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The hallmark of good science fiction is that it draws the reader into an alien world where people very much like the reader face fantastic dilemmas in an alien setting that the reader can still empathize with. Readers of The Colors of Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley will find this to be true in spades and even more so. From the outset, the novel feels a great deal like a coming of age story for the main character, young Bart Steele, recent graduate from the Space Academy. He has his entire life ahead of him…

Of course, few coming of age stories go in the direction the protagonist thinks their life is going to go.

When Bart expects to meet his father at the spaceport, he is instead thrust into a complex conspiracy involving humanity’s place in the stars. Instead of his father, he meets one of his father’s friends (pretending to be his father) who changes its appearance, throws him onto a spaceship, and catapults young Bart into the adventure of his life.

In this future setting humanity has reached the stars with the help of the Lhari—a humanoid alien race who discovered the secret to faster-than-light travel. They also hold a monopoly on it. Instead of giving the secret of FTL to humanity, they keep it to themselves, telling humans that only Lhari can survive the jump to FTL, called “warp”, and they maintain the secret by putting humans on the ships into cold sleep before the event to keep them from dying.

Bart’s father is part of a collective human conspiracy to get the technology from the Lhari, prove that humans can survive warp, and that they deserve the technology that the Lhari have been monopolizing all the years they’ve known humanity.

As the cover might suggest color plays a very big part in the story. The Lhari, unlike humans, cannot see in color, only luminosity—in a way they only see black and white. As a result, much of the prose of the story is written with colors front-and-center with vivid descriptions of settings, sunsets, and especially stars. More than one case as a reader I was graced with a beautiful description of stars as jewels or colors such as “topaz” for the sun, the sapphire blue of Rigel.

Bradley’s prose is fluid and beautiful and fitting to the situations it’s described in—color takes a row front-and-center of much of the story, and it fits nicely into the plot.

In fact, the secret of FTL is apparently a yet-unseen color called the eighth color. Bart’s father’s shipping company is named “Eight Colors.”

Bart Steele comes across as a young kid thrust into an unexpected conspiracy when he’s swept up into the plot. He’s given very little information about his father (and why the Lhari are seeking him) but just that it may have something to do with FTL. During the story he’s thrust into a fish-out-of-water situation where he undergoes cosmetic surgery to look like one of the Lhari so that he can work aboard one of their ships as a spy. Through this we learn a great deal of Lhari culture and not just humans see them (as aliens) but how they see humans—and that human compassion does cross cultural and racial boundaries.

As a person, Bart must reconsider how he was raised and how he looked at the Lhari all his life—especially the xenophobic attitudes of his own culture and people about them. He makes friends on board the ship and becomes extremely introspective about the relationship between humanity and the Lhari. They’ve been shuttling humanity between the stars for years and keeping the FTL technology from them, this alone has raised a great deal of animosity between the races, and a certain amount of strange resentment. They even brainwash-via-hypnosis those humans who do work directly for them.

This book is accessible to both adults and juveniles, Bart himself feels like an older teenager just out of high-school (Space Academy) and the prose plays on personal biases, cultural awareness, friendship, honor, and introspection. The science fiction elements are strong in that space-travel and how humanity might interact with another race slot nicely into the contemplative roles of speculative fiction.

The colorful prose (and I mean that literally) brings Bart Steele and his world into a vivid focus with him as a believable central character growing up suddenly into a world he thought he knew. It’s a short read, potentially the type of book you’d carry onto an airplane or fall asleep with at night; but it has a lasting elemental plot-line that left a smile on my face as I watched Bart successfully navigate the perils that his life thrust at him and his place in changing the fate of humanity.

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If you’ve ever encountered the concept of grey goo and “The Game of Life,” a computer model that uses something called cellular-automata along with simple rules and a grid system to generate interesting patterns you’ll understand the basis for Bloom. To explain, grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario where some sort of self-replicating technology goes out of control, eats everything and makes more of itself, and obliterates the entire Earth—or in the case of Wil McCarthy’s Bloom, much of the central solar system.

I read Bloom during a hospital stay and it made an excellent escape-novel with a strong computer science basis combined with all the necessary elements of genre science fiction. Although I must admit the characters are a little bit forgettable, some of the technology and perils represented within (and the after-Earth scenario presented) made me feel good about the book. However, if you’re looking for a page turner or something to keep you interested because the characters are excellent amazing personalities, you won’t enjoy this book very much.

In the timeline of the book, the year 2106 represents the outbreak of the terrible Bloom—a nanite technology with a nearly infinite von Neumann capability to devour nearby matter and replicate itself. The introduction of this virulent species of technology is so catastrophic that it devours not only Earth, but expands itself across the orbit of Mars and Venus—although it’s too hot very close to the sun so Mercury is mostly okay and the asteroid belt is largely untouched. The Mycosystem, a vast fuzzy area of bloom space filled with these machines, sustains itself off the heat of sunlight and continues to replicate and tinker with itself as humanity is forced into self-imposed exile and diaspora into the colder reaches of the solar system.

