Foundation and Empire - Isaac Asimov

   1951; 255 pages.  Book 2 (out of 7) in the “Foundation” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Classic Science Fiction; Colonization Sci-Fi.  Overall Rating: 7*/10.

 

    It’s all happening according to plan, just like Hari Seldon said it would.  The Galactic Empire is now a shadow of its universe-encompassing past, and the Foundation, originally a bunch of exiled thinkers, is on the upswing.

 

    General Bel Riose of the Galactic Empire and military governor of Siwenna faces an important decision: Fight or Flight.  If Seldon’s “psychohistory” calculations hold true—and so far they always have—to fight the Foundation will surely end in disaster for the Empire.

 

    By the same token, for Bayta and Toran, supporters of the Foundation, the chances of success are much greater.  True, as individuals, they could die in combat.  Seldon’s predictions apply to galactic powers, not to the individuals thereof.  Still, it’s nice to be confident you’d be on the winning side.

 

    But what if something new arises, something which the psychohistory calculations could not have factored in?  Something that could finally cause an error in Hari Seldon’s perfect predicting record?

 

    Oh, come on.  What are the odds of that happening?

 

What’s To Like...

    Foundation and Empire was published in 1952, but it’s actually a combination of two novellas which first appeared in a magazine called Astounding Science Fiction way back in 1945.  Most sci-fi authors had only one way of getting published back then: write episodic tales short enough to be sold to some sci-fi magazine publisher.  This needs to be kept in mind when reading any Science Fiction work from prior to the 1960s.

 

    The two parts of Foundation and Empire are set in the same areas of the Galaxy, but at different time periods, and with different sets of characters.  The first part, The General, focuses on the aforementioned Bel Riose and his Foundation opponents, and is roughly one-third of the book.  The second part is titled The Mule, and focuses on an upstart stranger who is does not ally himself with either The Galactic Empire or The Foundation, much to the annoyance of both.

 

    Isaac Asimov comes up with lots of fascinating places for our adventurers to visit.  Seven worlds are featured, the most interesting being “Trantor”, the former home planet of the Galactic Empire, now reduced to desolation and replaced by a nearby orb called “Neotrantor”.  Asimov invents some nifty gadgets as well, including a “Time Vault” which allows Hari Seldon to speak from beyond the grave, and a “Visi-Sonor”, which—well, to give details would be a spoiler.  Let’s just say I need to get me one of those.

 

    The main “mystery” in Foundation and Empire, for both the reader and most of the characters, is discovering the whereabouts and the identity of The Mule.  The book’s ending resolves this adequately via an exciting plot twist which I had considered previously, then discarded.  Things close at a logical point, but I wouldn’t consider this to be a standalone story.  The resolution of the conflict between The Foundation and The Empire is not resolved, nor is the role that The Mule will play in it.  I presume this is addressed in Book 3, Second Foundation, which fortunately sits on my TBR shelf.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 13,400 ratings and 493 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.22/5 based on 217,316 ratings and 5,846 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    Mayor Indbur—successively the third of that name—was the grandson of the first Indbur, who had been brutal and capable; and who had exhibited the first quality in spectacular fashion by his manner of seizing power, and the latter by the skill with which he put an end to the last farcical remnants of free election and the even greater skill with which he maintained a relatively peaceful rule.

    Mayor Indbur was also the son of the second Indbur, who was the first Mayor of the Foundation to succeed to his post by right of birth—and who was only half his father, for he was merely brutal.

    So Mayor Indbur was the third of the name and the second to succeed by right of birth, and he was the least of the three, for he was neither brutal nor capable—but merely an excellent bookkeeper born wrong.  (pg. 119)

 

    “We came right through the war-zone to get here—on purpose.  We traveled about a light-minute or so, in neutral, right past Horleggor—”

    “Horleggor?” broke in a long-legged native, who was playing host to that particular gathering.  “That’s where the Mule got the guts beat out of him last week, wasn’t it?”

    “Where’d you hear that the Mule got the guts beat out of him?” demanded the pilot, loftily.

    “Foundation radio.”

    “Yeah?  Well, the Mule’s got Horleggor.  We almost ran into a convoy of his ships, and that’s where they were coming from.  It isn’t a gut-beating when you stay where you fought, and the gut-beater leaves in a hurry.”  (pg. 162)

 

“So far there’s been more drinking than thinking, and more wooing than doing.”  (pg. 169)

    There is zero cussing in Foundation and Empire which was the norm for science fiction written in the 1940s.  When situations arise where profanity is called for, Asimov comes up with some innovative euphemisms, such as “unprintable” (as in “my unprintable eye”) and “Bescuppered” (as in “Bescuppered if I know”).

 

    There are no “adult situations” as well, but keep in mind, in the 1940s, there were no adult situations in books of any genre.

 

    My big problem with Foundation and Empire is the storytelling style.  There are almost zero firsthand thrills-&-spills to read about.  It’s not a matter of “telling vs. showing”, it’s a matter of “action versus talking about it”.  Even when epic space battles occur, the reader only finds out about it when somebody later relays the news to somebody else.

 

    Still, this is the way sci-fi was written eighty years ago.  I was aware of that when I started reading this series.  For me, Foundation and Empire was an entertaining read, but mostly as a benchmark for appreciating just how far the Science Fiction genre has evolved since then.

