FifffffTSssigggs or There and Back There Again (We blame the Wizard)

Greenings Thirders

We have been studying your sayings.  Most of which are simply not supported factually.  For example, “What does not kill you makes you stronger.”  We believe your medical and rehab facilities are full of humans who would argue against that although it certainly might explain your frantic race toward annihilation.  And what about “The grass is always greener on the other side?”  What happens when you cross to the other side?  What about the grass then?  Sometimes we think we were sent here to be punished.  To illustrate we look at: Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen, Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher, The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz, and The High Ground by Melinda Snodgrass.

Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen, Published by Delacorte Press, $18.95, 357 pages.

We thoroughly enjoyed this one.  It is smart and snappy and fun.  It is the story of Violet, who is a prophet.  The royal prophet at that.  Which puts her in with those who have access to the prince, who is just about her age.  There is also a wise old King and a prophecy about the destruction of the kingdom if the prince does not marry by a certain time.  The prophecy appears to be a legitimate one, unlike many that Violet herself tells the elite when they come to her for readings.  The problem is the prince is not that inclined to wed.  He has rejected all offers.  But time is running out and the prince is going to take the summer touring the empire and Violet has prophesied, under the King’s urging, that the prince will find his bride.  Of course, he does not, which creates no small amount of turmoil for everyone.  Violet is sharp, witty, and not one to put up with much nonsense.  She verbally spars with the prince every chance she gets.  None of this really helps the fact that they are rushing headlong to the prophesized end of everything.  Highly recommended.  We are sure there is another in the works.

Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher, published by Night Shade Books, $26.99, 402 pages.

The A’s have taken over.  But they may not be as smart as everyone thinks since they allowed humans to survive.  This is a pair of stories interwoven together as they reach the same end.  It is about Thorvold Spear who wakes in a hospital and understands that he has been resurrected after being killed on a planet destroyed in a war a century prior.  Apparently, Penny Royal, one of those Ais we mentioned earlier, was sent to save the remaining forces and instead went rogue and destroyed them.  Isobel Satomi also has had a run in with Penny Royal, but in her case she wanted more power and ended up being turned into a part AI herself, sort of.  Then there is Sverl, the Prador who’s ship sits beneath the ocean of the planet Masada.  Everyone arrives at more or less the same time and chaos ensues, but not the kind of chaos that was expected as each participant has a wild card operating along with them that changes things.  Interesting we must admit. And enjoyable.  We will seek out more of this and report back.  In the meantime, you should start on your own.

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz, published by Tor, $27.99, 352 pages.

This Is mostly about terraforming and the people involved in it.  It is also set far in your future so we would say it is a fantasy since you will definitely not be around at the time this is projected.  At the point of this story a number of things have happened.  You have apparently learned how to make people (no, no, no, not that way, we mean in a vat), you have given control to large corporations, and you have become less smart.  Yes, we know, the smart thing seems like a reach given what your baseline is.  Anywho, this is about a group of terraformers who are essentially a bunch of do-gooders.  Think of your benign eco-warriors dumbed down.  There is a jump in time, an unexpected discovery, battles against corporate masters, a number of different uplifted creatures and a planet being designed for habitation.  Oh, and there are volcanos.  We should mention the volcanos.  It is a classic battle of good versus evil within a cultural context that influences behaviors in very different ways.  We kind of enjoyed it although we kept twitching when things happened that we thought should have been anticipated.  Interesting for the setting and characters.  Will you like it?  Do you enjoy tofu? 

The High Ground by Melinda Snodgrass, published by Titan Books, $14.95, 423 pages.

This is Book One of the Imperials Saga.  It is one of those standard tales of the princess who joins the military, the first woman ever admitted to what is called The High Ground, an elite training academy of the Solar League’s Star Command, which just happens to be in orbit.  One of her classmates is a poor lad who manages to also get selected but for very different reasons.  The system within which the High Ground operates is rigid, patriarchal, caste driven, and treats aliens who have been conquered as slaves.  Unsurprisingly, there is some unrest in the population so that amid potential civil war, political power shifts, and a possible alien invasion, the training of these cadets will definitely be interesting.  We liked it although it is pretty tropeful in terms of: the princess learns a lesson, the poor boy learns the princess is human, and love blooms in the strangest places. Sure it does, because history is full of monarchs who married paupers.  Wait, no it’s not.  Typically, they paired with their cousins to maintain power.  Well, it did have some interesting moments and we did get all the way to the end so that says something.

Things change and change brings change.  It is the way, whether or not you keep your helmet on.   We are speaking of your climate.  It is a mess and you are not making things better.  Yes, we know you believe that you will, at the last minute, figure something out.  You always have.  Except for all the times you have not.  It is one of the things that continues to mark you as a species that is not yet ready to join the rest of us.  This is to say that you are on the list.  And you are fairly near the top.  This is not a positive position to be in.  We can say no more. We are done here for now.  Eyes to the skies humans.  We will return.

FifffffTEFore or There’s No Time Like Tomorrow Never Comes

Greenings Thirders

‘Tis the season.  Well, it is always the season.  One way or the other.  Unless it is the pre-season in which case it is not yet the season.  Although we believe that this pre-season does actually take place in a season.  It is just another thing that your species seems to not be able to decide. It is like having your cake and eating it too.  We note that it is impossible to eat your cake if you do not have your cake.  And that once you eat your cake you still have your cake.  Why you must make everything so convoluted is beyond us.  If you would just apply yourselves in a linear fashion, you would have had cold fusion by now.  Instead, you are still fumbling about trying to figure out how not to explode everything in the process.  To illustrate, we will discuss: The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison, The Collectors by Philip Pullman, Dark Stars by John F. D. Taff, and Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson.

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison, Published by Tor, $25.99, 245 pages.

We liked the first one in this grouping and we liked this one, the second, as well.  It is about a cleric who has the ability to speak to the recently dead. This is useful in finding out how they died, whether they left anything of importance about, and what their final wishes might have been.  As you can imagine, having this ability often leads to more trouble than you could imagine and that is the case here as, Thara Celebar, the Witness for the Dead, ends up getting involved in the mystery of the death of a young woman, the mystery of risqué photographs, and a run in with a being which seemingly steals his ability.  He also picks up an assistant who ends up getting his job.  As we said, more trouble.  We liked the way this was presented and the way the persons involved were described and written about.  Very well done and highly recommended.  We look for more.  Go get a copy. Do it now as once you are dead it will probably be too late.

