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A review by brainstrain91
Carbide Tipped Pens: Seventeen Tales of Hard Science Fiction by Ben Bova, Eric Choi
3.0
This short story collection was often fun and thought-provoking, but the quality was wildly inconsistent. Has an unmistakable amateur feeling. To be frank, a majority of the stories felt like they needed another revision... or ten.
And almost all of the forewords are shockingly terrible. Written-at-four-in-the-morning-before-a-deadline kind of terrible.
"The Blue Afternoon that Lasted Forever" - Very short, intriguing, heartbreaking. Liked it a lot. 4/5
"A Slow Unfurling of Truth" - Far, far too much going on for a short story. Too many characters, too many names, too much backstory. It's an absolute mess. The premise would be far better suited to a novella. 2/5
"Thunderwell" - A bit silly, but compelling. Liked seeing the consequences of a runaway (and very plausible) anti-nuclear sentiment. Well suited to the format. 3/5
"The Circle" - A fun revisionist history where the ancient Chinese invent a human computer. It skirts much too closely to nationalist propaganda for my taste, but it's very clever. 3/5
"Old Timer's Game" - Bizarre and slight, tying in baseball to human augmentation, oblivious to the wider world. Weakest of the collection so far. 2/5
"The Snows of Yesteryear" - Unique look at scientists dealing with future climate change. Good characters, too - even makes time for some delightful corporate villainy. But the pacing is way off. And the science (and character motivation) goes completely off the rails at the end. Hollywood-level nonsense. Not what I look for in hard sci-fi. 3/5
"Skin Deep" - Really interesting look at near-future med tech, but ends abruptly and with no satisfaction. The villain's "plan" strains credulity to the limit. And no brownie points for LGBT representation when they're emotionally unstable monsters. 3/5
"Lady with Fox" - Fascinating ideas, world feels real and lived-in. But the prose was weak (especially in the dream sequence, terribly limp description), and I was not impressed by the science-y succubus. Very nearly a literal succubus. Come on! You've got to be better than that, Benford. 2/5
"Habilis" - Immediately intriguing. And grapples with big ideas about chirality and human development. But the prose is rough and the dialogue rougher. The expositionary baggage (and all the made-up words) just get in the way of the interesting stuff. The seed of a much larger story is buried in here - I'm not sure why the writer chose this format for it. 4/5
"The Play's the Thing" - An AI of Shakespeare writes plays! And... that's it. Totally wasted potential. 2/5
"Every Hill Ends with Sky" - Extremely well done. Wonderfully well-considered exploration of what an alien intelligence might look like. Plausible apocalypse scenario. Magic and optimism at the end of the world. One of my favorites of the collection. 5/5
"She Just Looks that Way" - Stupid guy does stupid thing with interesting consequences. This one was sneaky. Jumped around too much at the start, but ended well. 4/5
"SIREN of Titan" - Lovely depiction of the experience of a new-born AI, but ultimately depressing and toothless. 3/5
"The Yoke of Inauspicious Stars" - How do you live up to a title like that? Well, the worst foreword of the collection doesn't help. The science in this one was stellar, and I found the future it presented plausible. Lots of interesting ideas underpinning a narrative that felt very derivative. It's an intentional homage to Romeo and Juliet, but it was too on the nose. Too... literal, I guess. It felt cheap, and the Shakespearean dialogue was corny as hell. But even still, I was a bit enchanted. One of my favorites in the collection, despite the flaws. 4/5
"Ambiguous Nature" - SETI finds what it's looking for. Short and silly. I wouldn't credit this one with the "hard sci-fi" label. Techno-babble at its babbliest. Are these people really supposed to be scientists? Impossible to take seriously. 3/5
"The Mandelbrodt Bet" - A disabled layman solves time travel... kind of. Intriguing, well-paced, and with a high concept ending that works shockingly well. But a story so heavy on physics has no business making mistakes that even I can catch. 4/5
"Recollection" - Among the strongest in the collection. Short, focused, honest and effective. Alzheimer's and memory loss are a heavy subject that could weigh down a story, but Fulda strikes the perfect balance. There's not much sci-fi here, but the story is only stronger for it. 5/5
And almost all of the forewords are shockingly terrible. Written-at-four-in-the-morning-before-a-deadline kind of terrible.
