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markyon's review against another edition
3.0
Here’s the latest in the Stellar Guild Series, where, under the guidance of Mike Resnick, famous authors are teamed up with newer or perhaps lesser known writers.
I last reviewed this series with Kevin J Anderson and Steven Savile’s two stories in Tau Ceti, back in January 2012. This time around, there are not two but three authors involved as multiple award winner Larry Niven is joined by two younger writers. Although relatively new, both have a certain pedigree. Brad R. Torgerson is a regular in Analog and has been previously nominated for both Hugo and Nebula Awards, with most recently two stories nominated for the 2014 Hugo Awards. Matthew J. Harrington has most recently collaborated with Larry on the novel The Goliath Stone.
These are tales of a time when teleportation is possible, and the consequences of such activities. The collection starts with Red Tide, a re-written and expanded version of the 1973 novella Flash Crowd, re-examined and rewritten, as Larry puts it, “with a little help from Brad.”
Red Tide (the novella) is a mixture of a rite of passage tale, mystery story and romance as newstaper (think on-the-spot news reporter) Barry Jerome Jansen (aka ‘Jerryberry’) finds himself blamed in a ‘trial by media’ situation for a riot using instantaneous travel just by reporting on the event. It’s what today we would call a flash mob. Red Tide does what Larry often does well, that of taking a what if? idea, that of instantaneous travel, and applying it to a plot to show the effects socially, economically and even environmentally. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage here. It is clear that Flash Crowd has survived a makeover with its modern comments of e-readers, cell phones, blogs, the Internet and the Boeing 777 aeroplane, although there are parts that show its age.
I actually liked the fact that it was rather old fashioned but still contemporary-relevant, giving it an up-to-date feel yet simultaneously grounded on classic SF values. On the downside, some of the older references have been kept and I think that they don’t always work. There’s a reference to the Common Market (ie: EU these days) and on a personal note I’m not sure the term ‘newstapers’ works these days. Though obviously a variation on ‘newspapers’, I’m sure there’s a better name out there. But on the whole I enjoyed it, even if it was a little creaky in places.
The second story is another by Niven, Dial at Random, written after re-writing Red Tide, which clearly inspired him. It is short, but still great fun, and actually reads a bit more evenly than Red Tide. It tells of the early days of teleportation when Larry Whyte, the inventor of the teleport (already met in Red Tide) is experimenting with a new random setting on the transporters. When young Hilary Firestone is accidentally added to the trial, things go a little unexpectedly…
Of ‘the new guys’, Brad is up next with a tale entitled Sparky the Dog. Like its rather humorous-sounding title, the story is rather light yet amusing, a tale of espionage, extortion and philandering spouses as told to Jansen, interviewing his old mentor Larry Whyte who is near the end of his life. Rather reminiscent of Heinlein’s Lazarus Long, actually. A shaggy dog tale, in the best possible manner, this one was the story I enjoyed most. There’s some nice little links to the earlier stories too.
The fourth tale, after an Introduction from Larry, is called Displacement Activity, by Matthew J. Harrington. This one is more of a standard science fiction story, in that it is set further ahead in the future when the displacement booth has led to interstellar travel.
The story begins with a problem to solve – the mysterious momentary appearance of an alien humanoid, who flickers in and out of the Mercury Interstellar Receiving Station. That they are an alien is unusual, but even more so is the fact that they are clearly not having to use a displacement booth and have a self-transmitting device not tuned in to any particular receiver, for this is not something the company JumpShift have themselves developed yet. The consequences of this involve alien contact and time travel, of a sorts.
Displacement Activity fizzes with practical ideas and solutions about the difficulties of instantaneous travel. This one was for me a more typically Analog tale, with an engineer hero, which means that whilst there are events in the future, aliens and time travel across multiple streams, there is also lots of science talk and repartee from scientists solving problems*. It starts well, but by the end becomes little more than an escalator ride filled with strange people and aliens, almost as if it is an edited part of a longer story.
It has lots of that technical banter so beloved in SF history (see also EE Doc Smith’s space opera and George O Smith’s Equilateraltales of the 1930’s and 40’s) but in the end left me a little cold, although I suspect scientists may really like it. One slight warning for younger readers: it is also the only story in the collection to include sex, although it is not X-rated stuff.
In summary, fans of Larry’s work will not be disappointed with Red Tide. There’s a lot packed into two hundred pages and a nice variety amongst the tales, which give us a multifaceted view of a world where an old idea of Larry’s is brought up to the 21st century. Strong on the ‘what-if?’, and stridently old fashioned, this is SF that takes an idea and runs with it in various forms that makes the reader think about what the consequences of such an idea, if it came to being, would be. Good fun.
*One example, picked at random, to illustrate what I mean: ‘ “It’s the Bacardi reaction. Got to be. Protons and lithium.” This was named for the original Cockcroft-Walton experiment, which produced 151 times as much energy as it took to accomplish.’ (page 178.)