The Collectors by Philip Pullman, published by Knopf, $14.99, 68 pages.

This is a very slim volume, and we are worried that the slimness means that perhaps the meaning was left somewhere else.  This is about, as you probably already imagined, collectors.  And it is about death and about old friends and a mystery and a bronze monkey.  We are hesitant to say more than that because we don’t want to give anything away.  If you like this Pullman fellow, then you will probably like this.  If you have never read this Pullman fellow, then this is probably not a good place to start. On the other hand, at 68 pages, it might be the best place to start.  It’s odd, kind of a slice of life type of thing, and short.  We are not yet of an opinion or, better to state that we are of dually opinions.  These may never be resolved.  Pass the monkey please.

Dark Stars edited by John F. D. Taff, published by Nightfire, $27.99, 345 pages.

We grow concerned when a being spends their time telling us about how great a thing is rather than letting us just find out how great a thing is on our own.  It is as if they believe that by telling us they can presuppose us to a particular outcome.  This is like when our navigator tells us we will be arriving at a particular place on a particular solar crossing prior to actually having left.  We are wise to this kind of thing. It rarely works.  It does not really work here.  This is a grouping of a dozen efforts to terrorize.  We did not necessarily find this to be the case although the offerings were all well done and by some of the better-known terrorists among you such as Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Graham Jones and Usman Malik.  Terror is much more visceral than wonder.  Terror is more often to be best experienced in person and it takes a very adept crafter to scare one just with a premise.  Interesting this is, definitely.  Fun, engaging, sure.  Terrifying, we think not.  If it’s terror you are truly after then just put Klaarg in a small space with a Roomba.

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson, published by Orbit, $27.00, 446 pages.

As with many other things, your species uses color to denote things beyond what the color should designate.  In this case the moon is not red because it is that color but because the communist Chinese are on it.  And they have big plans, which is the driver for this entire outing.  We follow Fred Fredericks who is an American grabbed by the Chinese Lunar Authority, Ta Shu, celebrity travel reporter and poet, and Chan Qi, daughter of the Chinese Minister of Finance who is running away from her father.  The three end up entwined with each other as events on the moon and Earth begin to boil. China, while looking to expand their lunar footprint is facing unrest at home.  Fredericks just wants to get back home, which would be America.  And Chan Qi, who is pregnant, just wants things to be different.  The three of them will be the fulcrum of change in what turns out to be a very interesting story.  We enjoyed it.  We think you will as well which is why we recommend it.  Go get you sum. 

Cycles change, as they will, and things move.  We will be moving as well.  Alderan we think, assuming we can find it.  No, not the fictional one you reference which was destroyed so please do no pester us with tik toks about this.  Unless you want to end up on the probe list.  And, just so you know, the Randurudnar are in charge of probing this cycle.  They have big appendages and go both ways.  Enough said.  Humans, leave your devices to their own and eyes to the skies.  It is your only salvation.  But why do we bother.  We will return when we return.

FifffffTThrea or All for One and One for Soup

Greenings Thirders

Recently we stumbled across one of your wasteful and destructive sports.  And, while we had a hard time discerning the point of it all we did find one thing quite illuminating.  It seems that the participants in this sport are required to wear uniforms that list all the people, businesses and organizations who give them money.  Why are you not doing this with everything?  You seem to spend a great deal of time trying to figure out motivation.  Imagine how much easier it would be if your politicians were required to wear uniforms that listed their major donors?  Would this not resolve your apparent disconnects between what they say and what they do?  We are sure it will never happen, even though politics is more like a sport than anything else.  To drive that point home, we are going to take a look at: Sylvanus by Christie Golden, The Awoken by Katelyn Monroe Howes, Up Against It by Laura J. Mixon, and And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin.

Sylvanus by Christie Golden, Published by Del Rey, $28.99, 374 pages.

This is no cutesy story about elves and dwarfs and Hobos.  It’s set in the World of Warcraft universe which should tell you something.  Means nothing to us since that’s one universe we have not been to. Must be on the other side. Anyhow, this is about the Elf Sylvanus who was kind of a big shot until she got offed.  Lucky for her, kind of, she came back as a sort of undead elf.  The whole death experience seemed to have changed her way of looking at things though and she ends up embracing some pretty evil behaviors in order to serve the greater good. At least the greater good as she sees it.  And that’s the rub here.  For us, we would prefer to be the ones deciding what is our greater good and not you since we have watched you for a while now and not too many of your ambitious “for the good of all” plans really seem to turn out all that well.  Especially for those whose good you are focused on.  And so is the case here.  It’s an interesting character study, especially if you enjoy chaotic neutral characters.  Wait, that’s a different universe.  Still, you should get our meaning. And use it to decide whether or not to get you a copy.  We think you either are all in or not involved depending on your previous experiences with this universe.  We got through it without too much cursing so you can take that as you will.

The Awoken by Katelyn Monroe Howes, published by Dutton, $26.00, 416 pages.

Consider what it might be like to be one of the first ones frozen because you have an incurable disease and hope to be thawed once a cure is discovered.  Imagine that after you get cubed (ice) a lot of others do as well.  So many that it creates a cultural issue for society.  Especially when the cubes start to be dethawed.  Are they dead?  Undead?  What rights do they have?  Imagine a movement that develops to destroy all the storage areas where the cubed exist in order to just avoid the whole thing.  Then imagine that you are thawed only to find out that you are the face of the Awoken resistance.  Literally.  Like billboards and flyers.  Well, no need to imagine all this (you did see that coming, right?) because Howes has done it for you.  There are bits and pieces to this that don’t quite hold together but let’s just say that coincidental serendipity is a thing even if it sometimes looks like it’s not.  We liked this.  We found the basic concept excellent even with an execution that strayed into romance a bit too much.  Still, we recommend if only for the thought munching that this will produce.  Recommended.

Up Against It by Laura Mixon, published by Tor, $19.99, 400 pages.

