K. D. Wentworth (1951–2012)

After the first volume “The Course of Empire”, this second volume is even better I should say. In this second tome we see in full regalia the centre leitmotiv of the book: nature by association/cooperation. Neuroscientist António Damásio a Portuguese countryman of mine, is far from being a despot/tyrant, and he would agree with the basic premise of the novel. In fact, in Damásio’s book on Spinoza (“Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain”, he cites research which show more actually proves that cooperation floods the brain with dopamine and brings on a high. It's a product of our human evolution and therefore can be said to be much more expressive of human nature than the attribute of selfishness which capitalism forces us to adopt if we are to survive. In Paleolithic times, cooperation was not something imposed by the state, because there was no state. Nor was it imposed by an all powerful leader. It grew naturally from the tasks people had to do together to survive. Early societies had no authoritarian structures, such as fascism (as epithomised by the Narva caste). To put it in the words of Chief Wanadi in John Boorman's film, “The Emerald Forest”, "If I tell a man to do what he does not want to do, I would no longer be chief." This is the all point of the first and second volumes of this wonderful duology (I’m not counting the third volume as belonging to this same universe because the pedigree is not the same). The Apache chose Geronimo as their leader, but that doesn't mean they had to obey him, if they didn't like the orders he gave. The same with Allie Pluthrak. In the Apache they could vote with their feet. Their freedom to do as they pleased in that respect in no way lessened their ability to cooperate. Despot/Tyrant (epithomised by Oppuk), on the other hand, demands absolute obedience.

Humans are cooperative for short periods when individual needs happen to coincide, once the target is met we all start being individuals again. This not down to our individual natures and is not because of capitalism or any other ism. We are the way we are because that is how nearly all of us are wired. Imperfect? Certainly but better than being like an ant colony with no minds of our own.

All of these in a SF novel (*gasp*). Who could have imagined SF could produce something of such quality as this…unheard of to say the least! show less

Twenty years ago, the Jao conquered the Earth. Humans are the fightin’est species the Jao ever encountered, making this conquest the most difficult of any the Jao had pulled off before. Americans were the fightin’est and held out the longest, thus suffering the most in the way of physical destruction, a fact that pleases some other nations (most especially Japan). Even so, the Jao occupation is headquartered in the US, with the puppet president’s daughter Caitlin a hostage raised very show more close to the Jao governor, so close that she’s learned a lot about how they think and speak; Jao think about honor and duty differently than humans (though again they’re closest to the Japanese, according to a couple of POV characters). Tully, a resistance fighter, and Caitlin, along with some other plucky humans, get swept up with a new Jao from a different clan than the governor; Jao politics might just change the oppression under which humans are suffering. But the Jao are on Earth for a reason: they need resources to fight the Ekhat, who want to destroy all non-Ekhat life in the universe. And the Ekhat are coming.

Okay, so this is roughly 75% Red Dawn with space invaders. And, while Flint and Wentworth go to great lengths to explain some of the plot girders (the Jao’s ignorance of/contempt for projectile weapons as opposed to lasers; why the genocidal Ekhat might bother to fight a ground war rather than obliterating whole planets at one blow; the Jao’s lack of imagination compared to humans), there’s still a palpable sense that the scenario works the way it does because the authors carefully tweaked the rules to produce the maximum fun/cheerleading for human ingenuity. On the other hand, the book does what it does reasonably well, and it actually tries to deal with the question of what happens when the conquerors cannot be kicked out on their butts. As long as you can swallow the American = human stuff, it’s a little like reading David Brin with the human inferiority substantially sucked out and some swashbuckling put in. show less

So yeah, it turns out I'm not a big fan of L. Ron Hubbard. But that didn't stop me from requesting a copy of L. Ron Hubbard Presents: Writers of the Future, Volume XXVII from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. I always enjoy a good sci-fi/fantasy anthology, and I was at least subliminally aware of the Writers of the Future program, and figured this'd be a good bet for some high-quality SF/F short fiction (SFFSF?).

I love it when I'm right.

The Writers of the Future contest seems a fairly show more reputable program, with contest entries judged by such esteemed SFF writers as Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, and Frederik Pohl, among others. And past contest winners include such notable names as Stephen Baxter, Patrick Rothfuss, and Dave Wolverton. So right off the bat, this book showed the promise of some good stuff inside.

And on the whole, it delivers. There are some weaker stories, but they're merely decent, not bad. But beyond that, there are a few truly phenomenal entries. Here's a (very) brief review for each story:

• "The Unreachable Voices of Ghosts" by Jeffrey Lyman — Almost every story in this collection is a science-fiction piece; this is no exception. A lonely man goes on what is essentially a suicide run to the edge of the solar system, fishing for a miniature black hole, and finds something else besides. There's a nice atmosphere to the piece, and if the twist at the end isn't entirely unanticipated, well, it's still a solid and oddly-moving start to the anthology.

