, leading to whatever emerges in the next book. Institutions fall, people die, secrets are revealed, people learn about themselves and others.
Not as good as the previous book, because I feel the author chickened out. It's a matter of having a too-powerful character: the story should end before it begins, given what they can do. So you have to artificially restrain them. Or, when you realize you don't know what to do with them, remove them from the story altogether.
●◐○○○ Welcome, Martians - S.A. Lombino (ss) 1952
The first spaceship from Earth lands on Mars¹ and the crew finds humans live there. People who celebrate them for returning from the first mission to Earth. Turns out both worlds sent out expeditions at once. Oh, and the crews had different names, but looked identical.
●●◐○○ Little Boy - Jerome Bixby (ss) 1954
When the bombs dropped on Manhattan, many died. Most survivors fled. But some were driven mad, and some were unlucky, so there were still people there, fighting for life on the abandoned island. One was Steven, who was five when normal life stopped six years ago. We follow his life for a day, and end on a happier note.
●○○○○ Life - Daniel Arenson (ss) 2015
A private SETI group sent out a rover to Kepler-62e², and the first picture arrived at night, when only Eliana was on duty. She looked at the picture of the alien, and collapsed, catatonic, only saying "So ugly" over and over.
A dozen other researchers looked at the monitor as they arrived, and all of them reacted identically.³ Finally a psychologist is called in. He manages to sneak a look at the image, and we see the collapse from the inside.
●●●○○ The Artifact - David Collins {Artifact 1} (nov) 2024
Can you go wrong with the "present-day human finds ancient alien spaceship" trope? Not really. Why the USA, Russia, and China would go along with this very-recent college graduate, providing four people for his crew, while he and his friends were the first four, seems odd.⁴
The ship's AI needs a crew so it can deal with other people, and not be seen as rogue (which it is, having vastly and illegally increased its capabilities while stuck on the Moon for 2300 years). They visit what turns out to be a pirate's waystation, salvage platinum from a wreck, and become involved with a dangerous princess. Decent action adventure.
●●○○○ Brainchild - Henry Slesar (ss) 2019
Ron Carver, 32, wakes up in a twelve-year-old's body – not even his own – and has to find out what's going on. Again, the background to this story is utter crap⁵, and the story is not super original. But if you ignore the setting and rewrite the tale competently in your mind, you can imagine it's only half bad.
●●●○○ The Crucible - ML Maki {Fighting Tomcats 11} (nov) 2024
#AltHist where a US naval group from 1990 ended up in World War Two. A dozen-plus books in (there was a side-series), pilot Samantha Carter is acting as the Admiral commanding the invasion fleet taking control of Italy while D-Day is ongoing in France. Mussolini is captured, and King Emmanuel rules Rome again (though he'll likely step aside, being tainted by fascism).
There's lots of military jargon, and too many characters to keep track of, but I enjoy the series for the sociological bits of modern women (and non-white and non-straight 1990s characters) dealing with the 1940s.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[1] With a cannon mounted on their ship, but without knowing if the atmosphere was breathable. Which it was, in yet another case where an author has a scene or idea they want to write about, and just pastes on some vaguely #SciFi stuff to sell it to a magazine.
[2] But the background of the tale is present-day, right down to a character driving a beat-up old Corolla. Again, sci-fi slop plastered on an idea the author liked.
[3] The stupidity of this annoys me. Everyone collapses, and everyone says "So ugly"? No individual variation? Appallingly dumb.
[4] But I admit the Catch 22. If we wasted time dealing with governments acting as they really would, it would be annoying. If we have governments being super helpful and accommodating, it's unrealistic.
[5] A 2019 story depicting a 1950s society, which has people travelling not just to other planets, or other stars, but to other galaxies. Mind-bogglingly stupid.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Cumulative 2025 totals as of Week Seventeen:
105 ss | 14 nvt | 02 nva | 38 nov | #books
#Reading The Crucible, the latest Fighting Tomcats #AltHist book, and my #grammar funny bone was smacked. A naval agent is getting info about the situation in WW2 Italy from a Mob member in New York. He ends the meeting with “I'm thankful for all the La Cosa Nostra has done for the war effort.”