The threat of the bloom still looms on space colonies even in the asteroids and further out because humans take heat and energy with them. As a result, humans prepare what they call the Immunity, a careful training regiment and technologies designed to combat the Bloom by either stealing energy from a growing infection or burning it out—this brings in some of the more hilariously named “Witch’s Tits” a weapon that is basically a canister of extremely low temperature liquid gasses designed to freeze out a Bloom infection.

The plot of the story follows the protagonists as they climb on board a spacecraft designed specifically to penetrate the Mycosystem amid the inner planets and visit old Earth—which is largely dismantled by the bloom by now—to examine strange and unexpected visuals that they’ve been getting from optic and radio telescopes. The mission would be extremely perilous and terrifying. The name of the ship, The Louis Pasteur is named after the French chemist who brought us the germ-theory of disease, the first vaccines, and, of course, the pasteurization of milk to make it safe to consume.

The book continues to suggest that there’s an entire cult of humans who worship the bloom.

This becomes a problem because one of these cultists happens to be on board the spacecraft sent into the Mycosphere a fact that leads to a certain amount of intrigue and fear. In the Mycosphere, the Louis Pasteur is attacked by cultist ships also armed with a similar camouflage to protect them from being devoured.

What they find in the Bloom, however, appears to be a bit bizarre. Amid the devoured planets and the multitude of nanomachines that have obliterated the inner solar system, the machine seem to have taken on a life of their own and have become an entity unto themselves.

The book comes to its climax in the way that one might expect a fantasy-styled science fiction genre novel by presenting an (unexpected) twist that some of humanity swallowed by the bloom itself haven’t been destroyed, but still exist in the structure of the ever-expanding cloud as disintegrated entities. Although the novel doesn’t go any further to explain how or why or even deliver much of a reason to care that this happened.

I am unaware of a sequel to this book; but it would really deserve one where the nature of bloom-bound humanity vs. the diaspora into the outer solar system could be explored. It would be a spoiler to talk about this if it were the central meaning of the entire book, but really Bloom is a giant what-if scenario about the Game of Life and the grey goo scenario.

I would suggest reading it on a plane or if you’re in the hospital like I was, but it’s not going to be the next-profound science fiction novel to round out your library.

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Everyone has gone to see a movie adaption of a book and heard someone say, “The book was much better than the movie!”  Most readers have probably said that exact thing on a number of occasions.  And, generally, the original format of the story stays the most popular.  No Star Wars novel, for example, will ever be as popular as The Return of the Jedi, nor will the Harry Potter movies be as fondly remembered as the book series.  However, there are certainly some cases in which this simply is not true.  Cowboys and Aliens was successful in the box office, even though it was based on a graphic novel of the same name that not many people outside of the comics field had heard of.

Another excellent example of this is Buck Rogers.

From the incredibly popular comic strip, Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century A.D., to the Buck Rogers radio serial, to multiple films and television shows, comics, roleplaying games, and even novels set to continuing the Buck Rogers saga (which Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote the outlines for, tying the later novels into their collaborative effort, Lucifer’s Hammer), Buck Rogers has a lengthy history as a successful and popular character in multiple media. However, most people aren’t aware that the character that would become Buck Rogers originated, not in comics or film or television, but in two novellas published in Amazing Stories.

Philip Francis Nowlan was a newspaper columnist in Pennsylvania who hadn’t written any professionally published fiction when he sent “Armageddon—2419 A.D.” to Amazing Stories editor Hugo Gernsback.  Exploding out of the “Yellow Peril” subgenre running rampant in pulp adventure magazines, Nowlan’s novel explored a future controlled by “Mongolian descendants” known as Hans, who, with the help of the Soviet Union, conquered the planet, before turning on their Russian compatriots.  With the United States held under the tight fist of the Hans, Americans have been forced to live in the wildernesses surrounding the populated areas, where they can hide from Han attack forces.

All this means nothing to Anthony “Tony” Rogers.  Living in Pennsylvania in 1927, Rogers was working in abandoned coal mines when he was trapped in a cave in.  Due to some strange behavior of the radioactive properties of the mine, Rogers is knocked unconscious and sleeps for almost five centuries.  Awakening after what feels like only hours, Rogers escapes from the mine to discover a whole new world on the surface.  However, Rogers is quickly swept up in a violent, explosive gun fight, saving the life of a future American woman, Wilma Deering. From there, the adventure continues as Rogers meets Deering’s gang, which is promptly assaulted by the Hans, leading to a string of futuristic adventures.  A year later Nowlan continued the saga of Tony Rogers, Wilma Deering, and the evil Han overlords in a sequel novella, “The Airlords of Han.”

