Tentacles The SF Reviews newsletter, 23rd July 2002

What I would prefer to be reading at the moment (with the temperature 30C and humidity at 70%) are books about cold, dry places. The air-conditioning is thundering away but I'm still sitting here sweating and praying for clouds. Perhaps I'll make another attempt at "Antarctica" by Kim Stanley Robinson. I welcome other suggestions from you.

More Big Science Month

Science has been all over the place for the past couple of months, some of the items that particularly interested me were:

Aussie scientists teleport light and believe that teleportation of matter is possible. Of course, the teleported light takes longer to arrive than if it had gone directly which surely raises an entertaining story line.

Then the BBC reported that NASA has found ice reservoirs on Mars and Russia is suggesting an international space mission to the Red planet.

Meanwhile The Communications of the ACM had a special "Robots" issue. I was particularly struck by the article on simulating emotion in robot facial expressions.

And trusty old Scientific American did a special on the human brain. This reminded me, as SA always does, of "Way Station" by Clifford D Simak and the protagonist who, among other more interesting attributes, had the longest continuous subscription to Scientific American. It was this that inspired me, as a teenager, to subscribe. I dropped the subscription after a puny ten years but rather wish I'd kept it going since I'm still buying the darn mag even now.

Best Books This Month

These were the following

• "The Engines Of God" by Jack McDevitt
• "Finity" by John Barnes
• "Bellwether" by Connie Willis

When I first read "The Engines of God" I didn't rate it highly, but on each re-reading it's gone up in my estimation. It's a really good novel. "Finity" is wild, exhilarating SF and "Bellwether" another chance to enjoy the unique plots and inimitable writing of Connie Willis.

Not Quite SF

Three of the books this month were not quite SF but I still, with some careful rationalizations, managed to include them:

• "Passage" by Connie Willis
• "Blue Limbo" by Terence M. Green
• "VANESSA" by David L. Howells

This Month's Reviews

• "The Shadow Of Heaven" by Bob Shaw
• "This Alien Shore" by C. S. Friedman
• "Bellwether" by Connie Willis
• "Passage" by Connie Willis
• "VANESSA" by David L. Howells
• "The Engines Of God" by Jack McDevitt
• "Finity" by John Barnes
• "Mayflies" by Kevin O'Donnell Jr.
• "Parable Of The Talents" by Octavia Butler
• "Echoes Of Earth" by Sean Williams and Shane Dix
• "Blue Limbo" by Terence M. Green

Next Month's Reviews

I've got a pile of rather old SF (and probably trashy) paperbacks in front of me. They've got most entertaining covers (beautiful babes and ghastly monsters) so I'm sincerely hoping that some of them will be worth the read. There'll also be reviews of books by Greg Egan, Katherine Kerr and Nicolas van Pallandt. I've even got a couple of new books including "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman.

Take care

Max

(max@sfreviews.com)