Are you familiar with the concept of a Book Hangover? When you're not ready to start another book because the setting, characters, and story of the previous one are still so vivid in your head? Well, I had a similar effect when I picked up Vylar Kaftan's Novella Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water. You see, beforehand I had read Adrian Tchaikovsky's Walking to Aldebaran, which follows an Astronaut lost in an Alien Artefact, walking through endless tunnels. And this story started with “These caves have never been friendly...”. Direct cross-contamination in my head, to the point where I had to put this down, read something else, and then go back to it to be able to do it justice!
But here you are – another story set in a claustrophobic cave environment, or at least starting there. In these caves we meet our protagonist Bee (full name Bianca del Rios), and her companion Chela. The setting is Colel-Cab, a prison planet. Why are they there, locked up all alone in a dangerous environment, with regular food/supply drops they have to scamper for before other denizens of the caves get them, is not entirely clear. I mean, not just in the story, but to the protagonists, either.
Adrian Tchaikovsky (or, as his mother knows him Adrian Czajkovski – apparently that's not a name to expose UK and US audiences to) is a BFA and Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author, with the science/magic Shadows of the Apt series to his name (with action and battles scenes LARP tested apparently!) as well as a number of stand-alone novels and shorts, tackling SF with the same gusto as fantasy/entomology. And as all this does make a living now he no longer works as a Legal Executive during the day.
Walking to Aldebaran is a Novella, and the length feels about right for the content and treatment. It follows Gary Rendell, an Astronaut (from Stevenage, he keeps reminding us. Or maybe himself...) lost in 'The Crypts', aka the thing we found out past Neptune. But it's not just there, but a bit everywhere – it seems to connect loads of solar systems, including a substantial number (all?) of inhabited ones. A nice little shortcut, or a trap? Or a bit of both? Either way, he's got separated from his crew mates (we know that some/most of his expedition are dead), and is roaming an endless labyrinth of tunnels, occasionally coming across live or dead aliens, monsters inhabiting these tunnels, and the odd entrance/exit to other worlds. And, of course, the thing at the centre of it all.
Gary tells us that he always wanted to be an Astronaut, but “I just didn't think there would be so much getting lost and eating corpses” he muses, whilst being “huddled in front of a fire that's dying for lack of O2, gnawing on the dessicated chunks of long-dead alien explorer”. Nice. And he indicates that he might have had second thoughts concerning his calling should they have told him what it entails... Now, if the above sounds rather horrific and dark then this is of course on the one hand correct, given the setting of the story. But there's also a lot of lighter, entertaining bits when he encounters aliens or has his own funny turns, and its all told in a sarcastic tone with Mark Watney-level snarkyness.
This is available to you both to read, and as a podcast narrated by Halima Salah.
As Escape Pod put it: Mame Bougouma Diene is a Senegalese American humanitarian living in Brooklyn, NY with a fondness for tattoos, progressive metal and policy analysis. He is the Francophone/US spokesperson for the African Speculative Fiction Society. Another Day in the Desert is a prequel to “Ogotemmeli’s Song” released [...] in AfroSFv3, and also a prequel to “Apes and Satellites” published by Brittle Paper in 2017.
The picture on the right is from the Escape Pod profile of the Narrator of the podcast, Halima Salah.
I'm always conflicted when I see collections where the pool of possible contributors or stories has been severely limited; and all the more so if the criteria concern some of the more protected (or subject to discrimination) characteristics, as it is very much tied into political correctness and positive discrimination. Because, wouldn't you expect that, the narrower the field is, the fewer 'good' stories there would be? And so I do wonder when seeing this – have these authors and/or their stories been selected because or despite of their gender/origin/religion?
I don't have an answer to the conundrum, but can assure you that you (and I) needn't worry about this here. Yes, People Of The Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy is limited both in topic of the story, and by beingg written by authors of Jewish decent. And it's great – the line-up is stellar (the cover mentions Peter S. Beagle, Michael Chabon, Eliot Fintushel, Neil Gaiman, Tamar Yellin, and Jane Yolen. That leaves out Rose Lemberg and Lavie Tidhar, to begin with, never mind Elana Gomel who should be huge in my opinion ...), and the stories run the full gamut from scary to fascinating via classic. There isn't much I can point at as being weaker, not as well written, or not being worthy of your attention here, as can be the case in such collections, sometimes.
So – this comes highly recommended. Go get it. Below are short capsule reviews of the individual stories. If that bothers you or spoils your enjoyment then stop here!
I would think any fan or scholar of the ‘classic’ era of spaceflight, the space race, and humankind’s first steps away from sessility knows how many ifs and maybes there are in the stories and histories we tell. What if the rocket had not exploded, what if Russia, or the US, would have decided on different missions, different risks, different strategic, tactical, political approaches?
Ian Sales, a British author and editor, has written a series of stories based on some of these premises - four of them are collected in the Apollo Quartet, the first of which, ‘Adrift on the Sea of Rains’ won a BSFA award. All of them are departures, at some point, from the US timeline as we know it, all of them deeply researched, extensively documented (you do NOT skip footnotes in an Ian Sales book!), and presented in line with the documentation style we know from the era. Truly grand stuff for any fan of space flight.
The collection at hand, Dreams of the Space Age - again in the format of a small and beautifully presented hardback, is the fanciful child of these stories. Here we have a bit less rigour, a tad more fiction, but all stories are well researched, are deeply rooted in human space flight history as we know it, and depart from it somewhere. All stories, save the final one, were previously published; and all are introduced by a relevant picture from classic space flight history. The book starts with an Introduction by Dave Hutchinson, and finishes with a short biography of Ian Sales, but none of the usual lists of NASA acronyms, mission timelines, sources, or website references we are used to from the Apollo Quartet.
Here's one I missed at the time - my loss, of course, and all the more my enjoyment and amazement of reading this now. Should, for whatever reason, you be in the same boat, then let me strongly suggest you spend half an hour reading Ted Chiang's novelette Hell Is The Absence of God.
Yes, the title is in itself a Christian quote I reckon, and the story setting/world builds from some parts of current Christian world-view/mythology (and I leave it to the reader to decide how far this is actually Christian, or if the story really constitutes a criticism of said religion). This is a world where the existence of God, of Heaven and Hell, and of Angels is evident, visible, tangible, and thus a major fact of life. Angels visit/pass through the world as a side effect of whatever business they are on, and effect miracle healings, life changing events, but also death and destruction.
There are two groups of people - those who are devout, and will thus go to heaven (and upon death it is observable which direction the soul takes!), and those who are no and go to hell, which is characterised by the absence of God. And, like any such system with decision points, influences, and partly deterministic outcomes there are people gaming the system...
In my opinion not about religion (never mind a specific one per se) but about the nature of belief, devotion, and what it does to a society. Also, in my opinion, a grand piece of writing and well deserving the Hugo and Nebula Awards it won!