Tony Rogers (He didn’t get the nickname “Buck” until the comic strip) manages to tie in his participation in World War I, his pulp hero steadfastness, and a surprising bit of equality towards women (not common in the pulp magazines) to create a story that is certainly a fun adventure piece.  While at times heavy on the exposition, with large info dumps on the future world that Rogers is living in, the story is generally fast paced, building suspense, and is a fun read that is easily finished in one day.

Fans of science fiction adventure, and pulp adventure tales, will want to check this one out.

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The author Anne McAffrey is best known for her fantasy series The Dragonriders of Pern but she’s also a Hugo Award winning author of science fiction novels. Any enterprising science fiction enthusiast would find herself well-tread to pick up one of Ms. McAffrey’s novels and sit down on the couch with it. A good introduction to her work in this genre is The Ship Who Sang, originally published in 1969 and spawned an entire series called the “Brain & Brawn Ship series” in the 1990s.

The book is named after the first of a series of five short stories written by Anne McAffrey—they are all memorable but the primary short story sets the stage for the universe and the subject matter.

At the core, The Ship Who Sang is a story about the ultimate level of cyborg-transhumanism that’s reflected today in by many modern-day cyberpunk novelists. The main character, Helva, was born with a terrible birth defect that meant she couldn’t survive more than a few days after birth and thus she was sold by her parents to a corporation to be a “shell baby.” In this way, her growth was stunted and her body encased in a life-support capsule with a titanium shell allowing her to grow to adulthood—but not as a natural human.

As a result of this “shell people” are indentured to the corporation who paid for their medical bills, equipment, training, and such. As a result of their indentured nature, they’re compelled to work for the Central Worlds (the governing branch of the galactic human colonies in the books) in a majority of interesting and curious capacities. One of this is that of a “brainship” or a spacecraft whose central computer core is augmented with a “shell person” pilot who is integrated physically into the ship.

Brainships are partnered with a strong and intelligent mobile captain called the “brawn” who act as the extra-ship mobile person in their partnership.

The book explores not just the morality of indenturing people into specific service but the trials and travails of being a ship (or city, or hospital, etc.) with a human brain. Although the “brain” portion of brainships do have human bodies, the body is essentially vestigial by that point and the ship becomes their body. Only through intense training, medication, and surgery do they work and function as a fully cyborg entity.

This book, and the series it spawned, belongs in the category of transhumanism in exploring the question of what it is to be human. Although it could be argued that Helva is definitely human and maintains a great deal of her humanity, she lacks many of the fundamental properties that natural humans have—the fundamental of which being a human body. It also brought to mind moral questions about the treatment of the terrifically disabled.

Even with the Central Worlds and the science fiction elements intact, The Ship Who Sang is also a book about what happens in the universe. There are characters aplenty but the protagonist Helva has always shown brightest in my mind.

One emotional mention form the book has stayed with me for years. Helva’s first brawn died in a horrible radiation accident from which she herself was spared (due to being at the heart of a heavily shielded and buffered environment). She had to watch him die horribly in her airlock as she did everything in her power to protect him. The event is significant because brainships, for all their capability to fly through space, visit other worlds, and essentially do things that normal humans cannot; they’re still unable to do fine manipulation or rescue.

The title, The Ship Who Sang, is a reference to this event and that Helva (the ship) sang Taps at her brawn’s funeral.

To this day, I have not forgotten Helva, Brainship XH-834.

We’re trying something new (to Digital) called Crowdfunding! We are optimistic (hopeful/wishful/delusional) that through the awesome power of crowdfunding we can launch Digital Science Fiction Anthology 5 sooner rather than later. You can check out our new RocketHub crowdfunding project right here: RocketHub Digital Science Fiction Anthology 5

Crowdfunding is based on the belief that the power of many small contributions in aggregate can become significant. There are a few different variances of crowdfunding – some are purely donation based, others are rewards based. We believe that for the Digital the rewards-based model is the way to go. All of the rewards are listed on the RocketHub project page.

We prefer this to outright donations because it’s more personal, and we’re able to offer a little something in return. Of course, buying the books is also a great way to fund new books! No matter what though, here at Digital we will continue to strive to produce and publsih original and remarkable science fiction.

This is such a crazy idea, it may just work…

Please, spread the word and share the link to the Digital Science Fiction Anthology 5 funding page at RocketHub: http://rkthb.co/7945

Cheers — Michael

p.s. How cool is it that the crowdfunding source is RocketHub. It’s like a match made in space. And remember: in [cyber]space, no one can hear you [beg].

