Book Review of “Children of the Lens” by E.E. “Doc” Smith

children

Cover art for “Children of the Lens” by E.E. “Doc” Smith

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Yesterday, I finished Children of the Lens (1954), the last in E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensmen series.

By rights, it’s a book I should have started and finished over fifty years ago. The works of Smith as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs and others were hugely popular in paperback in the late 1960s. All of my male friends in Junior High were devouring them.

But when everyone else was reading the Lensmen, I was reading The Skylark series, so I missed my opportunity the first time around.

Today, if I have anything to complain about the Lensmen series (or Skylark for that matter), it’s that they’ve aged. With each passing novel, the powers, technology, and scope of the books became larger and grander. I can’t read these stories without also imagining them taking place between the 1930s and 1950s.

Even back in the day, “Children” was criticized for two-dimensional characters and juvenile storyline, but at the same time, it was highly popular with young (and not so young) men and boys as a source of adventures and heroics.

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Book Review of “Star Wars: Heir to the Empire” by Timothy Zahn (plus a few extras)

heir

© James Pyles

Yes, this is a book review, but I need to lay a little groundwork first.

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When online strife over what “Star Wars” as a franchise has become gets to be too much, I always return to watching the original trilogy. Nothing seems to capture what “Star Wars” is to me like those films.

I haven’t watched the prequels in some time. I’d probably enjoy them. I did when I first watched them. At the same time, the thrill wasn’t the same. For one thing, Anakin’s eventual fall to the dark side didn’t have the same horrific tone as did Luke’s final battle with Vader in Return of the Jedi (1983). After all we expect Anakin to become Darth Vader. No one knew for sure what would happen to Luke until it did.

As far as the sequel trilogy, I won’t even get into it. It was too flawed from the beginning to be able to carry the legacy of Lucas’ vision. The fact that Disney in general and Kathleen Kennedy in specific were in charge didn’t help.

I haven’t watched any of the Disney+ shows although I have heard all the angst about them on social media.

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Zone 7

farm

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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“The recorder’s on. Go ahead and read what’s on the card.” Mr. Newman had a soft voice and it sounded creepy, not like Dad’s or Grandpa’s.

“My name is José Raymond Phillips. I’m ten years old. My family has been assigned to Zone 7: Jordanville in upstate New York. How am I doing, Mr. Newman?”

“Just fine, but keep to the script. Its just for your records.”

“Okay. Well, anyway…I live in Zone 7 on the Jordanville farm with other families. We are happy here and enjoy the work and the outdoors. My Dad let me drive the tractor for the first…”

“That’s not in the script, José.”

“Sorry, I just got excited.”

“I’m turning off the recorder. Take a few minutes to compose yourself. Then we’ll try again.”

“Why do I have to make this recording?”

“It’s for your official records.”

“You mean like school records?”

Newman chuckled in a way that was scary. “No, not exactly. We just want to show people that you like being in a zone and that you are happy. You’re happy, aren’t you?”

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Dinnertime

farm

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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Sam grasped the fence post as nausea doubled him over. The throb on this right side spread around to his back. He wondered just how long seventy years of debauchery would take to kill him.

“Can’t be.” He tried to shake off his headache and clear his vision. “It is. But it can’t be. They’ve been dead for over 50 years. The old farm was sold at auction. It’s a damned subdivision now.”

Grandma stepped out of the barn and waved at him. “Sammy. Dinner’s about ready. Come on home.”

The twelve-year old boy scrambled down the path toward Heaven.

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2024 Hugo Award Nominations Meltdown

solar flare

On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth’s magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3. Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

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I didn’t think I’d ever write about the Hugo Awards, Worldcon and SFWA again. I entered the game too late for the 2015 Sad Puppies drama and trauma (and I’m glad I did).

However, that event and the chatter in subsequent years led me to take a hard look at Worldcon and the Hugos. When I was a much younger science fiction reader, I thought winning a Hugo, a Saturn, or some other big name SF/F award meant it passed a rigorous and objective test of quality.

Boy, was I an idiot.

I found out that, in the modern era, science fiction works pass a rigorous test of political and social alignment with the (far) left by several hundred voters max, and that’s what wins an award.

What a disappointment. I can (sort of) see why the people behind the “puppies” did what they did in the misguided belief that they could balance the scales and make these awards more egalitarian. However, breaking into someone else’s party just to spike the punch, so to speak, is bad form, too.

I figured Worldcon et al., had finally purged all traces of conservativism and offensiveness from their ranks, the last trauma of such being the George R.R. Martin 2020 Hugo Controversy (which fortunately didn’t affect the popularity of Martin’s books).

So, I was surprised when I found out that currently there is Panic at the Hugos. What happened now? Can’t they ever create a perfect echo chamber for themselves?

