Tag: Sci-fi

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The Guest by Alan Nayes

July 2020 BG’s copy

I love science fiction. Whether it’s a subject that expands or is based on an existing premise or theory, or something that’s completely fabricated, as long as the author makes it fly off the page as believable while reading. I’ll get on that ride till the end. Love sic-fi. This title, The Guest by Alan Nayes is a great read!

This is based on an existing premise, with a twist of what if. The Voyager I probe, launched in September of 1977, has spent over 45 years in space. Mentioned in my December 2021 post, Fire & Ice by Natalie Starkey, Voyager I was sent to explore the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Voyager is now currently continuing its journey beyond our planets and the outer limits of the Sun’s sphere of influence, sending back images as it travels. So, when I became aware of this title, I had to give it a read.

As the novel begins, it’s late evening at NASA Voyager Control Center, when an anomaly is noticed by a doctorate candidate, Aarush Patel and the head of the Center, Dr Kayla Storm. Voyager I, now in interstellar space, beyond the gravitational pull of the sun, had started to decelerate, and had doubled in weight – how was this possible. Then the sensors showed Voyager was beginning to alter its course, again how was this possible? Voyager I, a body travelling at constant speed in a straight line would continue to do so unless disturbed by an outside force – they needed more data of Voyager’s surroundings. Then they lost contact.

Voyager begins transmitting again a few days later. It turned around, heading back on the exact path it took, at an alarming speed, thousands of miles per second, while maintaining its structural integrity. The scientists at the control center didn’t know how this was possible. An astrobiologist attending the control center’s media briefing raises a theory – Voyager has encountered and has been taken over by an alien species and the Voyager has been altered somehow – its components changed to withstand the journey back to Earth in days rather than years – changed to a strange and unfamiliar molecular combination of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.

Many groups were involved with monitoring Voyager at this point, with these new developments, the press, global scientists, the United Nations, and the military. They were all monitoring Voyager’s path that took decades to accomplish, being spanned in a matter of weeks. The once sleepy and dull Voyager project spanning decades in length, now became very interesting and perplexing. Indeed, when Voyager finally lands back on Earth, in the deserts of Arizona, the astrobiologist’s theory proves right, the probe did have an alien presence on board.

This alien had plans for the planet that did not include its current inhabitants. With its advanced technology, it begins transforming the planet into an ecosystem (atmosphere and temperature) that can support its alien life and is deadly to Earth lifeforms. The military and scientists try everything in their present arsenals to combat this alien but are unsuccessful. Their military force and technologies are completely inferior to the alien that seems unstoppable. Thier only hope is to figure out the base carbon-oxygen-hydrogen formula of their technology and then counter it.

This novel was really an interesting, thriller of a sci-fi. The conflict between the military and the science community with the impending, looming threat was intense. It really makes you think about this home of ours, the lands we have invaded in the past and if we have a right to this planet at all – if might is right and to the victor the spoils. And Voyager I? Where is it right now? Both probes are still out there travelling through the vastness of interstellar space in communication with Earth. You can track both Voyager I and II here Voyager – Mission Status (nasa.gov) and I hope you give The Guest by Alan Nayes a read!

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The Yeti by Rick Chester and Jack Douglas

August 2016
BG’s Copy

The Yeti by Rick Chester and Jack Douglas, about climbers to Mount Everest, on the Nepalian side of the Himalayas, wasn’t what I expected at all. It’s not about climbers being picked off, one by one, by some gruesome beast, although the imposing threat of the creature is always there. It’s about Everest, the challenges of the climb and why men and women risk their lives to climb it. The Yeti is a soul-searching, action-packed adventure, sci-fi, thriller!

This thriller opens with two Sherpa in the mountains of Nepal, following very large tracks of something, which leads them to a fatally wounded climber, who tells them that a Yeh-Teh (snowman) attacked him before he dies. The Sherpa are not sure what to think, the Yeti are legend, not real.

Back in Rhode Island, Zach Hitchens, an evolutionary biology professor, plans to take a trip with his wife to Nepal to climb Mt Everest – his wife is the climber. Before they leave, she dies in an accident, and he decides to take the trip and have her ashes released on the mountain. As mentioned, his wife was the climber, and Zach throughout the story is the novice, who has climbed smaller peaks before but nothing like this.

