Science Fiction Selections to Read for 2019

Okay, I goofed. It happens…

More than I like to admit.

After ranting and raving about black holes and correct science, I wrote that scientist now think there is a black hole in every solar system.

Katie bar the door.

I’ve done high school astronomy, and I know that I meant galaxy. I was thinking galaxy, but I wrote solar system. Black holes at the center of galaxies is what I meant to say. The mind boggles at the alternative.

Fake news. I was thinking of blaming my corrective computer program, but it probably wouldn’t wash.

I also know there appears to be rogue black holes, and I know that solar system pertains to our system since our sun is called Sol, and other systems are stellar systems since stellar means star.

Thank you to the dear reader for pointing out my brain typo, and if you missed it, well, so did I.

Please reset the information. Thank you.

Also, I don’t promise perfection for the future… But, I’m trying. Astronomy can be slippery because, you see, there’s so much, well, space out there, and a lot we still don’t know for certain.

Lots of theories flying around, though.

However, we’re getting a better handle every day on it. Robots on Mars, Voyager past the heliopause, and Kepler discovering many new planets have all increased our knowledge of our universe. There’s more projects in the works, not all government.

I promised to make a list of science fiction and fantasy books that I plan to read in 2019. Here are my first five:

All Systems Red by Martha Wells. I’ll probably read her follow-up stories of Rogue Protocol, Artificial Condition and Exit Strategy. As I recently pointed out, stories from a robot’s point of view are currently popular. Guess we’re getting ready for the Singularity.

 

Thin Air by Richard Morgan. Despite the profanity and gore, I still read Richard Morgan and watched his Altered Carbon Series on Netflix. Fair warning there. But, being able to download your personality into a cloned body any time you die is an intriguing concept. Immortality and how that affects human behavior makes for an interesting read or viewing. Besides, there’s also a detective story.

A Thousand Faces by Janci Patterson. It’s bad enough to sort through fake news in today’s society, but what if there were shape-shifters among us? Shifters who could change their appearance and step in to discredit powerful people? No, no…that was not really Jeff Bezos, was it? Just a shifter posing as him. Not buying it huh? What if they worked for the government? Or against it? Such people would shift our reality. What if you were one of them and were being hunted? Put it on my list. An Indie special.

Alliance Rising by C. J. Cherryh. A book by one of my favorite authors in the Alliance Universe? Yes, please.

 

 

Sideris Gate by Cheryl Lasota. I’m enjoying the Paradisi Series universe. Andy McKell has done a fine job with his Janus Trilogy, and now I’m excited to get another viewpoint of the action.

 

So, that’s it for now. Snow flurries are pelting past my window. Winter has come to the Northwest Living up high, I’m not encouraged to go outside. A comfy blanket and a good book sounds just about right.

Oh, and the Expanse: Season 3 has come to Amazon Prime. It started February 8th with season four in the works for 2019. While the story is muddled, the special effects are worth the watch. Lots of books in the series that are also good. You can catch up seasons 1-2 on Amazon streaming video. Here’s a trailer of it:

https://www.space.com/43270-watch-the-expanse-on-amazon-prime.html?utm_source=sdc-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190209-sdc

Growing up with Robots

How do you view events around you? Some say everything a person does or says is a result of how they personally interpret the world through their mind’s viewpoint.

For authors, point of view controls the reader. Using first person point of view enables the author to funnel all the events of the story through one person’s vision. With omniscient or third party viewpoint, the reader can be aware of people and events outside the main character, thus providing additional information on the story or an interesting contrast.

For a long time third person point of view was  the one most used by writers. However, recently, the first person viewpoint is gaining popularity.

The Hunger Games, Divergent, some of the New Adult (think 30s) novels use first person.

So, I was intrigued how I would respond when I realized that my selection, Human Sister by Jim Bainbridge was written in the first person point of view.

I found Human Sister through Bookbub, which offers free or discounted EBooks. What hooked me was subject matter and an interesting blurb. Then, I went to Amazon and the reviews were very positive, even mentioning a Hugo possibility. So, when it was offered free, I downloaded it and put it on my to-read list.

One of the frustrations that I’m finding with self-published authors is that they don’t know the bread and butter aspects of producing a book.

Take formatting. (Please do) For a paperback, the title page should appear on an odd page in the front matter. The copyright information on the even page after it. Most chapters should start on an odd page, although a few start on even nowadays to save paper. Notice the first sentence after a chapter heading is not indented…and so forth. There are guidelines that the reader subconsciously is familiar with and comfortably follows, and the Indie author should be aware of them, whether Ebook or paperback. If you are an Indie author, you need to study several ebook  and paperbacks to understand how to construct your book.

Both are different..

So it was refreshing when Jim Bainbridge presented a format that showed the proper form. With no typos or grammar mistakes I noticed, I was soon knee deep in a compelling story.

The story begins on an airplane where the main character, Sara, starts chatting with the man sitting next to her. He turns out to be an FBI agent who proceeds to take her into custody to interrogate her about her parents activities.

The interrogation turns vicious for the young girl. Sara lives in a near future society that has outlawed artificial intelligence. Sara’s grandfather is a forerunner in the field and her parents have created a sentient group of androids led by “First Brother” who has awareness but little caring emotion. Sara tries to elicit emotion in this first series of androids but fails.

To fix this lack, Sara’s grandfather secretly, in their Napa Valley Estate, creates a biodroid from Sara’s own nerve cells and devises a means that “Michael,” the biodroid,and Sara can physically connect into each other’s thoughts and emotions.

Sara then tells the story of growing up in secrecy, hiding from the government the existence of Michael as she tries to train him to become human. Alternating chapters appear in the viewpoint of First Brother as he enters the tale.

Sara is an innocent used by her grandparents whom she loves, and daughter to emotionally cold parents who are part of a robot rebellion. As the United States and China try to hunt down and destroy the robots, the parents and their creations escape to Canada and then to Mars, leaving Sara to get caught in the crossfire with devastating results.

Human Sister is a thought-provoking tale on the dangers of artificial intelligence, and how one young girl grows up with and loves what is not quite human.

This theme of robots is a popular one and Jim Brainbridge provides a story that will cause you to think about the pros and cons of artificial intelligence.