 

    7 Stars.  One last thing.  On page 68, the subject of "Transmutation of Elements" comes up.  Specifically, a process for turning Iridium into Iron is discussed.  It would be great if this were even theoretically feasible, but it isn’t.  Trust me, I'm a chemist.

The Maker of Universes - Philip José Farmer

   1965; 247 pages.  New Author? : No. Book 1 (out of 7) in the “World of Tiers” series.  Genres : Classic Sci-Fi; multiverses, pulp fiction.   Overall Rating: 4*/10.

 

    Robert Wolff is in his 60s and has just realized he is losing his mind.  Well, this sometimes happens to people his age, but it’s especially unfair to Robert, since he also has zero memories of the first twenty years of his life.

 

    His latest realization is also ill-timed.  He and his wife Brenda are doing a walkthrough of an empty house they’re considering buying for their retirement years.  And Robert keeps hearing a bugle playing behind one of the closet doors.

 

    Apparently neither his wife nor the real estate agent accompanying them hear the blaring horn, which is why Robert is sure he’s losing his mind.  Maybe he should just get it over with: open the closet door, discover there’s nothing there, and accept his mental deterioration.

 

    Don’t do it, Robert!  If that bugling you hear is unsettling, you’re going to freak out when you see what and who is causing it!

 

What’s To Like...

    The Maker of Universes is the opening volume in Philip José Farmer’s World of Tiers 7-book sci-fi series.  We tag along with our hero, Robert Wolff, as he gets dropped into a strange, multi-tiered world, ruled by a Lord who seems to like kidnapping beings from other dimensions and time-periods to populate his domain.  Each of the five tiers resembles a specific time and place in terrestrial history, but it would be a spoiler to give full details.

 

    The book is written in what I’d call “classic 1950s science fiction” style.  That means non-stop action, paper-thin character development, and a hero who can perform feats of bravery while attracting every female he meets.  Here, our protagonist is initially in his sixties, but magically tones-up and ages-down in the new universe he’s plopped into.

 

    There are lots of creatures for Wolff to cross paths with.  Some are helpful; others want to kill and eat him.  Philip José Farmer gives a name to just about every beast, being, or geographical area and I’m sure he amused himself greatly when doing this.

 

    The Maker of Universes may be written in classic-50s style which targets YA male readers, but Philip José Farmer does some tweaking to that to spice things up.  Lots of humanoids run around unclothed and several rolls-in-the-hay are hinted at.  Natives enjoy eating something called a punchnut, which is an alcoholic fruit, and chewing the leaves of a plant called dhiz, which turns their teeth black, gives their eyes a smoldering look, and slows down their physical motions.  Hmmm.

 

    The ending is typical for classical sci-fi tales.  The old Lord is vanquished, the new Lord assumes the throne, and Wolff is a changed man, and of course, for the better.  However, a chance still exists of thwarting all that, in the form of a cliffhanger ending, which is one of my pet peeves.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.2*/5, based on 132 ratings and 24 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.82*/5, based on 2,094 ratings and 132 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “The histoikhthys is handy.  They seem almost too much of a good thing.”

    “The Lord designed and made them for our pleasure and his,” Ipsewas replied.

    “The Lord made this universe?” Wolff said, no longer sure that the story was a myth.

    “You better believe it,” Ipsewas replied, and took another drink.  “Because if you don’t, the Lord will end you.  As it is, I doubt he’ll let you continue anyway.  He doesn’t like uninvited guests.”  (pg. 65)

 

    “I am as much the enemy of the Lord as you, and he hates me, he would kill me!  He knows I stole the horn and that I’m a danger to him.  His eyes rove the four levels of the world and fly up and down the mountains to find me.  And . . .”

    “Where is this horn you said you stole from the Lord?  Why don’t you have it now?  I think you are lying to save your worthless carcass!”

    “I told you that I opened a gate to the next world and that I threw it to a man who appeared at the gate.  He stands before you now.”

    Podarge turned her head as an eagle swivels hers, and she glared at Wolff.  “I see no horn.  I see only some tough stringy meat behind a black beard!”  (pg. 81)

 

“You Lords are a mean, crafty, sneaky bunch.”  (. . .)  “But I like your style, anyway.”  (pg. 239)

    The cussing is sparse in The Maker of Universes, just 16 instances in the entire book, and limited to damns and hells.  A possible rape is mentioned, and one of the females suffers a miscarriage.  Those sorts of things are atypical in old-time science fiction.

 

    There were a few typos, such as: decible/decibel; slivery/silvery; muscial/musical; carnivous/carnivorous; tired/tried; and wll/will.  I’d make a bigger fuss about this, except the paperback version I read was published in 1965, long before spellchecker existed.

 

    My biggest issue was with the storytelling itself.  Even for the 1950s-60s timeframe, it was terrible.  The plotline teemed with dei ex machina.  Wolff and his companions repeatedly travel hundreds of miles through perilous lands within a single sentence.  A bunch of the humans in the alternate dimension speak Mycenaean, an ancient Greek dialect, and wouldn’t you know it, so does Wolff!  And somehow, his newly-acquired muscle tone is bigger and better than anybody else’s.