Ack, "the La"? I'd think most anyone would know "la" means "the" and shouldn't be duplicated. It's worse than some rich boor saying “Who cares what the hoi polloi think?” since fewer people know "hoi" is "the" in the Greek phrase "the (common) people" or "the masses". #peeve
go to BOKatTOOTdotCAT### #Books and #stories for #JanuaryReads.
~500 words | Tag to mute: #BokBooks
Nine novels:¹
●●●◐○ Hidden Things - P.Z. Walker {Emma Nelson 3} #mystery
●●●◐○ 1638: The Sovereign States - Flint, Huff, Goodlett {USSR 4} #AltHist
●●●◐○ Ashes, Ashes - Ralts Bloodthorne {Behold: Humanity! 11} #HFY
●●●◐○ A Diogenes Club for the Czar - Huff, Goodlett {Miroslava Holmes 4}
●●●○○ The Council on Jerusalem - Pierre E Pettinger Jr {Sodality Universe 5} #SpaceOpera
●●●●○ Usurpation {Semiosis 3} - Sue Burke #SFF
●●◐○○ Murder in the Tool Library - A.E. Marling #solarpunk
●●●●○ Zero Sum Game - S.L. Huang {Cas Russell 1} #thriller
●●●○○ Paradigms Lost - Ryk E. Spoor {Digital Knight}
Zero novellas. Again.²
Five novelettes:
●●●◐○ Doctor Satan - Paul Ernst {Doctor Satan 1} #WeirdTales
●●●◐○ The Man Who Chained the Lightning - Paul Ernst {Doctor Satan 2}
●●●◐○ Mask of Death - Paul Ernst {Doctor Satan 8} #pulp
●●●◐○ The Raid on the Termites - Paul Ernst #VintageSciFi
●●●○○ Marooned Under the Sea - Paul Ernst
Twenty-six short stories:
●●●◐○ Deus Ex Machina - Francis G. Rayer
●●●◐○ The Land of Lost Content - Chad Oliver
●●●●◐ The Mercenaries - H. Beam Piper
●●●◐○ Immersion - Aliette de Bodard
●●●◐○ Metal Like Blood in the Dark - T. Kingfisher
●●●○○ The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir - Karin Tidbeck
●●◐○○ Lorelei Street - Rog Phillips
●●●○○ Morrigan in the Sunglare - Seth Dickinson
●●●◐○ The Ormolu Clock - August Derleth
●●●○○ World Behind the Moon - Paul Ernst
●●●○○ Man from Beyond - John Wyndham
●●◐○○ Home to Mother - Manly Wade Wellman
●●●○○ Space is for Suckers - Rog Phillips
●●●○○ Scanners Live in Vain - Cordwainer Smith #ClassicSciFi
●●●●○ Voyage to Queensthroat - Anya Johanna DeNiro #trans
●●●○○ Belladonna Nights - Alastair Reynolds
●●○○○ The Old Dispensation - Lavie Tidhar
●●○○○ A Walk in the Dark - Arthur C Clarke
●●●◐○ A Stitch in Time - John Wyndham
●●●◐○ The Lady Killer - Rog Phillips
●●●○○ Gallery - Rog Phillips
●●◐○○ Tower of Babble - Robert Abernathy
●●●○○ But a Kind of Ghost - John Wyndham
●●●◐○ The Black Ewe - Fritz Leiber Jr.
●●●○○ Live in an Orbit and Love It! - Rog Phillips
●●●◐○ Lost Bomb - Rog Phillips (ss) 1950
2025-01: 26 ss | 05 nvt | 00 nva | 09 nov
2024-12: 31 ss | 03 nvt | 00 nva | 12 nov
2024-11: 39 ss | 05 nvt | 01 nva | 05 nov
2024-10: 26 ss | 03 nvt | 00 nva | 06 nov
I shifted to Monday-start weeks this month, which was fine. I also switched to midnight-start days, which wasn't. I'm going back to 8am starts, since half of my reading is done after midnight, and I sometimes forget that I must get a story done before midnight to fit the calendar.
***
[1] A reply to this post repeats brief descriptions of the novels. For descriptions of the shorter tales, see the weekly posts. Most short stories this month come from single-author collections (Paul Ernst, Rog Phillips, John Wyndham) or multi-author anthologies:
New Adventures in Space Opera - Jonathan Strahan, ed.
