#reading

#Reading in Week 51 of 2024. "Legal Rites" is the best story this week, and the first three #books in the __Colony__ hexalogy are solid and fast-paced. Alas, the __Resort__ trilogy collapsed in its final volume. #ScienceFiction #stories #SciFi

●●●○○ Battle of the Unborn - James Blish (ss) 1950¹
The Mutation Control Board met in Nagasaki. They'd found disparate minor changes in the areas children over the years, but now a major change had been discovered, and it looked like this variety was killing other types. What was their ultimate goal?

●●●●○ Quant - Richard F Weyand {Colony 1} (nov) 2021
Two men start a project to see if they can get all of humankind's eggs out of one basket. One develops a powerful AI to help, and she discovers interstellar teleportation. Through thousands of avatars, she bends Earth's economy to accomplish her goal: founding two dozen 100,000-person colonies. It takes twenty years, and more money than the world technically has, but she does it.

●◐○○○ Off-World Hotel & Resort, Episode 3 - Dave Terruso {trilogy ends} (nov) 2021
Do NOT, in the third book of your trilogy, tell me that everything I've been reading so far is unimportant, mere Trivia compared to the secret preparations that have been going on in the background for Something Big that is about to happen, which you then don't show.

●●●●○ Legal Rites - Isaac Asimov & Frederik Pohl (ss) 1950
Zeb had a shifty nephew, and also a ghost as a roommate. The nephew wants his late uncle's house, since there's reputed to be gold hidden on the land. The ghost doesn't want to be kicked out. The pair take their case to court.

●●●○○ Prison Bright, Prison Deep - Frank Belknap Long (ss) 1950
A three-man scoutship finds a world where humans² discovered immortality and lived for tens of thousands of years, only to all eventually commit suicide.

●●●●◐ Arcadia - Richard F Weyand {Colony 2} (nov) 2021
The early history of one of the colonized-by-teleporter worlds, seen in stages. We mostly focus on members of one family over twelve decades: an early colony leader; the head of the biggest family corporation on the planet; the person who saved the failing democracy; and finally the math genius who discovered hyperspace.

●●●○○ Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance - Tobias S Buckell (ss) 2017
A mech post-human working off his 300-year immortality-indenture gains the chance to make a fortune helping a murderous TrueForm bigot.

●●●●○ Galactic Survey - Richard F Weyand {Colony 3} (nov) 2021
With hyperdrive discovered, it's time to seek out the other 23 Colony worlds. This volume covers the building of the scouts, the discovery of the first two other colonies, and the politics of making trade agreements.

●●●○○ Your Number is Up! - John Jakes (ss) 1950
While rigging a roulette wheel might be illegal, hiring a precog technically isn't. He sees a few seconds into the future and always bets the winning number. Other players join his winning streak, until he eventually 'loses' and makes the casino big bucks. Tough luck if you're that precog and your talent is fading.

●●●◐○ Devil's Invention - Alfred Bester (ss) 1950
Luck favors Oddy. The other football team will always mess up near him, allowing him to get the goal. His chemistry experiment will succeed even when the equipment is faulty. When some of his college professors realize his talent, they scheme to see if he can possibly be used to avert the upcoming World War³. Unfortunately, while you can influence wishes, you can't influence deep-down wants.

●●●◐○ Raindrop - Hal Clement (ss) 1965
A five-mile-wide sphere of melted comet water orbits Earth. It has a self-healing algae skin, and is filled with adapted lifeforms in an experiment to see if it can produce tasty natural food for resource-constrained Earth's fourteen billion people. Then a company buys the project out and changes its aim.

***
[1] Again, most of the short stories are from 1950, since they're coming from the two-volume _Legends of Science Fiction, 1950 Edition_, edited by Christopher Broschell.

[2] This is a "more Star Trek than Star Trek" setting where humans live on every Earth-like world.

[3] Between the Comity of Nations and the Realpolitik aus Terra. I have no idea what this Thirtieth Century Earth looks like to have one of its superpowers have a German name.

#BokBooks (tag to mute if you dislike these posts)

[Book reviews] #Solarpunk, #utopian and #AntiCapitalist fiction for imagining brighter futures

Novels with political under- and over-tones that have captivated me recently

by Katy Nightingale, Nov 28, 2024

"All of the books I’m including here are unique in their styles - some encompassing all of these visionary genres, and some just a few of them. Here’s a little glossary I came up with:

- futurist 🔮 - taking place in the future

- utopian 🌈 - taking place in an idealistic society where everything is designed to be harmonious, just, and fulfilling for all people

- solarpunk ☀️ - a sub-genre of utopian literature, solarpunk fiction takes place in a sustainable, eco-friendly future where humanity lives harmoniously with nature, often featuring renewable energy, green cities, and with a focus on social equity

- anti-capitalist 🌹 - the characters and plot tell a story that illustrates the pitfalls of capitalism and shows resistance and possible alternatives"

Read more:
https://wanderingk.substack.com/p/solarpunk-utopian-and-anti-capitalist

#PostCapitalism #Degrowth #Novels #SolarPunkSunday #SolarPunkFiction #Books #Reading