Science fiction for the holidays - and beyond

With the holidays near, it's no surprise I'll recommend books - as the gifts that keep on giving! I've previously posted my own list of what I consider the greatest science fiction & fantasy novels. Also a list of my personal favorite science fiction and fantasy tales for young adults – with lots of exploration and sense-o-wonder. Many are classics I grew up with .... along with some marvelous recent additions. But for today...

I wrote the introduction to this beautifully illustrated volume. Aliens: Past, Present, Future: The Complete History of Extraterrestrials form Ancient Times to Ridley Scott, by Ron Miller, provides an extensively detailed look at the possibilities of alien life, as seen through the varied lenses of history and science, philosophy and religion, fiction and popular culture.

Meanwhile, James Cameron has released the companion volume to his six-part television series – James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction. This volume focuses on the talented directors and filmmakers who have brought SF with much success – and impact - to the big screen, including in-depth interviews and discussions with George Lucas, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro – and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This lovely hardcover - The Astounding Illustrated History of Science Fiction – by Dave Golder and Jess Nevins provides a thoroughly illustrated and well researched, but entertaining dive into the roots of science fiction, from Frankenstein to Lovecraft, Bradbury, Clarke and beyond, with timelines and posters that illuminate the branching evolution of speculative fiction through the pulp magazines to novels, cinema and gaming – and its pervasive influence on science and technology. Its companion volume explores the Illustrated History of Fantasy and Horror, from myths and fairy tales to cinema.

Long before science fiction, our ancient ancestors dreamed of artificial life forms - moving statues or even mechanical beings that spoke, walked and served. In the recently released Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines and Ancient dreams of Technology, Adrienne Mayor explores references to artificial life in tales from ancient Greek, Roman, Indian and Chinese mythology - ranging from the classic tale of Pygmalion to the bronze giant figure of Talos - built by Hephaestus, Greek god of invention. 

Diverse mythic tales of automata can be found in classical stories of Medea, Daedalus, Prometheus, Jason and the Argonauts.  Read an excerpt from Gods and Robots here.

== And fictional suggestions ==

Celebrating a wave of innovative forward-looking fiction coming from Asia, a new anthology The Reincarnated Giant: An Anthology of Twenty-First Century Chinese Science Fiction offers imaginative stories from Chen Quifan, Han Song, as well as Hugo winner Liu Cixin, exploring the realms of robotics, computers, AI and the ever-changing fortunes of humanity.

And among the most welcome trends is the recent rise of Afro-Futurism! Brilliantly well-timed with our joy in Wakanda, here's a web survey of nine recent or classic innovations and explorations that will stretch you and make you proud to be human. (I so miss Octavia.) Specially noted below is the haunting imagery in Rivers Solomon's A Haunting of Ghosts.

Among my own recent editions, try Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World, with selections that explore the more positive implications of a future of  openness. Tales by Bruce Sterling, Cat Rambo, Jack McDevitt, Gregory Benford, Robert Silverberg, Scott Sigler, Robert J. Sawyer - and so many more!

And of course my best - and most recent - short story collection Insistence of Vision, which includes The Logs, The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss (in best-of collections), Stones of Significance, Transition Generation, and more. 

Horror fans, Dell has collected some choice recent tales, including my own chiller “Chrysalis,” in the recently-released anthology Terror at the Crossroads: Tales of Horror, Delusion, and the Unknown. 

There are vivid and eerie tales by authors including Chris Beckett, Kit Reed, Will McIntosh, Louis Bayard, Tara Laskowski and others - which explore the margins of the dark and sinister, the scary and the mysterious.  The ebook is available on Kindle and Nook and other sellers.  

And try these recent science fiction and fantasy - marvels by rising stars in the field:

Medusa Uploaded, by Emily Devenport offers a beautifully written and thrilling tale of revenge and insurgency on an inter-generation starship, with vivid multi-layered world-building. 