• "Maddy Dune's First and Only Spelling Bee" by Patrick O'Sullivan — Maybe this fantasy story should have been held until the end of the collection, because it sets the bar impossibly high for everything that follows. I'm not going to spoil anything by going into any detail, but this is hands-down the best entry here; it's worth buying the book just for this one. I would love to see someone pay O'Sullivan to turn this into a series.

• "The Truth, From a Lie of Convenience" by Brennan Harvey — A reporter on the Moon discovers that a Crazy Conspiracy Theory just might be true! Shocking! Nothing really new here, though it is still mostly enjoyable, even if the ending is kind of weak.

• "In Apprehension, How Like a God" by R. P. L. Johnson — Another strong story, this time a sci-fi murder mystery. I guessed the killer early on, but I never guessed the killer's actual identity. Color me impressed.

• "An Acolyte of Black Spires" by Ryan Harvey — Fantasy or sci-fi? I couldn't tell, but it doesn't really matter. This one felt fairly cliché and dry throughout, though the mild twist at the end made me appreciate it more.

• "The Dualist" by Aaron Hughes — At this point, the trend seems to be that the even-numbered stories are my favorites. It wasn't until the last couple of pages that I figured out where this story was going, and it wasn't until the final paragraphs that I understood, and was thusly blown away. A surprisingly moving tale.

• "Bonehouse" by Keffy R. M. Kehrli — An intriguing premise: hunting down people who've run away and fully immersed themselves in the internet. But it didn't really do much with it. Enjoyable, if entirely forgettable.

• "This Peaceful State of War" by Patty Jansen — A decent "first contact" story, and if the fact that mysterious alien biology is the culprit is fairly predictable, the truth of that biology is stunning.

• "Sailing the Sky Sea" by Geir Lanesskog — A fairly-entertaining tale about survival in a gas giant's atmosphere. I loved how they pulled off the rescue, though I wish it had been foreshadowed earlier, instead of just coming out of the blue as it did.

• "Unfamiliar Territory" by Ben Mann — This might be my least favorite story here. It felt pretty clichéd, and didn't really have a whole lot of plot, though it managed to tease at a larger story to be told later.

• "Medic!" by Adam Perin — This story saves the collection from a comparatively-weak second half. We get the story of a crotchety battlefield medic as he attempts to save his 1,000th life and earn his transfer out of the service. The main character is entertaining, and the ending is nicely emotional.

• "Vector Victoria" by D. A. D'Amico — Another weak entry, based on the otherwise-intriguing premise of a government-engineered virus and the protesters (terrorists?) that try to counter it. Unfortunately, the story is a ho-hum rehash of old government-is-good/government-is-bad arguments, with no real resolution. And I found titular protagonist to be incredibly naive (as intended, I'm sure) and irritating (likely not).

• "The Sundial" by John Arkwright — This might be the second-best story here. If you pressed a gun to my head, I'd probably classify it as "fantasy"; it almost feels like it doesn't belong in the same book as the rest of these stories. I won't spoil anything, though; you have to pick up this book to read "Maddy Dune", anyway.

Also included are three essays on advice for writers and artists; I'll be honest: I skimmed 'em. I was just there for the stories. On the whole, it's decent collection, elevated by the presence of 4-5 particularly strong stories. If I had to rank the top five, I'd have to go with "Maddy Dune", then "The Sundial", with "How Like a God" and "The Dualist" tying for third, and "Medic!" bringing up the rear. It's worth checking out just for those stories. And I'm going to have to keep an eye out for previous collections, as well. [4 out of 5 stars] show less

Ignoring the misleading cover blurb of “The Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year” (which it most obviously isn’t, and isn’t intended to be), this is an entertaining collection of stories from mostly unknown writers, many of whom show enough promise to continue selling to professional markets. The stories range from near misses marred by uneven writing or predictable stories and characters to a few that feature accomplished, intriguing, better-than-average storytelling and show more characterization. The best of the bunch were Patrick O’Sullivan’s “Maddy Dune’s First and Only Spelling Bee,” turning what could have been a predictable premise into a tale that made me genuinely care about the pair of, respectively, barely alien and very alien main characters; Van Aaron Hughes’s “The Dualist,” in which a provocatively complicated diplomatic relationship between human and alien had me curiously wondering what would happen next; “Sailing the Sky Sea” by Geir Lanesskog, featuring a well-drawn cast of characters playing out a convincing mystery in a very brief amount of time; and “An Acolyte of Black Spires” by Ryan Harvey, with a well-imagined alien society that successfully drew me into the story and ultimately provided a satisfying resolution. The common denominator of the best stories in the collection seemed to be unique, believable, and very “alien” alien characters. show less