Atsiliepimai ir komentarai

The third book in the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series throws a new mystery at the girls Ada Byron Lovelace and Mary Shelley, as well as their sisters. Ada is recovering from the illness she got in the second book, and she selects an apparently mundane case to recover, a lost dog. Only this is a special dog as it belongs to Mary Anning, the celebrated palaeontologist.

But before the case gets started, Ada's grandmother unexpectedly returns, throwing the agency into turmoil, for the grandmother wants Ada to get well and will not let her out of bed. As the girls work out ways to get together without been seen, they discover the case is not what is seems, for Anning's dog has apparently been kidnapped and will only be returned if Anning will authenticate obviously fake fossils at the upcoming opening of the British Museum.

Compared to the previous two books, this book concentrates more on the tricks the girls have to get up to avoid been seen by Ada's grandmother and banned from the household. Little detective work is actually done, and the resolution of the story apparently depends on Ada trusting Anning to do what Ada expects her to do at the museum. An unresolved plot point in this book involves the battle of wills between Ada and her unseen adversary (the smartest girl in England) who appears to be involved with the kidnapping.

Hopefully, the next book (a preview of which is given here) will return to concentrate more on the girls doing detective work and less on avoiding the grandmother.

A delightful read, full of the usual hi jinks that Connie Willis usually puts her characters through in this journey around Roswell with a (real) alien to try to figure out what it / he(?) wants to do.

At the start, the main character, Francie, wants to attend the wedding of her best friend to a UFO-fanatic being held at, of course, Roswell, if only to persuade her to call it off. But she then gets kidnapped by a real alien that looks like a tumbleweed. Forced to drive around the surround countryside, she then forced to pick up a hitchhiker, a UFO conspiracist, a gambling old lady and then the owner of a trailer-vehicle when they discover the alien at the wrong time.

They eventually call the alien Indy (on account of its ability to extend whip-like appendages to enormous distances) and work out that it is looking for something, but can't figure out where it wants to go to find it. Their attitudes also change from trying to get away to trying to help it. Along the way, they end up in Vegas. It is there that Francie eventually figures out (based on earlier clues in the story) what Indy is looking for. But her discovery is interrupted when the government intervenes, and now it is up to Francie and the group to get Indy to where he really needs to go before the close encounter turns into a full scale interplanetary crisis.

Written in Willis's usual style, the book is full of fun characters, like the UFO conspiracist that, despite the sight and behaviour of the alien in front of him, still believes that he will be personally probed, and that Indy wants to invade the Earth. The other characters are also interesting and have hidden sides that are eventually revealed that will help Francie and Indy in the end. And Francie also gets to save her friend from her wedding.

A better than average issue. Richard Chwedyk's story about bioengineered dinosaurs takes some time to get started but is a cracker of a tale full of interesting dinosaurs with fleshed-out personalities. Other good tales are by Robert Grossbach, Matthew Hughes, Arundhati Hazra and Eleanor Arnason.

• "The Man Who Put the Bomp" by Richard Chwedyk: another romp with the author's bio-engineered saurs (small dinosaurs) that live peacefully in an isolated home. But their isolation comes to an end when one of their designers comes to visit them along with a visitor that may have other intentions. Add to this mix a side-story about a toy-car that can somehow move (modified by their enigmatic genius of a saur, Geraldine?) and it promises to be an explosive ending.

• "Driverless" by Robert Grossbach: an interesting 'if this goes on' look at what happens when the competition between various driverless car companies causes the companies to make the cars more competitive and aggressive about picking up passengers; perhaps too aggressive.

• "Ten Half-Pennies" by Matthew Hughes: a light fantasy tale about a boy who initially pays for the services of a minder (with ten half-pennies) who works for a money collector. The minder is fascinated by the boy and takes him in as an assistant. Time passes as they get to know one another and trust each other. That trust will be tested when the minder asks him to steal a valuable and then sends him away for his own good. Only later does the boy learn what happened and resolves to help the minder and repay his debt.

• "The Avenger" by Albert E. Cowdrey: a story about a clash between two people over money that turns serious when the ruffian of the two goes too far and causes the death of the other. The widower goes to an unusual man for revenge. Through a series of induced visions, the ruffian is harassed and finally forced to capitulate.

• "The Toymaker's Daughter" by Arundhati Hazra: an interesting tale about a young girl with a gift for bringing toys to life. But her gift is misused by businessmen, making her withdraw into herself. By the poignant end of the tale, she is recovering and learning that she has to hide what she can do.

