I read Red Flame Burning, by Ward Hawkins. I chose it because the cover art was wild. The story was wild as well, but also quite bad. It felt fake in a way that none of the literature we’ve been reading so far has. I’ll get into this later, though.

This book is about Harry Bork, a 65-year old alcoholic who has a doorway between dimensions opened up in his room when Gus Rassan, a lizard man – is putting up a cabinet in his own room in his own world and knocks a hole in both his wall and the fabric of reality. Gus’s surgeon friend cures Harry of his alcoholism and rehabilitates his ruined body. Harry then visits Gus’s world and finds that humans are used as cattle. The lizard people – called the Jassans – are very timid, and need Harry’s help to avert war. This is as far as I got before I stopped reading and skimmed the rest.

I don’t know exactly what style of SF this book is, but it seems to fall into a few catagories. Ward Hawkins has a pretty poor grasp of evolution, which also happens to be a central concept in this book. The manner in which Jassans and the humans of their planet – which they call “bassoes” have evolved is not particularly feasible, and is explained with a simple “who knows how these things work”. I guess it isn’t outside the realm of theoretical possibility, but having the only explanation be “I don’t know, evolution, I guess” brings this outside the realm of hard science fiction and into the realm of soft sci-fi. The only thing that occasionally pulled this novel out of the category of sociological science fiction this is that Harry is an engineer, and the mechanical descriptions of the Jassans’s technology are somewhat detailed. Despite this, the science was always secondary to the sociological elements of examining Jassan and Human society, which puts this book decidedly in the camp of soft science fiction.

As I said above, this book was not good. The writing was decidedly mediocre. The characters talked like they were from an old western serial, which made perfect sense after doing some research into Ward Hawkins, who was primarily an author of pulp westerns. Red Flame Burning and the rest of the books in the Harry Borg and Gus Rassan series are comedic sci-fi novels. This comedy does sometimes come through. However, it is often racist, sexist, or homophobic in concept, which certainly ruins it. I liked the character of Gus, who was endearing and who’s humor seemed to be largely un-bigoted in nature. However, he didn’t make up for the rest of the book.

I would not recommend Red Flame Burning, except as a not-too-horrible way to experience a pulp science fiction novel. The fact that it always stayed one step above being horribly bad (barring the bigotry, which was always just around the corner) and stayed in the realm of mediocre-to-bad makes it all the more skippable. However, if one is interested in pulp, this is a quick read and may be a good way to understand the genre.

Citation:

Hawkins, Ward. Red Flame Burning: A Novel. Ballantine Books, August, 1985.

Originally I was attracted to the book because as a polar bear myself, the word ‘polar’ caught my eye. After I picked the book up and read the first couple pages, I knew that the book was going to be a good choice. The opening pages lead with a mysterious murder, not of a human but of an alien ambassador. As someone who thoroughly enjoys the murder mystery type story I decided to choose Polar City Blues. One of the first characters we read about also has the name Ward, and even though he does not play a huge role in the story, seeing the name made me believe that I had picked the right book.

The book takes place in what seems to be the future with the advanced technology and interstellar mixing. The human race has been mixed with two different alien species. As mentioned before, the book is centered around a murder by an unknown being. While a murder is never a good thing, this is terrible timing. The tension between the two alien species have been raising over the past year and they are on the brink of war. The lead detective put on the case is Bobbie Lacey. Lacey seems to be an upstanding detective and the best option they have to solve it. Lacey chooses her partner to be her less than wonderful wannabe professional baseball played, Mulligan. While he is not a cop or detective, he is able to help with the case by going into situations that a cop, who has to be law abiding, could never go. Mulligan, pretty early on in the story finds that he has a telepathic connection to some alien species that is not one of the ones living among humans. The murder of the first alien ambassador it turns out was due to a new type of bacteria. This bacteria eats away at its target. (If you choose to read any further in this paragraph there will be some spoilers, although I will try to summarize without giving everything away. You can also choose to go to the next paragraph to avoid them). The team is able to trace the bacteria to an assassin and while this does solve the surface level of who murdered the ambassador, it brings about the question of who hired this assassin. We eventually learn that the same alien species that is having telepathic communication with Mulligan hired the assassin to raise tension between the other alien species so that they would be able to swoop in and take over their systems. The end deals with a rather large chase that ends with Lacey finding the evidence needed to show that it was indeed a foreign party that caused the murder and diffusing the tensions between the two ruling species.

