Review of Existence, by David Brin

Some of the best futuristic SF ever comes from the pen of David
Brin, Startide Rising, Earth, and Kiln People, to name a few. I
don't know why--perhaps it was reading this as an ebook--but I found
Brin's latest effort, "Existence," to be a cluttered melange of
trendy SF tropes. It's set in the near future, when any number of
things might be possible, and the author seems to want to make sure that he
has turned over every rock.

Each section is book-ended by essays about the myriad ways the world
could end, or humans could end it, or aliens could end it, or disease
could end it, or disaster could end it, or. . .

Brin uses a common "parallel thread" structure designed to keep the
reader dangling on the hook. You read a bit about character A
(astronaut/space garbage collector Gerald Livingston), then on to
character B (Tor Povlov, "ai"ce reporter), C (Hacker Sander, a rich
kid who dabbles in high tech), D (Lacey, Hacker's rich mother, a
member of the secret ruling clade), E (Xiang Bin, a poor shoresteader
off Hong Kong), and F (Hamish Brookeman, famous disillusioned
novelist--Michael Crichton, maybe?), then loop. But we're never sure
these characters will have anything in common when the plot finally
thickens.

Humanity has suffered numerous setbacks and disasters, but none
sufficient to bring the world to an end. Gradually we've learned that
aliens are making first contact via a couple of recently discovered
stone artifacts. Earth is suddenly finding thousands of similar
artifacts, some apparently here for thousands of years, others just
arriving. And, uh, the aliens are mentioning something about life
everlasting. . . you just have to give up your biological body.

Very near the end, the story makes an abrupt jump 25 years into the
future. Is this an attempt to do a Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy
in one book? Now, dolphins and neanderthals are under the umbrella of
"human," and a lot of people are android or cyborg, including Tor the
reporter. Humans are trying to help the alien 'bots see if the worlds
they left tens of thousands of years ago still exist. They discover
that Earth has been a contact battleground not for just millennia but
for eons, as they unearth a deadly rogue killer from the Old Wars in
the asteroid belt. Now we see the stone aliens as
johnny-come-latelies, spreading through the galaxy like a virus. And
an old race of lurkers is watching it all unfold ... silently, for
now..

Faced with this new knowledge, what should humanity do? Become
cybernetic space seeds? Go back to its primitive days, hiding so the
dangerous galaxy loses interest? Or fight our way out?

Ultimately, I felt the ending was kind of a cop-out. On the other hand, no one
swims with the dolphins like Brin. It's just a bit of a disappointment that the
characters we invest so much time in never decisively resolve anything for
either themselves or their newly discovered AI and biological galactic neighbors.

Coming Soon: Lost Worlds, Retraced Anthology

Third Flatiron has announced the lineup for its Fall 2013 anthology, "Lost Worlds, Retraced." Thirteen great stories coming on September 1! Here's a preview:

Table of Contents

The Sun Greeter by Marilyn K. Martin
Gods & Emperors by Jonathan Shipley
The Grim by Konstantine Paradias
Parallelobirds by Soham Saha
Jango Rides Again by Maureen Bowden
The Story of How Akamu and Elikapeka Created the City Under the Ice by DeAnna Knippling
Lindow Five by Judith Field
Schrodinger's Soldier by Ron Collins
Breach of Contract by Andrew Kozma
Not Alone by Sarah Hodgetts
Ninth From the Sun by Bruce Golden
Parallel Universe by Will Morton
The Real Story by Neil Davies 

Podcast, Anyone?

Also, we're excited to announce that we will be doing podcasts of selected stories beginning next month. When the "Podcasts" tab appears (around September 1), you'll be able to subscribe to our RSS feed.

Review of Museum of Seraphs in Torment, by David Pinault

I first heard about David Pinault when a fellow author
described him as a "real-life Indiana Jones." He is a middle eastern
scholar and prof of religious studies at Santa Clara University--not
to mention a heckuva writer.

Pinault takes us on an exciting world-spanning thrill ride that kicks
off during the "Arab Spring" demonstrations in Egypt. Ricky Atlas, a
disgraced Egyptologist, is in the midst of robbing the Egyptian Museum
in Cairo. Thieving pays well, but it's dangerous. While dodging
bullets, Ricky wonders whatever happened to his old grad school chums,
Iggy Forsythe, Hattie Kronsted, and Francis Hammond, fellow students who shared in his
disgrace. Ricky scores the finial of the Wand of Solomon, but his
mysterious boss says he's not off the hook and sends him to Yemen to
get the wand itself.

The scene changes to Arizona, where Annie Martinez, a Burger King
assistant manager, has been collecting small artifacts illegally from
Montezuma's Castle National Monument for her little roadside "Museum
of Seraphs." A scraggly homeless man hangs around her tiny
storefront. We suspect he's one of Ricky's old friends and find
ourselves involved in a mystery of what may be Egyptian artifacts in
Arizona. Maybe there's a link to the Aztecs?

And why is everyone after the Wand of Solomon? We're back in Sanaa,
Yemen, where Ricky narrowly escapes Egyptian jihadis who are also
seeking the wand. Atlas has God on his side, though, in the form of
his lucky coat--and CIA Hellfire Predator drones. He's got the wand;
let's see if he can keep it.

It's a blast following Ricky and his friends pursue an ancient
connection that will change the world.

Pinault provides lots of authentic sights, sounds, and dialog
throughout this fast-moving adventure. I can highly recommend "Museum
of Seraphs in Torment: An Egyptological Fantasy Thriller," available on Amazon.