• "A Green Silk Dress and a Wedding Death" by Cat Hellisen: a fishing town by a river is suddenly seeing mutated fish. The source turns out to be a river spirit who has been waiting for the gift of a bride from the town, who now has to decide whether to give up her life in the town.

• "Miss Cruz" by James Sallis: a tale of a down-and-out man who discovers he has a gift for making people do what he wants them to do. Now the question is whether he will use the gift wisely.

• "Daisy" by Eleanor Arnason: an entertaining tale of a private detective hired by a known mobster to look for his pet octopus, presumed kidnapped. But the clues don't add up. If you know that octopuses are highly intelligent, you'll probably can give a good guess as to what happened, but the story still have surprises in store for the reader.

An average issue with a fun story by Sean McMullen to start things off and ending with Steve Rasnic Tem's story which feels more like a fragment from a longer tale. Tim Akers's tale sound intriguing and could be part of a book to flesh out the background more.

• "The Influence Machine" by Sean McMullen: an interesting piece set at the beginning of the 20th century in Victorian England. A police inspector with a scientific background is tasked to investigate a wagon filled with electrical equipment and a strange camera created by a woman. What he sees changes his world view and his opinion of the woman. But greater forces intervene when the masters of the land hear of the invention and attempt to intimidate the woman into giving her machine to them. What is a sympathetic inspector to do?

• "A Death in the Wayward Drift" by Tim Akers: an unusual story set in a place where people are divided in groups that take care of the water, trees, ground, etc. One group of water carers must navigate their treacherous lake to fix an underwater water pump. When one of them dies in the attempt, the partner has to take a journey to return his remains to the water; a journey that entangle the partner with a member of the tree people.

• "Still Life With Falling Man" by Richard E. Gropp: a tale about the mysterious appearances of points on Earth where time appears to almost stand-still for those caught in them. One man, who has the ability to 'see' and 'hear' events far away via a mental window, discovers the latest one to appear. But in the race between organizations to claim it, he gets caught in one.

• "A Strange Kind of Beauty" by Christien Gholson: in a desert area, an old woman who acts to interpret written prophesies decides that it is time to enter a forbidden area. What they find there causes a group of travellers to question the prophecies. But danger lies in wait for the woman, for her skill also lets her converse with ghosts from the pasts - and one ghost may want her for his own plans.

• "The Common Sea" by Steve Rasnic Tem: a day in the life of a family in a future Florida slowly vanishing beneath the waves due to global warming. The father struggles to keep the family safe, get supplies -- and also to distinguish between reality and visions of another world perhaps nearby, perhaps faraway.

A set of interesting stories set around the characters of Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz. Sir Hereward is the only male born from an order of witches, and Mister Fitz is a sorcerous puppet who was once Hereward's nurse. Both are sworn Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, pursuing and ridding the world of malicious godlets using Hereward's skill and Fitz's sourcery. Recalling Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, they journey in a fantasy world full of magic and the more than occasional damsel, which are never in distress.

• "Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again": Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz journey to a city of plenty sitting in the middle of desolation. Once there, they discover a god which is draining the surrounding land of life as it grows more powerful. It is by chance that the barrier protecting the god does not stop Mister Fitz, but in defending the puppet, Sir Hereward gets injured and we learn some of the background of the pair.

• "Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarsköe": the pair make a deal with a pirate ship to go after the treasure hidden by a barrier left by the Scholar-Pirates. But what they don't tell the pirates, led by a cannibalistic captain, is that a rather deadly proscribed god also lies behind the barrier.

• "A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet": while recovering from an injury, Hereward reads about a possible birthdate for Mister Fitz and sets out to find a suitable gift. But the gift turns out to be more than just a gift when sorcery is involved.

• "Losing Her Divinity": told from a viewpoint of a person being 'interviewed' by Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz, it tells the story of two goddesses who want the pleasures that come with being mortal, but forgot about what being mortal really means.

• "A Cargo of Ivories": the two become robbers to penetrate a house holding small pieces of ivories that could summon unwanted godlets. Unfortunately, they arrive too late and are off to chase the godlet before it does more damage.

• "Home Is the Haunter": while hauling a large cannon, the two encounter a watery oasis in the middle of a large field of grass, created from a conflict between two warring godlets. Unexpectedly, they also find a fortified house and are treated as houseguests. But a closer examination reveals a chilling secret that would require all their skill, and Hereward's running speed, to handle the situation.