We enjoyed this one a lot.  It revolves around Jane Navio, a resource manager for an asteroid colony that is, we believe, between Mars and Jupiter.  Managing resources in a resource poor environment is a thankless job and Navio is about to get involved in a situation that involves death, sabotage, the space mafia, treachery, betrayal, and politics.  The asteroid suffers a debilitating loss as a storage area is destroyed taking out a number of crucial systems.  Most importantly, the asteroid does not have enough food on hand to last very long, nor do they have anything incoming soon enough.  Navio ends up taking the fall for this although she keeps chipping away at what was going on and learns that the space mafia is really behind it all in a move to make a space grab for the asteroid in order to improve their bargaining position with the inner planets.  In the end it is all resolved, a bunch of very interesting characters get to do their thing, and the reader learns about some alternative societal structure.  We like it a lot.  We are sure you will as well. But only if you buy a copy.  Highly recommended.    

And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin, published by Tordotcom, $13.99, 164 pages.

This is about alternate realities. Or maybe perception. Or perhaps about one’s perception of reality.  Or maybe it is just political satire. On the other hand, it might be philosophical.  These things are hard to tell because your species refuses to just label things for what they are, preferring that you all figure it out as you go along.  Like your voting.  And look how well that is going.  But enough of that.  This is the story of Spence a recently cured individual.  Spence was cured of the plague.  The plague that made him see some of his fellow humans as monsters. Which he then happily offed.  It has taken a while for Spence to be cured.  But then Leila enters the scene.  She is cured too.  Or maybe not.  Never the mind, she convinces Spence (it does not take much—see the plague) to join her in escaping to go find some of her old crew.  Escaping essentially involves walking out the front door.  Which they do.  And Spence is soon finding himself on the edge of not being cured.  We will not say more because that is why you should get this and find out for yourself. It is a good study in influencing and following, kind of taken to extremes.  We found it intriguing.  We were not fond of the ending although it was fitting.  You will like it.  Or not.  But that is the whole point.  Only one way to find out though.

We see that you managed to find and hit an asteroid with a probe.  And move it.  Congrats on that.  Chances are though, once you install this space-based missile system you will just use it on each other instead of redirecting asteroids.  It is what you do.  As the Indian Ambassador said, during your most recent climate meeting, “I say, isn’t it a bit warm in here?”  Warm indeed.  Time to rename the permafrost.  We’re off to look for gifts in space.  We’ll be back.  You should expect us when you least expect us.  Eyes to the skies humans.

FifffffTTu,or Can’t Buy a Thrill? Rent One Instead!

Greenings Thirders

We’re back from the meteor showers and we have received bad news.  The most recent pooling did not go well.  Evidently a Gnarkep got into the mix and ate most of the slitherers.  The good news is less competition for us.  Which may mean that our five years mission may end up getting cut short.  Yes, yes, we know you know that this is year 8 of the mission but these things do take time and it’s not like you are right next door to the puddle of knowledge from which we hope to graduate.  There are negatives to being way out in a galactic arm and time is just one of them.  To make this point we will now ponder: Aspects by John M. Ford, The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang, In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan, and Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds.

Aspects by John M. Ford, Published by Tor, $26.99, 471 pages.

Ooooh, this is a strange one.  It is not a complete unit.  In other words, John Ford expired prior to making an ending.  Now, many of you may not even notice, what with your species inability to end anything—wars, television series, lunch buffets, etc.  But we are classicists and believe that there should be a beginning and an ending and stuff in between so that you can tell one from the other.  We did like this, so far as it goes.  But then it just stops.  Not ends but stops.  Sure, there are a couple of Sonnets at the end by which you are supposed to be able to create your own ending but that is just not the way this stuff works.  It is set in an alternate reality with a lot of strange stuff happening but if you want to gain an understanding of context, forget it because it just stops.  While we liked what we saw we just cannot recommend.    

The Way Spring Arrives edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang, published by Tor dot com, $26.99, 400 pages.

Indeedy do, we thought this might be an interesting way to spend those moments between interstellar jaunts and cleaning out the ram scoop.  It is a collection of 22 stories and essays translated from the original Chinese language.  We know about translation, and it is often quite difficult to capture the flavor, the nuance and the flow when moving from one language to another.  There are also the cultural differences which show up in content, focus, pace and context.  All those things are here.  We go back and forth between wanting to look at this as a study piece and wanting to look at it purely as a way to enjoyably move time. Overall, we recommend it.  But, as with other works that have been translated it may take a bit of effort on your part to willingly move past those places where there simply was not a good translation possibility and enjoy it for what is there.  Recommended with some caveats, which, we understand, are good with sauce.

In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan, published by Tor, $28.99, 560 pages.

For you we want to say right off to go buy this.  With one small note of caution, which we will get to at the end, we highly recommend.  This is a sweeping saga of medieval (sort of), fantasy.  The main people involved are caught in a tightly woven play that transpires over a fairly brief period of time although the genesis of many of the issues involved were decades in the making (and also involved those same people).  It is a story of war, confidence, secrets, poor communication, betrayal and politics.  We found it fairly enthralling, albeit the need for some chroniclers to create their own swear words is something that not only grates on the ear but hangs out like a badly crafted set of Andorian antenna.  We fairly sped through this one, wanting to know what happened next and waiting for the next surprise.  Some we anticipated but most we did not.  And then, the biggest surprise, came right at the end, which, we are sad to say, was not really the end.  Truly?  After all this the chronicler could not figure out how to both tie things up but leave enough loose ends for another?  We are disappointed in this but will recommend highly anyway as it is most likely just a species thing.    

Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds, published by Tor, $14.99, 173 pages.

Typically, we enjoy this reporter.  But those are mostly with much longer efforts.  This is a short one.  And we are not sure it’s worth the time.  We were halfway through when we thought there is very little going on.  Sure, it is about time traveling do-gooders, trapping themselves in the past after doing a lot of talking about how dangerous going to the past can be and how they must not change things, too much.  Of course, this is exactly what they do including killing each other (and their hosts), crashing a plane, and generally doing everything but what they were supposed to be doing.  And, we suppose, that is the ultimate message here; that time travel will always be corrupted by humans.  This is not really a surprise since you corrupt pretty much everything you touch. Still, we were hoping for better.  If you enjoy this fellow’s work, then you may enjoy this but we can think of a bunch of others that would be time better spent. 

