Monthly Archives: December 2007

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A New Year’s look at 2007’s science fiction

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I preferred the US title but the UK cover to Richard Morgan’s excellent bookAs the year draws to a close I thought I’d highlight some of the delights I’ve read in the SF genre this year.

Two of the best books I’ve read this year are Spook Country by William Gibson and The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon but as they are generally considered mainstream rather than SF, I’ve left them out of my top five. Gibson in particular brings the boundaries between the present and the future closer together than ever before.

Top Five for 2007:

5. Joel Shepherd – Breakaway/Killswitch (books 2 + 3 of the Casssandra Kresnov trilogy) – Pyr have brought over this extremely good trilogy from Australia and the combination of insightful interstellar politics, kickass action and Battlestar Galactica-esque discussion of what it means to be human make these books following android Cassandra Kresnov a real hit.

4. Alastair Reynolds – The Prefect A real step up for Reynolds comapred to his previous work, with a much more sympathetic protagonist and a racy police-thriller plot. The worldbuilding in each of the space stations along the Glitter Band and the crisis that develops are intriguing and engaging.
3. Ian McDonald – Brasyl Three plotlines across three times in Brazil’s past, present and future interconnect with dizzying vision and skill. In addition to some incredibly cool future tech and scientific ideas, McDonald continues his trend of highlighting a country less explored in SF, really giving the reader a feel for the wonderfully different world of South America.

2. Charles Stross – Halting State Stross has many pans in the fire but this is easily my favourite of his novels so far. The extrapolation of today’s MMOs and online games into a complex near future of virtual realities and spy networks is breathtaking and the humour helps the thriller aspects tick along nicely. This year’s Rudy Rucker in the ‘most likely to happen’ category.
1. Richard Morgan – Thirteen (or Black Man in Europe) Morgan really stepped it up a notch with his fifth novel. The near-future Earth is brilliantly done and the moral ambiguities of the genetically altered hero and the world’s politics resonate strongly with current events. The action is frenetic and the plotline zips along but the worldbuilding of 90 years from now is what made me love this novel.

A special mention to the anthology edited by Lou Anders – Fast Forward #1. It’s really encouraging to see a broad remit anthology featuring superb new stories from big authors, rather than reprints and best of the year collections. John Joseph Adams’ Wastelands is also excellent. I’m sure I’ve missed a few books – what were your highlights of 2007?

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Friday Free Fiction for 28 December

Unsurprisingly, there’s not exactly a flood of free fiction this week … but the river still flows. This should tide you over until the new year!

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Newly arrived free fiction at ManyBooks.net:

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The guys and girls at Baen Books know the value of free reading material; three new titles have been added to the Baen Free Library.

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Matthew Jarpe is giving away a short story originally published in Asimov’s: “Chicken Soup for Mars and Venus”

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Via Gary Gibson:

“… I have finally – finally – put together an online excerpt of [recently published novel] Stealing Light, being the first couple of chapters thereof. Somehow it seemed the right thing to do. There’s already an excerpt up at Pan Macmillan’s website, but it’s very small. I figure something slightly more substantial might be a better idea. So here it is.”

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Most of the Friday Flash Fictioneer battalion are (quite understandably) missing in action this week. But a few of us are still manning the trenches:

Gareth D Jones suggests that you “Get Knitted“.

Neil Beynon continues his experimental phase with “Clockwork Songs“.

And yours truly has been writing “Against the Clock“.

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That’s it for this week – and indeed for this year! But we’ll be back with more free fiction every Friday in the coming year, so don’t forget to send us tips and links to anything you think might be of interest. In the meantime, have a great New Year!

[tags]free, fiction, stories, online[/tags]
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A glimpse into a Wireless Future

Since 2002, the Wireless World Initiative (WWI) has been working on a number of user-centric wireless systems that integrate what is currently an extremely disjointed mess of networks and protocols.  The five systems – SPICE, MobiLife, WINNER, E2R and Ambient Networks aim to provide a seamless wireless system that connects up all of a user’s gadgets and software in an integrated configuration that doesn’t impact on the usability for the user.

Science Daily has a good article on what ‘Bob the builder’ and ‘Bob the businessman’ might use this new technology for.

“Outside their front doors, the two Bobs wish each other a good morning and head their separate ways. On the train, the businessman watches the financial news on his palm pilot, while the builder tunes in his phone to his favourite digital radio channel and relaxes in the morning traffic to some classical music.”

[via ScienceDaily]

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Fund new gadgets with your old ones

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In four years, I’ve been through 3 or 4 cell phones, a couple digital cameras and 2 iPods.  Not to mention the computer hardware that’s gone belly-up on me.  So what can I do with all this stuff?  Toss it in the trash?  Recycle?  The toxic chemicals will pollute, and recyclers haven’t been as scrupulous as we might like – shipping this stuff off to poor countries where circuit boards are burnt to get at their valuable metals.

Now, a socially-responsible company will buy your old consumer electronics off you, refurbish them and sell them on the street, all in an effort to reduce e-waste and improve sustainability.  Second Generation out of Massachusetts will calculate the price then give you a printable shipping label which you slap on a box and send off.  After the items have had their check, you get yours.  If I were in the States, I’d certainly make use of this.  Check out this article at Ars Technica for an in-depth review of Second Generation’s process.

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Asteroid may hit Mars at end of January

The asteroid is part of a small group of rocks that cross both Earth and Mars orbitsIf you’ve watched Deep Impact and Armageddon a hundred times and still want to know what a real asteroid impact would look like, mark January 30th 2008 on your calenders. On that date, the path of Asteroid 2007 WD5 passes perilously close to our neighbour Mars and may or may not hit it.

The NEO (near-earth object) was found in November and marked because it also passes close to Earth. Analysis of its path say there’s a 1 in 75 chance the 50m rock will impact on the red planet, causing a crater up to half a mile wide.

[via Chris Mckitterick, image by NASA]