Posts Tagged ‘time travel’
The Original Girl Who Waited
Posted on: April 14, 2013
I rewatched one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes the other night, “The Girl in the Fireplace”. In this episode, The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey arrive in an abandoned spaceship. The crew are nowhere to be found but an immense amount of energy is being expended to do, well, something. It’s discovered the different windows in the ship look into 18th century France and focus on the life of Reinette, soon be known as Madame de Pompadour.
Hello little girl! ehhm, what year is it?
When the Doctor first discovers the connection between the abandoned wreck and Reinette, she’s a little girl, maybe 7 years old, and she sees him through her fireplace. They talk a moment, the connection is broken, and a few minutes later the Doctor is able to speak to her again. It’s been just minutes for him, but for Reinette it’s been weeks. The Doctor saves her from a mechanical automaton that states it’s waiting for her to be completed.
The mystery of the episode is what happened to the crew of the ship? What’s with all these beautiful clockwork automatons who are planning to kill Reinette when she’s “complete”? And why in the world would a ship be obsessed with the life of Madame de Pompadour?
clockwork automatons may be totally creepy. . .
. . . but are in fact rather empty headed
- In: Kage Baker
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In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker
published in 1997
where I got it: library
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I’d read Kage Baker’s The Anvil of the World a while ago and loved it, but where to begin with the rest of her works? Why not start at the beginning, with her first novel, In the Garden of Iden? Her first “Company” series book, In the Garden of Iden is told in a diary style by Mendoza, a young company operative who is reminiscing about her youth and her first mission.
Saved as a young girl from the Spanish Inquisition, Mendoza is recruited into The Company, a 24th century organization of time travel and artifact hunting. Instead of sending people or cyborgs back in time to collect specimens or change history, they send a few people back with all the technology, recruit “natives”, and offer them immortality and cyborg implants in exchange for being a Company operative. It sounds gruesome, but Mendoza happily takes this over starving to death in an Inquisition prison. As a native, Mendoza knows the languages and the customs like the back of her hand.
Yes, this is a futuristic scifi book that takes place one hundred percent in the 16th century. That’s pretty damn awesome when you think about it. Remember Joss Whedon’s show Dollhouse? Garden of Iden had a bit of that feel, with operatives being trained to act and roleplay and dress and walk in a certain way, except no hypnotizing or brain scans. All the operatives remember everything that happens to them with perfect clarity. And some of them have been working for The Company for centuries. All of a sudden that sounds awesome, and, uh, really creepy.
Welcome to Vintage Science Fiction Month! my first review is for Clifford Simak’s The Goblin Reservation. I’ve been meaning to read Simak for a while now, and this was the perfect place to start. A lifelong newspaperman, Simak started selling short stories to the SF pulp magazines in the 1930s, and by 1940 became a regular contributor to Astounding Stories, and would continue writing science fiction and fantasy for the next 4 decades. Enjoy!
The Goblin Reservation
written in 1968
where I got it: purchased used (the copy on the left is mine, the copy on the right belongs to another friend. We were comparing cover art)
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I actually read this book about a month ago, and I’m kicking myself for not taking better notes, or not just writing the review back when I read it.
In this future, Earth has become renowned for its universities, we have interstellar travel (similar to the transporters from Star Trek), alien civilizations, and Time travel. In fact the University has an entire college devoted to Time Travel, with the specialty of sending researchers back in Time to bring back artifacts, data, even people and animals. While civilians might enjoy having saber toothed tigers as pets, the History and English departments can’t stand those jerks over at Time, who keep proving published history to be wrong or incomplete. The English department just about has kittens when Time brings William Shakespeare into the future, and he happily admits to having not written the plays. You can’t help but chuckle at that!