This is cyberpunk sci-fi. The opening scenes of Polar City shows that it is pretty dumpy. There are a lot of street worker and general filth. There are also a lot of new technologies that help solve the crimes, including some AI’s.

One of the things that I noticed in this book compared to other sci fi stories or books is that the female is the hero. Lacey and Mulligan make quite the pair, and while they are equally important, Lacey is clearly the stronger more put together character. She is a strong smart well respected detective and Mulligan is seen as an alcoholic who wants to play baseball. It feels like a Disney story where the princess needs saving, except the princess is Mulligan and along with needing to save his life she also helps him with daily interactions and helps him become respected by people who thought he was just an alcoholic.

The story was entertaining. It was not exactly what I was hoping for, but overall entertaining. It became more a thriller than a mystery. I would recommend this book to friends. Even though at times I did have trouble following exactly what was happening, especially early on with the telepathic communication, the story was engaging. I would give it a 6.5/10.

Kerr, Katharine. Polar City Blues. Bantam, 1990.

For my book, I chose The Beyonders (1977) by Manly Wade Wellman, an American author born in Portuguese West Africa, who spent most of his adult life in North Carolina. The novel describes the attempted invasion/arrival of an alien race known as the “Beyonders” and the humans that fight against them. The Beyonders have a clan of allies on Earth, the Kimber family, who reminded me of the Cullen family in Twilight because of their reclusive habits and their comfort with the esoteric. At its heart, this novel is an alien invasion story, but there is the added layer of “invasion” by a slick out-of-towner (also an ally of the Beyonders) who wants to transform the poor, sleepy town of Sky Notch, North Carolina, into a wealthy hub for science and technology.

Wellman did a good job subtly discussing class in the apt dual invasion by both true aliens and the city-slicker who tries to turn the townspeople against each other for his own selfish gain. The author’s faith in humanity was an unexpected treat. On the other hand, he does glorify a stereotypical, tough, stoic masculinity that defends itself with guns; if you’re looking for a feminist story, this is not it. There is a female character with an important role, but they continually call her kind of a nickname that stems from not wanting to say her real name (“Slowly” instead of “Celola” because it’s “easier” to say); I’m not sure what to make of this.

I chose this story because I wanted to read a piece that had strong ties to its setting. Southern Gothic is one of my favorite genres of literature, and from the synopsis, The Beyonders appeared to borrow from that tradition. Michelle also helped me solidify my choice by recognizing him primarily as a horror writer—another indication that this might inherit from the genre. In general, the text matches those expectations. I would recommend this book, then, if you’re looking for a quick, fun read about defeating some aliens who want to exterminate an Appalachian town.

Wellman, Manly Wade. The Beyonders. Warner Books, 1977.

I chose Saturn’s Race because I was intrigued by how the author would tie together science fiction, love, and conflict. I also thought the cover of the book was intriguing. Saturn’s Race is set in the near future when humanity has created artificial islands which are home to some of the wealthiest, smartest, and most powerful men and women in the world as well as revolutionary technological innovations. The islands are practically nations in the way they operate with countries around the world: selling goods and technology, providing aid, protecting their assets and interests.

The story revolves around Lenore Myles, a brilliant recently graduated college student invited to Xanadu(one of the main islands) for a recruitment event. At the event she becomes entangled with Chaz Kato, a scientist and citizen of Xanadu, who gives her unrestricted access to Xanadu’s systems to gain her trust and convince her to work on the island. While exploring the island, Lenore discovers a paramount secret about Xanadu that could change the world. Unsure of what to do next, Lenore flees the island but is pursued by Saturn, a powerful mysterious entity that protects Xanadu’s secrets. In this thriller, Lenore seeks to survive as Saturn races to protect Xanadu’s secret and Chaz Kato decides where his allegiance lies.

The main themes within the book are cybernetics, utopias, and advanced computer technology. My favorite parts of the book are the depiction of sci-fi technology and the pace at which the story is told which keeps me on the edge of my seat. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a thrilling adventure novel with themes of advanced technology, a utopian society, and computer systems.