 

    Then there are the ethical slurs.  The “negroid” fighters encountered are portrayed as stereotypical savages.  At one point, Wolff is encouraged to make some passes at the ladies at a social gathering, because if he doesn’t, “they’ll think you’re queer.”  And last but not least, Wolff—our hero!—cavorts with several beautiful well-endowed damsels in the new world, since he’s lost interest in his 60-ish wife because she’s fat and wrinkly.  No matter that he was fat and wrinkly too, before his coming to this dimension magically rejuvenated him.

 

    All these issues will make for a terrible read for any adult.  But I have a funny feeling I would’ve loved this book when I was 12 years old.

 

    4 Stars.  One last thing.  At one point (page 147), a chemical reference is made about water, calling it “hydrogen oxide.” Folks, you can call it “dihydrogen oxide’, or “hydrogen hydroxide”, but not “hydrogen oxide”.  Trust me.  I’m a chemist.

Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen - H. Beam Piper

   1965; 215 pages.  Book 1 (out of 8) in the “Lord Kalvan” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Classic Sci-Fi; Multiverses.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

 

    It had to be some sort of time-machine.  One minute Corporal Calvin Morrison of the Pennsylvania State Police was leading a raid on a farmhouse where an escaped murderer was holed up, the next minute some dude in a flying saucer popped up and zapped Calvin into some other time and place.

 

    Check that.  Some other time, obviously, but not some other place.  Calvin grew up in this area.  Things like trees and houses are different in the world he's been transported to, but the basic terrain – the mountains, cliffs, rivers, etc. – are still where they always were.

 

    So that flying saucer thingy must’ve been a time-machine.  The farmhouse he was sneaking up on has now disappeared, and Calvin finds himself alone, out in the sticks.  The first thing he needs to do is find some civilization – assuming it exists – and see what year it is.  Right now, he can’t tell whether he got zapped into the future or into the past.  Until he figures that out, he’ll call this place—

 

    Otherwhen.

 

What’s To Like...

    Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen was published in 1965, and was intended to be the start of a series featuring the then-newly hypothesized concept of multiverses.  The countless array of parallel worlds are monitored by the dimension-hopping Paratime Police, and they occasionally screw up.  Alas, the book was published posthumously, H. Beam Piper having taken his life a year earlier. The remaining seven more books in the series were written by John F. Carr, sometimes by himself, sometimes with a co-author.

 

    We follow Calvin, later dubbed Kalvan, as he acclimates to the world he’s just been dropped in.  He surmises correctly that he has little prospect of returning to his home world.  I liked that Calvin’s first order of business is to learn the local language.  No magic translating gizmos here.

 

    Otherwhen has attained a sword-and-musketry level of technology, where the key compound needed to fire projectiles, gunpowder, is in extreme demand.  The process to make the gunpowder is a carefully-guarded secret,  developed by a sinister quasi-religious group called Styphon’s House.  Luckily, Calvin apparently has a chemistry background and knows all about the three main ingredients needed to make gunpowder – sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter.  More luckily, Calvin knows a more powerful ratio of mixing those three components, much to the distress of Styphon’s House.

 

    The book felt well-researched to me for a 1960’s sci-fi novel.  Calvin may be in an alternate time-line, but the technology to make a metal ball explode out of the end of a musket is the same.  I also enjoyed the Eastern Pennsylvania setting: it’s H. Beam Piper’s home turf, and just north of where I grew up.

 

    The world-building shows its age in places.  Most notably, there’s a lot of smoking going on, without any social stigma.  Heroes do it, so do baddies.  Men do it, so do women.  Drinking is equally acceptable, and I was amused that the Paratime Police had developed a handy medication for dealing with hangovers for when they’re fraternizing with the natives on a parallel world.  It’s called the “First Level Alcodote-Vitamin Pills”.  The brief mention of the Pennsylvania Dutch and one of their signature dishes called “scrapple” resonated with me as well.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Antiphonally (adv.) : sung or played by two groups in turn.

Others: Nitriary (n.); Fluviatile (adj.); Auto-da-fé (n.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.7/5 based on 276 ratings and 94 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.20/5 based on 1,380 ratings and 58 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    The masters complained that the journeymen and apprentices were becoming intractable, meaning that they’d started thinking for themselves.  The peasants objected to having their byres invaded and their dunghills forked down, and to being put to unfamiliar work.  The landlords objected to having their peasants taken out of the fields, predicting that the year’s crop would be lost.

    “Don’t worry about that,” he told them.  “If we win, we’ll eat Gormoth’s crops.  If we lose, we’ll all be too dead to eat.”  (pg. 47)

 

    “Kalvan, this is General Klestreus, late of Prince Gormoth’s service, now of ours.”

    “And most happy at the change, Lord Kalvan,” the mercenary said.  “An honor to have been conquered by such a soldier.”

    “Our honor, General.  You fought most brilliantly and valiantly.”  He’d fought like a damned imbecile, and gotten his army chopped to hamburger, but let’s be polite.  (pg. 137)

 

 

“The gods would do what they wanted to without impertinent human suggestions.”  (pg. 173)

    The quibbles are minor and mostly inherent with any science-fiction work written in the 1940s-60s.