Legends of Science Fiction: 1950 - Christopher Broschell, ed.
[2] This category is not likely to ever get high, but zero annoys me, so for next month I dug up something that proclaims it's a novella on the cover. Though the middle story in the trilogy is half again as long, and the finale is more than twice that.
#Books and #stories for #NovemberReads
Five novels:
●●●●● The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton #mystery
●●●●○ The Vampire Affair - David McDaniel {Man from UNCLE 6} #adventure
●●●◐○ Victory or Death - Ralts Bloodthorne {Behold: Humanity! 10} #HFY
●●◐○○ The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels & Michael A Martin {Enterprise 11} #StarTrek
●●◐○○ Within the Range of Reanimation - William H Nelson {Awakening Wars 1} #horror
One novella:
●●●◐○ Kalvan Kingmaker ⧨ John F Carr #AlternateHistory
Five novelettes:
●●●◐○ Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? ⬗ Jack Sharkey
●●●◐○ Hos-Hostigos ⧨ H Beam Piper
●●●○○ Sea of Grass ⧨ John F Carr #AltHist
●●●○○ Wanderers of Time - John Wyndham
●●◐○○ The Troons of Space - John Wyndham
Thirty-nine short stories:
●●●●○ The Yellow Pill - Rog Phillips #ScienceFiction
●●●●○ The Third Vibrator - John Wyndham
●●●●○ Destiny Uncertain - Rog Phillips
●●●●○ The Taint ⬗ John Jakes #SFF
●●●●○ Pranksters - Rog Phillips
●●●●○ Time in the Round ⬗ Fritz Leiber
●●●◐○ Lonely Phoenix - Stephen L Thompson #SciFi
●●●◐○ Bottle Baby ⬗ Henry Slesar
●●●◐○ Exiles on Asperus - John Wyndham
●●●◐○ Let Freedom Ring! - Rog Phillips
●●●◐○ Outpost on Io ⬗ Leigh Brackett
●●●◐○ The Alexander Affair ⧨ John F Carr
●●●◐○ The Lost Machine - John Wyndham
●●●◐○ The Moon, A.D. 2044 - John Wyndham
●●●◐○ Vampire of the Deep - Rog Phillips
●●●◐○ Watershed ⬗ James Blish
●●●◐○ Spheres of Hell - John Wyndham
●●●◐○ Truckstop - Rog Phillips #alien
●●●○○ Fireproof - Hal Clement
●●●○○ Step Out of Your Body, Please - Rog Phillips
●●●○○ The King of the Elves ⬗ Philip K Dick
●●●○○ The Monster Maker ⬗ Ray Bradbury
●●●○○ The Only One that Lived - Rog Phillips
●●●○○ The Thin Gnat-Voices - John Wyndham
●●●○○ You'll Die Yesterday - Rog Phillips #TimeTravel
●●◐○○ The Gone Dogs ⬗ Frank Herbert
●●○○○ Glug ⬗ Harlan Ellison
●●○○○ The Time Tombs ⬗ J G Ballard
◐○○○○ 2 B R 0 2 B ⬗ Kurt Vonnegut
2024-11: 39 ss | 05 nvt | 01 nva | 05 nov
2024-10: 26 ss | 03 nvt | 00 nva | 06 nov
2024-09: 23 ss | 03 nvt | 01 nva | 13 nov
2024-08: 19 ss | 03 nvt | 01 nva | 08 nov
Short descriptions of the various stories were in the weekly posts. Novel count down a bit, but I use short stories to fill in the calendar. One must have a nice-looking calendar.
⬗ = Legends of Science Fiction, 1950: Volume 1 - Christopher Broschell, ed. Finished this month.
⧨ = The Paratime Police Chronicles, Volume II - John F Carr & H Beam Piper & Roland Green. Two stories left.
Stories also came from:
The Essential Rog Phillips - Christopher Broschell, ed.
More of the Essential John Wyndham - Christopher Broschell, ed.
○ is 25CB, ● is 25CF, and ◐ is 25D0. That means the lists don't sort as nicely as one might want, even ignoring that #KateEditor somehow lacks a simple inverse sort function.