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It’s been far too long since we last delved into some of the great short science fiction available for ebook readers everywhere, so let’s head back into it with three great selections!

“From Above” by Jeremy Robinson

Jeremy Robinson is best known for his Jack Sigler series of adventure novels that began with Pulse in 2009 and currently running through a series of novellas termed Chesspocalypse, leading into this year’s release of Ragnarok, as well as his novel Antarktos Rising and its related young adult series, The Last Hunter.  “From Above,” a novella also included in Robinson’s short story collection Insomnia, is one of the author’s earlier works, and admittedly it shows at times, mainly in the setting, which felt distinctly underdeveloped.  That said, this science fiction noir adventure was a blast to read, in large part because of the excellent characters that Robinson peopled his story with.  A far future cop, Priest exudes noir, as a sarcastic, short tempered, and quick witted detective who captures all of the sexism and toughness that all detectives from the noir era embody.  Partnered with the strong-willed Rehna, who constantly challenges Priests sexist attitudes with her personification of strong female solidity, and Gawyn, a little girl who is as gruff as Priest and technological savant, Priest sets out to find who is behind two deadly blasts that both nearly killed him, and murdered untold civilians.  The story explodes from the page, and is as gripping as it is entertaining.  Especially for fans of science fiction mystery, this SF noir workhorse will be sure to please.  Get it while it is free!

“Jigsaw” by Douglas Smith

Douglas Smith’s short fiction output is exceptional, to say the least.  Sadly under read, Douglas Smith is deserving of an entire “Science Fiction You Haven’t Read…But Should” article all to his own, and you’ll likely see it one day.  My introduction to Smith’s work was the short story “Jigsaw,” a space opera beauty.  In a future where humanity uses the artifacts of a lost alien civilization to travel among the stars, Cassie Morant, a geologist exploring new worlds, is part of a crew that has a disastrous mishap, with their ship in a degrading orbit and hostile natives taking the landing crew hostage, with the threat of death.  It is up to Cassie to explore the religious artifacts of the society holding her captive if she hopes to save the ship and its crew, both in space and captives of the local beings.  The story is a lot of fun, with rollicking adventure and a nice, neat conclusion that had me aching to read more from Douglas Smith.  “Jigsaw” is available for cheap on its own, as well as part of Smith’s brand new collection, Chimerascope.  Fans of Smith are also encouraged to check out the film version of “By Her Hand, She Draws You Down.”  The story is found in Chimerascope, as well as part of By Her Hand, She Draws You Down: The Movie Companion Book.  Those hesitant about the price tag on Chimerascope are directed to the three story collection Impossibilia, which is both brilliant and cheap.  However, after you read it, it will be even harder to stay away from Chimerascope.

Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2011 Edition edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Liz Gorinsky

Tor.com has quickly become a powerhouse when it comes to strong science fiction and fantasy short stories.  Available free on their website, and for less than a dollar on the kindle, the broad range and big name authors have really ratcheted up the quality of the storytelling, and creating a wonderful online presence.  Celebrating the culmination of a year’s worth of storytelling, Tor released Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2011 Edition, which is available for free on ebook readers.  Containing stories from Charlie Jane Anders, Michael Swanwick, James Alan Gardner, Matthew Sanborn Smith, Yoon Ha Lee, Paul Park, Nnedi Okorafor, and Harry Turtledove, this collection is filled with excellent stories.  The story quality seems to come in three tiers.  Tier One contains Smith’s “Beauty Belongs to the Flowers,” Lee’s “A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel,” and Okorafor’s “Hello, Moto.”  These stories were engaging and enjoyable, but didn’t leave much of a long lasting impact.  That said, each of these authors is more than worth reading, and that this collection gets readers out and exploring their works is a strong positive.  Tier Two contains Swanwick’s “The Dala Horse” and Gardner’s “A Clean Sweep with All the Trimmings.”  Swanwick’s story is an exquisitely crafted tale of post-apocalyptic, mythic science fiction, while Gardner’s story is, as Robinson’s “From Above,” a wonderfully fun noir SF adventure, this one poking fun at the noir genre more than Robinson’s piece did, but embracing it just as often as it satirizes it.  Both are excellent stories that shouldn’t be missed.  In the Third Tier are Anders’ “Six Months, Three Days,” Park’s “Ragnarok,” and Turtledove’s “Shtetl Days.”  Anders was a brand new author to me, but she blew me away with her powerful story of love predestined to failure between two people who can see the future.  When I first heard the story description, I couldn’t believe it would work, but Anders really tore out an emotionally wrenching and powerful drama that still managed to end with hope.  Park’s epic-styled poem was a brilliant tale of violence, vengeance, and revenge, set in a future after an apocalyptic event, but that seems more like the ages of Beowulf.  The poetry was brilliant, and sucked the reader in.  When it ended, this reader was crushed that there was not more, and instantly checked to see if Park had a sequel poem available elsewhere, or even any other fiction at all.  Turtledove’s longer novella was a nicely woven tale of Nazis pretending to be Jews, only to discover that, in a world run by Nazis, being Jewish might just be the best thing you can be.  A tale filled with drama and emotion, Turtledove shows once again that he is the master of the alternate history story, and that he is a brilliant storyteller none should miss.  These three pieces surpass the rest of the collection, and shouldn’t be missed by any science fiction fans.  Truly, these are three of the best stories of the year from any venue.  Don’t miss out on this free collection!

