Insistence of Vision and other forward-looking tales

Fantastic news for those of you out there who love the genre-of-an-active-mind. 

First, my long anticipated and long-delayed third short story collection is now available for pre-order.  (Discounts only for pre-orders.)

To be released in March, Insistence of Vision will open doorways into possible (and mind-blowing) tomorrows and alternate realities. Through tales like “Chrysalis” and “Transition Generation” and “Stones of Significance” you’ll explore the consequences, if we get want we ask for.  You’ll meet alien invaders unlike any other, in “Mars Opposition” and in “The Logs.”  There is also a novella offering new drama from the Uplift Universe! 

The most recent tale in this volume -- "Tumbledowns of Cleapatra Abyss" -- is included in four best-of volumes from 2015, so far, and it's only January. 

Surprises and ironies abound in Insistence of Vision… as they will in the territory ahead.* Our future.

More good news? Download your free e-version of  Future Visions: Microsoft has published an anthology of original Science Fiction short stories reflecting its research projects, with entries by Elizabeth Bear, Greg Bear, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Ann Leckie, Robert Sawyer, Seanan McGuire, and Jack McDevitt. My story in Future Visions is the only recent tale of mine that's not included in Insistence of Vision.

== Star Wars on Trial: the force awakens ==

The new edition of Star Wars on Trial! The new “Force Awakens” edition of Star Wars on Trial has been released, just in time to tie in with the Force Awakens movie (Episode -what-is-it-seven?) No, the editions aren't that different.  Mostly my new introduction... and a cool modification to the already hilariously apropos cover.  You still get terrific, incisive, often-sarcastic but also on-target skewerings… and defenses… of this incredibly popular pop-culture phenomenon. 

And yes... I finally did take the family to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. See my comments on this phenomenon.

Meanwhile, another author appraises why the Jedi themselves undermined the Old Republic. Others are decrypting secrets of Star Wars… as in this hilarious... and rather convincing explanation of how the seemingly insipid and foolish Jar-Jar Binks is almost certainly a Sith master.  You will chuckle, growl, and finally admit it must be true!

== Brief looks at recent Sci Fi ==

What alien life might we find under the vast ice shelves of moons such as Jupiter's Europa? A Darkling Sea, by James Cambias, explores a First Contact scenario under the kilometer-thick ice sheet of the moon Ilmatar, which circles a distant gas giant. Humans have established a deep sea research station, with a strict promise of non-interference with the blind, but intelligent creatures that have evolved in the dark ocean depths. Tensions rapidly rise when the Terran crew is discovered, setting the scene for a solid adventure story and complex inter-speces political negotiations... as two vastly different cultures seek to communicate and possibly, reconcile. With intricate world-building and vividly detailed aliens.

For a fast-paced science fiction mystery-thriller, try The Fold, by Peter Clines. The hero, a high school teacher with a perfect eidetic memory and the ability to make tremendous deductive leaps, is called upon to evaluate a super-secret DARPA project -- a team of scientists have developed The Albuquerque Door, a bridge through a fold in space-time. The reclusive researchers claim it works perfectly and will soon be safe for teleporting humans, until things go horrifyingly wrong… with implications that may threaten all of humanity. 

Scheduled for release in January: All the Birds in the Sky, a debut novel from the talented Charlie Jane Anders, editor of io9, which SF Signal calls, "a stunning novel about the end of the world - and the beginning of our future. 

It’s their planet now! A riveting post-apocalyptic tale that taps into your darkest nightmares: Slavemakers, by Joseph Wallace, is a sequel to his earlier novel, Invasive Species, where deadly parasitic wasps (known as thieves) nearly wipe out humanity. In Slavemakers, set twenty years later, most remaining humans have been enslaved, under the mind-control of the venomous wasps;  isolated pockets of refugees eke out an existence, protected by a vaccine created from a rare cultivated plant. And a few uniquely powerful individuals are able to tap into the linked hive mind of the wasps in order to alter the fate of the planet...

What if your tablet didn't just provide you with information, but anticipate your needs, providing prompts... as you find it harder and harder to recall even ordinary words? The Word Exchange, a debut novel by Alena Graedon, envisions a near-future where the written word is nearly extinct; people are dependent upon their handheld Memes to the extent of buying words they can't remember. Our protagonist, Anana Johnson, is assisting her father in producing the final print edition of the North American Dictionary of the English Language, when he mysteriously disappears. She desperately seeks clues, even while communication becomes increasingly challenging as a word flu pandemic sets in, causing many to lose the basic ability to speak. Interesting, but the random word substitutions in the text do slow the flow of the novel.

Octavia Butler did a charming short story - Speech Sounds - along similar lines.

What lies are told to keep society functioning? In Emma Newman’s recent novel, Planetfall, one individual is ‘called’ to an alien planet by a vision. The story takes place twenty-two years after colonists established an outpost at the base of an immense alien artifact -- God’s City. When a mysterious stranger shows up, it opens up long-hidden secrets from the founding of the colony. The story centers around Ren, a talented 3D printing engineer, her social isolation, anxiety, her eventual mental unraveling… and perhaps transcendence.

Keep your eye open, soon, for Avengers of the Moon, a rollicking space opera in the Doc Smith tradition, by Allen Steele, and Charles Stross's new paratime series opener Dark State.

*Which prompts a smile-worthy thought. Our daughter, Ari, observed that “ironman” actually translates as FeMale! A spooky/fey observation and an ironic one… till my wife pointed out that “Fey” and “Irony” are the very same thing.  Oog. Never mind that.  Pre-order Insistence of Vision!