"The Blue Afternoon that Lasted Forever" - Very short, intriguing, heartbreaking. Liked it a lot. 4/5
"A Slow Unfurling of Truth" - Far, far too much going on for a short story. Too many characters, too many names, too much backstory. It's an absolute mess. The premise would be far better suited to a novella. 2/5
"Thunderwell" - A bit silly, but compelling. Liked seeing the consequences of a runaway (and very plausible) anti-nuclear sentiment. Well suited to the format. 3/5
"The Circle" - A fun revisionist history where the ancient Chinese invent a human computer. It skirts much too closely to nationalist propaganda for my taste, but it's very clever. 3/5
"Old Timer's Game" - Bizarre and slight, tying in baseball to human augmentation, oblivious to the wider world. Weakest of the collection so far. 2/5
"The Snows of Yesteryear" - Unique look at scientists dealing with future climate change. Good characters, too - even makes time for some delightful corporate villainy. But the pacing is way off. And the science (and character motivation) goes completely off the rails at the end. Hollywood-level nonsense. Not what I look for in hard sci-fi. 3/5
"Skin Deep" - Really interesting look at near-future med tech, but ends abruptly and with no satisfaction. The villain's "plan" strains credulity to the limit. And no brownie points for LGBT representation when they're emotionally unstable monsters. 3/5
"Lady with Fox" - Fascinating ideas, world feels real and lived-in. But the prose was weak (especially in the dream sequence, terribly limp description), and I was not impressed by the science-y succubus. Very nearly a literal succubus. Come on! You've got to be better than that, Benford. 2/5
"Habilis" - Immediately intriguing. And grapples with big ideas about chirality and human development. But the prose is rough and the dialogue rougher. The expositionary baggage (and all the made-up words) just get in the way of the interesting stuff. The seed of a much larger story is buried in here - I'm not sure why the writer chose this format for it. 4/5
"The Play's the Thing" - An AI of Shakespeare writes plays! And... that's it. Totally wasted potential. 2/5
"Every Hill Ends with Sky" - Extremely well done. Wonderfully well-considered exploration of what an alien intelligence might look like. Plausible apocalypse scenario. Magic and optimism at the end of the world. One of my favorites of the collection. 5/5
"She Just Looks that Way" - Stupid guy does stupid thing with interesting consequences. This one was sneaky. Jumped around too much at the start, but ended well. 4/5
"SIREN of Titan" - Lovely depiction of the experience of a new-born AI, but ultimately depressing and toothless. 3/5
"The Yoke of Inauspicious Stars" - How do you live up to a title like that? Well, the worst foreword of the collection doesn't help. The science in this one was stellar, and I found the future it presented plausible. Lots of interesting ideas underpinning a narrative that felt very derivative. It's an intentional homage to Romeo and Juliet, but it was too on the nose. Too... literal, I guess. It felt cheap, and the Shakespearean dialogue was corny as hell. But even still, I was a bit enchanted. One of my favorites in the collection, despite the flaws. 4/5
"Ambiguous Nature" - SETI finds what it's looking for. Short and silly. I wouldn't credit this one with the "hard sci-fi" label. Techno-babble at its babbliest. Are these people really supposed to be scientists? Impossible to take seriously. 3/5
"The Mandelbrodt Bet" - A disabled layman solves time travel... kind of. Intriguing, well-paced, and with a high concept ending that works shockingly well. But a story so heavy on physics has no business making mistakes that even I can catch. 4/5
"Recollection" - Among the strongest in the collection. Short, focused, honest and effective. Alzheimer's and memory loss are a heavy subject that could weigh down a story, but Fulda strikes the perfect balance. There's not much sci-fi here, but the story is only stronger for it. 5/5