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The book Vast by Linda Nagata is the culmination of a trilogy that follows a small group of characters through the trials of outliving their own cultural heritage and how their technology has transcended their own humanity. As a science fiction novel it’s a bit of an outlier when it comes to commentary on the human condition because it maps less the cultural significance of technological influence and focuses on the individual struggles of the characters.

When approaching this book expect something a great deal more character driven than plot driven. Although the environment itself is the enemy of the characters in this book, they’re faced with numerous obstacles to overcome both personally and collectively.

Vast follows the remaining crew of the Null Boundary an ancient semi-living ship that has been sailing the reaches of interstellar space harboring four survivors of a terrible war that wasted their entire people. The first character is Lot, the sullen upstart and child of a profit who carries a nanovirus infection that spreads devotion to a religious cult. Urban, Lot’s boyhood friend whose sense of adventure drove him to head to the stars with Lot. Clemantine who experienced firsthand the destruction of her race and yearns for revenge. Finally there’s Nikko, who spends most of his time as the disembodied mind of the ship but actually has a body (should he choose to use it.)

They are seeking the Chenzeme, an alien race who are little known in of themselves except for their terrible warships that prowl the stars and ravage the civilized worlds. That’s basis of the plot; but really this is a book about the characters.

The Null Boundary itself is an interesting vessel and a technology that runs on something called “philosopher cells,” essentially a skin of thoughtful computers that discuss all decisions and determine based on consensus between the different cells. They’re living creatures and need nutriment and socialization—but they’re also vulnerable to the ravages of space. Without them the Null Boundary would be without senses. The character, Nikko spends most of his time talking to the philosopher cells attempting to learn from them and flying the ship.

The book presents the strange interpersonal relationships between people who are now more than people. With their bio- and nanotechnology they can upload their consciousness and sentience and keep it backed up. As a result, they’re capable of becoming part of the ship, cloning themselves off new bodies (with the same but separate minds) and even go out and explore without actually leaving the ship.

One of the more profound moments happens when Clemantine clones herself to go back home to see if their war-ravaged space has been recolonized by anyone. Her clone—a mind and shape that is actually her—leaves with great sorrow and the author points out that they cried for her as, “She would always be with them; they would never see her again.” While the original Clemantine stays on the ship, the clone Clemantine would be departing her friends from that point and never see them again.

As the end of a trilogy, it certainly helps to read the other books first—to come to grips not with the characters so much as the technologies and the word—but it stands alone well enough within the boundaries of its world building. Each of the characters is already well formed, with strong motivations and a great deal of emotional interplay as they reflect back on their past and what got them where they are now.

The title ends a little bit strangely, however, and leaves a lot of stones unturned. A great deal of the science fiction is written into the very relationships between the characters and into flashbacks into their past. In a powerful sort of way Vast is almost a retrospective on how science fiction looks at how technology affects individuals, empowers them in their journeys, but also sometimes changes them fundamentally at the human level.

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It has been quite some time since last we looked at what the world of graphic fiction had to offer fans of science fiction.  So, today we will take another look at some of the exciting stories out there that are perfect for science fiction readers.  Without further introduction, here are four more science fiction series that you will want to check out.

Jurassic Strike Force 5

First, I felt it only fair to give you readers an update on a series that I wrote about the last time we discussed science fiction comics.  Since then, the first three issues of Jurassic Strike Force 5 have been released, and I have to say, after my excitement following Jurassic Strike Force 5 #0, I have been severely disappointed with the series.  Unless I start hearing incredible things about this series, I’m going to be setting this one aside.  There are too many great science fiction comics out there!

Gantz

Gantz is an incredible manga series created by Oku Hiroya, working with the help of his studio, OKU HIROYA Works.  Set in modern Japan, Gantz follows Kei Kurono and his friend Masaru Kato, who are both killed in a subway collision in the first few pages of the series.  However, they find that life isn’t totally done with them, as they wake up in an apartment with a number of other recently deceased individuals.  An alien device, known as Gantz, has gathered them to be a part of a “game,” of sorts, in which Gantz targets dangerous aliens living on Earth for destruction, and then sends out the just dead to kill them.  If Kei and company die, then they stay dead; if they live, their wounds are healed, and Gantz rates their performances by giving them points.  If you earn enough points, then you get the chance to come back to life for good, without Gantz’s nightly terrors.