#BokBooks (a tag to filter if you find these weekly posts and monthly summaries annoying)
#Books and #stories completed in October:
2024-10: 26 ss | 03 nvt | 00 nva | 06 nov⁰
#Reading was down this month. The __Behold: Humanity__ series continues to be solid. Its episodic nature means you get a dozen different story threads in episodic chapters, so even if one or two aren't the best, the rest can still carry the narrative.
1983's _King of the Wood_ has an interesting #AlternateHistory setting: Refusing to convert to Christianity, some pagan Vikings settle the East Coast of North America in 995 CE. Christian Saxons flee Britain after William the Conqueror and take their own piece of the coast. Muslim Spanish settlers take Florida later. Amerind tribes remain significant polities, as do the Aztecs. Despite the promising setting, the story isn't fascinating, and was weakened by fantasy elements, IMO.
***
The Wheel - John Wyndham (ss) ●●●◐○ #ScienceFiction
Baby on Neptune - Clare Winger Harris & Miles J. Breuer (ss) ●●●◐○
Easy Money - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●●○○
The Vibrometer - Clare Winger Harris (ss) ●●●◐○ #SFF
Never on Mars - John Wyndham (ss) ●●●○○
Requiem - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●●●○
The Fire Rises - Ralts Bloodthorne (nov) {Behold: Humanity 9} ●●●◐○ #HFY
Fessenden's Worlds - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●●○○
The Distant Sound of Engines ⬗ Algis Budrys (ss) ●●○○○ #TimeTravel
Alternate Channels: Queer Images on 20th-Century TV - Steven Capsuto (nonfic)¹ ●●●●○
The Ape Cycle - Clare Winger Harris² (nvt) ●●●◐○ #SciFi
The Dark Came Out to Play ⬗ Zenna Henderson (ss) ●●●○○
If This Be Utopia ⬗ Kris Neville (ss) ●●○○○
King of the Wood - John Maddox Roberts (nov) ●●●●○ #AlternateHistory
Can Such Beauty Be? ⬗ Jerome Bixby (ss) ●●●○○
Comfort Me, My Robot ⬗ Robert Bloch (ss) ●●◐○○
Everybody’s Happy But Me! Frederik Pohl (ss) ●●●○○
Whiskaboom ⬗ Alan Arkin³ (ss) ●●●○○ #ClassicSciFi
That First Time ◭ P Z Walker (ss) ●●◐○○
The Stronger Spell ⬗ L Sprague de Camp (ss) ●●●◐○
Angelica Blackwine ◭ P Z Walker (ss) ●●●◐○
The Night Shift ⬗ Frank M Robinson (ss) ●●●◐○
Paratime Police Chronicles One - John F Carr & H Beam Piper (nov) ●●●◐○
Worlds to Barter - John Wyndham (ss) ●●◐○○
Undiplomatic Immunity ⬗ Poul Anderson & Gordon R Dickson (ss) ●●◐○○
The Carthaginian Crisis - Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett (nov) {Queen of the Sea 4} ●●●◐○ #AltHist
Space Is a Province of Brazil - John Wyndham (ss) ●●●○○
Dance Macabre ◭ P Z Walker (ss) ●●●○○
Gunpowder God ⧨ H Beam Piper (nvt) ●●●◐○ #AltHist
Tonight We Steal the Stars - John Jakes (nov) ●●○○○
The Asteroids, 2194 - John Wyndham (ss) ●●●○○
Down Styphon ⧨ H Beam Piper (nvt) ●●●◐○ #AltHistory
Jupiter Five ⬗ Arthur C Clarke (ss) ●●●○○
The Venus Adventure - John Wyndham (ss) ●●●○○
Trojan - Hal Clement (ss) ●●●◐○
***
[0] Previous three months:
2024-09: 23 ss | 03 nvt | 01 nva | 13 nov
2024-08: 19 ss | 03 nvt | 01 nva | 08 nov
2024-07: 22 ss | 03 nvt | 02 nva | 09 nov
⬗ = Legends of Science Fiction: Volume 1
◭ = Naturist Fiction Short Stories Volume 2 by P Z Walker, finished
⧨ = Paratime Police Chronicles, Volume Two - John F Carr & H Beam Piper & Roland Green
[1] I'm counting this as a novel for length purposes. I read this here and there over several months; I'm putting it on this month's calendar because I finally finished it. #koReader
[2] Finished all twelve of the science fiction short stories ever written by Clare Winger Harris wrote, who mostly wrote in the late 1920s and early 1930s. (Her final story was written decades later.)
