Cool stuff I'm doing and cool books I'm not reading

Well, I did finally find, or rather hubby did, the sequel to that not-so-fantastical The Last Policeman series. But, meanwhile, I'm struggling to find any reading time at all with my September events in full swing. If you're in the Santa Rosa, CA area on September 21st with a few hours to spare, I desperately need some room monitors for the Sonoma County Book Festival. And if you're going to the Kendall Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival on September 28th, I just might be taking your ticket.

I'm reading a pretty decent book by Doug Sharp, Channel Zilch, published by Panverse. Really want to throw my Pandigital e-reader across the room, though. It shouldn't take three to five swipes to finally get the page to turn. Very frustrating! And I actually requested a collection of shorts by a newbie that's self-published. Then, of course, there's Gardner Dozois' tome, The Year's Best Science Fiction. I'm feeling a little like Burgess Meredith's character in that classic Twilight Zone episode. Uninterupted reading time would be lovely. Then I might even get to writing as well.

Speaking of Gardner, if you're not FB friends with him, you're missing out. He writes hysterical little bits on the celebrations of the day. My favorite of the ones I've read is the "leave a zucchini on the doorstep and run" day. I just tried to find it, so I could quote from it, but couldn't. Anyway, very entertaining stuff.

I promised a piece to a friend for a domestic violence awareness thing and signed up to do an exquisite corpse and a voice part for a podnovel. I really need to learn my limitations. But there are so many delicious opportunities out there. If only they all paid. ;)

Want to join me for the Exquisite Corpse? It's in San Francisco on October 2. We write a play together and then see it performed by improv actors on the spot. How cool is that? Leave a comment here and I'll tell you more.

Now, since I mentioned it, I just have to slip it in here (and not for the first time).



If you're a Twilight Zone fan, you'll love my short fiction. They are very much like Twilight Zone episodes. Some of it's available online still. Check out the list on my website at www.annwilkes.com.

In SF News...
Apex magazine is losing its Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor as Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas (respectively) step down. Lynn, who took the reins from Catherynne M. Valente two years ago, told Locus that she needed a break and looked forward to taking up other projects after that.

So, how many Harry Potter fans out there have read her trilogy apparently written for charity entitled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them? Any good? Well, if so, you'll be glad to hear J.K. Rowling will be writing screenplays for them for Warner Bros. Check out the article at Tor.com.

Red Planet Blues Rocks!

Red Planet Blues:
Murder on the Mean Streets of Mars
Robert J. Sawyer
ACE April, 2013

Review by Ann Wilkes

This is the best book I've read for months! Maybe years! What's not to love? You have the Frontier (Mars), the Gold Rush (only it's a fossil rush), a Chandler-like, witty detective, extreme conditions (no atmosphere outside the dome) and cyborgs! Did I mention the body doubles and mind swapping? This book has everything! I couldn't put it down.

The detective, Alex Lomax,  is even a fan of classic movies from the forties!  He's rough around the edges with questionable morals, kind of like Bogart in those movies of old, with the same soft spot for the women and the underdogs.

Diana was standing in her topless splendor next to the bar, loading up her tray. "Hey Diana," I said, when you get off tonight, how 'bout you and me go out and paint the town . . . " I trailed off: the town was already red; the whole damned planet was.

Diana's face lit up, but Buttrick raised a beefy hand. "Not so fast, lover boy. If you've got the money to take her out, you've got the money to settle your tab."

I slipped two golden hundred-solar coins on the countertop. "That should cover it." Buttrick's eyes went as round as the coins, and he scooped them up immediately, as if he were afraid they'd disappear--which, in this joint, they probably would.

The technology and the ways it is abused raise some very interesting questions, like where does our soul live? Do we have one and does it survive our body and live on in a download of our brain? What rights does an unauthorized cyborg have? Will a duplicate be able to think any differently than the original? Does immortality get boring? What upgrades would I get? I love books that make me think, and Robert Sawyer certainly churns out a lot of them.

