I’m generally not a fan of the horror genre. That and my brother’s firmly stated dislike of Stephen King’s work Yes, Virginia, there IS a multiverse!
I’m generally not a fan of the horror genre. That and my brother’s firmly stated dislike of Stephen King’s work (our tastes seem reasonably closely aligned) kept me from trying anything by King for until I was firmly ensconced in my eighth decade of reading. Other than serendipity and finding a free copy in one of our Local Free Library boxes, I can’t imagine what prompted me to start with an immense chunkster like 11/22/63! But start it I did … and my reaction is hands down “WOW”! 11/22/63 is a page turner for every one of its 1100 pages.
If somebody suggested to me that it was possible to create a novel that dumped historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, dystopia, alternate history, and romance into a genre blender to create a credible and completely compelling novel that would have me holding my breath through the length of a 1000+ page doorstopper, I would in turn have suggested that they get their head read. 11/22/63 fits the bill.
A time portal or an alternate world portal is a well-worn fantasy trope. Indeed a reader of fantasy and science fiction would not raise many eyebrows if they suggested it was over-used. But once Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in small town Maine steps through a time portal and finds himself in a very racist, very misogynist, very McCarthy-esque anti-Communist mid-20th century USA, Stephen King’s awesome story-telling ability will carry you away.
The pathos in King’s description of an essay from one of Epping’s students describing his father’s sledge-hammer slaughter of their entirely family was heartbreaking. The heartwarming evolution of Epping’s love for fellow teacher Sadie Dunhill (in the past, mind you) would put to shame any efforts by any romance author you care to name. There’s a fabulously clever twist. Epping’s presence in the past invokes the well known butterfly effect and changes his subsequent future BUT any return visit to the past resets everything to where it was before his first step through the portal. Now THAT would put a smile on any successful sci-fi or fantasy author’s face. The new past and alternate future history created by Epping’s interference in the events in 1963 Dallas is disturbing and completely terrifying.
Taking a cue from Alfred Hitchcock’s working manuals and his perennial cameo appearances in his movies, King manages to squeeze in any number of sneaky references to Pennywise, the evil clown of IT fame. (I’m betting there were other references to previous novels sprinkled throughout the story but – as I said – I haven’t read any other King novels so, if they were there, they went right over my head).
Did I say that I hadn’t read any other King novels? That’s a situation I plan to change very quickly.
“No amount of preparation would ever make the sensation of having his nostrils shoved inside his ass as he was squeezed to the size of tardigrade r“No amount of preparation would ever make the sensation of having his nostrils shoved inside his ass as he was squeezed to the size of tardigrade remotely pleasant.”
Passing “through a micro black hole that connected with the right dimension” is obviously a pretty tricky and physically demanding feat, LOL!!
I suspect it’s a simple truism that it’s impossible to find an anthology in which every story knocks the ball out of the park. So let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
A SONG OF DARK THINGS and MESSING WITH THE MULTIVERSE are, not to put too fine a point on it, simply indecipherable. They’re clearly included based on the stated anthology theme of “mystic portals”, “alternate dimensions” and “undiscovered landscapes” but I don’t think the intention was for their plots to remain undiscovered as well. In this reality, the editors of UNKNOWN REALMS would have done well to omit these two laggards as they are the ONLY weak entrants in a rock-solid anthology of winners!
As to the rest, THE MIDNIGHT CITY, for example, is at once a heartbreaking and heartwarming tale dealing with the emotional fallout of a friend’s suicide when one feels in significant part responsible for that suicide in the first place. THE DEMON OF CORPUS CHRISTI is a sweet little paranormal short in which an author solves the perennially recurring problem of writer’s block. MICROSCOPIC MAYHEM is a sci-fi treasure and, if I may say so, with a slight modification of character names and descriptions and a minor change-up in the terms used for technology, it would serve admirably as a screenplay for a STAR TREK episode in any of its incarnations. Brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable, humorous in good measure, exciting, high-speed space opera on board a starship with time and space travel capability.
I could go on but suffice it to say that every one of the tales in UNKNOWN REALMS save the two noted weak links in the chain are solid four- to five-star champions. I’ll definitely be looking for a couple of the collections referred to in closing marketing blurbs, A TWIST OF FATE: A Twisted Fairy Tale Anthology and COUNTERCLOCKWISE: A Time Travel Anthology. Yessirree, definitely recommended!
I purchased this gem at a local book fair so, with considerable thanks, I'll pass along extra kudos and two thumbs-up to the proud Canadian authors included.
"... in point of blunt, regrettable fact, human life has always been a rather cheap commodity."
If you're a fan of late Golden Age sci-fi then, at "... in point of blunt, regrettable fact, human life has always been a rather cheap commodity."
If you're a fan of late Golden Age sci-fi then, at a mere 144 pages, THE HORN OF TIME will prove to be a pleasant if unmemorable four or five hour diversion that will sit well inside your reading wheelhouse. Poul Anderson has penned a diverting series of half a dozen short stories that tick a number of boxes that sci-fi fans have come to know and love - war and space opera; interstellar travel; planetary colonization; evolution; and time travel, for example. He has even dropped in a passing tribute to Isaac Asimov's creation of Hari Seldon and the field of probabilistic psychohistory.
Recommended to be sure as a diverting, interesting read but it's not enough to send me out into the streets whooping with admiration!
