The Fountains of Paradise
{4/5} “Even now, it was impossible to realize the full meaning of the coming revolution. For the first time, space itself would become as accessible as any point on the surface of the familiar earth. In a few more decades, if the average man wanted to spend a weekend on the moon, he could afford […]
The Thief Lord
{3.5/5} “Riccio shook his head with astonishment. ‘No. Why? It’s great being young. You don’t stand out so much and your stomach fills up more quickly. You know what Scipio always says?’ He jumped from the bridge onto the street. ‘Children are caterpillars and adults are butterflies. No butterfly ever remembers what it felt like […]
Star Trek: First Frontier
{4.5/5} “Oya was a thinker and most of her life she had lived with the stigma of that. The Clan could be more brilliant, pound for pound, than Terrans or Romulans or Orions or anyone else, but instinct had always overwhelmed them. Most of their science had been borrowed, kept alive by types such as […]
Sea Without a Shore
{4.5/5} “This text that we have, it was somehow hidden away, left to be found, when all the mages were gone. And that was no easy thing, for every effort was made to guard against this. They left Eldrich behind, who was trusted. But this text, Averil, Mr. Valary, I fear it is like an […]
Star Trek Titan: Fallen Gods
{4.5/5} “‘We destroy only that which now offends the Whetu’irawaru,’ Fy’ahn said, hir voice like rasps being dragged across flint. ‘Only that which the Fallen Gods now must regret having created in the first place. Only that which would bring still more of their wrath down upon us.” Although the Titan is boldly going where […]
World Without End
{4.5/5} “Do you know what concerns me most about these gentlemen? Oh, not what you might think. I do not believe them bad. They are not even particularly greedy or selfish, for men in their station. No, what concerns me is the narrowness of their vision. It is a problem with men driven by the […]
2312
{5/5} “You may think you are inured, that nothing outside the mind can really interest you anymore, as sophisticated and knowledgeable as you are. But you would be wrong. You are a creature of the sun. The beauty and terror of it seen from so close can empty any mind, thrust anyone into a trance… […]
Marooned in Realtime
{5/5} “Castle Korolev was typical of the flamboyance of the advanced residences. The underlying stonework and statuary — modeled vaguely on Angkor Wat — had been built half a thousand years earlier, then left for mountain rains to wear at, for moss to cover, for trees to penetrate. Afterwards, construction robots hid all the subtle […]
The Peace War
{4.5/5} “Confinement spheres — bobbles — are not so much force fields as they are partitions, separating the in- and outside of their surfaces into distinct universes. Gravity alone can penetrate. The Tucson bobble was originally generated around an ICBM over the arctic. It fell to earth near its target, the missile fields at Tucson. […]
An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil
{4/5} “Most people think that if you have a poster and stuff, everything’s set in stone and organized to the last detail. Most people have never organized an event. Really, all a poster is is a bold declaration: we are going to get together, for this reason, at this time, in this place, and you’re […]