Archive for the ‘Reviews of books’ Category
Star Trek: Discovery — Somewhere to Belong
{4.5/5} “We have survived as a civilization because each of us understands our commitment to the whole… Thanks to uncounted severe lessons, we have come to understand we can rely on no one but ourselves. In the end, we are the only ones who have never disappointed us — or betrayed us.” Star Trek: Discovery […]
Robots and Empire
{4.5/5} “There will, however, be a period of time during which the Spacers will remain stronger than Earth and its Settlers, though by a steadily diminishing margin. Eventually, the Spacers will inevitably become aware of Earthpeople as a growing danger. At that time the Spacer worlds will surely decide that Earth and the Settlers must […]
The Robots of Dawn
{4.5/5} “It was a wasteful and inefficient procedure and there are now no Earthpeople that we will allow to serve as further settlers. We have become Spacers, long-lived and healthy, and we have robots who are infinitely more versatile and flexible than those available to the human beings who originally settled our worlds. Times and […]
The Naked Sun
{4.5/5} “His teeth chattered when he tried to talk and he had to force his words out in little bits. It hurt his eyes to look so far at a horizon so hazy green and blue and there was only limited relief when he looked at the pathway immediately before his toes. Above all, he […]
The Caves of Steel
{4.5/5} “Before the Cities, human life on Earth wasn’t so specialized that they couldn’t break loose and start all over on a raw world. They did it thirty times. But now, Earthmen are all so coddled, so enwombed in their imprisoning caves of steel, that they are caught forever.” The Caves of Steel by Isaac […]
Pebble in the Sky
{4.5/5} “To the rest of the Galaxy, if they are aware of us at all, Earth is but a pebble in the sky. To us it is home, and all the home we know. Yet we are no different from you of the outer worlds, only more unfortunate. We are crowded here on a world […]
The Currents of Space
{4.5/5} “There he met friends of his, who looked at him with secrecy in their eyes and who met him at work later with bland glances of indifference. He listened to what they said and found that many seemed to believe what he had been hoarding in his own mind and honestly he had thought […]
The Stars, Like Dust
{4.5/5} “Of course, someday we will beat the Tyranni. It is fairly inevitable. They can’t rule forever. No one can. They’ll grow soft and lazy. They will intermarry and lose much of their separate traditions. They will become corrupt. But it may take centuries, because history doesn’t hurry.” The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov, […]
The Wall Around Eden
{4.5/5} “Tunneling the Wall, disobeying the Pylon, potshots at angelbees — the only result was the whole town got put to sleep for three days. After that happened, the Town Meeting forbade any more resistance.” The Wall Around Eden by Joan Slonczewski, published in 1989 Doomsday was 20 years ago. The angelbees, or their masters, […]
Up Against It
{4.5/5} “The feral was in danger. Executioners had registered its protoconscious activity. The feral was made up of life-support routines, though, and imbued with high levels of system permissions. It outran its executioners, ran traces and saw that routines lethal to its continued function were triggering all around — computational landmines, algorithmic hails of bullets. […]