Gantz is for adult readers only, as it contains a lot of adult content, themes, and situations (as to be expected from Oku’s dark themes and the violent games of the plot), but for mature readers Gantz will be a series you won’t forget.  In Japan, the series is in its third and final story arc, but Dark Horse has only made its way into the second arc here in the US, leaving much excellent story in the future.

A.B.C. Warriors

Created by Pat Mills, and originally appearing in the long running British science fiction anthology series 2000 AD, the quirky A.B.C. Warriors features a group of robot warriors created to fight Atomic, Bacterial, and Chemical warfare (hence the title), and were a spin-off from Mills’ previous series Ro-busters, as well as some allusions from Invasion! and other Mills works set in his shared milieu.  A.B.C. Warriors features Hammerstein and a group of Dirty Dozen-style robots who live and work on the outskirts of morality, but are perfect for the dangerous missions they need to accomplish.  Generally told in very brief chapters and short stories, this futuristic saga mixes much of the Post-Vietnam Era views towards militarism with stereotypically dark and morbid British sensibilities to create a set of tales that is both fascinating to read yet best in small doses.  For fans of dark British science fiction (think Judge Dredd, to cite another 2000 AD saga), and those interested in seeing some of the lesser known work of many comics creators who went on to have big careers elsewhere (including Kevin O’Neill, Dave Gibbons, and even a short story from Alan Moore), this series will be worth checking out.

A.B.C. Warriors still appears today intermittently in 2000 AD, but for fans in the states the saga is being collected into nice books from Simon and Schuster.  The first volume, entitled The Meknificent Seven, collects the early stories of the team, while the second volume, The Black Hole, gives readers a glimpse at the first major A.B.C. Warriors storyline.

The Vault

The Vault is a brilliant little story from writer Sam Sarkar and artist Garrie Gastonny.  Originally released as a three issue miniseries from Image Comics, the entire story has recently been collected into a handsome graphic novel edition.  The Vault features a team of treasure hunters who are set on exploring a deep part of the Atlantic Ocean right off of Sable Island, called the Graveyard of the North Atlantic.  However, when the team finds deep in the bottom of the ocean is an ancient, mysterious vault.  As the scientists struggle to use their state of the art technology, as well as devices seemingly out of the future, to try and open the vault, they eventually come the realization that what they unleashed might have been better off trapped.  At times reminiscent of John W. Campbell, Jr.’s “Who Goes There?” and its film adaption as The Thing, this story balances the line between science fiction, thriller, and horror quite nicely.  While this story is the least science fictional of the lot, it does have those SF elements, and is a wonderful tale at that.  Well worth the read.

Artifacts

Top Cow Productions has been putting out some excellent work for a long time, including Witchblade, which just recently surpassed one hundred fifty issues, and The Darkness, which is nearly always brilliant.  However, Top Cow eventually came to realize that, while books such as The Darkness struggled and occasionally went out of print, Witchblade was their bread and butter, always going strong.  Yet even Witchblade couldn’t keep them afloat forever if continued as it was, because the series was a stereotype of the Image Comics explosion: brilliant art, scantily clad women, and little to no plot to speak of.  So Top Cow brought on comics veteran Ron Marz, who took the series to a whole new level.  Artifacts is, in a way, the culmination of the first major phase of Marz’s storytelling on Witchblade.  So why would Artifacts be a good place for you to get started on reading in the Top Cow Universe, when it is so clearly a major crossover storyline and the conclusion of a number of plot threads?  Because Ron Marz believes that, like any good Summer blockbuster, Artifacts should be huge, over the top, full of action and drama and dozens of characters.  But Marz also believes that, unlikely some of the major Summer company-wide crossovers from the major comics publishers, the biggest stories should also be the most accessible.  Thus, Artifacts was written with new readers in mind.  That is where this writer jumped on to the Top Cow saga, and it was a brilliant introduction to a world of magic and technology.  Fans of action thrillers loaded with interesting characters and plenty of wordly peril need look no further.

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Over the last few weeks, we have looked at all of the Baen reissue editions of Keith Laumer’s works, featuring all ten volumes: Retief! (along with William H. Keith, Jr.’s Retief’s Peace), Odyssey, Keith Laumer: The Lighter Side, A Plague of Demons & Other Stories, Future Imperfect, Legions of Space, Imperium, The Long Twilight and Other Stories, Earthblood & Other Stories, and The Universe Twister.  Now, we have finally arrived at the fourth and final part of our exploration of the works of Keith Laumer, focusing on his most famous creations: the superheavy, artificially intelligent Bolo tanks.