 

    There’s not a lot of cussing in Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, just nine instances in the first 50%.  When H. Beam Piper wants to simulate cussing, he often makes phrases up, usually based on the names of the local deities.  Some examples here are: “Dralm-dammit”, “Great Galzar!”, and “Galzar only knows!”  I love it when authors do this.

 

    The ending is okay, but way too convenient to be believable.  Everything goes just too perfectly for Kalvan and company.  But keep in mind that the target audience for sci-fi books in 1964 was teenage boys, who didn’t mind an ending lacking twists, as long as the white-hats triumphed.

 

    Lastly, it should be noted that there is lots of verbiage devoted to lots of battles. Even YA readers will most likely get tired of all the minutiae H. Beam Piper imparts to the fighting scenes.  Several other reviewers at Goodreads felt the same way.

 

    None of that kept me from enjoying Lard Kalvan of Otherwhen.  Writing a sci-fi tale set in multiverses surely was a groundbreaking task back then, and in that regard H. Beam Piper does an admirable job.  It may not be on  par with Star Wars or even the author’s Little Fuzzy novels, but it’s a better-than-average effort from the heyday of science-fiction.

 

    7 Stars.  Some plot threads remain unresolved at the end.  Calvin may be “Lord Kalvan”, but uneasy rests the head that wears the crown.  Styphon’s House has had its proverbial nose bloodied, but they are still very much a threat.  And the Paratime Police are certainly capable of tinkering with the time-line some more.  None of that is a criticism, though.  That’s why the rest of the series exists.

Foundation - Isaac Asimov

   1951; 255 pages.  Book 1 (out of 7) in the “Foundation” series.  New Author? : Yes, surprisingly.  Genres: Classic Science Fiction; Colonization Sci-Fi.  Overall Rating: 7*/10.

 

    All hail the Galactic Empire!  It’s the dominant power in the Milky Way, and it’s been around for 12,000 years.  Yeah, it may be a bit past its prime, but who’s big enough to try to knock them off?

 

    Enter Hari Seldon.  He’s a Psychohistorian (a what?!) and he’s been doing some calculating, and has come to a startling conclusion: the Galactic Empire will collapse within 300 years.  And that will lead to a “Dark Ages” period on a galactic scale, which will last for 30,000 years.  Ain’t mathematics amazing!?

 

    Needless to say, the present rulers of the Galactic Empire are not amused, but Hari’s calculations also show a way out of the disaster.  Sorta.  The Empire needs to commit to writing the sum total of all the knowledge in the galaxy.  Hari says it won’t prevent the collapse of the Galactic Empire, but it will shorten the duration of the Dark Ages to maybe as little as 1,000 years.

 

    The path forward is clear.  The Empire will exile Hari Seldon to the far-flung fringes of the galaxy and tell him to get busy writing down all that knowledge.  It’s not that they believe his predictions.  But it’s imperative that this rabble-rouser gets put somewhere so out-of-the-way that his message never gets heard by the rabble.

 

What’s To Like...

    Foundation is composed of five novelettes, four of which had been published previously in a sci-fi magazine called Astounding Stories in the 1940s.  A fifth novelette was written and the combined result was published as a full-sized novel in 1951.  Its five sections are:

    Part 1. The Psychohistorians  (3% Kindle)

    Part 2. The Encyclopedists  (17% Kindle)

    Part 3. The Mayors  (34% Kindle)

    Part 4. The Traders  (59% Kindle)

    Part 5. The Merchant Princes (68% Kindle)

 

    Foundation is the first book in what would eventually be a 7-book series by Isaac Asimov.  This tale focuses on the onset of the disintegration of the Galactic Empire, which I’m assuming will be the main storyline throughout the series.  It covers a time-span of about 155 years and, for now, has only human characters, which means that those alive in Part 1 will not still be alive by the end of the book, although the aforementioned Hari Seldon still occasionally pops up as a hologram.

 

    The title refers to the group of psychohistorians who have traveled with Hari to the aptly-named planet Terminus, located on the edge of the galaxy.  They are officially known as “The Encyclopedia Foundation”, and ostensibly tasked with chronicling the sum total of human knowledge.  But they have a hidden agenda as well.

 

    The first territorial losses suffered by the Galactic Empire will occur out here.  Five rebellious planets, including Terminus, break away, and frankly they're just too far out in the galactic sticks to be worth the expense and trouble of the Empire sending a force out to quash the uprising.  Besides, the inhabitants of these planets spend much of their time squabbling among themselves, so maybe they'll do each other in.  It is more of an economic style of warfare anyway, and the titles of the five sections give the reader a hint as to what faction in society is top dog at any given time. 

 

    Asimov gives the development of nuclear power as an energy source a lot of ink, which impressed me, given that Foundation was published in 1951.  I chuckled at the choicest smoking material being called “Vegan Tobacco” until I realized it referred to the star named Vega, and not a meatless designation.

 

    Each chapter starts off with an excerpt from the “Encyclopedia Galactica”, which is the massive tome the Foundation is busy writing.  They give some background to the world-building, but aren’t crucial to the understanding the storyline.  There are 48 chapters in all, which averages out to about 5 pages/chapter, so you’ll always have a convenient place to stop reading for the night.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 16,346 ratings and 1,893 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.17/5 based on 486,117 ratings and 13,717 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “I’ve been sent here for no other purpose than to assure you that you need not fear.  It will end well; almost certainly so for the project and with reasonable probability for you.