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My Novelette “Ice” is FREE from January 20-25, 2024! Download NOW!

ice

Cover art for my fantasy novelette “Ice”

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Here it is. My 2021 SciFi fantasy thriller “Ice,” is a FREE download from Amazon onto your kindle device from Saturday, January 20th to January 25th, 2024 Pacific (USA) Time. That’s right, FREE.

It’s certainly been cold enough in a lot of places lately, but not as cold as the world of Ice.

In the far future, the battle between the gods of fire and ice has long concluded. Fire won and all of the ice across the entire Planet Earth has melted creating strange coastlines and inner seas filled with danger and excitement.

It is in this world that Captain Ki-Moon Jong and his sailing merchant ship the Star of Jindo ply their trade up and down the eastern coast of what was once known as South America.

But then, another ship violates the sacred code of the sea by abandoning one of its crew at the seaport Puerto Gallegos and then making for unknown waters, disappearing from existence.

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Time Travel Stories Are Just Wish Fulfillment

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“I told you it wouldn’t work. Now will you leave me alone? I’m trying to get something written.” Ken Carson sat staring at a blank Word page on the computer screen without an idea of what to type.

“We just need to refine the process.”

When the Time Traveler first appeared in Ken’s home office, he said, “Just call me Ray.” Ray was a head shorter than Ken, slender and with a face that could have have been a mix of a lot of backgrounds.

“Refine, my ass. Every time I go back, I screw things up. Sure, the first date with Barbara goes fine, the first few years of our marriage, but then I fuck it up.”

“You needed to stop drinking. That might have helped.”

“I knew that wouldn’t work when you sent me back the last time, so I broke up with her.”

“Then had a pity party, hooked up with that woman at a bar…”

She was actually a friend, which made it worse.”

“…she became pregnant, decided not to have an abortion…” Ray continued.

“I know. I was there. That’s my point. I can’t fix my past so I’m stuck in my present. No matter what I do, I make life worse.”

“Worse than it is now?”

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Haunting Ice

ice

PHOTO PROMPT © Jennifer Pendergast

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Twelve-year-old Isabella used to resent having to spend two-weeks in January in Dad’s frozen cabin in the middle of nowhere. Two solid weeks of cold, gray suck.

She was in the mud room getting ready to go outside so Dad and step-mom could “try to make her a baby sibling.”

“Disgusting.”

She grabbed her skates. She would never use them again after she almost fell through the ice. Billy saved her just in time. Since then, she went to the pond to talk with Billy every day. He’d fallen through when he was her age. Now he’s the pond’s ghost.

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Inheritors

bishop ring

Artist illustration of a Bishop Ring space habitat. Image Credit: Neil Blevins – 2018

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Cornell Jackson’s hands were shaking as he and Administrator Rosa Mendez were forced at gunpoint to disable the alarms on the secure wing of the Achyuta ring’s top security facility in the spinward end of Rama City.

“I want to see it for myself. You said you had the answer.” Hunter Moran had been a Major in Perumal ring’s defense force, but that was before the biospheres of the first four Bishop’s rings started dying. Now he was a terrorist. No, that wasn’t fair. Cornell felt the same panic as he did, as everyone did. After over a hundred-and-fifty years of developing the five colony rings in orbit around Alpha Mensae, their biospheres started to collapse. Excess carbon dioxide was impossible to purge, food crops were dying, and oceans and lakes on each ring were developing toxic algae growths. In less than a decade, almost all life, especially human life, would go extinct and no one knew why…well, almost.

Moran and his military coalition from the other four rings arrived two weeks ago. They had overridden the automatic meteor guard, landed their shuttles along the rim spaceports, and declared Martial Law on the last viable ring.

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The “Quantum Leap” Sequel We Might Have Had

bell

Screenshot from the video “Unsolved Mysteries Of Quantum Leap With Donald P. Bellisario”

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I know I said I was done with the current incarnation of Quantum Leap and for very good reasons. If I want to watch the franchise, I’ll stick to the original, classic Quantum Leap starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell.

However, I was visiting Ars Technica for an entirely different reason and came across a video called Unsolved Mysteries: Unsolved Mysteries of Quantum Leap with Donald P. Bellisario. If you didn’t know, Bellisario has created a number of terrific TV shows including the aforementioned Quantum Leap (and even is involved in it’s current expression).

The current show debuted on NBC on September 19, 2022, but this video was released on May 25, 2021, almost sixteen months before the Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, and Ernie Hudson led program. What Bellisario said in the video makes it seem as if he had no knowledge that another show, a sort of sequel, would be created. Maybe he said all these things before he was approached, or maybe the Ars Technica video was made well before it was released.

The video was edited to make it appear as if the super-computer Ziggy were interviewing Bellisario, and contains some interesting if not astonishing insights. I’ll relate some of the questions and answers but you can watch the entire interview (see below) for complete details.

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