Note that this post has little to do with astronomy or astrophotography, so if that's your only interest save yourself some time and move along 😉
I've been astro-inactive for a while. There haven't been many opportunities for imaging; spring of 2025 in Minnesota has been cold and cloudy at night and sporting occasional snowfalls that recoat the ground. More important is that my wife had knee replacement surgery near the end of March; I've been home acting as her caregiver until she regains her mobility so even if the weather had been cooperative I really couldn't have be going out all night for imaging sessions.
What I've been doing instead is taking advantage of waiting room time by reading recent science-fiction novels. Given my age it's hardly a surprise that most of my sci-fi reading in the past has been of Golden Age authors (Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke) with some of the 1960s and 70s anthologies of other authors mixed in. Larry Niven features large in these because I like hard sci-fi. I'm not entirely stuck in the past, though. I've read most of Ursula Le Guin's novels, much of Connie Willis's work, and several books by David Brin. And yes, even all three Three-Body Problem novels (more or less).
For My wife's post-op month I decided it was time to see what current sci-fi writers are creating. I decided the Hugo Awards would serve as a good guide and started reading my way through the last decade of winning novels. I hesitated at first given that the Hugos include fantasy but decided blending in some "soft" fiction would be good way to grow out of the hard sci-fi rut I was in.
Here are the first two weeks of intensive page turning summarized in capsule reviews, with a few notes for people who don't want to read certain types of content. The year shown is that of the associated Hugo award.
2024 Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh.
This is the story of a woman born and raised on an asteroid fitted out as a militarized stronghold. It's the last, best hope of humanity to resist the conquest of the Majo, a collection of alien species slowly expanding its influence through the galaxy.
Tesh writes in a way that challenges you to keep up with the story; her style reminded me of Le Guin's in The Lathe of Heaven. While some reviewers semi-dismissively lump the story into the "space opera" category, I think it has some significant things to say about both technology and humanity. The plot leaned a little too much on the deus ex machina trope, but the pacing kept me from being overly bothered.
Content Notes: AS, SC and a whole lot of violence.
2023 Nettle & Bone, by Ursula Vernon
Characterized as a dark fairy tale, this is pure fantasy with kingdoms, princesses, and spell-casting godmothers. It reads as an adult, grittier take on childhood fantasies. I had a little trouble with what seemed like a sluggish start, but once the author started adding supporting characters the pacing improved greatly, becoming a mix of humor and drama.
And then there's the scene in the Goblin Market, which alone is worth the price of the book.
2020 A Memory Called Empire and 2022 A Desolation Called Peace, both by Arkady Martine.
At one level these explore the ramifications of a technology that permits the transfer of knowledge, experience, and to some extent personality from one person to another. (The method here is strictly technological and not biological as with the symbionts of Star Trek.) The focus is on a woman thrown into the role of ambassador to a galactic empire. She's only somewhat prepared for what happens, and part of the fun and terror is her having to cope with an alien (albeit human) culture. The author's world-building is based on real past human empires and is fascinating to see unfold.
Fans of Babylon 5 may wonder if the author intentionally borrowed from that TV series. The protagonist comes from a large, rotating space station (some of the descriptions could fit the Babylon 5 station). There are jump gates that permit movement through the empire and the empire itself resembles what the Centauri might have become if not checked by other spacefaring races and their own lapse into decadence. There's even an aged, ailing Emperor with intrigue between those maneuvering to be his successor. Oh, and let's not forget the mysterious attacks by large, shimmering black, and cloaked vessels from far jumpgates. They sometimes scream as they depart.
I don't mean any of that as complaint. If you want an extensive empire with far-flung possessions spanning tens of parsecs, you need to explain some way of getting around that old wet blanket Einstein. Jumpgates, wormholes, warp drives, hyperspace, folded space, infinite improbability drives, or whatever, numerous authors have already explored the territory. As long as you don't steal technology by its proper name (Sheewash Drive, for example) you're fine. The story is more important than the mundane tech bits.
The quality of the writing is what matters, and in these two novels it more than compensates.
Content Notes: AS, SC
2021 Network Effect, by Martha Wells
This is the fifth entry (and first novel) in a series call the Murderbot Diaries. I've only read the introductory novella (2017's All Sytems Red) , and it was a fast, breezy, and intriguing read. Network Effect is a full-length novel and it's recommended that one read everything leading up to it before taking the plunge. So I'm making the collection a birthday gift suggestion and it might be my reading material for this summer's Northern Nights Star Fest (if I'm not stuck at home when her other knee is replaced!)
Content Notes: Lots of violence, as you might expect when the protagonist is named Murderbot.
2019 The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal
It's no spoiler to say this is an alternative history novel. If you don't mind reading about the many injustices inflicted on 1950s women and minorities (both religious and racial) this is an enjoyable throwback novel that in many ways is very remindful of the 2016 book and movie Hidden Figures.
The story combines both hard science and social commentary. The writing is adequate, occasionally rising to excellent -- particularly at the conclusion. This is the first book in a series of three.
My suspension of disbelief was mildly tested by what I felt like was an overstatement of what the described technology was capable of doing.
2016 The Fifth Season, 2017 The Obelisk Gate, and 2018 The Stone Sky, all by N. K. Jemisin
Yes, an unprecedented three consecutive Hugo awards!
These are world-building carried to an amazing extreme. At this time I'm in the third book and would love to explain what's happening, but my understanding of it is a work in progress. Riding along with the characters as they try to understand what's happening to their world is a big part of the fun.
The story unfolds in a rather unconventional manner, but that's in keeping with the plot. I'd say more, but it's almost impossible to do so without resorting to spoilers.
Content Notes: Quite a bit of violence, much of it like something from a very dark version of Frozen.
2015 The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu)
This wasn't read during this month's blitz, but I'm including it to round out the decade. This introduces a very alien culture and instantiates the Dark Forest answer to the Fermi Paradox. I enjoyed this book, but found the subsequent two novels (The Dark Forest and Death's End) so unreadable that I hopped rapidly through them to reduce the pain.
Content Notes: Mind-numbing content (mainly in book three and the second half of book two.)
Content Notes for those to whom these things are important:
AS: Alternative sexualities. I found these were important to the plots, but you may feel differently.
SC: Non-gratuitous Sexual Content. Interestingly, it was The Calculating Stars that had the most explicit sex, suggesting that the author was making the story compatible with readers of romance novels. The only sex scene that felt a little out of place was in A Desolation Called Peace. (And no, I'm not going to tell you what chapter it was in so you can just skip right to it.)
All the stories involve spoken vulgarities, and most feature violence of varying degree.
If you're someone who resents anything that seems the least bit "woke," I'd suggest you stick to the Hugo winners from several decades past. Better yet, focus on the Retro Hugo Awards that recognize works from 1939 to 1954. Two of my favorite stories are there, Asimov's 1951 winner Pebble in the Sky (the first sci-fi I read) and Clarke's 1954 nominee Childhood's End. The latter is an amazing story, and it only lost the award because it was up against the equally amazing and iconic Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury.
Just so you know, my wife's recovery is coming along wonderfully, and I truly hope that my next post will include some astrophotography news.
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Tariff Watch:
The Rokinon 135mm lens Canon version continues to hold at $449 (at B&H), but with the announcement of yesterday's new tariffs I wouldn't be surprised to see the price rise again later this month as inventory is replenished.