    “What are the figures?” demanded Gaal.

    “For the project, 99.9%.”

    “And for myself?”

    “I am instructed that this probability is 77.2%”

    “Then I’ve got a better than one chance in five of being sentenced to prison or to death.”

    “The last is under one percent.”  (loc. 368)

 

    “I’m here in the capacity of your spiritual advisor.  There’s something about a pious man such as he.  He will cheerfully cut your throat if it suits him, but he will hesitate to endanger the welfare of your immaterial and problematical soul.  It’s just a piece of empirical psychology.”  (loc. 2070)

 

Kindle Details…

    Foundation presently costs $7.99 at Amazon.  The other six books in the series are all priced either $7.99 or $8.99.  There are dozens more Isaac Asimov e-books available, most of them in the $6.99-$12.99 range.  Asimov's books are occasionally discounted, but not very often, and I've never seen Books 2-7 in this series in those discounts.

 

“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!”  (loc. 1974)

    The thing to keep in mind when reading Foundation is that it is science fiction written in the 1940s and 50s.  The genre was in its infancy back then, the stories were usually short so that they could be submitted to monthly magazines.  Epic Star Wars-type battles were rare, and character development was a low priority.

 

    All of that is true here, at least in this first book in the series.  Asimov wrote the first three Foundation books in the 50’s, so I expect this will hold true of Books 2 and 3 as well.  The last four books were published in the years 1982-1993, so they may have a more “modern” style.

 

    It should also be noted that 1950s sci-fi had very little cussing and adult situations, and that also holds true here.  I counted only four cusswords in the first 50% of the book, and no R-rated situations.  When the plotline called for swearing, Asimov usually opted for “made-up” phrases, including “Space knows”, “by the Galaxy”, “I don’t care an electron”, “by Seldon”, and my favorite: “Son-of-a-Spacer”.

 

    Last of all, keep in mind this was intended to be a series from the very start.  The ending is thankfully not a cliffhanger, but certainly a “to be continued” sort of thing, and just about all of the plot threads remain unresolved.

 

    7 Stars.  Science-fiction writing has come a long way in the last 70 years.  I wasn’t expecting Ewoks, phasers, or blue-skinned aliens, so wasn’t disappointed when none of those showed up.  This book was groundbreaking in its time – a doomsday scenario for mankind, and a target audience of both adults and YA readers, instead of just the latter.  Unfortunately, since Asimov’s Foundation books are rarely discounted in e-book format, I'll need to hit the used-book stores if I want to delve deeper into this series.

The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester

   1957; 258 pages.  Original Title: Tiger! Tiger!  New Author? : Yes.  Genre: Classic Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Space Opera.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    It’s the 25^th century, and if you were a visitor from way back in the 20^th century, you’d be amazed, but probably not particularly surprised, by how much things have changed.

 

    The biggest difference you’ll find is a recently-discovered innate human talent called “jaunting”, which is the ability to self-teleport.  You don’t even need the old Star-Trekkian transporter; you can do it all by yourself, if you've been taught how.  It utilizes a yoga-type technique: you memorize the exact coordinates of some place you’re already familiar with, visualize it in your mind, and will yourself to teleport.  Voila!  You're there!

 

    There are some limitations.  The maximum distance you can jaunt is 1,000 miles.  A few brave people tried to disprove that, and they all disappeared.  Also, you can’t jaunte through outer space.  No one knows why, but that’s the way it is.

 

    Those limitations prevent any shenanigans like jaunting to the other side of the galaxy, but it hasn’t stopped mankind from exploring the entire Solar System over the past 400 years.  The nearby planets have been visited and colonized; so have some of the moons of the outer planets.  And like most colonies in history, those ungrateful Outer Satellite colonists have revolted against Earth and its inner planet allies.  The result is an uneasy stalemate.  The terrestrial armies could really use some new game-changing technology.  Like a way to jaunte greater distances, for example.

 

    Curiously, a lone survivor, stranded in a derelict spaceship floating somewhere between Mars and Jupiter and close to death, just might just have the answer.

 

    It’s a pity he’s such a jerk,

 

What’s To Like...

    The Stars My Destination was published in 1956, but reads like a 1980’s space opera.  Our protagonist, Gulliver “Gully” Foyle, starts out as a complete antihero, indeed, one of the females he crosses paths with describes him as a “remorseless, lecherous, treacherous, kindless villain”.  And what a temper!  Gully can carry grudges to unbelievable extremes.  Part of the fun in the book was to watch him gradually change for the better, but even at the end, he’s hardly a choirboy.

 

    As with any good space opera, there are a bunch of plot threads spun throughout the tale.  Gully is fixated on destroying the spaceship “Vorga”, after they chose not to rescue him when he was stranded in deep space, for no apparent reason.  Some well-meaning bad guys (is that an oxymoron?) are desperate to get their hands on a rare super-explosive called “PyrE”; for reasons untold.  An outlander named Robin wants Gully to help her find her mom and sisters who are hiding somewhere on Earth.  A “burning man” keeps popping up out of nowhere at the most timeliest of times.  A blind albino woman sets Gully's heart a-flutter, but does she have some ulterior motive?  And will the war between the Inner Planets and the Outer Satellites ever be resolved?