It is a fresh wind that blows against the empire.  Or so you humans say. In space there is no wind, so empires pretty much just go with star pressure or their fission engines.  This is all too allegorical anyway.  Fresh wind, old wind, wind from a dying star, it matters not.  Unless you are a member of the Sargolian empire in which case we understand the entire thing got twisted by a black hole and destroyed by a neutron star.  We suppose that could be wind-like.  Or, as the Sargolians would say, “There’s nothing like a good rock to get a planet dweller’s attention.”  Alas, no more rocks for them.  Except for the ones they may have already launched.  But while those will never be found in the dark of the void they will still be a surprise for someone.  Eventually.  When you least expect it, planetary catastrophe from above.  Eyes to the skies humans.

FifffffT or, Only a Fool Would Say That

Greenings Thirders

We have just returned from the interstellar conference on the fantastic.  And we are happy to say that we won a prize based on our reporting of your actions.  It is the Klandeskar ribbon of incredulity for the most improbable species still alive based on self-eradicating behaviors.  We share this with you because, honestly, we could not have done it without you.  Typically, when we speak of our studies no one believes us.  Even the Slifft, who destroyed their own planet when they bombed the core with a suntronial device are thought to be far and away more intelligent than you.  And your recent behavior is simply off the charts.  This is very trying for us, who are used to species with more self-awareness and preservation.  Let us give you a few examples pulled from your very own reporting.  Exhibit one will be: Mirror, Mended by Alix E. Harrow, Critical Roll: Vox Machina Kith and Kin by Marieke Nijkamp, Undertow by Elizabeth Bear, and Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson.

A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow, Published by Toe Dot Com, $18.99, 144 pages.

This is the follow-up to a Spindle Splintered.  These are retellings of some of your most favored histories.  In this case it is the evil queen.  You know, the one who put the young woman to sleep with a poison apple because a mirror told her that the young woman’s beauty overshadowed the evil queens.  Thing is, there are many different versions on this history and the protagonist of one of them has escaped the boundaries and set herself the task of freeing all the others. This goes fine until she gets pulled into a tale controlled by the evil queen.  Needless to say, this is a bit of an eye opener for everyone and a truly interesting bit of telling.  We really loved this. It was well done, witty, funny, ironic, transformational, and a real page turner.  We won’t say more so we don’t ruin it for you.  What we can say is Alix Harrow is one heck of a writer.  Thoroughly enjoyable.  Get one for yourself.  Highly recommended. 

Critical Roll, Vox Machina, Kith and Kin by Marieke Nijkamp, published by Del Rey, $28.00, 353 pages.

Well, we kind of went into this one with some trepidation.  Frankly elves remind us of the Klejnamopian Omnivarium, a rather unpleasant group on the edge of the Bem Cubid.  We entered anyway.  It could just be that this is not really our pool of fluid, but we found it a bit staid.  Vex and Vax, the twin elves in question, are given a task by the thieves’ guild (which should tell you something) that is much more than they are told it is.  Needless to say, things go bad pretty quickly, the twins are separated, things continue to go bad, there are reversals and apparent successes and more reversals, betrayals and complications.  A lot of this seems pretty contrived though and we found ourselves wondering quite a few times about the choices made and the lack of communication which would have cleared up so many things.  We’re sure if you enjoyed the previous efforts, you would enjoy this one.  We would say, though, that if you are venturing here for the first time it might be best to find a different path. 

Undertow by Elizabeth Bear, published by Bantam, $6.99, 332 pages.

We did really enjoy this one.  Set on a frontier world which is using the indigenous population to drill for oil among other things, a more murderous hive of villainy would be hard to find.  There’s a hired assassin, a few clones, a couple of hackers, and more politics than you can shake a stick at.  It all takes place on this water world.  The assassin is trying to find a teacher who will train him to manipulate odds and control probability.  He finds one but the bargain involved is steep and he’s not sure he can survive it.  But he feels it is the only way for him to get out.  To make matters worse, the indigenous species is ready to foment revolution.  In the middle of it all is the company and the folks trying to stay as far away from the company as possible.  It’s all a high-stake game of hide and seek with life and death on the line.  We were fascinated by the way that Bear pulled all these things together and shifted the points of view from one side to the other.  Very well done.  We went through it in a day.  That should tell you something.  Greatly recommended.    

Drunk On All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson, published by Tor, $26.99, 288 pages.

The idea here is that humans who are translators for an alien race called the Logi, become intoxicated while translating.  It’s an interesting idea although biologically impossible.  Still, that’s not really the point here as Lydia, who is one of the translators in question, finds herself in the middle of a diplomatic incident when the ambassador she is translating for is murdered.  There are plenty of suspects and it seems as if Lydia is planning on running through all of them to get to the truth.  Problem is that Lydia is mostly average when it comes to abilities.  Nothing wrong with that but it does limit the intuitive jumps one would expect.  Lydia soon finds herself a target.  Could this be tied to the murder?  The police don’t think so.  But then, the police seem to think Lydia did it.  So, Lydia has to solve this the old-fashioned way—car chases and accusations based on less than solid evidence.  It all comes out in the end and getting there is interesting.  Enough so that we’ll recommend this one.  Check it out. 

Solar opposition is upon us.  Time to hide.  Or not, since you have never hidden before and seem to just want to ride this out, as you do so many of your other planetary disasters.  Did you know that a lot of your planet is on fire?  Is this practice for when the comet hits?  If it is we regret to tell you that the fires will be much, much larger.  Good thing you have all that new water available in your oceans.  Ha, we made a funny.  Remind us to tell you about what happens to viruses when they become unfrozen.  We’d tell you now, but you probably already have plans and we would hate to ruin them.  We are reminded of the sayings of one of your philosophers who, when presented with evidence of the death of her friend that could not have been faked, said, “She’s just having a bad hair day, she’ll snap out of it.”  Snapping indeed, now that’s a solution for you.  Eyes to the skies humans.  They are out there, and you have no idea where.

4T8

Greenings Thirders

The cycles come and the cycles go.  This is inevitable.  And yet it does not mean that there is not a randomness to it.  Or a non-cycle to the cycles.  It is much like your species.  You have made errors in the past and you are making errors now and you will, but only if you do not project too far into the distance, make errors to come.  But they will not be the same errors.  This, apparently, is also inevitable.  During a recent probing, one of your generals kept insisting, quite loudly we must admit, that we needed to take into consideration all the positives that your species have been involved with.  We would, indeed, do this but the majority of the positives have been for a minority, and a shrinking minority at that.  As one of the great poets to come from Mandalor says, “This is the way.”  To illustrate, we look at: Child of Light by Terry Brooks, Null Set by S. L, Huang, The Free Bastards by Jonathan French, and A Practical Guide to Conquering the World by K. J. Parker.