This is the first book I've read by this author in which the mystery is the heart of the tale and he has mastered that genre neatly, while never straying from science fiction. The mystery involved so many reversals and plot twists which I totally didn't see coming that it kept me guessing throughout.

Read two interviews, one in 2009 and one in 2011 with Rob by yours truly, right here on Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys.  The 2011 interview includes a review of www.Wonder.

Dorm life in The Highest Frontier

The Highest Frontier 

by Joan Slonczewski

TOR 2011

Reviewed by Deirdre Murphy

Jennifer Ramos Kennedy is descended from American Presidents in a world where “ultra” is the new kudzu.  Left emotionally damaged by the sudden death of her twin brother, and despite a congenital abnormality that left her unable to speak in public, she has a straight A+++ average,  is an award-winning young scientist, and a volunteer who works both as an EMS and with Homeland Security dealing with everyday incursions of ultra.  As the book opens, Jenny is preparing to go to Frontera, a university on a space station circling the Earth.

Ultraphytes are an alien menace, a life form that crash-landed in the great salt flats of Utah, and which grows and mutates fast.  When stressed, it emits cyanide, killing things—and people.  Between ultra and global warming, the Earth is in trouble.  Some people look to the space stations for a safe escape from the troubles of Earth.  Others seek religious freedom or freedom from Earth’s gambling and morality laws. 

Jenny’s father runs the North American branch of Toynet, which is the super-Internet of Jenny’s day.  People text and video-chat, vote, attend classes, experience the news, and much more in Toynet.  As they ride modified anthrax strings into space, in between frequent messages in various Toynet windows, Jenny’s parents warn her to tie her shoelaces, keep her protective HIV up to date, do her homework, play (not a typo) her taxes, and, of course, listen to the mental they installed into her Toynet diad after her twin's death to watch over her mental health.

As this interaction shows, the setting is a graceful blend of the strange new world of the future and the normal, everyday life of a college student.  Jenny is warned away from Professor Abaynesh’s Life class by an upperclassman who doesn’t know Abaynesh is already signed up as Jenny’s advisor.  Jenny ignores the advice—a good thing for the reader.  The first Life class is an adventure in itself, combining the day’s lessons with the excitement of a time-travel scavenger hunt and a roller-coaster ride on a strand of DNA.

At first, the dangers at Frontera seem limited and ordinary, despite being on a space station.  Jenny believes she has been sent here rather than to one of the larger prestigious universities on earth because she needs a safer environment than she would find there—after all, she has a chromosomal impediment to speaking in public and she was emotionally damaged by the death of her brother.  This college is run by friends of the family and the grounds are totally free of invasive species—no need to worry about ultra or catching Dengue fever again (though Jenny finds she misses kudzu).

Still, college is a challenge.  Jenny has to learn to live with a very strange roommate (another damaged rich girl), face down her advisor (and her advisor’s two-headed pets), push herself to speak to strangers, and call tech support to attend to her new residence’s Toybox.  The normal challenges of a girl having to live on her own for the first time.  But then she swats a mosquito, there is a malfunction in her lawn, and a piece of space debris blocks a portion of the power being beamed to the station, cutting off Toynet and causing a brown-out.  Suddenly Frontera University seems more like an actual frontier than a safe haven for damaged rich kids.  In the meantime, the American Presidential race is heating up.

The emotional plot is, of course, the story of Jenny’s coming-of-age.  It’s hard to give a hint of the main science-fiction plot without offering spoilers.  Nearly everything that’s happening matters, in big or small ways, to the central problem that Jenny must face and the clues to that mystery blend seamlessly into the background.  I don’t want to tell you what to look for—part of the pleasure of reading the book was figuring it out for myself.

The characters in The Highest Frontier, from Jenny’s very political family to her professors and the coterie of students that Jenny hangs out with are memorable, quirky, and real.  There’s a lot going on, with science and politics—and, of course, Jenny’s actions—affecting the outcome.  Jenny has enough skills to be a satisfying hero and enough flaws to be a believable and sympathetic college student.  The main plotlines are resolved but it is clear that, as in the real world, life goes on.  I am left wondering if there will be a sequel.