 

    I liked the numerous chemistry references, since I’m a chemist by trade.  A number of Bromide salts get mentioned, along with Citric Acid and Methylene Blue.  Erlenmeyer flasks are a chemist's stock and trade, and the lab explosion Gully causes on page 127 brought back old memories.  I was intrigued by the concept of a “telesend”, aka: a one-way telepath.  They can beam their thoughts to others, but can’t receive any.

 

    The book’s title doesn’t get explained until the second last page, and is a subtle revision of one of Gully’s little poems, and nuance I missed until Wikipedia pointed it out.  We are treated to a couple instances of French, such as “Etre entre le marteau et l’enclume”, which I had to google.  I liked the “Megal Mood”  technique and the “Sympathetic Blocks”, and loved the “Scientific People” that Gully encounters who are marooned on an asteroid.  And thanks to Wikipedia, I found out the the last names of several characters are actually cities and small towns in the UK.

 

    The ending can best be described as “2001-ish”, and for me that's a positive thing.  Gully, faced with an annihilation scenario, finds an innovative way of dealing with it.  Most of the plot threads are tied up, although room is left for a sequel dealing with the Inner/Outer Planetary dispute.  I’m not aware of any sequel though.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Charivari (n.) : a discordant mock serenade to newlyweds, made with pots, kettles, etc.

Others: Maladroits (n., plural).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 749 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.10/5 based on 42,412 ratings and 2,742 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    He was in a bed.  The girl, Moira, was in bed with him.

    “Who you?” Foyle croaked.

    “Your wife, Nomad.”

    “What?”

    “Your wife.  You chose me, Nomad.  We are gametes.”

    “What?”

    “Scientifically mated,” Moira said proudly.  She pulled up the sleeve of her nightgown and showed him her arm.  It was disfigured by four ugly slashes.  “I have been inoculated with something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.”

    Foyle struggled out of the bed.  (pg. 30)

 

    “Been busy, haven’t you?  Either you’re the Prince of Villains or insane.”

    “I’ve been both, Mr. Sheffield.”

    “Why do you want to give yourself up?”

    “I’ve come to my senses,” Foyle answered bitterly.

    “I don’t mean that.  A criminal never surrenders while he’s ahead.  You’re obviously ahead.  What’s the reason?”

    “The most damnable thing that ever happened to a man.  I picked up a rare disease called conscience.”

    Sheffield snorted.  “That can often turn fatal.”  (pg. 220)

 

“Most respectfully I singe your snaggle teeth.”  (pg. 55)

    There’s not much to nitpick about in The Stars My Destination.  There’s a fair amount of cussing (15 instances in the first third of the book), which is highly unusual for a 1950’s sci-fi novel, but I thought of it as a glimpse of things to come in this genre.

 

    Similarly, the reference to blacks as “Negroes” chafed me a bit, yet that was the proper terminology back when this book was published.  There are also a couple instances of sex, but they are implied and occur off-screen.

 

    The Stars My Destination is one of two of Alfred Bester’s most acclaimed science fiction novels (the other being The Demolished Man), and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Science fiction has come a long way since the 1950’s, but that was what I read in my boyhood days.  I've been meaning to read something by Alfred Bester for quite some time, and I was not disappointed at all.  Alas, Bester's only penned a few full-length sci-fi novels are few and far between; he seemed to prefer writing short stories, and those are not my cup of tea.

 

     8 Stars.  The original title of this book was “Tiger! Tiger!”, which Neil Gaiman says he prefers in the book’s Introduction.  It’s worth taking time to read that 4-page section, although I’d recommend doing so after you’ve finished the book so you have a better idea of what Gaiman is talking about.

Hokas Pokas - Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson

   2000; 278 pages.  New Authors? : No, and No.  Genre : Classic Science Fiction; Anthology; Humor; YA.  Overall Rating : 5*/10.

    The book cover picture tells you all you need to know to understand Hokas.  They’re teddy bears on steroids.  They’re Ewoks with panache.  They’re charismatic and cuddly.  Well, I’m not too sure about the “cuddly” part, but by nature they’re friends with almost everybody they meet, and can drink all other species under the table.  Hokas are also avid readers, and are especially partial to the classics and anything that has to do with history.

     But they’re extremely impressionable, and routinely become completely immersed in role-playing according to whatever Terran tale they’ve last been exposed to.  If you gave them a Harry Potter book or movie, the next thing you know, they’d all be waving wands and trying to fly around on brooms.  If they're taught about Columbus, they’re apt to build a couple wooden ships and go sailing over the oceans on their home planet of Toka, hoping to discover new lands.

    So care must be taken as to exactly what sort of Earthly culture one might expose the Hokas to.  If you let them read up on Genghis Khan, the resulting role-playing could be deadly.  If they are taught about Napoleon, they might break off into the British side and the French side and civil war might erupt, all in the spirit of pretending.

    Which is what that book cover is all about.

What’s To Like...