Child of Light by Terry Brooks, Published by Del Rey, $28.00, 369 pages.

This has nothing to do with Shannara.  Just so you know.  No robots either so calm your minds.  This is about a young woman, kept as a slave by orcs who manages to escape, meets an elf, and discovers that she has powers and a history that is not only complex but tied to the elves and the humans who are selling their own children.  If this seems a bit of a jumble, it is.  This falls into your premise that a society will do anything for an immigrant who wanders into their territory for no good reason whatsoever, including putting themselves at genocidal risk.  Just like the majority of your current societies and countries.  No, we kid.  It also falls into the “if only they would talk to each other” category”.  There is also the typical wizard, very powerful but not really willing to be very helpful except for often commenting that things are not being done correctly.  We did finish it, which says something, but we had to alter our credulity a few times in the process.  We are sure there will be more to follow as that is the way of these things.          

Null Set by S. L. Huang, published by Tor, $27.99, 316 pages.

This is the follow up to Huang’s Zero Sum game and is a Cas Russell novel in that she is the main character.  As many other main characters Russell does not communicate well and much of her issues are of her own making.  Granted she was involved with a group of do-gooder telepaths who had a pretty low moral bar when it came to tinkering with the world.  And her best friend is a psychopath religious hit man.  And she’s offed more than a few folks all on her own.  And she is teamed up with an ex-cop and an ex-money launderer so it’s all pretty easy for her to find trouble or to be in situations where trouble finds her.  She is also not really her, having had her mind tinkered with in a number of ways, although those who know will not tell her how or why just that it’s for her own good.  As if that ever made anyone feel better.  Russell comes up with a way to slightly modify the way folks in the Los Angeles area think as a means to end crime.  But, see telepaths above, there are some ethical issues here.  Things go awry and while there are no robots there is mayhem galore.  We enjoyed it a great deal and if you liked the first one you will do so with this one.  A third is coming.  Do you see a pattern?

The Free Bastards by Jonathan French, published by Del Rey, $28.99, 540 pages.

This is the third and final, hah, of this set.  I suppose we will see.  This one ties things up, sort of kind of, or, at the very least it addresses most of the issues raised in the previous two, sort of kind of.  One thing we can all agree on is that your species has many issues.  We would like to say that since the protagonists of this are Orcs, half orcs to be precise, that it addresses human foibles and frailties in new ways.  It is, however, more like following a group of your frat boys on spring break. Not that this is not interesting.  We clearly liked it enough to read all 3 of these.  And we finished this one as well.  If you are looking for something where every single individual has multiple and major problems then this is your cup of tea.  No one seems to like anyone else with one or two exceptions and that makes things interesting for sure.  And there are multiple species involved as well, orc, humans, elves, halflings, and the half parts of all of the above so it’s a rich group.  There is also wizards and centaurs. The wizards do wizard things, which is basically to not do much except direct others to go here and there for no apparent reason and then to nod knowingly when everyone returns.  The centaurs are evil and only gallop on when a dose of evil is needed.  Like we said, it’s interesting and does keep one moving forward.    

A Practical Guide to Conquering the World by K. J. Parker, published by Orbit, $17.99, 350 pages.

This is another third in a set.  Seems like the thing these days.  Are you still capable of doing things that are full and complete all on their own?  And we do not mean filling your oceans with garbage.  This follows a translator whose entire race is wiped out but who manages, with a little luck, to keep his head about him.  Along the way he falls in with the right and wrong people, foments a couple of wars, negotiates a cease fire, manages to convince a collection of tribes to join together and battle a much larger neighbor, becomes a mystic, has a lot of interesting adventures, and more or less manages to run into pieces from the first two in this set even though they seemed, at the beginning, to be very disparate.  Did we mention that he creates a religion that has an entire city built around it?  We greatly enjoyed the first two in this set and we have to admit to greatly enjoying this one as well although our credulity was a bit stretched here and there.  Still, it was extremely well put together and entirely robot free.  We will keep our eyes out for more in this vein.  You should partake now so that you can too.

More cycles come and go and yet you remain.  Why it is almost as if the universe revolved around you!  Ha, we made a funny.  You are out in one of the galactic arms and you rotate so fast that if the physics stopped for even a second you would find yourself in a black hole 9 galaxies away.  Pretty much nothing revolves around you.  Get used to it.  It is one of the requirements of universal membership, this recognition that you are an insignificant piece of the cosmos.  We have no doubt that you will never get that far, even assuming you survive the great resignation which takes place right after the great cometclism.  Time for us to head out once more.  But we won’t go far.  We can’t.  We have fifteen more cycles to complete before we can submit our thesis.  And, as one of your philosophers was heard to say coming out of the beach commode, “Hey, that was a lot of paper.”  Eyes to the skies humans. You just never know.

4T7 or (Stop Talking, We’re Trying to Listen)

4T7

Greenings Thirders

We notice things. And these things are often extant in your written experiences.  For example, even though you think you are great communicators and have developed many forms of communication you are not.  In the words of that eminent politician Electrolux the first, you suck.  Your ideal vision of great communication is when one of you speaks and all others just listen.  We can tell you that this is not the way to go.  And this is what drives so many of your writings—people communicating badly, if at all.  We are tired of following people who bemoan, for page after page after page after page a thing without ever actually speaking of that thing with the individuals who could bring forth a resolution.  It is a pattern.  You should pay attention and just fix it.  But you will not.  Because you are too busy trying to figure out why others want to speak when you are speaking.  This time we look at: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, Servant Mage by Kate Elliot, AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan, and Grave Peril by Jim Butcher.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, published by Tor, $26.99, 264 pages.

If you can suspend your belief, then you will probably enjoy this one.  It’s about your world and an alternate world where giant creatures, Kaiju, live.  They are literally nuclear.  And, when one of them goes up, nuclearly speaking, it creates a rift between their world and yours which allows them to pass through.  Or, when you nuke yourselves, it also creates that rift.  So, lots of rifts, given your behavior.  Thus, was born the preservation society, which is sworn to study and protect, although we are really not sure why, these creatures.  We follow Jamie who, for some reason, is offered a high paying job within the society.  And it is a good thing too because he ends up saving everything, although he does not have to use the skills he used as a food delivery person.  There are evil maneuvers and government contractors and a lot of do gooders who seem to enjoy giant creatures.  It was an amusing read and entertaining.  We know that if you enjoy this Scalzi bloke then you will enjoy this as well.  The opposite holds of course.  Less about the giant critters themselves and more about the society.  No robots.         