Keith Laumer surprisingly only has six short stories and two novels of the Bolos to his name, despite the wide-spread fame they gathered both before and after his death.  The six short stories are each among the best of Laumer’s work, especially the very powerful “The Last Command” and “A Relic of War.”  All six (“The Night of the Trolls,” “Courier” [also known as “The Frozen Planet”], “Field Test,” “The Last Command,” “A Relic of War,” and “Combat Unit”) were originally published in various magazines, before being collected in 1976 as Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade, Laumer’s first book-length set of Bolo ficition.

Not much was done with the Bolo tanks after the publication of Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade, until Laumer returned to the Bolos with his first novel set among the tanks, published in 1989: Rogue Bolo.  This exciting novel explores question of the value of war, and whether we lose our control of it when we send out something other than ourselves to fight our wars for us.  In a world of ever expanding use of drones and long range fighting in our modern warfare, Laumer’s Rogue Bolo becomes more pertinent than ever before.

The very next year (1990) saw the release of two more Laumer Bolo books: The Compleat Bolo and The Stars Must Wait.  The Compleat Bolo was an omnibus version of Laumer’s first two Bolo books, Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade and Rogue Bolo.  The Stars Must Wait, however, was a brand new Bolo novel.  While not one of Laumer’s greatest books, it still hints at his ability to craft strong writing and exciting passages, bringing a sense of suspense and intrigue to his Bolo series.  The Stars Must Wait was among the last few novels Laumer published before his death, and is also the only Bolo book that is both out of print and unavailable as an ebook.

However, the Bolos were far from over at this point.  In 1993, the same year that Keith Laumer died, Baen released Bolos Book I: Honor of the Regiment.  Featuring fiction from S.M. Stirling, S.N. Lewitt, J. Andrew Keith, Todd Johnson, Mike Resnick & Barry N. Malzberg, Christopher Stasheff, Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon, and David Drake, Honor of the Regiment brought the worlds of the Bolos into a shared universe setting, allowing writers both famous and unknown to explore the setting that Laumer had created so many decades ago.  The huge success of the first anthology lead to a number of further Bolo books, and the birth of the post-Laumer Bolo series.

The next year (1994) saw the release of Bolos Book II: The Unconquerable, and in 1995 Bolos Book III: The Triumphant hit shelves.  The series continued into 1997 with another anthology, Bolos Book IV: Last Stand.  That same year, the series branched out with the release of the first Bolo novel not written by Keith Laumer.

William H. Keith, Jr. (who would later work with another Laumer classic in Retief’s Peace, among other works) wrote Bolo Brigade, which features an intergalactic treaty that results in two outdated and obsolete Bolos, Freddy and Ferdy, being placed on the planet Muir as part of that planet’s defense protocols.  However, the two Bolos are hamstrung by regulations, meant to make them more symbols of power rather than actually dangerous implements of war.  That works out fine, until dinosaur-like aliens attack the planet, and only the nearly weaponless Bolos stand in between the vicious aliens and the humans of Muir.  Keith followed Bolo Brigade with Bolo Rising in 1998 and Bolo Strike in 2001.  Keith’s Bolo Trilogy captured the action and excitement of Laumer’s own Bolo stories, mixing fast paced action with intelligent thought on the nature of war machines and people thrust into a world of violence.  William H. Keith, Jr. writes some of the best post-Laumer Bolo work available.

The same year William H. Keith, Jr. finished his Bolo Trilogy, the anthology series continued with Bolos Book V: Old Guard.  The next year (2002), the final volume of the anthology series, Bolos Book VI: Cold Steel, was released.  A couple years passed before a new Bolo book reached readers.

John Ringo (famous for his Posleen War series, which began with A Hymn Before Battle) and Linda Evans (best known for her collaborations with David Weber on Hell’s Gate and Hell Hath No Fury) teamed up to write the new Bolo novel The Road to Damascus.  Ringo and Evans brought political and legal intrigue to the worlds of the Bolos, as human veterans find their Bolo comrades turned against them by the will of an evil, brainwashing politician hoping for a coup that leaves him leader of the planet.  The Road to Damscus isn’t the best work from Ringo or Evans, nor is it the best of the Bolo works, but it isn’t bad, and helped to carry the series on into the future.

2005 proved to be a big year for David Weber when it came to Bolo fiction.  Weber’s Bolo! was a collection of all of his previously published Bolo fiction, including the short stories he wrote for the Bolos anthology series, as well as a brand new story.  This worked as a nice setup for Weber’s next 2005 release, Old Soldiers, a new Bolo novel.  Old Soldiers features two war veterans, one human and one Bolo, as they must overcome their painful memories of a past filled with war if they hope to join together and stop an invading alien force from destroying everything that the humans on the planet have worked to build.  The two books together show off Weber’s strengths to great effect and are excellent additions to the Bolo series.