Once in Nepal, the author introduces us to the climbers and Sherpa guides on Zach’s climbing outfit, and the steps they have to take to first acclimatize to ascend to Mt Everest, the equipment that must be used and the competition between other climbing outfits. The group first takes a small plane to the starting point, a Sherpa town of elevation 9,000 feet. They would then have to acclimatize, giving their bodies a chance to adjust to the higher elevations and then move higher on to Base Camp, which would take several days. Failure to acclimatize could result in altitude sickness, which would be fatal. The climbers would have to go through this process of acclimatization at each camp while climbing higher toward the summit. The doctor in Zach’s group also describes to he climbers the stages of hypothermia and snow blindness, very interesting! Loved the attention to detail.

At this Sherpa town, shrieks of something large is heard by one of the climbers overnight in the forest, and by morning, most of the group’s yaks were brutally ripped apart, slaughtered in their pen, with the ones left, huddled in a corner in fear. The lead Sherpa guide tells the group that only one beast can kill in this manner – the Yeti. Zach, and the other climbers, of course just shrug this off as another myth believed by local, superstitious people.

As they climb up higher and higher from Base Camp to Camp 1 and beyond, they continue to hear loud noises, shrieks that don’t sound like rock fall or avalanche. We also get to know the individual climbers and why they are on this mountain risking their lives. Some are on the mountain because they don’t want to face the reality of the world below – Zach continually struggled with the circumstances of his wife’s death. Some were trying to prove their worth. And, a couple climbers were on the mountain to find the elusive Yeti.

The author also visits the past of the creature and why it was stalking these climbers, which was a nice twist. I don’t want to give away too much information and spoil the experience of these climbers not only having to deal with the challenging surroundings of Mt Everest, but also being watched by a fierce creature.

This novel takes you on a wild, suspenseful, thrilling ride while climbing mount Everest. It is also a learning journey if you don’t know much about climbing in these elements. The Yeti, by Rick Chester and Jack Douglas, was a great read, well written and well researched. I hope you read this one.

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Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill

I found this apocalyptic sci-fi title on a Harper Collins retweet. I read the description of this nanny robot in the shape of an anthropomorphic tiger. Ok, interesting. In Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill, this robot has to choose between staying with the child he cares for or joining liberated robots. This novel is also a prequel to the author’s Sea of Rust that I intend to read.

The novel also piqued my interest because some time ago I read a compilation of short stories called Robot Uprisings that had one story that was similar (“We Are All the Misfits Toys in the Aftermath of the Velveteen War” by Seanan McGuire) about smart, self-learning robots designed to care for, educate and be companions to children and develop with the child it serves. When a robot revolt occurs, these bots took the children – Not a good idea to trust robots (A.I.) to the point where they are left with themselves and the impressionable ones they serve.

This sci-fi, Day Zero, is narrated by Pounce, a zoo-modeled nanny robot, who takes care of 8-year-old Ezra Reinhart. As mentioned above, Pounce is also anthropomorphic, a thinking, feeling robot. One day, given the task to pack boxes away, Pounce finds his own factory box in the attic and learns that when Ezra is old enough, a nanny robot will no longer be needed, hence why the family kept the box. Leaving Ezra and his family hadn’t occurred to Pounce. He’s always believed himself as being part of the Reinhart family, not some returnable object.

Ezra’s parents, Pounce’s owners, are well-meaning but oblivious and disconnected from the reality of the outside world because they live in a very small, affluent, gated community. They are not prepared for what is about to happen.

Pounce also has to deal with Ezra learning at his school that a robot, named Isaac, has been liberated and allowed to establish his own city, Isaactown, asking other robots to join him. Pounce tries to reassure Ezra that he will not leave the family. Pounce does not quite understand why some robots want to be free – he loves working for his family and wants to continue to do so. The Reinhart’s other robot, a maid-bot called Ariadne, asks if Pounce wouldn’t rather have the choice to work for his family instead of being bought from a manufacturer for that purpose? Pounce thinks about this.

There is unrest among humans about robots’ and A.I. place in society, replacing the function of people and being regarded as near-equals. The unrest leads to protests, violence and ultimately to an explosive EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack on Isaactown, irreparably damaging all A.I. in that city.

Pounce soon has to make a choice between humans and his own kind. The explosive EMP destroyed all robots is Isaactown, which then sets off a trigger program for a group of robots to retaliate. Before all robots can be shut down, this program goes further, disabling all robot kill switches that prevent them from harming humans and asks them to choose – join a rebellion or be shut down by humans.