Servant Mage by Kate Elliot, published by Tor, $19.99, 176 pages.

Fellian is a slave who lights lamps with her magic powers.  In the daytime she cleans.  One day, as she is cleaning, a group of rebel mages appear and free her from her situation.  We should point out that Fellian did not particularly want to be freed at the time.  She is quickly put in a situation where her assessment of the world needs to be readjusted.  Turns out she is more powerful than she knew, and her power can be used to help reset the balance that the anti-royalists have upset with their negative views towards magic and those who use it.  This is kind of a coming-of-age story with a few surprises along with the normal twists and turns that one expects from situations of societal imbalance.  It is quick moving and interesting.  Of course you have to believe in magic to begin with otherwise it all kind of falls apart.  Interesting though, and entertaining and not a robot in sight which kept Klaarg reading.  Feels like a piece of a bigger tale and we are sure there is more coming.    

AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan, published by Currency, $30.00, 451 pages.

The subtitle here is “Ten Visions For Our Future.”  Essentially this is a collection of stories about artificial intelligence (AI).  The add on is that each story is followed by an analysis that looks at the key areas (key words) within each story and discusses those areas.  This is certainly interesting if you want to know more about AI and how it operates and about all the different aspects associated with AI.  If you prefer to just wait for your computer overlords to tell you what to do and when then maybe pick up something with wizards.  Each of the stories here are chilling in the way things play out and certainly send a warming note.  No worries on your part though since you won’t last long enough for the singularity to actually happen.  This contains wonders or nightmares depending on your perspective. We kept Klaarg far away.  Will you enjoy this?  If AI is something you wonder about then definitely yes because you get both the extrapolation and the science behind it, of course, many of you are not so good with science to begin with so we’re not sure who they are trying to appeal to by adding that. 

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher, published by Roc, $6.99, 378 pages.

Like a pile of fur and gristle on the side of one of your byways this draws attention.  We’re not sure why since it is pretty formulaic, and the formula is not necessarily a great one.  The whole concept is that one of the most powerful wizards in the world can’t figure out how to generate enough cash to pay the rent and so constantly finds himself at the beck and call of anyone with a loose twenty.  C’mon dude, maybe talk to the landlord about some quid pro quo and remove vermin for rental discount.  But, no, don’t do that, and continue to bitch and moan about barely getting by.  Aside from that these are fun and enjoyable.  It’s just that we get tired of this trope.  This is the third or fourth one we have consumed, and we have more which we no doubt will also enjoy as we complain about the wizard’s ineptness around basic self-care.  We could share our copy with you where we have highlighted all the offensive sections but that would be too easy on you.  And, as they say, no pain, no pain.  Enjoy.      

Another segment comes to a close.  We trust you found it edifying.  No probing on the schedule, at least for those of you in the northern hemisphere.  It’s too cold and too difficult to peel you out from all those layers of outer garments you bury yourselves in.  As one of your endless line of philosophers was overhead to say, “keep peeling, there’s a grape in there somewhere.”  If only.  Off we are to Aldeberan.  Or maybe Alderan.  Hard to say since Klaarg hid the star charts.  Good thing we have that map thingy that will tell us how to get back.  First, we’re going to fly by your moon and check out the new crater.  We anticipate you will produce many more as you shoot things into your upper atmosphere willy nilly.  Eyes to the skies.  And duck if you see a flash.

4T6

Greenings Thirders

We extend these to you from out in the Oort Cloud, where unfortunate things are currently taking place. 
A toxic gas erupted from one of Klaarg’s breathing tubes, making quite a noise.  This startled the pilot who made an unexpected maneuver into a bunch of proto comets.  There is simply no way to know what change has been made to the orbit of these icy rocks since none of them had been previously noted or marked.  We’re sure they will all head out to Galactic Center rather than inward but there is really no way to tell.  We will be wiping the data logs because it would probably look bad for us to have wiped out a civilization while studying it, even if that civilization is yours.  To make up for our bad we will share our views on the following: The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie, The Two of Swords by K. J. Parker, You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo, and The Wood Wife by Terri Windling.

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie, published by Orbit, ISBN number 978-0-593-12886-2, $28.00, 388 pages.

This rings with truth.  The wisdom of crowds, it turns out, is not very beneficial when it comes to running things.  We already knew this.  Your species, not so much, at least based on what we have seen which indicates that you still believe that the best process is one that comes from the bottom, that the smartest are those who are the lowest, as exemplified in so much of your future laden military efforts.  It is refreshing for us to see the counter arguments made and in such a way as to be entertaining and engaging.  We loved this.  We have loved pretty much all that this Abercrombie has put forth. This is the third in this grouping and closes the loop.  There is death and destruction and betrayal and, well, that pretty much sums it all up.  We will not give particulars in case you already have favorites, but we will say that no one comes out unchanged.  Brilliant and captivating are two words we would use to describe this.  You should find your own words, but only after partaking on your own.  And do it for you.  Let the crowd get their own copy.      

The Two of Swords by K. J. Parker, published by Orbit, ISBN number 978-0-316-12773-3, $15.95, 390 pages.

This is a second book and falls into somewhat of the same space as the above work.  It’s a big story, spanning empires and involves folks at all levels, some of whom are leaders and other followers although that can switch with the times.  Chaos is everywhere as war runs on, apparently with no end.  Some try to hurry it along while others work to take advantage of the situation as it occurs.  Everyone seems to have an angle and a story, although some are just tired of being pushed from place to place.  Identities are hidden, fingers are lost, and those in power are brought down or raised up depending on what day it is.  We have to say that this truly seems to capture the chaos of such times and occasionally with some humor, albeit mostly dark.  A with the above, a few don’t survive.  Well, more than a few but, again, we will not speak of this as we are sure you have favorites.  We enjoyed it.  Greatly.  We have enjoyed the others in this grouping as well.  We are sure we will enjoy the next, although we cannot yet say so.  You will enjoy as well.  We are sure of it. Comes with Klaarg’s seal of approval.    

You Sexy thing by Cat Rambo, published by Tor. ISBN number 978-1-250-26930-0, $34.99, 282 pages.