The series saw its latest volume come out in 2010.  The Best of the Bolos: Their Finest Hour is a retrospective anthology that collects the best short stories featuring the Bolos, pulling from both Laumer’s Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade and the Bolos anthology series.  This volume brought the series full circle, uniting the original works by Laumer with the vast body of post-Laumer Bolo fiction.  While nothing says that this is the end of the Bolos, Their Finest Hour proves a neat capper on a story decades in the making.

We can now bring this exploration of Keith Laumer to an end.  While we looked at a large chunk of his fiction, there is still plenty more out there.  Much of Laumer’s fiction has yet to be recollected and republished, and much of it is great work from a master writer.  Hopefully all fans of exciting, intelligent science fiction action and adventure will give Keith Laumer a shot if they haven’t already, and discover a great writer who deserves to be far better known than he is.

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Steampunk is a much-overlooked literary form of science fiction that many science fiction fans find themselves drawn into. It’s often presented as a look at what-might-have-been through the eyes of technological progress if Tesla and Volt had instead been workers of mechanics and steam instead of electricity and magnetism. In his book, Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld presents an alternate history where not only do steam-driven gas-and-fuel machines dominate the skies but so also does the science of biology.

The Leviathan itself is an amazingly described creature of scientific progress, produced by the Darwinists through genetic manipulation (so-called life patterns) by mixing the patterns of a whale with that of other organisms to create a blimp-creature that fills itself with hydrogen like a dirigible. The opposite faction, the Clankers, use heavy machines and mechanisms where the Darwinists harness life itself to create new fantastic beasts—including the Leviathan.

The book takes place right before what would be World War I in this alternate history where the countries that would fall into the war in Europe lay upon factional lines between the Clankers and the Darwinists. Terrible portents light the path as a diplomat from the Austrian-Hungary Empire is slain in an assassination attempt and blamed on another country in the opposing bloc. Giant monarchies and world powers poised to attack each other… And thus the stage is set.

As a book, Leviathan is very plot-driven but the characters themselves are directly related to the world affairs. The first, an Austro-Hungarian prince (a Clanker power) by the name of Alek finds himself pulled into a world of fear and intrigue when his parents are assassinated. He is forced into flight underground as Germany—an erstwhile ally of his people—seek to kill him to prevent him from taking any sort of political power. England, a Darwinist power, watches the Clankers carefully, wondering what this might mean and if it will plunge the world into war. Alek is a young, arrogant boy who has lived his life in pampered luxury now thrust into a fight for his life.

Much of Alek’s narrative is about trying to stay inconspicuous, else the Clankers kill him or the Darwinists take him hostage as an enemy.

The other main character is Deryn—going by the name Dylan in order to join the air forces of her home country of England. As a Darwinist power, England harnesses the lifepatterns of beasts to create fantastic monsters and use them for its military might. The Levithan is one such monster-ship, but we also see that they have kraken (giant octopus) for taking out water ships as well as flying blimps. In fact, one type of floating-flying creature is named a Huxley, probably after one of Darwin’s friends when he was a young naturalist first discovering how life itself waves and evolves in forms.

Much of Deryn’s narrative all about trying to pretend to be a boy (lest her beloved British Air Service kick her out.)

Deryn finds herself aboard the Levithan quickly in the book and for the reader this is an amazing experience of description. Although Deryn well-knows much of what being part of the air service is, the reader still needs to be introduced to all the strange creatures that Darwinists create. The Leviathan isn’t just a giant blimped-out-whale, but an entire ecosystem of organisms that keep the ship running. Bees gather honey from the land and birds and bats in the hold eat insects and meat; all of them have hydrogen-producing bacteria that fill the gasbag of the blimp. The bats themselves are a type of weapon the blimp can use to defend itself; even the birds are trained to trail metal nets to slice through the wings of attacking Clanker aircraft.

The plot of the book follows events what precipitated World War I, but it does so through the eyes of youngster Alek and Deryn—on opposite sides of the upcoming war. Leviathan is a young adult book, so the two main characters are only about 15 years old and it shows to an extent. This shouldn’t be a turn off even for adult readers of this book and its subsequent series. There’s a lot to enjoy in the fluid prose of the book and the interesting world building that it presents.

How would World War I have changed if it were fought between biology-loving Darwinist powers and steampunk Clanker powers? In fact, the Clankers don’t just build engines and steam, they also make walkers—that is tanks with cannon that stand on two feet and stomp across the countryside. If that’s not enough to melt the science fiction lover’s heart—as if the Levithan didn’t already—then there may be no hope for this genre anyway.