Authors: Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, Publication year: 2000

I chose this book knowing that Ray Bradbury was an excellent writer. I had only read his novel Ferenheight 451 prior to this class. After reading some of his short stories assigned to us, I was reminded of how much I enjoy Bradbury’s writing. Furthermore, I was compelled by the short form fiction style of SF we read in class. R is for Rocket stood out to me for two reasons. 1) It was an anthology and 2) all of the stories were written by Ray Bradbury. The book provides a wide range of story material; however, there are definitely strong themes throughout the book that provide insight into Bradbury’s outlook on the state of the universe. Space and time travel are frequent topics within this anthology. Although, rather than purely idolizing these concepts, Bradbury is quite thoughtful about his plot lines. Often, Bradbury uses space and time travel to critique aspects of contemporary society: the capitalist agenda, financial inequality, American escapism, and environmental exploitation. I can see how his stories attracted a huge age range; on the surface, these are stories for the adolescent boy desperate to get his hands on some spacey rocket story. But as a 21-year-old, I am compelled by many of the stories within the anthology. A very common theme within almost all the stories is loneliness: on earth, in space, in time. Many of his stories convey feelings of desperation, a deep longing to be free from the gravity beneath our feet or the confines of a job or the limitations of our earthly bodies. Yet, the grass always seems to be greener on the other side. Bradbury seems to truly believe that humans are destined to live grasping for the next scientific discovery, only to find that the loneliness we all seek to escape follows us wherever – or whenever – we may end up.

I would certainly recommend this book or any of Bradbury’s short stories (if you want some of my favs, A Sound of Thunder, R is for Rocket, The Rocket Man, The Long Rain).

Bradbury, Ray. R Is for Rocket. Doubleday & Company, 1962.

When I went to the Green Hand, I was looking for a light read that had good enough writing to get me through. My expectations were delightfully exceeded in this book! What I did;t realize when I bought it was that it was part of a 33-book sf series by Tubb. Despite this, the book does a good job introducing each character, even if they had been a part of the series for a while, so it was easy to enjoy standalone. The novel is about Dumarest et al. finding themselves on a conscious planet as they attempt to repair a broken space liner, where they are put through trials by the planet as the planet seeks to understand love. The novel, as the cover suggests, has a smutty part or two that is tasteful enough to recommend the book to a family member without it being weird. My favorite parts of the book were the action scenes, the fight choreography is concisely described and it held my attention throughout. A pretty short read too, coming in at just under 160 pages for a book with about a third the footprint of a piece of printer paper.

Blog Overlord: Kate Fosburgh

The short story we read the other week by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, “A Series of Steaks” (Singapore, 2017) begged the question of whether artificial replacements for animals, or in this case animal meat, is humane or an abuse of science. The story described fake beef that looks and tastes exactly like the real thing, to the point where consumers cannot tell the difference.

Plant-based meat, such as “impossible burgers” or “beyond beef”, is becoming increasingly popular. However, while these products claim to taste like real meat, they do not aim to deceive the consumer into thinking they are real meat. Is this lack of transparency the reason many of us were uncomfortable with the fake beef in the story versus the fake meat we eat in real life?

I was scrolling through instagram the other day and came across a video posted by a tech company called “Edge Innovations”. It was an informational video about mechanized dolphins they have built to replace dolphins in aquariums and therefore eliminate the cruel treatment of dolphins in captivity. They note that while the dolphins are currently operated by humans, they are working on giving them AI that will allow them to behave like real dolphins on their own. They also explain that when the dolphins were put in a tank with real fish, the fish seemed unable to tell the difference between mechanized and real dolphins. They say that these robot dolphins could take photos and swim with aquarium and park visitors instead of the real ones.

Is this a similar concept to eating plant-based meat? Or are artificial animals on a completely different level? I think that, again, the level of transparency with the use of this technology becomes important. Will people know they are not swimming with real dolphins? Is it a problem that fish treat robots as real dolphins? Maybe limiting the cruel treatment of dolphins for human entertainment is worth the deceit. The caption of the video on instagram asks, “Thoughts!?” I recommend you follow this link, watch the video, and check out the comments/debates!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcXAmpkl0wB/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Or, if you do not have instagram, you can watch a short YouTube video about it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQwnbcymI_w