At this point I guess I’m supposed to say, “Ah. That experiment.
I last reviewed this series with Kevin J Anderson and Steven Savile’s two stories in Tau Ceti, back in January 2012. This time around, there are not two but three authors involved as multiple award winner Larry Niven is joined by two younger writers. Although relatively new, both have a certain pedigree. Brad R. Torgerson is a regular in Analog and has been previously nominated for both Hugo and Nebula Awards, with most recently two stories nominated for the 2014 Hugo Awards. Matthew J. Harrington has most recently collaborated with Larry on the novel The Goliath Stone.
These are tales of a time when teleportation is possible, and the consequences of such activities. The collection starts with Red Tide, a re-written and expanded version of the 1973 novella Flash Crowd, re-examined and rewritten, as Larry puts it, “with a little help from Brad.”
Red Tide (the novella) is a mixture of a rite of passage tale, mystery story and romance as newstaper (think on-the-spot news reporter) Barry Jerome Jansen (aka ‘Jerryberry’) finds himself blamed in a ‘trial by media’ situation for a riot using instantaneous travel just by reporting on the event. It’s what today we would call a flash mob. Red Tide does what Larry often does well, that of taking a what if? idea, that of instantaneous travel, and applying it to a plot to show the effects socially, economically and even environmentally. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage here. It is clear that Flash Crowd has survived a makeover with its modern comments of e-readers, cell phones, blogs, the Internet and the Boeing 777 aeroplane, although there are parts that show its age.
I actually liked the fact that it was rather old fashioned but still contemporary-relevant, giving it an up-to-date feel yet simultaneously grounded on classic SF values. On the downside, some of the older references have been kept and I think that they don’t always work. There’s a reference to the Common Market (ie: EU these days) and on a personal note I’m not sure the term ‘newstapers’ works these days. Though obviously a variation on ‘newspapers’, I’m sure there’s a better name out there. But on the whole I enjoyed it, even if it was a little creaky in places.
The second story is another by Niven, Dial at Random, written after re-writing Red Tide, which clearly inspired him. It is short, but still great fun, and actually reads a bit more evenly than Red Tide. It tells of the early days of teleportation when Larry Whyte, the inventor of the teleport (already met in Red Tide) is experimenting with a new random setting on the transporters. When young Hilary Firestone is accidentally added to the trial, things go a little unexpectedly…
Of ‘the new guys’, Brad is up next with a tale entitled Sparky the Dog. Like its rather humorous-sounding title, the story is rather light yet amusing, a tale of espionage, extortion and philandering spouses as told to Jansen, interviewing his old mentor Larry Whyte who is near the end of his life. Rather reminiscent of Heinlein’s Lazarus Long, actually. A shaggy dog tale, in the best possible manner, this one was the story I enjoyed most. There’s some nice little links to the earlier stories too.
The fourth tale, after an Introduction from Larry, is called Displacement Activity, by Matthew J. Harrington. This one is more of a standard science fiction story, in that it is set further ahead in the future when the displacement booth has led to interstellar travel.
The story begins with a problem to solve – the mysterious momentary appearance of an alien humanoid, who flickers in and out of the Mercury Interstellar Receiving Station. That they are an alien is unusual, but even more so is the fact that they are clearly not having to use a displacement booth and have a self-transmitting device not tuned in to any particular receiver, for this is not something the company JumpShift have themselves developed yet. The consequences of this involve alien contact and time travel, of a sorts.
Displacement Activity fizzes with practical ideas and solutions about the difficulties of instantaneous travel. This one was for me a more typically Analog tale, with an engineer hero, which means that whilst there are events in the future, aliens and time travel across multiple streams, there is also lots of science talk and repartee from scientists solving problems*. It starts well, but by the end becomes little more than an escalator ride filled with strange people and aliens, almost as if it is an edited part of a longer story.
It has lots of that technical banter so beloved in SF history (see also EE Doc Smith’s space opera and George O Smith’s Equilateraltales of the 1930’s and 40’s) but in the end left me a little cold, although I suspect scientists may really like it. One slight warning for younger readers: it is also the only story in the collection to include sex, although it is not X-rated stuff.
In summary, fans of Larry’s work will not be disappointed with Red Tide. There’s a lot packed into two hundred pages and a nice variety amongst the tales, which give us a multifaceted view of a world where an old idea of Larry’s is brought up to the 21st century. Strong on the ‘what-if?’, and stridently old fashioned, this is SF that takes an idea and runs with it in various forms that makes the reader think about what the consequences of such an idea, if it came to being, would be. Good fun.
*One example, picked at random, to illustrate what I mean: ‘ “It’s the Bacardi reaction. Got to be. Protons and lithium.” This was named for the original Cockcroft-Walton experiment, which produced 151 times as much energy as it took to accomplish.’ (page 178.)
At this point I guess I’m supposed to say, “Ah. That experiment.
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