Star Trek: The Kobayashi Maru by Julia Ecklar - Book Report #199

I loved this book.

It was one of those "stuck in an elevator" kind of stories, where the crew, Kirk, Bones, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov are in a shuttle craft, adrift in space, trying to get themselves rescued.

While they are waiting for Spock to find them they each tell their own story of how they coped with the Kobayashi Maru test.

This simulation is legendary in the worlds of Star Trek and I found the author played each story very well to the character's personality.

It read like a collection of short sorties making it a perfect book for my commute to and from work.

The best of the books expand our knowledge and understanding of the characters while delivering us a good adventure.

Julia Ecklar - http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?2538

Julia Ecklar

Carpe Diem by Eileen Kernaghan - A Short Story Review

39/150/2016

I am Canadian.

Why am I not reading more stories from Canada?

I dug out this collection from On-Spec magazine.  You know, I've purchased many issues of the magazine and I am sure I haven't read even one.  They are all in a shoe box in my basement.  I think I will have to take a run at them.

This story was an odd one, with a twist ending that left me scratching my head.

We follow a group of senior women who are being monitored for something.  Blood tests, and all kinds of medical checkups are being performed regularly.

We are never told why.

But if you don't make the cut....

Eileen Kernaghan's website - http://www.eileenkernaghan.ca/index.html

Orbital Decay by Allen Steele - Book Review #159

11/15/2016

Published in 1989 it is impressive how believable the story was. It was especially fun to look at '89's version of 2014 as I read in in 2016.  In Steele's universe there is far more commercial activity in orbit than there is presently but it is described just as things are being imagined today.

One plot point is the orbit insertion of a satellite known as Big Ear; designed to listen in on domestic telephone conversations, to combat terrorism, and run by the NSA.  Pretty spot on except, in reality,  they figured out how to do that without the orbiting hardware.

The station is populated by all kinds of misfits who are running away from parts of their lives on Earth.  They are also suffering from some form of cabin fever being essentially trapped in their work camp.

I was hoping for a bit more of the construction of the power satellite that is in background of the story.  Not that a whole novel could be hung on that element but I still would have loved to read about the nuts and bolts of the building of such a difficult and large project.

In any case I was very impressed and just how close Steele came to reality and I did enjoy how gritty and funny it could be.  It doesn't matter where you put folks; people will be people no matter what.  They may be in space but they are still dealing with the same old problems and just trying to get by.

Recommended.

The inner cover

Allen Steele