“The planet was dying … exactly on the schedule predicted”
THE DEPTHS OF TIME is a modern space opera written with complex, expansive themes on an eno“The planet was dying … exactly on the schedule predicted”
THE DEPTHS OF TIME is a modern space opera written with complex, expansive themes on an enormous canvas that uses time travel as a device to place living characters over a period of hundreds of years and a geography that encompasses hundreds of light years. Captain Anton Koffield, later to be promoted to Rear Admiral locked away on useless make-work projects, is perceived by the world at large as a villain. His decision to shut down access to a wormhole to prevent the violation of causality and the certain creation of dangerous time paradoxes, resulted in the destruction of a small fleet of cargo ships destined for a terraforming project over 100 light years distant from home base on earth. Despite the fact that he was forced by his duty to act exactly as he did, Koffield found himself cast in the role of being the cause of the ultimate death of the planet, “a villain who killed a world”.
Although the first few chapters moved at a dazzling, proverbial light speed, the novel ultimately settles into a more contemplative, low speed mental challenge that deals with Koffield’s discoveries about the basis of terraforming and the destiny of off-world colonies. THE DEPTHS OF TIME is a challenging, interesting, provocative novel that takes concentration – no, make that intense concentration – and patience. And, (I suspect that I’m not alone in this one), it occurred to me to wonder if Roger MacBride Allen’s relationship with Isaac Asimov didn’t bring him to put more than a little of Hari Seldon’s psychohistory into Ulan Baskaw’s mathematical principles underlying the science of terraforming and the future colonization of these planetary projects. For what it’s worth, I also see the possibility that Oskar DeSilvo, the architect of Solace, the colony that appears to be desperately close to the edge of failure, and the erstwhile genius who singlehandedly created the entire science of terraforming, may be cast in the role of “Mule” for the second and third novels in Allen’s trilogy. My personal jury is out on that for the moment.
I should rush to add that I’m not accusing THE DEPTHS OF TIME as being derivative in any way. Personally, I think it’s much more likely that MacBride Allen’s plot ideas are riffs on Asimov’s themes of long-term, probabilistic mathematics applying to big projects and a way of paying homage to the good doctor’s ideas and mastery of sci-fi as a genre.
And now it’s on to THE OCEAN OF YEARS, the second instalment in THE CHRONICLES OF SOLACE trilogy.
From the very birth of the conception of time travel, sci-fi authors and scientists alike have wrestled with theA clever twist to resolve the paradox!
From the very birth of the conception of time travel, sci-fi authors and scientists alike have wrestled with the difficulties of time travel paradoxes most commonly expressed in the question of what would happen if you killed your grandfather during your trip to the past. In TIME TUNNEL, Murray Leinster has treated his readers to what was probably the first (and quite possibly the best) instance of the infuriating mental tangles that one can encounter when the immutability of the progression of real time collides with the flexibility of time travel.
Leinster has crafted a positively ingenious combination of characters into a fascinating novel of high adventure that will both delight and fascinate his fans - a scientist who felt compelled to change the past in order to rescue the future from an impending atomic war between China and the US; young lovers who, fearing for their lives in a war-torn modern world, felt compelled to flee to a safer past; a 20th century burglar and con artist who realized the early 19th century was ripe for the plucking; and a playboy who was horrified to watch his grandfather die unmarried and childless.
The story begins in 1964 when Harrison, completing research for his PhD thesis in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, discovers long-buried correspondence showing that, in 1805, a gentleman named de Bassompierre had written to certain scientists handing out modern knowledge long before its acknowledged discovery. In one case, for example, "He wrote to Laplace, the astronomer, assuring him that Mars had two moons, very small and very close to its surface. He also said that there were three planets beyond Saturn, and that the one next out had a period of eighty-four years and two moons, one retrograde. He suggested that it should be called Uranus. He added that in the year 1808 there would be a nova in Persis, (which there was!) and he signed himself very respectfully, de Bassompierre." When Harrison and his friend, Pepe Ybarra, reach the conclusion that de Bassompierre was a time traveler who is attempting to change the future by handing out modern ideas before their time, the high jinks begin in earnest and the time travel conundrums drop into the readers' laps at a dizzying pace.
And the ending ... sigh! What a wonderfully clever simultaneous resolution of both the adventure plot-lines and the time travel paradoxes.
Recommended as a scintillating addition to the library of any reader who savours classic sci-fi from the pulp era.
“Do men still fight wars? Have we conquered disease? Does the church still dominate the minds of men?”
A“Tell me of all the wonders the future holds!”
“Do men still fight wars? Have we conquered disease? Does the church still dominate the minds of men?”
A young adult time traveler from the 26th century has a conversation with Mr Renaissance himself, Leonardo da Vinci. And, even allowing for the paradoxes of time travel and the rules which would constrain interactions (were time travel to actually exist), it is obvious that they have much to learn from one another. I found it interesting that Mr Resnick thought to have da Vinci express the hope that, if churches and organized religion had not disappeared outright, they had at least lost their grip on society, culture and control of man’s thinking and the scientific process. Paints and painting, the ruling class and patronage of the arts, hygiene, technology and inventions, mathematics, astronomy, exploration … lots of topics to touch on!
It’s a short, quick read but I’d say it was just about the right length for such a tightly defined theme.
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