• "A Long, Cold Trail": the two are on the trail of a malevolent godlet who is draining life from others to grow stronger and waiting for more help to arrive from their Order. But help, wanted or not, comes in the form of another god slayer, whom Hereward considers to be a pretender. But any help is needed if they are to prevent this godlet from taking more lives, including theirs.

• "Cut Me Another Quill, Mister Fitz": both are hunting for a dragon and its hoard in a city. Hereward gives up on making a list of the wealthiest inhabitants of the city, which finally leads them to the dragon. But the dragon may not be the one they are seeking for.

• "The Field of Fallen Foe": a godlet lays hidden in a toxic field full of the bones of pasts monsters. But Hereward and Fitz are reluctant to banish it, for it is not proscribed and being hunted for causing the death of one of Hereward's relatives. But a solution may be possible, if the execution of the plan doesn't blow up in their faces, literally.

Another interesting Hard SF read by Egan. It's not as mind-bending or physics-bending as his "Orthogonal" series but contains intriguing ideas and characters. In contrast to his previous books where the characters slowly learn (and educate the reader about) the physics of their environment, here they are already well versed in the strange (to us) geometry of their universe and its consequences.

In this book, Egan posits a world that has two space dimensions and two time-like dimensions. The resulting geometry is a hyperboloid world orbited by a sun that is slowly wandering south. The inhabitants of various cities are thus forced to migrate to remain in the habitable zone of their world.

The story starts with two characters, a 'walker' named Seth, who can only face eastwards or westwards, and his parasitic companion Theo, who lives in his head and apparently uses echo location to see what is north or south. In the course of the story, they become surveyors who survey the landscape that their city would migrate to.

On a particularly long survey journey, they encounter a city which, to them, has committed a species wide crime. But that is small compared to what they ultimately encounter; the apparent edge of their world, whose depths they would have to survey to discover whether it can be bypassed when their city eventually encounters the edge.

In this adventure into the depths, their knowledge of the geometry of their world would be tested as they encounter strange new lifeforms and then perform some personal sacrifices to be able to return to their city with knowledge that will be vital to their survival.

As usual, Greg Egan provides a supplementary website that explains the geometry of the world [ www.gregegan.net/DICHRONAUTS/DICHRONAUTS.html ]. While not strictly necessary, I found it to be very helpful in understanding the challenges the characters have in living in this kind of universe and how things work.

Yet another interesting book by Egan for those who are more interested in strange world-building.

An interesting little book about the letters Father Christmas would write to J. R. R. Tolkien's children. The true author is not mentioned but a look at the script of the letters, included in the book, hint at who actually wrote them.

The letters tell of the various adventures and misadventures of Father Christmas and other folk at the North Pole, mainly involving the Polar Bear with occasional bouts of fighting with goblins who are mainly after Father Christmas' mechanical toys.

Polar Bear would occasionally write a letter, but he is more usually interjecting comments into the letters, leading to some humorous back-and-forth commentary between Polar Bear and Father Christmas as they both give their sides of the story.

The letters reproduced in the book are excellent, showing the colourful script used as well as the sketches and drawings that accompany the letters. Hobbits do get a mention in one letter.

A nice look at the fatherly side of JRR Tolkien.

An average issue, with interesting stories by Suzanne Palmer, David Goodman, Amal Singh and a humorous story by Michael Swanwick.

• "Possibly Just About A Couch" by Suzanne Palmer: in the beginning, a couch emerged. We follow its journey through space and time, until it ends up on the Earth, and then far into the future, when an intelligence 'sits' on it for the last time.

• "The Blaumilch" by Lavie Tidhar: on the Mars that we know, a settler pines for the Mars that Might Be, only to find peace by digging for a Mars that could be.

• "Down To The Root" by Lisa Papademetriou: two people find themselves working together in space, servicing satellites and other objects, at a time when open conflict is breaking-out between two warring parties. They find companionship with each other and learn about each other's reasons for leaving their home worlds for where they are. But when disaster strikes, one person is determined to bring another one home to complete the circle of belief.

• "Such Is My Idea Of Happiness" by David Goodman: a story set in a future when an elite few controls the country and can live without sleeping. But they still depend on 'normal' people who can still dream and use intuition for work, but now worked to the point of sleepless fatigue. But one day, one man is offered a chance to get away and bring down that world with his intuitive skill and earn a well deserved rest.