It was popular in the 1920s to say that atoms were like solar systems, with electrons whirling about the nucleus like tiny planets. Many authors wrote stories where characters shrank down and ended up finding civilizations on one of these micro worlds.
Two of CWH's stories did the reverse, and considered that Earth was but an electron in a molecule of a larger scale existence, and examined what happened if we had been part of a solid that suddenly melted, for instance.
[3] Yes, Alan Arkin the actor.
I'm getting near the end of _The Paratime Police Chronicles, Volume 1_¹, and have just started "Paratime Paradox". This is a meta #ScienceFiction story that could go very dark, though I doubt John F. Carr will take it in that direction. #SciFi
The highest law of the Paratime Police, and First Level society in general, is to keep the Paratime Secret – the reality that other timelines exist, that people can travel between them, and that citizens of one line are exploiting other lines – safe from outsiders. In this tale, routine monitoring by the Bureau of Outtime Intelligence on the Europo-American Subsector has turned up a possible major leak. #AltHist
It seems that someone name H. Beam Piper is writing #paratime stories in _Astounding Science Fiction_ magazine. He's even using "Verkan Vall" and "Tortha Karf" as a characters, among other actual people's names. Piper tells about actual events that these people have been engaged in, like the capture of an escaped Venusian Nighthound. #crosstime
Given that it's not unusual for people who discover the Paratime Secret to be killed, and that in reality H. Beam Piper committed suicide in the mistaken belief he was a failure (his agent died, leaving Piper unaware he'd sold several stories), it's theoretically possible that Verkan might have to kill Piper to save the former's civilization. #AlternateHistory
Now, it's not likely that Carr will kill the author whose oeuvre has been the basis for half of his own stories, but at the start of the story, it's a possibility. #SFF
[1] Really should have epub-split this; will the next.
#Books and #stories completed in August:
2024-08: 19 ss | 03 nvt | 01 nva | 08 nov⁰
The Spot of Life - Austin Hall (nov) {Spot 2} ●●●○○ #SFF
What's It Like Out There? - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●○○○
As Good as New - Charlie Jane Anders (ss) ●●●●○ #reading
Off Course - Mack Reynolds (ss) ●●●○○
The Price of Vengeance - Gina Marie Wylie (nov) {alt-Kalvan 3} ●●●●◐ #AltHist
Ultima Thule - Mack Reynolds (nvt) ●●●○○ #ScienceFiction
Grover: Case #C09 920, “The Most Dangerous Blend” ⬖ Edward Edmonds (ss) ●●◐○○¹
A Field of Sapphires and Sunshine ⬖ Jaymee Goh (ss) ●●●◐○
Roswell - Sonny Whitelaw, Jennifer Fallon (nov) {SG-1 #9} ●●●●○ #Stargate
The Fifth Dimension - Clare Winger Harris (ss) ●●○○○
Mercenary - Mack Reynolds (nvt) ●●●○○
Red Stuff - John Wyndham (ss) ●●●○○ #ClassicSciFi
Heavenly Dreams of Mechanical Trees ⬖ Wendy Nikel ●●●○○
Summer Frost - Blake Crouch (nvt) ●●●●○ #AI
The Seeds from Outside - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●◐○○○
Screams of the Past - Ralts Bloodthorne (nov) {Behold: Humanity! 08} ●●●●◐ #HFY
After a Judgment Day - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●●○○
First Through Time - Rex Gordon (nva) ●●●◐○ #TimeTravel
The Menace of Mars - Clare Winger Harris (ss) ●●●◐○
Exile - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●●◐○
A Runaway World - Clare Winger Harris (ss) ●●●○○
Under the Northern Lights ⬖ Charlotte M Ray (ss) ●●●◐○
Nudist Resort Murder - Kalusna Rose (nov) ●◐○○○ #mystery
Evolutionary Monstrosity - Clare Winger Harris (ss) ●●○○○
Midsummer Night's Heist ⬖ Commando Jugendstil (ss) ●●●●○
He That Hath Wings - Edmond Hamilton (ss) ●●◐○○
The Jupiter Plague - Harry Harrison (nov) ●●●◐○ #SciFi
Tabula Rasa - J Ishiro Finney (ss) ●●○○○ #biopunk
Time and Time Again - H Beam Piper (ss) ●●●◐○ #reincarnation
When the World Shook ⬙ H. Rider Haggard (nov)² ●●◐○○ #vintageSF
Time Crime - H Beam Piper & John F Carr (nov) ●●●◐○ [Piper original, extended by Carr to better hook up with his sequels] #ScienceFiction
Riot of the Wind and Sun ⬖ Jennifer Lee Rossman (ss) ●●●◐○ #SolarPunk
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#Reading was down this month, I'm not sure why. Maybe five months of elevated reading times after getting the Kobo Sage and installing KOReader is just wearing off. Instead of doing two full novels each week and filling in with shorter works, I'll try doing just one.
