Identity Theft and other stories by Robert J Sawyer - Book Report #261

I enjoyed this book very much.  Not every story worked for me but that's okay.

The real joy of this anthology was the opportunity to read stories that would be very difficult to find today given the publication history.

Below is a list of links of the stories I reviewed from this book.

Enjoy!

I highly recommend the book, it was one of my reading highlights of 2018.

~~~

Identity Theft - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/identity-theft-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Come All Ye Faithful - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/come-all-ye-faithful-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Immortality - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/immortality-by-robert-j-sawer.html

Shed Skin - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/shed-skin-by-robert-j-sawer.html

The Stanley Cup Caper - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-stanley-cup-caper-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

On The Surface - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/10/on-surface-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

The Eagle Has Landed - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-eagle-has-landed-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Mikeys - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/mikeys-by-robert-j-sawer.html

The Good Doctor - I didn't review this flash fiction, well, because I just didn't get it.  I read it twice and tried to get the joke but it escaped me completely.

Ineluctable - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/ineluctable-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

The Right's Tough - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-rights-tough-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Kata Bindu - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/kata-bindu-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Driving a Bargain - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/driving-bargain-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Flashes - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/flashes-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Relativity - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/relativity-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Biding Time - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/biding-time-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

Postscript: E-Mails from the Future - https://eric-the-mailman.blogspot.com/2018/11/biding-time-by-robert-j-sawyer.html

E-Mails From The Future by Robert J Sawyer

This was a fun little email exchange with an agent negotiating a writing contract for an author.

The exercise in this story is projecting what the world will be like 10 years in the future.

Making it even more fun was that it was written in 2008.

Some of Sawyer's ideas are still a ways out, while much of what is in the story is not that far fetched any more.

A nice little chocolate mint of a story at the end of a lovely banquet of interesting and entertaining short stories.

Well done sir.  Well done.

Biding Time by Robert J Sawyer

I was happy to return to New Klondike on Mars with PI Alex Lomax and to discover how much of a badass he was.

He has a new case, tracking down the killer of a recent Transfer, which leads him to an impounded ship.

When Lomax was gathering evidence in the shipyards, I was thinking how much I'd love to read more stories around ships, smugglers and underhanded plans.

Then I remembered I had purchased Sawyer's 2013 novel Red Planet Blues!  I ran to my basement bookshelf, blew the dust off the paperback and now it is on my TBR shelf.  Yes!  More Lomax goodness.

This story made for a nice bookending of the collection, even though it was the penultimate story, it was a very satisfying way to sequence the stories.

I have thoroughly enjoyed myself reading this anthology.

Get your hands on it, it is well worth the effort to find.

Originally published here.

Relativity by Robert J Sawyer

This is where Sawyer shines - showing the human impact to the large, high-concept ideas of science.

Relativity is a hard notion to get my head around especially when we are talking about near-lightspeed travel.

An astronaut accepts a mission to a distant world, a trip that will take seven years, to her and the crew, but over 30 will pass on Earth.

What will it be like when she returns and tries to reconnect with the husband and family she left behind?


I am no further along to understanding the phenomena but I don't need to, to understand the human impact.

This is what I like about Sawyer's writing; he goes past the shiny, "gee-whiz" aspects and brings it to the day-to-day realities of living in a world where these advances are commonplace.

Well done.

Flashes by Robert J Sawyer

Oh my!  I was struck by this one.

Good science fiction tries to tackle the big What If? questions.  And this one certainly did.

What if there is intelligent life "out there?"  What if they contact us?  What if they share everything they know with us?

There are many times in life where I wish somebody would just give us the answer to cancer or cold fusion so we can get on with our lives.

But for everything there is a cost or a consequence and here Sawyer explores some of the negatives of reading the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Chilling and yet, thank goodness, Sawyer still managed to add his indelible optimism into a short sentence.  Or maybe that was me.  Maybe I was simply projecting some hope into the story.

In any case it was a good read and allowed me to consider the ramifications of knowledge gained without earning it.

Driving a Bargain by Robert J Sawyer

You know, I kept thinking this felt like a movie Steven Spielberg would direct.  In that it was a very American suburban story.

A young man worked hard all summer so he could buy himself a car before the start of the school year.  All he wants is to turn heads and impress the girl he has a crush on.

But there is something odd about the person he bought the car from and there is something odd about the car itself too.

There was a paranormal story.  I instantly liked the protagonist.

Well done.

Originally published here.

Kata Bindu by Robert J Sawyer

Here is an odd story of uploaded consciousness, and the steps taken to preserve those who've been uploaded and no longer have a physical form.

To do so they had to make sure that no one was left on Earth who could fiddle with the computers and servers that hold the accumulated knowledge and experiences of humanity.

There were some primitive tribes that were moved to a secure location where they could live out their lives in peace.  But humans are a curious bunch and what happens, generations later, when some adventurous members of that sequestered group of people starts to question and explore their environment?

A clever story of the consequences of decisions made with repercussions that extend far past the influence of the decision makers.

The story stayed with me for a long time.

Robert J Sawyer's website - https://www.sfwriter.com/