Assisted by a secretive AI that haunts the dark, winding tunnels of the ship, Oichi (saved from imminent death by airlock) is a chilling character who will stop at nothing to uncover the dark secrets and rectify the wrongs that have been done to her family and fellow crewmembers:

"Behaviorists say that killers aren't born in a vacuum. But I was born on a generation ship. Our journey is between the stars, and as massive as those gravity wells be, the space in between them is vacuum. And I'm not the only killer on this ship."

Nuomenon, a debut novel by Marina J. Lostetter also portrays a deep space starship, this one crewed with clones who are genetically selected and replicated repeatedly across the centuries of interstellar voyage - the older clones training their younger replacements over the generations. Their destination: an anomalous star which appears to show distinct signs of extraterrestrial life, presenting mysteries that the crew may be unable to solve. Meanwhile, the mission is threatened as the worst of human nature takes root, revealing enduring divisions and deep animosity among the crew, as they find themselves more and more alienated from their origins. "We were aliens now. Nomads in uncharted territory."

"Stories are where we find ourselves, where we find the others who are like us. Gather enough stories and soon you're not alone; you are an army." Blackfish City, by Sam J. Miller depicts a dystopian future impacted by severe climate change and severely hierarchical social levels. Qanaaq, an engineered floating city in the Arctic Circle, is run by machine intelligence; a city bursting with refugees, rival gangs and political corruption, with threats of a spreading infection. This fragile alliance is disrupted with the arrival of a fierce but mysterious woman who is nanobonded, mentally linked with an orca (and accompanied by a polar bear) who will stop at nothing to achieve justice for past wrongs. 

Starting to see a common thread? Womblike, isolated, 'protective' environments like starships that instead cloy and cramp and oppress?

Certainly that's the general theme of An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon which uses the classic scifi domain of a generation starship to replicate and amplify the horrors of a racial/plantation slave society. Every morality-tale of The Handmaid's Tale and even more hauntingly written. In this sub-genre, plausibility (e.g. high-tech slaves have options never available to Nat Turner) is not the issue. The aim is to freeze and shatter the soul and help you rebuild it. Solomon does it well.

I've been enjoying Mur Lafferty's murder mystery Six Wakes - also set on a starship where the six crewmembers awake missing 25 years of memories. A very different take than the show Dark Matter and more deeply psychological. And a Hugo and Nebula Award nominee. 

Of course the notion of a generation ship was thoroughly and scientifically... if a bit tendentiously... explored by Kim Stanley Robinson's fairly recent novel Aurora. That one won't cheer you either, though the thought experiment is fascinating.


== Want something a bit more enlivening? ==

Change Agent, a page-turning near future thriller by Daniel Suarez (following up his bestselling novels Daemon and Freedom) explores how we will deal with the complex issues arising from surveillance, ubiquitous CRISPR gene editing, customized 3D drug printers and designer babies. Agent Kenneth Durand is tasked with hunting down black market labs performing illegal genetic modifications, when he is attacked and injected with a 'change agent' - upon awaking from a coma, he is transformed into a doppelgänger of the very crime lord he was pursuing. 

The highly productive and vivid Suarez will be at the plate again soon with a terrific tome on asteroid mining! Keep your eyes open for Delta-V, set for release in April. 

And yes, the truest heart of SF goes one step beyond chindings or dire warnings. It is about stirring the reader to imagine solutions.

Following up on his dystopian future scenario of a drowned NYC - New York 2140 - Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest - Red Moon - offers a near future, thirty year projection, where humanity has established a colony on the surface of the moon. However, ongoing political and economic struggles between the U.S. and China – as well as rising personal animosity - fuel unrest and ignite a rebellion in the lunar colony, setting the stage for a thrilling tale of revolution amid the dusty landscape of the moon base.

And no, it's not that dusty plain where our future will be made.

