Since settling into orbit around the Red Planet on March 10, 2006, MRO has transmitted more data to Earth -- 131 trillion bits and more than 70,000 images so far -- than all other interplanetary missions combined.
After the orbiter finished all its initial science objectives in the first two years, NASA extended its lifetime twice. The extra time let MRO watch Mars change over two-and-a-half Martian years, giving a new picture of a shifting, dynamic planet.
Justina Robson is an English SF author, and one of the rising stars of the genre, with now 9 Novels and 1 non-fiction book to her name. And whilst some of her books are considered to be 'Hard' SF (I would dispute this, but let's not bicker about definitions here) the one at hand falls squarely in what is coming to be termed 'Science Fantasy' – more on the what and why below. Keeping in Real is the first book in the Quantum Gravity series, which is running to 5 books as this is written.
The book kicks off with a prequel titled 'Common Knowledge' – you've gotta love honesty: here's the information dump you need to make some sense of what's to come. Nothing wrong with that... The common knowledge is that in 2015 (the story itself plays in 2021) there was a Quantum Explosion (no, me neither) in a Superconducting Supercollider, tearing a hole into the fabric of Spacetime, and irreversibly altering the fabric of the Universe. Where there was only one universe before, there are now 6 parallel and connected realities/universes, all with a full history extending way beyond the event which, apparently, split them into existence. Ours is known as Otopia, the other ones are Zoomenon (Elementals, inimical to human life), Alfheim (Elves, borders closely controlled, diplomatic relations), Demonia (Demons, borders open, scientific co-operation), Thanatopia, the crossing into which requires the death of the traveller and is thus limited to trained Necromancers, and finally we have Faery (as it says on the tin). And so it comes to be that we have a future world, with advanced technology, but also with magic, Elves, Faeries, Elementals, Dragons... it's a rather disconcerting mix at times.
Here's another previously published review (on the now-defunct Diversebooks reviews site) - this time for Snow Crash, a Cyberpunk classic by Neal Stephenson, apparently “the Neuromancer for the 90s” as it was billed (curse the marketeers), with a slightly far-fetched plot, but since when did this stop a good SF story? Great book, compulsive reading, a classic, if you can (still) abide yesteryear’s ‘latest thing’, ie Cyberpunk.
Hiro Protagonist (the name is either pure genius, or an unconditional capitulation to the classic question what shall I call my Hero/Protagonist?) is a Freelance Hacker, part-time Pizza Delivery boy for the Mafia, the world’s best sword fighter, and currently at lose ends and broke. Y.T. (as in yours truly) is a 15 years old girl, working as Skateboard Kourier, using a magnetic harpoon to surf in fast moving traffic, and make her deliveries to her customers in the Burbaclaves; to you and me that's parts of independent states, spread across the land like patchwork, connected by Motorways. Together they form a partnership that supplies data/information to the CIC, the Central Intelligence Corporation; a follow-up organization to the Library of Congress, holding huge amounts of all kind of data in a glorious variety of types of media.
Over at the 50 Watts site they have published a collection of Japanese SF Art under the title of Space Teriyaki - a mixed bag, some of it marvellous, some slightyly old-school, or weird, or simply creepy.
Nice collection, and a site to check occasionally, I think.
Charles Stross' Laundry Files series (to which The Jennifer Morgue belongs) is a polymorphous beast that's hard to pin down – it consists of 3 Novels so far, plus x number of Novellas, Novellettes, Short Stories etc., some of which have been included in some (but not all) editions and publications of the novels, and in compilations, and... well, you see. Either way, this is the 2nd Novel in the sequence, yet again featuring our favourite geek, Bob Howard, suffering from a hefty dose of James Bond this time, which really cramps his style. er...
But let's start at the beginning – the story kicks off with a flashback, to an unsuccessful attempt to raise a sunk Russian Golf-II Submarine from the Abyssal Plains. It doesn't fail for technical reasons, but because another agency, living on the bottom of said Abyssal Plains decides to exercise their salvage rights under the Bathic treaty, and grabs the submarine back from the salvage rig. Ah.
It deals with a defecting agents from a secret organization who collects (steals?) spare moments from people who don't use them - all in the name of survival of humanity, as time is a limited resources, and given the population growth we're going through it faster and faster, soon we'll be running out of it entirely...
Well written, gripping, and thought provoking. Telling from this short sample I'd say that we'll hear more, much more, from this writer in the future!
