SF Signal: REVIEW: Jim Baen's Universe #10

REVIEW: Jim Baen's Universe #10

MY RATING:

The December 2007 issue of Jim Baen's Universe (Issue #10, also known as Volume 2, Number 4) contains 13 pieces of short fiction and 7 non-fiction articles. Eleven of the stories are reviewed below. (I did not partake of the classic reprint "A Holy Terror" by Ambrose Bierce and the "Fish Story" serial by Dave Freer, Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis, now in its tenth episode.)

The issue was good overall, despite the poor impression left by the longest story. This speaks highly of the other stories, I think. That said, the only standout story was "Darwin's Suitcase," perhaps because time travel is a favorite sub-genre of mine and Elizabeth Malartre does it well.

Rounding out the issue were several articles including one by Mike Resnick wondering if there aren't too many Hugo categories, especially when relatively few awards are given to writers, the people for whom the award was created. There's also another "free fiction" article by Eric Flint, who makes a strong case against the naysayers of making science fiction freely available online.

Individual story reviews follow...

"Laws of Survival" by Nancy Kress is briefly set in a pseudo-Dystopia where people scrounge for food outside the well-protected cities following a war that seems to have separated civilization into the haves and have-nots. Large alien domes, which have arrived from space years before and are impervious to any stimulus men can throw at it, sit idle where the cities dump their garbage. It's not too long into the story before Jill, looking for food amongst the trash, sees a long-dormant dome actually open. A robot emerges and takes Jill and her newfound puppy inside. Jill is forced into the role of dog trainer for some unseen alien purpose and it's interesting, though somewhat predictable, to see the reasons why aliens ignore humans but have plans for dogs. Better still was when the other plot shoe was dropped regarding a secret Jill has kept suppressed to help her survive on the outside. This story reads as smoothly as anything else I've read by Ms. Kress and doesn't disappoint.

I'm a sucker for a good time travel story, and "Darwin's Suitcase" by Elizabeth Malartre delivers. A member of the Church in the 2138, a time when science is shunned, uses a Time Viewer to spy on Charles Darwin in 1866, just before he would write a book called An Answer to the Religious Opposition to the Origin of Species and the Descent of Man. She sees that Darwin is visited by a time traveler from 2156 (18 years into her future), urging Darwin not to write that book because it starts a religion vs. science war that science loses. Good discussion, interesting situation and a great ending mark this wonderful story.

Tony Frazier's tongue-in-cheek "Double Secret Weapon" concerns a television superhero who just might be the real deal. At a mall signing, he encounters snooty kids and - wouldn't you know it? - his arch enemy Professor Pierce, whose power is throwing needles and other sharp objects. The author wisely plays this one for laughs and there were indeed a few laugh-out-loud chuckles. I'm not a huge fan of science fiction comedy (preferring humor in sf stories as opposed to humorous stories in sf clothing) but this one works.

I have never read any of Sharon Lee's and Steve Miller's Liaden stories, though I was interested in doing so before I read "Misfits" which is set in the same universe. It deals with a weatherman named Brunner, relegated to a mild "house arrest" working as gardener for a noble house. But war with Korval forces the powers-that-be to rely upon his unique meteorology skills, guiding a team on the planet from the relative safety of an orbiting weather satellite. Honestly, if there was more going on than that, I couldn't tell you because the writing was a huge distraction to reading. Forgetting the grammatically questionable dialects, the text itself was pure work to trudge through. Consider: (1) An annoying overuse of appositives. Try breaking up the rhythm please. Spend an extra sentence to say what you want to say. (2) A host of unfinished sentences, usually ending in suggestive ellipses. If the writer doesn't want to fill in the blanks, then I'm not going to. (3) Overuse of interrupted dialogue. As in: "'They must,' he whispered, 'be warned.'" And: "'They must,' he said to the empty room, his voice striking the walls firmly, 'be told.'" Grrr! (4) Cumbersome prose. For example: "So Liaden a name as 'Miri' attached to one with such an accent and so misplaced a sense of food as to prefer coffee to his carefully brewed tea...that was awkward, even unacceptable." (5) Wrong verb tense. For example: "Are we attacked?" makes more sense as "Are we being attacked?" or "Were we attacked?" Besides the prose, the story just lacked pizzazz. Scenes where Brunner tracks the weather, for example, were meant to be action scenes but were about as interesting as, well, my local nightly weather report. Perhaps I'm being overly picky, but I've never encountered writing that I wanted to edit as much. It's as if every effort was made to impede immersion, and each offense was successful in pulling me out of the story. This was about as painful a reading experience as it gets, where the utmost perseverance is required to keep from giving up. Perhaps if I had read some of the other stories this would have been more tolerable? As it is, this could have used some serious proofreading and editing.