At the beginning of the story, professor Peter Maxwell is returning from a trip to another planet, and he finds to his surprise that he’d already returned a few weeks ago, and died in an accident. Once he convinces the authorities that he truly is Peter Maxwell, and really is alive and well, he realizes that since everyone thought he was dead his apartment has been rented to someone else and his job at the University doesn’t exist anymore. It’s discovered that while Peter was being transported from Earth to the planet he was supposed to be researching, his signal was split. One Peter went where he was expected to go (and then back to Earth and killed) and the other Peter was diverted to an amazing Crystal Planet where the natives offered him their knowledge of the universe, so long as Peter was willing to negotiate the sale to Earth. Knowledge isn’t free, and the aliens want something the Time University has.
The best books I read this year
Posted on: December 12, 2012
It’s that wonderful time of the year again! When we bake cookies and get cards in the mail and forget that we need extra time to warm up our cars in these cold, cold mornings.
It’s also time to talk about the best books we’ve read this year. I confess, I cheated a little on my list, I didn’t limit myself to books that came out in 2012, I’ve even got a reread on the list. Mostly space opera, a little fantasy and time travel, even a YA book made the list! In no particular order, here are my top books that I read this year, with review excerpts and links to the review should you feel so inclined to learn more about the titles that rocked my world this past year.
Redhead’s Best of 2012
Faith, by John Love (2012) – I read this all the way back in February, I knew right then it would make my best of the year list. An amazing debut from author John Love, Faith is a dark and tense stand alone science fiction novel. The pages drip with a danger and fear that doesn’t quickly dissipate after you’ve put the book down. This isn’t a book for everyone (that’s a polite way of saying it has lots of violence, amorality and swear words), but for those of us that like this sort of thing, Faith is quite the hidden gem.
(full review here, and I got to interview the author here)
Silently and Very Fast, by Catherynne M. Valente (2012) – has anyone been putting out short stories, novellas and full length novels as fast as Valente? she’s the hardest working writer I know, and this year she got to walk away with Hugo for Best FanCast to show for it. it’s no secret that Valente is one of my favorite authors, and the Hugo nominated Silently and Very Fast is certainly her most science fictional piece. With her signature flair for poetic metaphor and lyrical storytelling, this novella follows the life of Elefsis, a house AI who was told fairytales by the human children in the house. To Elefsis, life is a fairytale, and it should have a happy ending.
(full review here)
Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht (2012) – I don’t read a lot of urban fantasy, but when I do it’s a treat for it to be a beautifully written as this series (the 2nd book And Blue Skies from Pain came out later in 2012). Northern Ireland, the 1970s, Liam Kelly would prefer to live a normal life. He’s not interested in getting arrested or learning secrets about his heritage. But all of those things are very interested in him, and in destroying everything in his life that he cares about. Leicht spoiled me for urban fantasy. I am eagerly awaiting future novels in this series.
(full review here)
The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers
published in 1983
where I got it: that one bookshelf where my favorite books are.
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The short version of this review is that The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers is utterly brilliant and amazing. Aren’t sure if time travel books are your thing? Doesn’t matter, this book transcends. Aren’t sure if Tim Powers is for you? He transcends all as well, and you can learn more about him in my Why You Should be Reading Tim Powers article.
here’s the long version:
Brendan Doyle lives a remarkably boring life. An expert in the lives of the romantic poets, Doyle tracks down obscure manuscripts and gets papers published in even more obscure literary magazines. When he flies to London to meet with wealthy yet eccentric J. Cochran Darrow, Doyle’s in it for the money. this crazy old guy wants to pay Doyle a million dollars to give an hour lecture about Samuel Taylor Coleridge to a dinner party? No problem. that money will go a long way towards Doyle’s research of an obscure poet who was in London around the same time as Coleridge, William Ashbless.
Except it’s not just any dinner party, and this isn’t just any old rich guy. J. Cochran Darrow has discovered how to jump through time. Brendan will give his lecture, answer a few questions, and then entire group, Darrow, Brendan, and the guests, will travel through time to 1810 see Coleridge himself. Everything must be timing perfectly, as these breaks in the river of time are sometimes only open for a few hours.