• "De Profundis, a Space Love Letter" by Bella Han: a story of a space traveller who, one day, discovers a treasure that has been lost to mankind since the day machines took over the job of telling stories. But the telling of the story would involve the reader.

• "Post Hacking for the Uninitiated" by Grace Chan: as the story begins, a hacker has just pulled off a massive hack to release secret information. But now, she is being subject to a hack herself, revealing her own secrets.

• "Rafi" by Amal Singh: a daughter finds an unusual seed, which sprouts with a strange ability. Unfortunately, that ability is forbidden in the community which the daughter grows up in, a community that constantly monitors its inhabitants for rebellious behaviour. But perhaps it would all end with one final act of rebellion when the seed has grown up.

• "Timothy: An Oral History" by Michael Swanwick: a hilarious story set in a future where a Professor of Genomic Obstetrics does an act of genetic manipulation that sets off a social chain reaction in a society that has developed without a certain genetic personality.

A better than average issue, with pretty good stories featured in general. Stand-outs would be R.S. Benedict's tale of a strange creature living in our midst and Leah Cypess's tale of a kid who likes to paint cats being involved in a war because the drawings can come to life.

• "A Thousand Deaths Through Flesh and Stone" by Brian Trent: set in the future after a devastating war, a soldier is sent to execute war criminals. But things get dicey when the target has copied herself into more than one body, and the soldier himself has copies. And all the soldier wants is to stop fighting.

• "Witch's Hour" by Shannon Connor Winward: an interesting tale of a woman with magical powers working as a cook in a castle. But she has a dark past, as revealed by a ghost who haunts her. Her attempts to get rid of the ghost become more urgent when the new King takes an interest with her, leading to a decision to use more magic. But as always, unless used carefully, magic has a way of backfiring on you.

• "Dirty Old Town" by Richard Bowes: a light, urban fantasy tale about a boy being bullied by another boy not only physically but mentally by having images projected into him. Then he is taught a magical skill to fight back and the relationship between them changes. Many years later, they meet again and, as usual with age, come to a new understanding about each other's abilities and gifts.

• "The Prognosticant" by Matthew Hughes: a light-hearted fantasy tale of two henchmen of a wizard sent to obtain a magical helmet. But as it the case of magical devices, the helmet has a mind of its own and prefers one of henchmen, leading to interesting discoveries about dimensions, space and time and his possibly illustrious background.

• "The History of the Invasion Told in Five Dogs" by Kelly Jennings: a tale of woe, hunger, survival and, perhaps, hope as the Earth is invaded as told in five parts involving dogs.

• "What the Hands Know" by Gregor Hartmann: a story about fighting that could be set anywhere, except for a twist: the fighters wear a non-newtonian fluid type of suit that hardens at the point of impact for protection. This affects both attacking and defensive moves.

• "The Woman with the Long Black Hair" by Zach Shepard: a short-short about a woman who goes around asking people about a mythical person and, based on the story told, performs an act of kindness or violence on the person.

• "My English Name" by R.S. Benedict: a fascinating story about a 'life-form' (even it doesn't know what it is) which can fit into human-like skin that has been living among us, changing skin from time to time. This tale focuses on it wearing the skin of an Englishman living as a teacher in China who gets involved with a citizen. The tale weaves together the desire to want to fit in (and yet can't) and the emotional attachment it feels. The story makes you think about the time you may have seen a person that doesn't quite fit it.

• "The First Day of Someone Else's Life" by John Schoffstall: in this story about a future where countries have broken up and enclaves are being run based on different social constructs, a man wakes up not knowing his past and hearing a voice in his head. A tale of corporate espionage, mind downloads and the desire to be with the person you love, even if it is not the same body.

• "Neko Brushes" by Leah Cypess: an interesting tale set in feudal Japan about a samurai who discovers a child with the ability to draw a picture that can come to life. As the child undergoes training in drawing and making things come alive in the samurai's household, we get background information on an ongoing conflict and how the drawing of a certain weapon could end it. But will the child, who just loves to draw cats, be a willing party to the conflict?

• "Rings" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: feeling like a fragment of a longer tale, this story tells a day in the life of a woman in a world where men are slaves and owned. In this case, it is an off-world man who later reveals his previous life off-world, leading the woman to re-evaluate her relationship with him.