The book needs a nicer cover (and shorter title), but hopefully those will come as the
book gets the attention it deserves.

New story in Bards & Sages

My fantasy story, “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid,” is now out in the July 2013 issue of Bards and Sages Quarterly.

The issue will be available via Smashwords and Amazon for $2.99. The print issue is available now through the printer at https://www.createspace.com/4345013

You can get a 10% discount through July by going to my author website, julianarew.com, for a coupon.

Temptations of the Two Cultures

Although I pride myself on being a geek, sometimes I'm not sensible
and logical. Sometimes I'm carried away on a rapture wisp that wants
to follow the Festival and soak up a story or two (thank you,
Mr. Stross).

I used to hear that "the Two Cultures" of science and humanities are
difficult to reconcile in our Western society. C. P. Snow had a point,
but I've found that not only can they co-exist, but one
frequently saves you from the bipolar doldrums of the other. Take, for
example, the profession of software engineering. When you create
something brilliant, you experience extremely high highs. But when you
are wrestling with a pitiless, intractable bug, you hear the shrieking
groan of your soul being pulled out through your nostrils.

Great art to the rescue! Guys like Shakespeare are nothing short of
inspirational, and we remember them for how they showed you can make
it to that other pole--the sublime. But creating art has its downsides
too. So many great geniuses were drunkards, blackguards, or just plain
nutters. Look at Francois Villon, who penned the world's greatest poetry
while waiting to be hanged, or Voltaire, who was an equal opportunity
nuisance on both sides of the Channel, or Mozart, who couldn't catch a
break but he could easily catch pneumonia. And don't get me started on
George R.R. Martin.

Bwahaha. Science to the rescue! None of those judgmental, sicko, over-the-top,
critical excesses. Look at the rad stuff getting done on Mars. Mars! Hey, that
might make a good setting for an anthology. . .

Playing with Fire is Out! (Actually, It's In!)

Speaking of anthologies, we're riding an extremely high
high with the publication of "Playing with Fire," from Third Flatiron. We've rolled it out on Smashwords and Amazon and expect distribution in many online ebook stores soon.

Review of "Singularity Sky" by Charles Stross

Having recently finished and enjoyed my first Iain Banks novel ("Consider Phlebas") , I felt further entitled to read a slipstream space opera by one of my favorite authors, Charles Stross. I note on Stross's blog that he has produced a "crib sheet" about "Singularity Sky." He says he had to kill off this series after only two novels. I wanted to find out why, but not before I finished reading the book.

"Singularity Sky" is one of Stross's earlier works, set in the post-Singularity universe 400 years in the future. (So, in a way it is a Culture prequel.) The prolog begins with the arrival of "The Festival," superior visitors from afar promising the backward human inhabitants on Rochard's World anything they desire in return for some entertaining stories. The ensuing economic bedlam of course leads to war.

Humanity has grown accustomed to oversight by a shadowy AI called the Eschaton, but even this superior entity doesn't quite know what to do about the Festival. It does dispatch an agent when it suspects that the totalitarian New Republican government wants to illegally send a fleet of warships jumping back in time to ambush the Festival. Stross is a master at explaining current understandings of space and time travel, so we happily go along for the ride.

I was quite fond of the character Burya Rubenstein, a Soviet-style revolutionary who hopes to lead his world to throw off the shackles of the Republic. Unfortunately, the Festival's arrival renders him instantly obsolete. And the Festival easily sees the naive naval war fleet's ruse and dispatches some "Bouncers" to send them home tae think again.

A blurb on the book's dust jacket says, "Information demands to be free." I think it's more that the Festival demands it. And it's all just a little too much for a stable, backward planet to swallow all at once. All hell literally breaks loose. The chapter, "Diplomatic Behavior" caused my eyes to pop out of my head in horror, sort of like the first time I read "Jeffty Is Five" by Harlan Ellison. Mimes--robopookas--shudder.

Soon the Festival moves on, leaving Rochard's World to pick up the pieces, some of which are not what they used to be. I'd particularly miss the trees.

Now, off to the crib sheet.

Playing with Fire - The Lineup

I'm excited to have a great lineup of authors for Third Flatiron's
Summer 2013 "Playing with Fire" anthology, appearing online everywhere
after June 1. Where there's smoke there's fire. . .

Contents 

One Step at a Time by Gunnar De Winter
In the Garden by Adele Gardner
Again and Again by G. Miki Hayden
Stone Cold by L. L. Hill
The Match Story by James S. Dorr
Fire Dogs by Ian O'Reilly
Godrock by H. L. Pauff
Knock by Marian Powell
The Poison Pawn by Nicholas M. Bugden
Hephaestus and the God Particle by J. M. Scott
Fate's Finger by Jonathan Shipley
The Carnival by Michael Fedo - Reprint of a famous classic!
Meteor Story by Marissa James

It will be fun to have a third entry from the ever-entertaining James
S. Dorr, as well as pieces by both new and established writers.

A Classic from Michael Fedo

Also notable in this anthology is a reprint of a classic story, "The
Carnival," by Michael Fedo. This story was published back in 1968 in
several Scholastic Magazines. Since then, it has become something of
an iconic story with middle school and high school students around the
country. The story has its own Wikipedia page, and each year the
author receives numerous queries from students and teachers about the
story, though it has long been out of print. We agree that it
merits republication, and we feel that this anthology as a whole
treats a literary theme that will be interesting to teachers,
students, and SF/Fantasy fans alike.