    Hokas Pokas! is a collection of three stories previously published in Sci-Fi/Fantasy magazines.  They’re of unequal length (the final tale takes up 2/3 of the book) and are:

    1.)  Full Pack  (pg. 1)

    2.)  The Napoleon Crime  (pg. 37)

    3.)  Star Prince Charlie  (pg. 99)

 Each story features the Hokas’ take-off of some book or historical situation.  “Full Pack” uses Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books.  “The Napoleon Crime” taps into both Lord of the Rings and the 1800’s military campaign in Spain pitting Napoleon against Lord Nelson.  “Star Prince Charlie” loosely follows the Scottish uprising led by Charles Edward Stuart, aka “Bonnie Prince Charlie”.  I’m both a bookaholic and a history buff, so the book's genres was a nice fit for me.

    The third tale is the only one with chapters, and Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson title them to give some other authors.  It’s possible that all 17 chapter titles do this, but some of the ones I recognized were Kidnapped, Fahrenheit 451, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Redheaded League, The Return of the Native, The Prince, and an earlier Hoka anthology by Anderson and Dickson, Earthman’s Burden.

     I think the target audience is YA boys since there’s not a hint of romance in any of the stories.  There is a small amount of cussing, and some alcohol gets consumed, but but this is mostly incidental.  I liked one of the Hokas’ quaint version of a cussword they’d recently learned, “damme”.  YA-oriented or not, the authors also manage to work in several neat, obscure vocabulary words; they're listed in the next section.

    I chuckled at the reference to “Lemuria”, a mythical lost continent aka as “Mu”.  The riddle contest in Star Prince Charlie was a neat take-off on some classic posers, and there’s a modicum of French, Spanish, and German vocabulary worked into The Napoleon Crime.  I thought the “five feats of the Prince” (on page 130) was a quite clever plot device.

    I wasn’t impressed with the way the first two stories ended.  Both felt contrived and hasty to me, but maybe that’s a function of being written as short stories in a magazine.  The Star Prince Charlie ending was better; it at least had a worthy moral to it: Freedom wins, as does the Common Man.

Kewlest New Word  ...

Sophont (n.) : a being with a base reasoning capacity equivalent to, or greater than that of a human being.

Others : Chivvy (v.), Cozen (v.), Calefaction (n.).

Excerpts...

    “Ouch!” howled Heragli, regaining full consciousness.  “What the sputz?  Get the snrrowl off me!  Leggo, you illegitimate forsaken object of an origin which the compilers of Leviticus would not have approved!  Wrowrrl!”  And he made frantic efforts to reach over his shoulder.

    “Striped killer!” squeaked Bagheera joyously.  “Hunter of helpless frogs!  Lame Thief of the Waingunga!  Take that!  And that!”

    “What’re you talking about?  Never ate a frog in m’ life.”  (pg. 34)

  “Not only is yakavarsh an excellent means of self-defense, Prince; it is in truth an art, yes, a philosophy, a way of life.  Consider the lovely curve as a body soars through the air!  Create an infinity symbol when you elegantly dislocate his arm!  See a gateway to eternity in the angle of his broken neck!”  (pg. 172)

 “It’s enough to make a paranoid out of a saint.”  (pg. 49)

    A great YA Fantasy series is one that entertains both adults and YA’s.  Examples are Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and His Dark Materials.  This was my third Hokas book, and unfortunately, none of them are in that category.  I’m pretty sure I would’ve enjoyed Hokas Pokas! when I was in junior high.  But now, the plots seem simplistic, the resolutions forced, and the wit repetitive.

    It must be kept in mind that Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson originally wrote these stories for Sci-Fi/Fantasy magazines, whose readership was mostly young boys, and just like “professional wrestling”, they should be judged by their YA standards.

    Both Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson were prolific science fiction writers.  The total number of Hoka short stories is less than 10, and the fact that neither author tried to develop the Hoka universe into a long-term series seems noteworthy.  I’m guessing that the Hokas occasionally garnered them a few extra bucks from the magazines, but I doubt either one of them wants their careers to be defined by Hokas.

    5 Stars.  Add 2 stars if you're in the target audience; you’ll likely find these stories hilarious.  And even if you’re an adult, you can still build your vocabulary, learn a couple foreign phrases, get acquainted with some classic novels, and pick up some interesting history tidbits.

The Time Ships - Stephen Baxter

   1995; 530 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Time-Travel; “Hard” Science Fiction; Speculative Science Fiction; Sequels.  Laurels : A slew of them.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    It was going to be a simple thing, really.  Easy-peasy.

    Our hero/narrator had a successful maiden voyage into the far future – to 807,201 AD to be precise, and returned home chastened, but safe and sound.  H.G. Wells found his manuscript detailing the journey, and published it to enormous acclaim back in 1895, calling it The Time Machine.

    But one regret remains, one loose thread, one piece of unfinished business.  Weena, the lovely Eloi girl that our hero became so enamored with, had to be left behind, captured by the evil Morlocks and sure to be their next meal.  Something our hero was powerless to stop, since he was fleeing for his life.

    Yet now, back in his own time, he’s reflected on this, and has come up with a remarkably simple solution: jump into the Time Machine, head out to 807,201 AD once again, land a couple hours earlier than before, and rescue Weena.  He knows where the Morlocks will lie in wait (Time Travel has some inherent advantages), and the Morlocks will never know what hit them.  It’s a well-thought-out plan.  What could possibly go wrong?

    Well, to quote the great Morlock sage, Nebogipfel, “Cause and Effect, when Time Machines are about, are rather awkward concepts.”

What’s To Like...