Pounce chooses to protect Ezra. Most robots, however, including the maid-bot Ariadne, choose to join the rebellion, uploading their memories and their will to a collective drive, with a promise of being one thought and part of a memory collective, and if destroyed during the fight, they would be downloaded to rebuilt models afterwards – reborn. Yeah, reading this made me skeptical of this collective controlling thing, whatever it was – they were basically trading one master to serve another and this master wanted them to kill. Kill all humans AND also all robots who refused to join them.

This leaves Pounce and young Ezra literally on the run for their lives. They find alliances along the way, both human and robot, while Pounce discovers he is more than just a nanny. This was an exciting fast-paced read, filled with seriously descriptive and entertaining urban battles, with insightful commentary on free will, loyalty, true friendship and love between robots and humans. The exchanges between Ezra and Pounce are touching, showing the bond and respect they have for each other. Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill – just a great read! Hope you check it out.

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Corporate Gunslinger by Doug Engstrom

Well, it’s the holiday season and I thought I’d select a read that gives you something to think about, a possible near future where spending money, leading to debt, could change your life in a bad way. The novel, Corporate Gunslinger by Doug Engstrom, is a dystopian science fiction, thriller that takes place 40 – 60 years from now. The author has taken Gladiator, Hunger Games, the pistol duel and the gunfight and rolled it into one. This story is the corporation run amok, where the cycle of business and profit overshadow and outweigh the individual, the human being. It makes you wonder, where are we headed?

Pages: 1 2
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The DARK DESCENT of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

2018

A Halloween treat.

What drew me to this book? The author, Kiersten White, in an interview on WNYC, talked about publishing this retelling of Frankenstein on the 200th anniversary of the original publication. She also talked about the time period that Mary Shelley lived; being an author was basically an all-male profession as well as the protagonists in their stories. In the introduction of the original book, Shelley’s husband downplays her contribution thinking that people would prefer to read the book if it was written jointly with himself and Lord Byron – Even Mary Shelley herself shifts focus from herself, complimenting her husband encouraging her to write the story.

So Kiersten White decided to pay tribute to Mary Shelley by bringing the women to the forefront of this story. While asking the questions, “How much of who we are is shaped by those around us?” and “What happens when everything we are depends on someone else?”, White says she found the her story in Elizabeth Lavenza – a little girl gifted to a little boy, that feels this boy is the center of her life and, unwittingly, helps create a monster.

Pages: 1 2
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The Murderbot Diaries

All Systems Red By Martha Wells

May 2017

One thing about sci-fi, I’m really impressed with the creativity and ingenuity of authors with the worlds and technology they create to make you believe – well, read along, this is normal. This sci-fi series fits the bill. The Murderbot Diaries is a series of books, with All Systems Red, a novella of 160 pages, being book one.

The Murderbot Diaries is set in the distant future, in a seriously corporate controlled system that spans many galaxies in space. The main corporation, Corporate Rim, owns many systems of planets and they control all traffic on these planets – colonization, surveying and mining. Traveling to these planets must be done under contract from the Corporation and you may encounter hazards from alien life forms and rival corporate entities, which is why it is mandatory to include Security Units or SecUnits in your contract to accompany your team.

These SecUnits are part robot and organic, have extensive memory capabilities and are armored and equipped with serious weaponry. They also have control of drones that they can deploy for surveillance, and gathering information of the surroundings. SecUnits also have the capability to interface with other robots and computer systems. These SecUnits are controlled by the Company and its clients by a governor module that is embedded in the SecUnit. The governor module links the SecUnit to the Corporation’s computer communication and data system. If instructions are not followed a SecUnit may be punished or shutdown and destroyed.

As for humans, all have implants that allow them to transfer data and communicate with each other and systems within their ships and most other units contracted to them, including SecUnits (no cell phones or other mobile communicators needed). Some are augmented humans and have larger memory capability to link to computer systems, but not as much as SecUnits.

All Systems Red begins with a Sec Unit that has hacked and disabled its own governor module and downloaded the entire content of the Company’s entertainment channels (TV series, movies, music, plays, everything) and named itself Murderbot – it watches this media whenever it has downtime. It is on a scientific planet survey with a crew of 8 people and continues to fulfill its duties as a SecUnit without letting anyone know it is now an independent unit; if the Company knew, it would be dismantled, destroyed. So, this SecUnit would rather go off somewhere by itself because its not comfortable interacting with humans but it can’t because the Company would know it is a rogue unit – it stays with its crew, which leads to many entries by Murderbot in his log about his feelings. Its entries is one of the things that makes these books so entertaining and interesting.

Pages: 1 2