Review: War & Space: Recent Combat
First off; I get the "War & Space" part of the title, but "Recent Combat"? That sounds a bit... meaningless? Silly? And the stories within are diverse enough that the combat is not always recent, but sometimes ongoing, anticipated, or off in the background. I get that the publisher, Prime Books is branding a lot of their short fiction collections as "[Noun (s)]: Recent [Verb]", but still, the somewhat unnecessary subtitle almost put me off buying this.
I read this a few weeks ago, but I didn't feel like reviewing each story when I rated it on goodreads originally. I say "review", but in some cases these are just a short blurb about each story to help me remember them.
Who's Afraid of Wolf 359? Ken MacLeod
I struggle to think of a story I've read lately with a more unreliable narrator than the nameless POV character immediately identifies themselves to be. This is a fun read, featuring a classic rogue turned (apparently) conqueror, in a setting far enough in the future to feel quite alien, despite an apparent lack of any aliens. MacLeod packs what feels like a lot of story into not a lot of pages. I also enjoyed the concept of "phytobraking", which I'd like to use in conversation, but not in practice.
A daring, one-woman surgical strike, with some unwitting scientists and a pod of space-whales along for the ride. Although Palmer does a great job of keeping the story of Surf self-contained, and ends it on a satisfying note (even though, technically, there is unfinished business for her protagonist), Surf feels as though it's part of a much larger story. I'd be highly un-surprised if it does turn out to be a prototype for novel. Surf is entertaining, and well paced, and if more of the Surf universe shows up, I'd like to read it. While not bursting with any outrageous new ideas or genre-defying conventions that I can see (there are crewed space fighters, which still feel a bit implausible given what we do with drones already), Surf doesn't feel like a cliche to me either.
Another Life Charles Oberndorf
A man wakes up, missing the chunk of his life between being backed up and dying. He struggles to deal with the consequences of what he did in his other life. If Kurzweil is right, one day we may all face these kinds of problems. An interesting, and occasionally slightly uncomfortable and sordid account of someone picking up the pieces from their first death. The frame narrative of the protagonist telling stories to his aging ex-partner partially serves to add some optimism to what would otherwise be a rather more depressing tale, but also suggests the possibility that immortality might lose it's lustre after a while.
Between Two Dragons Yoon Ha Lee
A "reprogrammer" from the Ministry of Virtuous Thought recounts the story of a hero admiral, who voluntarily submits himself to reprogramming before his political opponents can have it done to him. Enjoyable, painting a picture of a society with political intrigue, paranoia and backstabbing, and of the consequences that has when it keeps competent people from doing their jobs. I can't help but feel this might be inspired by a specific regime.
I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but Reynolds has a characteristic feel. Scales has a lot of the futility of Haldeman's Forever War, packed into a short form, with Reynold's characteristic mix of ultra high-tech combined with hints of barely human-comprehensible physics as a background setting. [spoiler?/]The war in Scales is fractal and cyclical, and the name plays on that [/spoiler?].
Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy Catherynne M. Valente
I've read this in another collection, and it was memorable. Golubash is a story of conflict fought (partially) through tariffs, taxes and production restrictions, told entirely through the medium of a guided tasting of exceptionally rare and illicit wines. This was a fantastically enjoyable storytelling device, and while I suspect actual histories have often been told through wine tastings, I haven't seen it applied to fiction before. As a side effect of Golubash, you may crave wine.
A man watches, largely helpless, as his best friend's athletically and academically successful young son falls off the rails into drug abuse, before being recruited by a mysterious alien race for the honor of fighting for them. The term of service is 30 years, the conflict is strange, perpetual, and conducted entirely on a planet-sized comet. The conflict itself is fought between hundreds of factions, each against all the rest, for unfathomable reasons. On skimming through Leave a second time, it feels almost as if it were inspired by MMORPG's, or large scale online FPS's- particularly where bright but alienated young men end up abandoning their education to live in another world (and come back with a bag full of trophies which only they value- achievement unlocked?).
Mehra and Jiun Sandra McDonald
A soldier/pilot and the enemy who rescued and resuscitated her are trapped on Europa, unable to communicate with either of their factions- with time they come to know one another. Soldiers of opposing sides befriending each other isn't a new story (Enemy Mine springs to mind), the addition here is a third faction in the form of a symbiotic snake-like race that serves both the Tung and their enemies, in an attempt to guide them to peace. Entertaining, but probably not the strongest of stories in the collection.
Her Husband's Hands Adam-Troy Castro
A wife's husband returns from a Vietnam-like conflict, as nothing but a pair of hands attached to life support discs with his personality encoded into them. As she comes to term with her (and his) loss, and tries to rebuild their lives, Castro explores grief, the impacts of war on veterans and their families, and the effort government puts into playing down these impacts. One might also read into the story a criticism of the (lack of) support given to veterans by the US ( also Canadian, British...) government.