Mike Resnick's gift this issue is "Christmas Eve at Harvey Wallbanger's" in which Harry the Book (as in taker of bets) looks to get his money back from a mark (Bet-a-Thousand McNabb) before he loses it in a card game. But he is too late and his only recourse is a bar bet with Loose Lips Louie, a bet centered on the real names of Santa's reindeer. Resnick's flair for dialogue and storytelling show through, but the cutesy names of the characters are a bit of a distraction.

J. Simon's "Fossilized Gods" is a worthwhile, tongue-in-cheek Cthulhu story in which evil elder gods can be wished away by simply disbelieving in them. However, they are tenacious and it's hard not to believe something you see with your own eyes. Thus the small cast of characters (a professor, his students and his "daughter") have something that brings them together to fight as one after all.

"Second Banana" by Way Jeng is a fast-paced, intense space mission by a pair of mercenaries - one an ex-soldier named Dex, the other his fast-talking female partner, Benny. Their mission, which Benny tricks Dex into doing, is to disable a war ship, though we never really learn who the "good" guys are in the war. Dex is deposited on the warship and, as would be expected and hoped, things do not go so smoothly. Bad news for them but good news for the reader; this was a fun story.

Anyone who thinks that science fiction is not literature need look no further than "The Art of Memory" by Barry N. Malzberg and Jack Dann, in which a fifty-seven-year-old man finds himself quite aware of his fatal car accident. Indeed, he looks on as an observer in a "half-dead" state and is able to reflect on his stagnant marriage and Daddy issues. What the story attempts to show us - and does so with some success - is that there is (or at least should be) a difference between life and death; that memories should recall the feelings of being alive.

Since I missed reading the previous edition of Baen's Universe, it did not seem likely that I would jump into Edward M. Lerner's serial, "Countdown to Armageddon" at episode 2. But then I discovered it employed a favorite trope of mine: time travel. It seemed to be worth going back and reading episode 1, so I did. The story concerns an Islamic terrorist (named Abdul Faisel) whose hatred for the Christians that killed the people of his village leads him to build a time machine. His plan is to travel back to the Battle of Tours (732 A.D.), a pivotal turning point in the struggle against Islamic incursion into Western Europe, and, of course, change the course of history to exact vengeance. Episode 1, which takes place in 2009, introduced all the players, including American scientist Harry Bowen and his British colleague, Terrence Ambling. It also set the stage with Faisel's departure in 2004 and Terrence's confession that he is an ex-Interpol agent tracking down plutonium stolen by Faisel, now suspected, via Harry's fortuitous discovery years ago, to have been used to build a time machine. Episode 2 kicks off with a bang, showing Faisel's arrival in the past and the tracing of his steps by Harry and Terrence in 2009. They are soon captured by patiently waiting terrorists but manage to, at the last minute, escape to the past. The science behind the time travel is sufficiently explained, though it does seem to lack the proper checks and balances that a rigorous experiment would have. Lerner has cooked up and interesting premise, and though the story makes occasional sudden jumps over off-stage events, I am indeed interested enough to see where this is headed. (Side note: I find, in reading short fiction that deals with history, that I have a much higher tolerance for it than I did in my youth, when it was force-fed to me by sadistic history teachers.)

In David Wesley's "Inheritance," a weather satellite's AI is given sentience by its creator, a last gift before Earth's total destruction. It's an interesting scenario, grounded in the relationship between AI and creator. The AI's updates include survival instincts, morality and the desire to propagate through its nanotech capabilities; all interesting stuff that's otherwise layered with a forced sentimentality.

While the premise of "Queen's Mask" by Barbara E. Tarbox is formulaic - widow queen defends her crown and her son from the evil, scheming, power-hungry Lord - there are a few elements that rescue the story and make it nonetheless entertaining. Queen Elena comes from a land rumored to be magical. She does indeed possess some magic powers: she's able to see what others are doing through her locket's mirror. But magic has been outlawed in this land so she keeps that as her secret. The evil Lord Hefger threatens "outing" her anyway, a rumor with terrible consequences, regardless of its truthfulness. Queen Elena is not quite the strong female one would hope for in a lead character, reacting out of fear for her son Garrick's safety rather than dealing with the threat head-on. But she muddles through, finding just enough strength to flee...or at least attempt to flee, as Hefger is close behind. A worthwhile story conclusion in the nearby forest ends a satisfying read.