More - recent SFF selections, many of them mentioned in earlier postings: 

Terra Nullius, by Claire Coleman

Semiosis by Sue Burke

Revenant Gun, by Yoon Ha Lee
The Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe, by Alex White

Summerland, by Hannu Rajaniemi

Embers of War, by Gareth Powell
Rosewater, by Tade Thompson

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Gnomon, by Nick Harkaway

Before Mars, by Emma Newman
Bandwidth, by Eliot Peper

Empire of Silence, by Christopher Ruocchio

The Book of M, by Peng Shepherd

The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Oracle Year by Charles Soule
The Rig, by Roger Levy
One Way, by S. J. Morden

Something for the kids?  A SpaceX engineer’s Epic Space Adventure trilogy takes a spacefaring giraffe on a tour across the solar system from Mars to Europa. A delight that leaves kids delighted to know stuff.  

And set for release in May of 2019:
Children of Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the sequel to his vivid Children of Time.

Final note! The comments section below this blog is one of the oldest and best on the web! Under this posting you will find bright folks chiming in with more wonderful suggestions of books you can give, to enliven someone's universe, and maybe derive strength from this implication -- there will be a tomorrow!

The Future is Here: A sci fi weekend roundup!

The future of civilization could depend on our elections (in fact that may be true even of the galaxy!)... but not today. Today, let's peer ahead a bit!  In fact, hang around for a few paragraphs to see a great opportunity to get some fine science fiction... cheap!

But first. The new OMNI Reboot looks snazzy and well-done.  Certainly worth a visit. Especially (!) their very nicely-presented interview with me about topics ranging from AI and apocalypse to the value and basis and future of science fiction.

Are we overthinking the dangers of artificial intelligence? On Gizmodo, George Dvorsky interviews me about the potential dangers and benefits of AI… and other future hazards. Will the dystopian nightmares of sci fi flicks come true? Or might those warnings actually help prevent the worst mistakes?

Did you read that Germany has submitted draft legislation to the EU granting personhood to robots? If only Isaac could have seen this! Silly ass stuff... but reflective of society’s generally laudable trend toward a reflex of inclusion. It may speak well of us when (now?) some secretive-scared AI wonders whether to "come out."

Looking backward, but suddenly pertinent in the surge of Pokemon Go! A fascinating tale by Ted Chiang — “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” — won the 2011 Locus Award and the Hugo Award for Best Novella. Published in 2010 by Subterranean Press, it follows the many quirky problems and ups and downs faced by a woman and her friends, devoted to “raising” and teaching simulated near-intelligent beings in virtual worlds. Chiang makes a great effort to realistically convey how shifting fads and technologies can pull the rug out from under you, though the range of implementations will vary even more than he conveys. The whole story is available here. 

== New Realism in SF ==

An interesting riff on the New Realism in science fiction film and television. The Future is Almost Now, from The Atlantic: “Many new works of science fiction seem to represent a strain of pre-apocalyptic cinema, characterized by a willingness to dramatize disasters that are less hypothetical than poised to happen.… Unlike The Terminator and Matrix franchises, these films don’t predict an apocalyptic “rise” of machines so much as a gradual digital takeover, the next phase of a revolution already in progress,” writes Elizabeth Alsop.

The notion appears to be that scifi is backing away from boldness in extrapolation. As one quoted scholar put it: “[t]he magical and disruptive inventions that used to feature prominently in some stories have now been folded into more typical domestic realism.” Or, as Margaret Atwood puts it: “things that really could happen but just hadn’t completely happened when the authors wrote the books.”

Elizabeth Alsop continues: “If, as the critic Northrop Frye has argued, the job of science fiction has been 'to imagine what life would be like on a plane as far above us as we are above savagery,' what does it mean that so much recent sci-fi has been taking place on a plane that’s relatively proximate to ours? 

In other words: Why this rise in near-future stories, and why now? One possibility is that verisimilitude allows for better social commentary…”  She asks: “Should the fact that sci-fi seems to now be handling such scenarios more concretely, then, be seen as a sign of progress? Or is this insistence on concrete-ness merely a symptom of what the sci-fi luminary William Gibson sees as the end of speculation—the collapse of imagination into a reality that has already outpaced it?”

A fascinating analysis… and almost entirely wrong at every level.  