Remembrance Beth Bernobich
Kate, a Quality Assurance lab technician and amateur gardener has to deal with her Private Security Contractor partner leaving for an extended posting to an orbital transfer station. Both sign up to trial a new chip for recording and replaying sensory input, and despite the recordings being screened, use it to communicate while Jess is away. It is hard to write about the themes explored by Remembrance without being spoilerific, so I will sum it up as "good", and add that it depressingly plausible that the USA could be technologically advanced enough to be building bases on Mars, but still backwards enough that only 6 states recognize same-sex marriage.
Palace Resolution Tom Purdom
Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress at one point throws out the suggestion that an absolute monarchy might be the best form of government, if the monarch is competent, responsible and benevolent enough. The TaiPark Combine of Purdom's story seem to have followed that suggestion to an extent, creating a ruling class with "cultivated" personality structures. The story opens with two (of Eleven) Overseers reminiscing over a past conflict between them. Parliamentary Democracy may be the best style of government humanity has tried so far, but clearly has its flaws. Fiction that explores alternative government, societies, and their flaws is always interesting to me, and often ages better than the more hard science/tech-centric sci-fi. Palace Resolution is an enjoyable example of it.
The Observer Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Narrated as a monologue to an unseen Observer, by one personality "the articulate one" in the fragmented mind of a woman turned into a genetically/cybernetically/hormonally "enhanced" soldier. The core of the Observer seems to be the idea of a military turning humans into broken shells of their former selves, taken to an extreme. The Observer is by nature depressing, but interestingly done.
The Long Chase Geoffrey A. Landis
A tiny, self-sufficient mining ship piloted by a post-human uploaded mind makes a break out of a solar system dominated by the "cooperation faction", effectively a hive mind. A pursuit between stars ensues, as the ship's mind contemplates the war, her past as a human, and the changes she has and will make to her mind for survival. Tellingly, this is one of the stories I didn't have to skim through again to remember the details of.
Art of War Nancy Kress
A naval officer and art historian is assigned to catalog a cache of art plundered by the alien Teli from human colonies. In studying the Teli's art, and their theft of human art, she learns things about the Teli that even military intelligence seem ignorant of. "The creation of art does not happen in a vacuum. It is linked to culture in complicated, nonlinear ways". Another one of my favorites.
Have You Any Wool Alan DeNiro
Humanity is guided through the stars by Shepherds, and preyed upon by Wolves who feed on tales on myths. All cultures have stories, and the only way to fight the wolves is to tell more stories. Full of allegory, Have You Any Wool was a bit hard to get into at first, but worth it.
Carthago Delenda Est Genevieve Valentine
A technician on Earths embassy ship awakes the latest clone of the human ambassador. The Earth embassy ship is one of many awaiting the arrival of a ship from the planet "Carthage", the source of (apparently) a message of peace. The anticipation of Carthage's arrival created 400 years without war. The history of the mission and the nature of the alien ambassadors are explored from the technicians viewpoint as the first potential cracks in the peace start to appear. Carthago Delenda Est is not a story I got a clear message or theme from, but the premise is interesting, and it was a fun read.
Rats of the System Paul McAuley
A scientist and a sailor (whose misogyny is about as out of date as his job title) try to take readings from a Transcendent AI doing odd things to a star, while avoiding destruction at the hands of Fanatics who worship the AIs as gods. The Transcendent behaves in a suitably opaque and god like manner. The setting and story were good, but the characters felt like they belonged in the last century, not the next one.
The Political Officer Charles Coleman Finlay
The novella length story of the collection. Political officer Nikomedes has to outwit agents of opposing ministries aboard the ship to prevent a crucial piece of SigInt falling into the wrong hands- a faction that would use it for offence rather than defense. The Political Officer has clear roots in the likes of K-19 and the Hunt for Red October. Despite this (and in spite of my skepticism of Stealth in Space), The Political Officer doesn't feel cliched, even when it makes use of some of the cliches of submarine movies. It is tense in the right places, and there is never any feeling that survival or success is assured.
Amid the Words of War Cat Rambo
This one is short and sweet. An arthropod-like alien soldier, captured, released, and disgraced, receives scented hate mail that keeps it alive. Weird and different.
A Soldier of the City David Moles
Another one I've seen elsewhere (Engineering Infinity). The city is a megastructure ruled by AIs or superhumans that style themselves as Gods. The soldier is a servant of one of the gods, trained to fight in a vacuum suit on the city's underside. An attack by an outside faction attempting to free the citizens of the city from their gods leads to a revenge mission that ultimately leaves the soldier living with people he once called enemies. This is another story that feels like it's part of a much larger setting, one with plenty of room for more stories. I would quite like to read them.
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