The only predictable scene happens when the time travel jump is successful, everything is going swimmingly, and suddenly Doyle gets separated from the group and is left behind in 1810. Abandoned, yet hopeful, Doyle has a plan. He knows the exact time and date that Ashbless wrote a famous poem at a tavern in London. If Doyle can survive for a week, he can approach Ashbless and hopefully work with the man. Should Doyle ever get back to modern day London, he’d be able to write the ultimate Ashbless biography.
But Darrow isn’t the only person jumping through time. A few someone elses, many hundreds of years ago, used arcane magic to open these gates in time. These ancient magicians have forsaken their connection with the earth, and wear heels, platform clogs, and even spring heeled shoes to keep their flesh as far from the Earth as possible. Even J. Cochran Darrow has his own ulterior motives.
Clockwork Rocket, by Greg Egan
Posted on: September 17, 2012
- In: Greg Egan
- 10 Comments
Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan
published in 2011
where I got it: purchased new
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Three cheers to Egan for being wildly innovative and offering a triple threat in Clockwork Rocket – a four dimensional world that has it’s own physics, a fully developed alien race with it’s own cultural norms and unique biology, and to top it off he’s placed his story in a time where our aliens are experiencing an enlightening time, a period full of scientific exploration and inventions, where physicists and chemists are learning the rules of how their universe works, the beginning of their modern age. Egan certainly is ambitious, I’ll give him that.
Clockwork Rocket opens with our main character Yalda, as she leaves her rural home and ventures into the big city for an education at the university. Many people feel that it’s a waste to educate women, but Yalda’s father felt all his children should have the opportunity for an education. Egan drops the reader into the story in the deep end, but don’t worry, all will be revealed.
As Yalda completes her education, she falls in with a feminist group, a group of women who have either left their mates, or have decided they aren’t interested in mating, and all of whom illegally take birth control chemicals. Birth control is incredibly important, and not for the obvious reasons. These beings have completely different biology than we do, and telling you more would be a major spoiler. As interesting as that is, it’s not even the main plot line. Yalda and her fellow physicists have discovered something very dangerous that’s hurtling through space towards their planet. Something that is moving orthoganally, at an angle to the expected dimensions. Their society is just discovering science, just discovering the laws of physics, how can they possibly come up with the technology needed to save their planet?
Jack of Ravens (Kingdom of the Serpent, book 1), by Mark Chadbourn
published in 2012 by Pyr books
where I got it: received advanced readers copy from Pyr
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His memory shattered, Jack Churchill (who goes by “Church”) wakes up in the middle of a fantasical battle. Magically glowing sword in hand, he fells a giant, laughs at the nickname “Jack giantkiller”, and is sent by the local sorcerer on a spirit quest. Along with a few other villagers, Church learns he is a Brother of Dragons – a champion for existence. There must always be five Brothers and Sisters of the Dragon for existence to be victorious. Still, he can’t remember how he got there. All Jack remembers is that he is a man of our time, and he needs to get back to Ruth, the woman he loves. When he is a approached by a few woman who promises him everything his heart desires, how could he say no?
(disclosure: This is my first Mark Chadbourn, but I believe it is linked to some other series/trilogies he has written? Let me know in the comments)
So starts Church’s adventures, whisked to the fey world, where all the creatures of our collective myths exist, and then to different time periods in Earth’s history, all on a mission as a Champion of Existence, all to stop the mysterious Army of Spiders. His allies include Niamh, a Queen of the Fey courts; Jerzy, a deformed and tortured jester; Will Swyfte, an infamous spy, and whatever mortals that can be awakened into their destinies of being brothers and sisters of the Dragon.
There is a war on, and it is between hope and despair, between existence and the end of all things. What hope does Church have, if he can’t seem to ever catch up with the leader of the Army of Spiders, known only as The Libertarian? When you are fighting against despair itself, the enemy can and will be hiding anywhere. In this kind of fight, hope will only get you so far.
Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon (Burton & Swinburn #3) by Mark Hodder
published in January 2011
where I got it: received review copy from Pyr
why I read it: Highly enjoyed the first two books in the series, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man.
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Shortly after starting this book, I had two predictions. and I was right on both of them.
The year is 1863, but not as it should be. Two decades of unrestrained genetic engineering and eugenics have nearly covered London with the giant hollowed out insects filled with steam powered machinery, foul mouthed messenger birds and fouler breathed messenger dog-things. Sir Richard Francis Burton has always felt an outsider in London, but things are getting out of control, even for him.
After an attempt on his life, Burton is approached by Prime Minister Palmerston to return to Africa. The trip will be publicized as another attempt to find the source of the Nile, but in reality, Palmerston has tasked Burton with finding the African Eyes of the Naga. The Eyes, black diamonds that fell as asteroids, had already been found in Cambodia and South America. Connected to an impossible myth, the shards of the diamonds can retain thoughts impressed upon them. And Burton isn’t the only one searching for the Eyes.
But meanwhile, we have another story line happening. It’s 1914, and in the trenches of a Great War far more horrific that the one in your history books, a man has lost his memory. Befriended by a journalist who recognizes him, the man very slowly regains his memories. What he remembers is even more impossible than the Great War his eyes are showing him.
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Published in 1992
Where I got it: purchased used
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In the future, historians don’t just study the past, they visit it. In 2048 the technology that allows time travel is still rather new, so calculations are double checked and triple checked. At Oxford, Kivrin has been studying for years with Dr. Dunworthy to qualify to travel back to the early 1300s. Armed with inoculations against the plague and other diseases, a translator, and a recorder embedded in her wrist, Kivrin is as prepared as anyone could be. What could possibly go wrong?
Kivrin refers to her ‘corder as the Domesday Book, in reference to the records of life in the middle ages that were created for William the Conquerer, and she starts recording as soon as she arrives in the past. But something has already gone wrong. If she can only get to the village in the valley, perhaps someone can help her. Maybe they know the name of the town, or of the village. But she is so cold, and so dizzy all of a sudden. . .
Meanwhile, back in merry old modern (comparatively) times England, other people aren’t feeling well either. As a dangerous illness spreads across Oxford, quarantines are put into place and medications start to run low. Dr. Dunworthy needs to be sure that Kivrin arrived in the right place, and even more important, in the right when. With a narrative that jumps back and forth between Middle Ages England and 2048, Willis keeps keeps the suspense high.
Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora by Philip Hinchcliffe
published in 1977
where I got it: purchased used
why I read it: I is a novice Whovian
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I love it when I pop into my local family owned bookstore and they say “we just got in a ton of classic scifi, come take a look!” So up to the attic I went, startled a sleeping cat (every bookstore should have a cat. or two), and found an entire shelf of classic Doctor Who books. But which to choose? my first Doctor was Eccleston, and these books predated him by about 30 years.
They all looked great, and were in like-new condition, so I randomly chose Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora. How could I say no that dazzling smile? Now that I’ve read it, I can’t wait to go back this weekend and get another one. or two.
This book is based on one of the TV serials, but I’ve only ever seen a few minutes here and there of the older Doctor Who tv shows. How can I call myself a Doctor Who fan if I haven’t seen the originals? Eh, as far as I’m concerned there were only three Star Wars movies ever made.
The back of the book gave the basics of the plot, The Doctor and Sarah Jane (what a wonderful surprise, I love her!!) get sucked into the Mandragora Helix, fly the TARDIS right through it, and accidentally take some of the Helix energy with them. The TARDIS lands them in the middle of a beautiful orchard in 15th century Italy. On the property of a family going through a power struggle. As an uncle and nephew fight to rule, a court astrologer is trying to take power for himself through the local pagan cult. Throw in some very hungry and mildly intelligent Mandragoran energy, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a disaster that only the Doctor can fix.
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