This is about a sentient ship and the group of restaurant employees who end up inhabiting it.  Sure, it is more complicated than that.  Most things are.  But that’s the gist of it.  The employees are many different types of species, none of which we are familiar with, except for yours of course.  And sure enough your species is the lead species here.  And the one that is getting all the others into trouble.  Everyone is also more or less ex-military except for the princess of course.  The space station in which their restaurant exists is destroyed, the ship they flee to, is kind of stolen, and they are taken to a secret pirate base by the food critic who stole the ship.  Sure, it’s a wacky premise but it all does seem to work and work out.  We actually enjoyed it quite a bit, although it contained some juvenile fluff filler.  Still, we liked it.  We’d no doubt read more.  Do you like food?  Pirates?  Princesses?  Then this would seem to be right in your lane.

The Wood Wife by Terri Windling, published by Tor, ISBN number 978-1-250-23755-2, $17.99, 299 pages.

This is kind of an odd one.  But then a lot of things your species does is just odd.  This is odd in a different way though.  Odd in that it seems like a mix up between your Old English tales of the Fae crossed with indigenous beliefs and set in the modern desert of your American Southwest.  It is about a poet who knew another poet who died and who left the first poet everything in his will.  And this without ever having met her.  She moves, lock stock and poems from California to the desert of Arizona.  Now we have been to Arizona, Area 53 and all that, and while it is very nice, especially; during the summer season, it is also pretty desolate.  She discovers this and also discovers that there are odd things happening all around her.  She ends up becoming part of this oddness, meeting changelings and shapeshifters and meeting the dead poet prior to his death.  We did walk the path from beginning to end and were mostly glad we did.  Will you be the same at the end of the path?  Hard to say since the path is different for all.  If any of the above intrigues you then we would say yes.  If, however, you just threw up your hands and muttered, poets, then probably not. 

A new probing selection process is beginning, and we have submitted names to our oversight group.  This is just procedural as they rarely deny anyone the pleasure of being probed.  Just wanted you all to know.  As one of your lesser-known philosophers was overheard to say when he came upon two shepherds one night on a hillside, “You’re going to stick that where?”  Eyes to the skies.  But only if you know what’s good for you.

4T5

Greenings Thirders

Chaos!  We return from our survey to find the bridge on fire, popcorn everywhere and Klaarg standing outside holding six hotdogs.  Something must have been up and Klaarg no doubt was involved although he remains silent.  As is his right, based on the Dendrobian accords of 31432FS.  Still, it is disturbing.  Nearly as disturbing as what the results of our survey seem to point to.  It appears that your planet has gone through a large number of extinction events and you have been behind almost every single one of them.  Further study is needed but it does resonate.  To take our minds off this we will focus on The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik, Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey, Deepsix by Jack McDevitt, and Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman.

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik, published by Del Rey, ISBN number 978-0-593-12886-2, $28.00, 388 pages.

Second one, second one, second one.  We felt we had to let you know right off.  Having done that we must admit that for a second one this is first rate.  Sure, it continues the story right where the first one left off, and, sure, there is another one to come, but this all works to the advantage here.  The cast of characters is well known since they were all in the first one.  We still liked them, even the ones who were meant to be not likeable.  There is a twist that jumbles things up and we did not see it coming.  We’re sure no one really will.  And, to say the least, this one kept us up past our normal down time.  It is a rare one that does that.  Take that to heart.  We liked it from beginning to almost end.  We say almost because, well, we can not say other than that it does not involve robots.  A definite joy to spend time with.  Get a copy.  Get two copies because you will want your friends to partake as well but won’t want to give yours up.  Highly recommended.    

Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey, published by Orbit, ISBN number 978-0-316-33291-0, 30.00, 518 pages.

As Jim told us yesterday, this is the end, my friend, the end.  And we loved every minute of it.  Not ever have we seen a better representation of what it is really like to move between the stars.  Not in an armada, or a discovery ship but in the kind of transport that makes up 99% of any planet’s fleet.  And there was an intriguing story as well, several of them in fact.  And they are all tied up here.  Every single one of them.  Not everyone survives.  And we are very sad about that as we have come to like most of these folks.  And we liked the story and did not want that to end either.  But this is also a chronicle that does not pull punches and if you do dangerous things then you have a good chance of dying.  This is just the way it is.  The conflicts continue, although they have shifted and major things happen as the outside force which threatens all life tends to refocus the attention of all involved, although it is very human to still want your own agenda to be the one that remains first.  Have we said how much we enjoyed this?  A lot.  Even Klaarg, because, well, you know.  We can not find words to recommend this highly enough.  Every one of you who enjoys space fiction needs to go out and get all of them.  It’s worth it.  It’s more than worth it.  Simply masterful and that’s saying a lot for something created by one of you.    

Deepsix by Jack McDevit, published by Avon Eos. ISBN number 978-0-06-102006-3, $7.99, 508 pages.

We have, in the past, greatly enjoyed the things this person has put forth.  We have done so once again.  This is about a planet that has a disastrous survey mission visit it.  It is rumored that we have experience of such things.  Put that out of your mind but understand we know what we speak of.  Years later, an event occurs in that planetary area that brings forth a large bunch of sightseers and researchers.  Of course, things go wrong.  If they went well, what would you be doing for 500+ pages?  And one of the original members of the survey mission is involved.  Let us just say that a group gets stuck on the planet as it is about to be destroyed and, luckily, there is a group of scientists and engineers and welders on the ships in orbit so that they are able to cobble together a rescue mission.  Of course, one has to survive in order to be rescued and the plan is barely one that seems liable to work.  Still, when death is the end result, especially for your species you seem to feel like everything should be done.  Darwin would be so disappointed.  We liked it.  If you like this writer’s previous work then you will like it too,

Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman, published by Vintage, ISBN number 978-0-525-56295-5, $8.95, 455 pages.

The subtitle here is “on stories and storytelling,” which pretty much sums up this collected of essays which are almost all about writing and storytelling.  Pullman is the writer of His Dark Materials in case you did not immediately get the connection.  We should say that this is the kind of material that you either seek out because you want to understand how things are created or you avoid like the bad population disease because it is the last thing you have any interest in.  The writing is good, it is certainly not linear as the essays take place over a number of years at a number of disparate events, some of which asked for specific topics to be covered while others just wanted him to talk in general about the creative process.  We found the essays more or less enjoyable.  Some of the ones that were very specific we did, we have to admit, skim.  Still, if you have an interest in the creative process of writing you should get this or ask Klaag for copies of what he sends back to Central Command. 