But I am cheered by one aspect no one else mentions.  That this thoughtful rumination on science fiction appeared in ...The Atlantic. A magazine that, along with Harpers and The New Yorker, used to regularly commission pompous hit pieces attacking the very notion of science fiction as literature, let alone its interest in the disruptive effects of onrushing change. That shift, by some of the literary-arts arbiters reveals something about the 21st Century and our gradual recovery from year 2000 Future Shock.

Sometimes it is the macro perspective that really matters.  Welcome to the conversation, Dr. Alsop.

 == Sci Fi visions ==

Time for a roundup of recent SF!  But first... a couple of Brin-related items...

For you fans of star-spanning Space Opera, check out the StarwardBound Story Bundle of ebooks! My collection Otherness is included, as well as books from Mike Resnick, Brad Torgerson, Martin Kee, Marko Kloos and others. How Story Bundle works: you choose what you want to pay for these ebooks; you decide how much goes to the authors. Enjoy some fun Sci Fi.  

And those of you who like good old adventure science fiction (and yes some tusslin' fightin' mixed in, for fun)? Check out The Year's Best Military and Adventure 2015.  A great annual that - this round - contains one of my most popular new stories: "The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss," (which made it into several best-of volumes, this year.) No military or fighting in that tale of terraforming Venus, but lots of adventure!  

In fact, those who want to participate in the volume's Readers' Choice Award can go online and vote for their favorite story from the anthology. The winner (announced at DragonCon) gets $500 and a plaque. Hey, have fun. Explore! And enjoy an election in which you like all the candidates, for a change!

Will we have a Star Trek future of abundance? Can there be a post-scarcity future? A discussion with Manu Saadia, author of Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek.  

Or will we see a darker future, as explored in recent Arab dystopian sci fi? Very interesting: “Science fiction and surrealism have long provided an escape valve for writers living under oppressive regimes. In Latin America, decades of fascism and civil war helped inspire masterpieces of magical realism from authors like Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende. In Russia, the postmodern novelist Vladimir Sorokin has published disturbing and controversial futuristic novels that surreptitiously skewer the country’s repressive government. Dystopian themes are not entirely new in Arabic fiction. But they have become much more prominent in recent years…”  writes Alexandra Alter in The New York Times.  (Another literary arbiter journal that now admits SF is one of our smartest and best genres.)

How does Science fiction fare in the rest of the world? A look at Science fiction in Cuba! Plus see: 100 amazing African science fiction authors! Geoff Ryman begins this series on the Tor website. 

It’s so strange it might as well be science fiction. Matthew McConnaghy’s new movie The Free State of Jones.  Here’s a fine article on the historical background behind the real-life hero of the story. (Strange but inspiring.)

A fine interview with my friend and genius artist Jim Burns, on Omni Reboot.

== New in SF ==

Corsair, by James Cambias (author of A Darkling Sea) offers a sci fi thriller – a near-future tale of space pirates, computer hackers and terrorists. Nuclear fusion has, at last, become a reality on Earth – powered by helium extracted by robots from the lunar regolith. (Controversial if this will ever be economically feasible… but I’m willing to go along for the ride.) The tricky part is returning the shipments to Earth – the helium payloads an attractive target for pirates. The amoral genius cyberhacker, David Schwartz (aka Captain Black), seeks to redirect the payload to international waters where real pirates can claim it. The U.S. Orbital Command backs away from battle, but Air Force officer Elizabeth Santiago (with whom Schwartz had a brief affair back at MIT) goes rogue, determined to foil his efforts. The plot twists as Schwartz is double-crossed after he teams up with hard-core terrorists.

Jeff Carlson, a rising star of SF, has published volume three of his Frozen Sky series — set under Europa's ice roof, an unusual tale of First Contact. 

In Frozen Sky 3: Blindsided, engineer Alexis Vonderach sets out to rescue an ESA biologist who has been kidnapped by ancient blind alien tribes, existing in secret deep below Europa's ice surface. 

Meanwhile, in space the People's Supreme Society of China takes action against the ESA, launching thousands of drones and hunter-killers. Conflict above. Conflict below. Blindsided really moves. Try this science-rooted, fast-paced hard SF adventure!