    To commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the publishing of The Time Machine, the H.G. Wells estate authorized Stephen Baxter to write a sequel.  The result was The Time Ships, and judging from the number of awards it won and/or was nominated for (listed below), they made a good choice.   The Time Ships is an epic Hard Science Fiction novel, and fully integrates events from The Time Machine (along with numerous nods to other H.G. Wells tales) into its storyline.

    The novel is divided into 7 “books”, plus an Epilogue, each one covering a ‘”jump” in time by our never-named protagonist and his newfound sidekick , a Morlock named Nebogipfel.  The jumps encompass the full temporal spectrum – to both the end of Time itself, and way back to before the Big Bang.

    Along the way, our heroes examine a number of serious themes, such as democracy, God, war, nuclear bombs, forced sterilization (which really occurred in the US back in the 1920’s), and evolution.  Interestingly, the Morlock viewpoint is often at odds with the Human one.  Stephen Baxter also has one huge advantage that H.G. Wells lacked – a century in the development of Quantum Physics.  So things like Multiverses, Temporal Paradoxes, Dyson Spheres, and Sentient Artificial Intelligence are also encountered.

    I was particularly impressed by the treatment of Temporal Paradoxes, such as “what happens if I go back in Time and kill my earlier self?”  A lot of Time Travel novelists take pains to skirt these situations; Stephen Baxter revels in them.

    Outside of our two chrono-hoppers, there aren’t a lot of characters to keep track of, and for all the new worlds we visit, not many new species to behold.  There are the Humans, Morlocks, and Eloi, of course; but besides that, just some post-dinosaur flora and fauna, and the epitome of Evolution – the Universal Constructors.

    The titular Time Ships don’t appear until page 447, and I learned what a Catherine Wheel is (the fireworks, not the torture device) and who Kurt Godel was.  I never did figure out what an Everett Phonograph was, nor when and where Filby fit in; but I was happy to see the nod to the town of Staines (I’ve been there!) as well as Henri Poincaré, whom I recently learned about (see the review here).

    There were four neat drawings interspersed throughout the book, although they might not be included in every edition.  77 chapters cover 520 pages, so you can always find a good spot when you want to stop reading for the night.  The entire book is written in the first-person POV.  I read The Time Machine as a preparation for The Time Ships, but in retrospect, I don’t think it was necessary.  The ending won’t be to everyone’s taste.  It has a “2001 – A Space Odyssey” feel to it, but I can’t picture an alternative way to end things.

Kewlest New Word ...

Rum Cove (n., phrase) : a dexterous or clever rogue (possibly a Britishism).

Others : Perforce (adv.); Lenticular (adj.); Peripatetic (adj.); Farrago (n.); Benighted (adj.).

Excerpts...

    I could see again.  I had a clear view of the world – of the green-glowing hull of the Time Ships all around me, of the earth’s bone-gleam beyond.

    I was existent once again! – and a deep panic – a horror – of that interval of Absence pumped through my system.  I have feared no Hell so much as non-existence – indeed, I had long resolved that I should welcome whatever agonies Lucifer reserves for the intelligent Non-Believer, if those pains served as proof that my consciousness still endured!  (pg. 455)

    An infinite universe!

    You might look out, through the smoky clouds of London, at the stars which mark out the sky’s cathedral roof; it is all so immense, so unchanging, that it is easy to suppose that the cosmos is an unending thing, and that it has endured forever.

    … But it cannot be so.  And one only need ask a common-sense question – why is the night sky dark? – to see why.

   If you had an infinite universe, with stars and galaxies spread out through an endless void, then whichever direction in the sky you looked, your eye must meet a ray of light coming from the surface of a star.  The night sky would glow everywhere as brightly as the sun…  (pg. 472)

“You and I – and Eloi and Morlock – are all, if you look at it on a wide enough scale, nothing but cousins within the same antique mudfish family!”  (pg. 106)

     The biggest plus to The Time Ships is how well Stephen Baxter manages to capture the writing style and storytelling of H.G. Wells.  Paradoxically, the biggest minus is also how well he captures that writing style and storytelling.

    Science Fiction has come a long way since H.G. Wells penned The Time Machine.  There’s a lot more action now, and a lot more world-building.  I still enjoy reading classic Sci-Fi stories, but I’m also thankful they’re generally less than 200 pages in length.

    Here, we have 500+ pages of century-old Sci-Fi.  The pace is slow, and while Stephen Baxter gives the reader a lot to think about, there aren’t a lot of thrills and spills.  True, this is also inherent in any Hard Science Fiction book that’s done properly.  But if you’re looking for a science fiction novel with galaxy-invading aliens and a protagonist with a liberal libido, you probably should skip this one, and do an Amazon search for “Space Opera”.

    7½ Stars.  Per Wikipedia, the laurels The Time Ships garnered are:  British Science Fiction Award – 1995 (winner); John W. Campbell Memorial Award – 1996 (winner); Philip K. Dick Award – 1996 (winner); British Fantasy Award – 1996 (nominee); Arthur C. Clarke Award – 1996 (nominee); Hugo Award – 1996 (nominee); Locus Award – 1996 (nominee); Kurd-Lasswitz Award, Foreign Fiction – 1996 (winner); Premio Gigamesh Award – 1997 (winner); Seiun Award – 1999 (winner).  Wowza!