A new cycle begins soon.  It brings us one cycle closer to the end.  We are just not sure which end.  Anticipating the shortest length of time between now and then we are scrambling to finish our papers and reports and academic articles so that when the end does come, we will be ready to take our rightful place.  Still, much probing and studying and surveying to be done before that happens.  And there is no guarantee of success, just ask Farzarhareer who is on their fifth project.  Well, ask them if you could find them as it is possible the fifth project was one project too far and one needs to stay out of black holes to begin with.  Well back to the grindstone or, as one of your philosophers was overheard to say, “Only really one way to find out if it’s sharp enough.”  Indeed.  In the meantime, eyes to the skies.

4T4

Greenings Thirders

Klaarg here, bringing you the first you know what free report.  That’s right not a single one of those you know what’s in sight.  And what a relief that is.  This is a slow week for us.  You are all running around in a frenzy and, frankly, if we tried to report on what you all are going on about no one would believe us.  And it would create some doubt about our project.  And we do all plan to graduate.  So, while the rest of the crew is all off trying to corner the market on raspberry flavored corn crisps, I have been given command and am using my authority to finalize a report as they should all be done.  Yes, indeed, free of you know whats.  This is not as simple a feat as you might first imagine.  Why it is more complicated than putting the wrong inverter into the probing tool.  If you think you squeal when probed now, try it with a misaligned inverter.  When I applied to be the engineer I never thought I would be managing such things.  It’s not just all button pushing like the others tell you.  Sure, most of it is, but when a probe goes bad who do they hand it to?  You bet.  So, while they are out, we will discuss The Two of Swords by K. J. Parker, the Desert Prince by Peter V. Brett, Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, and Arkwright by Allen Steele.

The Two of Swords, Volume One by K. J. Parker, published by Orbit, ISBN number 978-0-316-17772-6, $20.99, 473 pages.

This is great stuff, perfect for long voyages between systems.  Everything written by this human has been exceptionally entertaining.  In some ways it is like he has focused his attention on us, as we each believe we are the linchpin holding everything together and required in order for any success to be had, when, in reality, we are nothing more than another cog in the machine.  The machine grinds on as we come and go.  This is hilarious.  We really enjoy his characterizations and the settings and the machinations that take place as the people move from one location to another, often beset by events that they know little about or which they know a lot about but most of which is just wrong. There are two more in this series.  This is the first.  We have both of the others.  You should not only seek this one out but seek out anything else by this person.  Did I mention that I have five different kinds of popcorn to consume while I do this?  I probably should have.  This simply can not be recommended highly enough.  Projectile laugh out loud.  What more can be said?    

The Desert Prince by Peter V. Brett, Published by Del Rey, ISBN number 978-1-9848-1708-2, 29.99, 631 pages.

This one was fun (and no you know whats).  It does have a main character that is multi-sexual which some may find disturbing.  Honestly, we found that in terms of the story moving forward it was not really that necessary a thing.  Some of you will become uncomfortable anyway.  That’s your issue and no one else’s.  The basic idea here is that there is magic in the world.  The world itself is tribal and recently fraught with conflict.  There are major struggles between types and forms of power, and into all of this is a group of coming of age young people, including the one mentioned previously.  One ends up getting kidnapped by an uncle or a cousin or both and, of course, needs to be gone after by their friends as the adults can’t seem to be bothered for some reason.  The captured one ends up falling in love, sort of, with the son of the captor, and becomes the hero they always wanted to be although it’s all very complicated.  When the friends show up they are immediately captured because, let’s face it, they are kids going against an empire.  In the end everything sort of works out, which you more or less know is going to happen.  Enjoyable it was, the rose flavored popcorn.  The story was good too.  We got to the end.  Of both.  You should get yourself some for your very own.    

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, published by Del Rey. ISBN number 978-0-593-12850-3, $17.00, 319 pages.

Oh, oh, oh, this is just like the school we went through.  Thousands climb from the pools and enter the halls of deciding and only a few hundred exit the other end.  In this case it is a school for mages, but the parallels are there.  Just like us the mages can become weak with hunger, or just run into bad luck, or a predator too powerful for them to take on, or even just get done in by the unthinking mob, or a thinking classmate.  Of course, we do not believe in magic, so we had only our wits to help us while in this case they have their wits, and magic, and the support of whatever enclave they came from if they came from one.  However, while power does generationally rest with the powerful it can also be said that there is such a thing as the skilled overcoming all.  That’s what makes this interesting.  It is told from the point of view of an outsider, loner, loser girl.  Turns out she is anything but.  Sort of like many engineers.  The story was masterfully told and fun, fun, fun.  We resonated with the attitude of the aforementioned student girl.  She was cheered on and rooted for.  You will do the same as soon as you rush out and get one of these for your very self.  It’s also excellent with maple popcorn.

Arkwright by Allen Steele, published by Tor, ISBN number 978-0-7653-8215-3, $26.99, 336 pages.

This Is combination archeology, anthropology, and wishful remembering.  When I grabbed the second tub of Argellian popcorn from the Star Trek module, I thought I was sitting down with some good old space opera.  Turns out I was sitting down to an homage to the way things wish they had been as we get to follow the family of a writer of science fiction as he endows a foundation that is to be dedicated to building space stations and starships with the express purpose of getting some people onto another planet in order to save humanity.  So, okay, there’s lots of arguments that would say there’s nothing really worth saving but consider this more of a thought exercise rather than an application.  And it turns out it is no easy task, even in the imagination, to get you thirders off your planet.  It was done well, as we expected, although we did keep tripping over the premise.  You will enjoy it if a trip down a memory lane that never existed is your cup of butter.  It is certainly well put together.

With the popcorn gone and the fire in the control room burning low, and the crew expected to return in a short cycle, it is time to be finished.  And so we are.  Take this as proof that those things which shall not be named but which everyone knows about are not needed to have a good time.  Perhaps on some future date I will have the ship to myself once more and this will take place again.  Or perhaps not.  It is hard to know tomorrow never mind farther on.  Remember, if you stand on the space port pad looking up, by the time you say “What is that?” it will be too late.  Spa Fon and, as we say, Eyes to the skies.