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by newcomer Becky Chambers has received a lot of press. Humans have abandoned their inhospitable homeworld, and joined the Galactic Commons -- but they find themselves at the bottom of the totem pole in this fragile alliance among sentient aliens. Seeking to escape her family’s shame, Rosemary Harper joins the interspecies crew of the Wayfarer, a tunneling starship on a mission to punch wormholes through hyperspace to establish contact with a distant planet. On this long space-road trip, the story focuses on the backstories and relationships of the crew, their solidarity tested by the stress of a long voyage through galactic zones on the verge of war.

If you enjoyed The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang, try his latest collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, speculations about the nature of man, machine and alien. In “Tower of Babylon”, one of my favorites and winner of the 1990 Nebula Award, Sumerian workers labor to reach for the skies and shatter through the vault of the heavens… only to find the unexpected. His novella, “Story of Your Life” won the 1999 Nebula for novella; it explores initial attempts to communicate with alien minds who perceive reality and the flow of time very differently than humans. “Understand” offers a dark take on a “Flowers for Algernon” – style intelligence boost, as two hyper-enhanced minds work toward contrary purposes.

ALSO: Have a look at Eliot Peper's latest novel, Neon Fever Dream. Sinister goings-on at Burning Man! In this fast-paced thriller, mystery, intrigue, espionage and dark conspiracies unfold during a pilgrimage to the incendiary desert festival. 

A worthy follow-up to Peper's last book, Cumulus, a techno-thriller which envisioned a world of near-constant corporate surveillance.

Sci Fi Visions

"I define science fiction as the art of the possible. Fantasy is the art of the impossible. Science fiction, again, is the history of ideas, and they are always ideas that work themselves out and become real and happen in the world. And fantasy comes along and says, 'We're going to break all the laws of physics.' Most people don't realize it, but the series of films which have made more money than any other series of films in the history of the universe is the James Bond series. They're all science fiction, too-romantic, adventurous, frivolous, fantastic science fiction!" 
         --  Ray Bradbury’s definition of science fiction. (See my own article, asking How to Define Science Fiction.)

Hold on for pocket reviews of some of the more interesting, recent Science Fiction novels.  But first...

Many of you are fans of Eric Flint's marvelous "1632" universe. Perhaps not the most likely alternate history series but by-far the most successful. And fun. Well, okay, I finally broke down and wrote a little story that explores the underpinnings while extending it in unexpected directions... and Erik loved it! My story is the cover-lead in the latest 1632 anthology Ring of Fire IV, along with admirable stories by Charles E. Gannon, Eric Flint, David Carrico, Robert Waters and others. When Grantville landed in 1632, what happened to the town whose place it took? Find out in my story "71" -- which you can now read for free on the Baen Books site!

We discuss this universe in the latest Baen Books podcast, along with other distinguished and creative authors participating in Ring of Fire IV.

Looking for news about future tech? "Scout" is a new experiment in online community exploring the social implications of technology through reporting, science fiction, and foresight - "building a platform that gives you the power to create your own model of the future and to play through possibility with a community of brilliant thinkers." Free weekly news dispatches plus other members-only services. Launched by Berit Anderson and Brett Horvath. Check it out!

The Economics of Thrones and Starships, a podcast on Imaginary Worlds (hosted by Eric Molinsky), discusses a theme at the root of many science fiction and fantasy stories – the economics of scarcity and abundance. How would the world be different if resources were not limited -- if replicators can make anything appear instantly? Or if advances in technology allow us to meet (or exceed) the needs of people worldwide? A theme Peter H. Diamandis took up in Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think.

== Brief looks at Science Fiction ==

Keep up with the latest news and books from your favorite authors: A list of Science Fiction authors on Twitter.

Scheduled for release June 7: an anthology of The Best Science Fiction of the Year (Volume 1), edited by Neil Clarke, with stories from Nancy Kress, Ian McDonald, Seanan McGuire, Alastair Reynolds, Carrie Vaughn, Ann Leckie, Ken Liu, Aliette de Bodard, Brenda Cooper, Geoff Ryman, Paul McAuley, and...I have an entry: 'The Tumbleweeds of Cleopatra Abyss.' See the full Table of Contents here. Sample some of the best short science fiction from 2015!

