Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester

51/150/2016

This one really did not work for me.

At first I just found it confusing as the narrator switched from one character to the next to third person omniscient; switching perspectives, even within one sentence, from the android to it's human owner.

We follow the pair from planet to planet as the human tries to cover up for the actions of the android.

It was all a bit forced and gimmicky.

The Inevitable by Kevin Kelley - Book Report #166

This was an important book to put today's technology and it's underlying trends into focus.

Kelly showed me how the new normal needs to be accepted, maintained and upgraded.

Staying up to date requires a constant willingness to learn and adapt.

What really hit me was chapter 5 - Accessing.  It is here that he laid out why streaming music is such a strong trend.  Without even being conscious of it we are shifting from a society that owns things to one that pays to have access to things.

The "sharing economy" fits into the world of access over ownership.  You don't have to own a car if you have access to Uber.  You don't need to buy a DVD if it is available, on demand, on Netflix.

I paid for Apple Music just to see what the fuss was about but I kept thinking that I didn't OWN the music which plays contrary to how I grew up.  You build a collection, it sits on a shelf, it's something you access and it's something that speaks to others of your tastes.

The difference is, with ACCESS to everything, you can let your imagination run wild.  You hear an old Willie Nelson song in a movie and you look it up.  You can then add the song or the entire album to your virtual collection.  If it is there.

In the fullness of time everything will be available for access.  Today it is kind of lumpy and you might have accounts with more than one service.

Anyways.  The book put the trends into focus and also gave me some idea of where things are going.

Kelley explores such subjects of AI and it's inclusion into everyday objects.  Tracking and surveillance.  How screens are changing the world.

As the subtitle says: Understanding the 12 technological forces that will shape our future.

The future looks pretty cool.

Recommended.

Kevin Kelly's website is here -  http://kk.org/

Rat Catcher's Yellows by Charlie Jane Anders

50/150/2016

This was a sad/hopeful story. 

Or maybe it was hopeful/sad.

Nope.  It was sad then a little bit hopeful in a sad and defeated kind of way.

Shary is suffering from a degenerative mental disease and Grace, her wife, is coping with it as best she can.

Grace introduces her to an immersive video game that she connects to quickly.

Somehow this game connects with others suffering from the same condition.

It was a heart breaking story that will ring true with anybody who has a loved one suffering from dementia.

The collection can surprise in that there is some real depth in the story selections.  I am very impressed with the scope the editors have included in this volume.

Charlie Jane Anders - http://allthebirdsinthesky.tumblr.com/

Desert Walk by S. R. Mastrantone

49/150/2016

This is the first story in the collection that did not work for me.

The focus of it is a long-lost video game where the player is walking in the middle of the desert.  Nothing really happens in the game although the player sometimes runs across an object but mostly there is just the walking.

Somehow it is a very addictive game and our narrator plays it for hours at a time without noticing the passage of time.

He seeks out the game designer and it is there that the story takes a turn into the paranormal that immediately lost my interest.

The ending itself seemed forced and simply silly.

Too bad because it was very good until then.

I usually look for an author's web page after I've written the review.  The paranormal thing about the story should come as no surprise if you are familiar with the author; he seems to write quite a bit of it.  It is a genre I tend to stay away from, just like I do with fantasy.

In any case, you can find the author here:  http://thewrittenabsurd.blogspot.ca/

Respawn by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

48/150/2016

This was a terrific read.

Written by the guy who wrote the novel that became the movie Edge of Tomorrow.

Here Sakurazaka takes the same premise; becoming reborn the instant you die but puts the mind of the narrator in the body of the person who kills his previous self.

It was a mind-twisting notion as the narrator continues to inhabit new bodies he also inherits their lives.

I simply loved the story, however I did not understand the ending.  Since it was such a fun ride to the last sentence I really did not care if the ending did not live up to the rest.

It was wonderfully imaginative.

Hopscotch by Karl Schroeder

47/150/2016

Linda is a researcher who had discovered how to predict the unpredictable.  She tracks down freak storms, UFO sightings and strange disappearances.

Alan is her boyfriend who accompanies her on her quests.

The trouble is that he tries to keep Linda safe but she is a force to be reckoned with.  Poor Alan is in over his head but he does try his best.

The story worked for me because of just how hard Alan was trying to contribute and keep up.

Karl Schroeder - http://www.kschroeder.com/

The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin

46/150/2016

I was not looking forward to reading this again.

It is so well written and stands the test of time so well that every word filled me with terror.

I've reviewed this once before, see it HERE and I have listened to it in podcast form.  Any way you slice this it is an exceptional example of hard science fiction.

A young girl stows away on an Emergency Dispatch Ship to surprise her brother who is on the same planet as the ship is headed.

Not knowing there are strict limitations to the payload aboard these EDS, when she is discovered the sad, lonely, cold truth of it comes bearing down.

This story is head and shoulders at the peak of the form.


My heart raced the whole time I read it even though I knew what was going to happen next.

This makes me want to search out other stories by Godwin.

NPC by Charles Yu

45/150/2016

This was an interesting story that worked well on a couple levels.

Life of our narrator is "in game," living as a character in a MMORPG.  Having never played a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game I can imagine how a person can become stuck in a rut.

It is an actual rut that gets our hero out of his.

But then the author deepens the story by exploring the emotional consequences of leveling up.

It was a very good read.  Yu obviously has real talent.

Just Like Old Times by Robert J. Sawyer

44/150/2016

This is the strangest method to control the population that I've run across.

Chronotransference is a technology that can send a person's mind back in time to live out the life of a person long dead.  The person's mind cannot control the body he or she is in, only view the life until its conclusion.

The present day body dies and is no longer a burden on society.

Yikes!

In this story, a man convicted of multiple murders, convinces the authorities to transfer his mind into a tyrannosaurus rex.

It was an odd story but imaginative, well written and just plain fun to read.

Robert J. Sawyer - http://sfwriter.com/

It's A Good Life by Jerome Bixby - A Short Story Review

43/150/2016

This read like a Steven King novel.

A creepy little kid has special powers to control any living thing.  He can just "think" his way to another place or to kill anything or anyone that annoys him.

See how the small town, where he lives, deals with his abilities.

Yup, creepy.

Well done.

Jerome Bixby -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bixby