Originally published here.

The Right's Tough by Robert J Sawyer

This was an odd little story with a terrific premise.

What if you are a crew of astronauts on a 150-year mission to a nearby star?  When you finally make it back from the journey everything, and I mean everything, has changed?  How do you cope?

The only trouble I had with the story is that the focus of the story was not primarily on the crew but on two residents of Washington DC who cross paths with some of the astronauts.

I don't know, it just didn't gel for me.  I can't put my finger on it but somehow it lost focus making the ending strange.  It made perfect sense to conclude the story the way it did but coming to that ending was done in the background and felt a bit odd.

It was a rare instance where a story in this collection did not work for me.  But that's the way it goes, right?

Robert J Sawyer's website - https://www.sfwriter.com/

Ineluctable by Robert J Sawyer

First Contact!

Earth receives its first intelligent signals from space.

A series of multiple choice questions are sent to humanity. As the questions get more difficult the answers begin to take on mere meaning.

I’ve always found First Contact stories a bit suspect; why do we always assume we will be able to speak to each other?  And why do we believe that our logic paths will be similar?

Sawyer takes on these very assumptions here.

I liked it very much. It had just a hint of dark humour to it.

Well done.

First Published in the November 2002 issue.

Mikeys by Robert J Sawer

Sawyer wrote, in the introduction to this story, that he wrote it in 1978.  What surprised me is how using Deimos as a space station, orbiting observatory or base for missions to Mars were being considered way back then.

It is still considered a good idea today when missions to Mars are considered.  I had no idea the concept was so old.  Cool.

This story revolves around the first landing attempt on Mars but, much like Apollo, the mission will require men in orbit to support the team that will walk on the surface of the planet.  The B team if you will.

In order for the mission to succeed a base needs to be established on the little moon before the landing team arrives at Mars.  While setting up they go exploring and discover something wonderful.

This reminded me of the old stuff that Robert Heinlein wrote.

Robert J Sawyer's website - https://www.sfwriter.com/

Originally published here.

The Eagle Has Landed by Robert J Sawyer

A cute story about an alien observing the Earth from the moon for decades.

It was a nice way to showcase how we’ve lost our drive for space exploration.

I’ve said it many times before; I am exceedingly disappointed by this post-Apollo era.

It’s sad to think that we only advance when we’re trying hard to kill each other.

Robert J Sawyer's website - https://www.sfwriter.com/

On The Surface by Robert J Sawyer

This is a sequel to H G Wells, The Time Machine.

Having never read that book I can only relate to this story on its own terms.

This one did not work for me.  It was so violent, I felt I was reading about cavemen.

It certainly wasn't the writing that didn't work for me.  It was the brutality I found unappealing.

I love reading about smart people trying to outsmart their situations.  As I age I am far less interested in the gun, the club or the fist.  Humans are so cruel to each other it is a wonder we’ve survived this long.

I found the story ultimately depressing.

Robert J Sawyer's website - https://www.sfwriter.com/

Story first published here.

The Stanley Cup Caper by Robert J Sawyer

Being only three pages long this is best described as flash fiction.

It was commissioned by the Toronto Star which asked Sawyer to imagine Toronto 30
Years in the future.

I liked what it did to normalize the present tech trends and to move past today’s political and social hand-wringing.

Somebody stole the Stanley Cup right out of the arena on the night the Toronto Maple Leafs won the cup.

It was campy and fun. But if you’re not Canadian, well, it won’t mean much to you.

Once again this collection does it’s job of exposing the reader to stories they could have easily missed.

A good one.

Robert J Sawyer's website - https://www.sfwriter.com/

Shed Skin by Robert J Sawer

Oh.  Wow!

This story did not go where I thought it would.  How surprising.  Perfect.  Dark.

It's the old trope -  human consciousness uploaded to a robot body.  As always the question arises as to what to do with the original?

In this story the consciousness is copied, not transferred, once done there are essentially two of the same person, one machine the other biological.

This brings up the idea of legality - who is the "person" under the law?  What must it be like to be the one with no rights, no future, other than existence.

This was a tremendous story no wonder it was under consideration for many prizes.

A spectacular read.

Highly, highly recommended.

The original book this story was published in.

Immortality by Robert J Sawer

This is what I love about Sawyer - he can write anything and get to the human heart of things.

This is not science fiction, although you could make a case of it to say it’s a time travel story.

At a 60th high school reunion, a woman remembers her past, comes to terms with her present and perhaps discovers a future.

Heart strings pulled.

First published here.

Come All Ye Faithful by Robert J Sawyer

What would life be like for the only priest on Mars?

For the most part he is tolerated but, being surrounded by secular scientist, he does the best he can to help those around him. 

One day he gets an unexpected call from Cardinal Pirandello and a new path presents itself. 

The end was interesting and unexpected.  To say more would give away too much.

I liked it a lot.

Robert J. Sawyer's website - https://www.sfwriter.com/

Originally published in this book.

Identity Theft by Robert J Sawyer

Oh boy!  This is the stuff.

Sawyer uses all the good science fiction ideas and it’s makes them part of the background, no big deal.

Alexander Lomax is a private eye - on Mars no less.  His client is a lovely woman who is looking for her lost husband.  She’s a robot by the way.  A transfer as they are called in the story.  The technology exists where one can transfer his or her consciousness to an artificial body and continue on living indefinitely.

What a great idea!  It’s just an everyday thing here.  Love that.

Somewhere along the line somebody did something illegal to the husband and Lomax takes over where the police stopped caring.

The story is pretty much a straight-up mystery but the uniqueness of the setting keeps coming up to add flavour to the drama.

The dialogue was clean and crisp.  Any exposition needed was dealt with in the plot.  To me, this is the real trick of writing fiction; not allowing any kind of explanation to take away from the story.  How do you show instead of tell?  Sawyer is a master of this.

It’s a story of people being people, even if they are in robot bodies.

Excellent stuff!  Highly recommended.

Robert J. Sawyer's website - https://www.sfwriter.com/

Originally published in this book.

Robert J Sawyer

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/