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[0] Previous months:
2024-07: 22 ss | 03 nvt | 02 nva | 09 nov
2024-06: 19 ss | 04 nvt | 03 nva | 09 nov
2024-05: 20 ss | 08 nvt | 02 nva | 07 nov
⬙ = Atlantis and Lemuria: 13 Classic Tales
⬖ = Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers
[1] Another #koReader first. Longest title, at 49 characters long: Grover: Case #C09 920, “The Most Dangerous Blend”. This meant stretching a 106-screen (39p in original epub) over five days. I'll just shorten calendar names henceforth; in this case that would have been "Dangerous Blend" at two days wide.
[2] H Rider Haggard's _When the World Shook_ (1919) was very similar to Erle Cox's _Out of the Silence_ (1919 serialized, 1925 novel).
_Shook_ has two people, a young woman and an older man, found underground in crystal coffins; they were in suspended animation from 250,000 years ago, the man claims. The man was a ruler, and expresses a desire to wipe out the lesser civilization of today, as he did those who refused to bow to him in the past. The woman and the man who found her fall in love. Both ancient individuals die in the end.
_Silence_ had a man find an underground metal chamber. After getting past the booby traps, he awakens a young woman from ancient, pre-catacylsmic times. (The older man is later found in another sphere.) Again, the older man plans to rule Earth, and the woman falls for the modern man. Both ancient individuals die in the end.
I liked _Out of the Silence_ better. No third of the book wasted in setup. It also has more of a point: Both the ancient young woman and the old man are casually racist against "the coloured races," but the narrator is not, and it's clear the point is to highlight how European colonists are mistreating indigenous Australians.
_When the World Shook_ has the young woman sacrificing herself to save the world, and the man she loves. It turns out that, when suspended, your soul is free to be reincarnated. The modern man who found her contains the soul of the man she loved, whom her father had killed because he was a commoner leading the revolt of the masses against the "Children of Wisdom" who ruled them. And the modern man's wife, who died early in the book, was the most recent receptacle of the ancient woman's soul.
Oh, by the way, the word "Atlantis" shows up exactly once in the novel, and only in a "I heard of another place that was destroyed and submerged beneath the waves" sense. It's not used to describe where the sleepers came from.
#RhodeIsland rarely comes up in the #ScienceFiction I normally read, but it has in the book I #amReading currently, _Roswell_ by Sonny Whitelaw and Jennifer Fallon, a #Stargate SG-1 novel. After a series of errors, the team ends up in Providence in 1908, and resorts to breaking into #BrownUniversity (with the help of 17-year-old Howard Phillips #Lovecraft) to find parts to fix their time machine.
Other books that mention my home state include _True Names_ by Vernor Vinge, where one of the characters engaging in virtual reality in the story made their real-life home in #RI. Also the _Red Son_ #AltHist duology by John Deakins and Herb Sakalaucks, where political changes that ensued from the 1990s town of #Grantville popping up in the #ThirtyYearsWar, King Charles I sold off England's North American holdings to France.
A final work was another #AlternateHistory story, "The Sleeping Serpent" by Pamela Sargent, where the Mongol horde conquered Western Europe. Centuries later the Khanate had settlements on the eastern coast of North America. A young prince, disgusted by the decadence of the late empire and admiring the lifestyle of the Natives, fomented a revolution in these Colonies with the help of a half-blood resident and some tribes. #SciFi