From Blastr: a fun list of 12 SciFi/Fantasy novels that channel the flavor of hardboiled noir fiction, including Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel, Jonathan Lethem's Gun, with Occasional Music, George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails, China Mieville's The City and the City, Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon, and Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union. My own Kiln People gets a shout-out here.

Barsk, The Elephant’s Graveyard, by Lawrence M. Schoen, was a finalist for this year's Nebula Awards. In this distant future, humans no longer exist, but the galaxy is filled with sapient descendants of animals that humans uplifted. This is a tale of the Fant, descended from terrestrial elephants, who have been ostracized to the planet Barsk. Looked down upon by many races, the Fant are the keepers of the powerful drug koph, prized for its ability to allow certain particularly sensitive individuals (Speakers) to communicate with the dead. But other species desperately seek this knowledge, and will stop at nothing to learn the secrets of this drug. Schoen has developed a beautifully detailed world of anthropomorphic animals - in some ways reminiscent of Cordwainer Smith - that will resonate deeply with the reader.

Lagoon, by Nnedi Okorafor, offers an unusual take on First Contact in Africa, written partly in response to the dismal story of District 9. When aliens land in the waters off Lagos, their first act is to purify the polluted ocean and make the sealife bigger and smarter, even into monsters. A targeted tidal wave sweeps three individuals out to sea, down to the alien ship; they re-emerge, along with a shape-shifting alien ambassador in human form, who claims to come in peace, seeking a new home. Many people of the city seek to use the extraterrestrial for their own purposes. Chaos ensues, with riots, fighting, shooting, and looting. With a sonic boom, a hundred more aliens walk out of the rising waters, in the guise of humans. As these agents of change sweep across the land, Nigeria will never be the same…

Transcendental, by James Gunn, begins a bold new trilogy set in future when a post-Singularity humanity has to deal with a Galactic Federation that is well intentioned, but too stodgy to notice that it is in terrible danger. In a fragile post-war peace, a Riley, a war veteran, sets off an interstellar voyage accompanying pilgrims in search of a machine that promises the fulfillment of transcendence. Along the way, alien and human passengers have their own Canterbury-like tales to tell. But Riley is under orders to find (and kill) the mysterious Prophet -- whose promises of enlightenment are destabilizing the galaxy. The saga continues in the next volume, Transgalactic. One of the Grand Masters of Science Fiction does it again!

The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber is science fiction by a non-SF author, a tale where faith meets the alien. Peter, a former junkie, is a Christian missionary who has been selected by the shadowy megacorporation USIC to travel to the distant planet Oasis. There he finds the indigenous population already familiar with Christianity and desperate to hear more from his “book of strange new things.” As Peter builds his church and attempts to communicate and minister to alien minds, he begins to question his mission, and who he is serving. The situation on Earth is rapidly falling apart, with natural disasters and social upheaval, yet Peter’s connection to Earth becomes ever more tenuous, even as urgent messages from his wife pull at him.  Moving at times, slow at others, the novel ventures into territory also covered by Mary Doria Russell in The Sparrow and James Blish in A Case of Conscience.

Also, check out Dandelion Seeds, a Collection of Short Stories just released by Steve DeGroof, creator of the always amusing Tree Lobsters webcomic. This started as a response to the Twitter hashtag #FirstLineToMyNovel -- carried out to eighteen science fiction stories, collected here.

Finally... At a recent UCSD filmatic festival, I got to try out “Sonar” - a new VR-immersive 360 degree, 3D experience for the Gear system (using Samsung phones). It takes you down into catacombs beneath the bowels of an asteroid where you finally (SPOILER) encounter alien skeletons. 

Um, does anyone else find that familiar? As in precisely a scene from my novel Existence? Except for the (unexplained) ship collapse near the end… is it possible that the creators - Philipp Maas and Dominik Stockhausen – might owe me at least a dinner? Oh, it is well-directed and the music rocks.  Still.