Tag: science-fiction

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton

I’d call this one a mid-level science-fiction read: not too heavy on the science; there’s enough of it to make you happy that the author knows what’s he’s talking about, but not so much that it gets in the way of a really good story – and this is a very good story.

Meet Mickey Barnes, a history buff raised on the human colony Midgard. Mickey’s a bit of a no- hoper: too lazy to really amount to anything, so he tries gambling. He’s not too good at that either.

Mickey7

So, to escape a life-threatening gambling debt, he signs on for a one-way trip to a distant star, as the mission’s Expendable, and as the colony’s Expendable, Mickey has just one job: to die when he’s asked. The upshot is that after he dies, he’s uploaded mind is transferred to a clone of himself – ready to die again when the colony needs him to.

We join the story at Mickey’s seventh incarnation. Having died from radiation sickness, from being exposed to a poisonous microorganisms, and a parasite that gradually ate his brain, Mickey is starting to get a little tired of the uncomfortable ways he’s required to die …

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The Flicker Men by Ted Kosmatka

This was very nearly the best book I’ve read this year. The plot was original, the settings: detailed and numerous, and the characters: an eclectic group of genius-level misfits.

The Flicker Men

Meet Eric Argus: a scientist/quantum mechanic with a drink problem. He formulates an experiment, the outcome of which changes depending on whether it is being observed or not.

Nope. Scratch that.

The outcome of the experiment changes depending on whether the results will be examined in the future.

As if this isn’t mind-blowing enough, Eric also realises that animals observing the experiment do not change the outcome.

So, has Eric discovered evidence of the human soul?

As you can imagine, Eric’s discovery brings him unwanted attention and fame (it means he has to be reliably sober most of the time now), not to mention the interest of the pro-life lobby: if an unborn infant can be shown to possess a soul, then aborting it would be tantamount to murder.

And once the pro-lifers get involved, then Eric’s life turns into a runaway express train.

Now, I said this was almost the best book I’ve read this year – and it was, almost.

Once the complex science behind the plot had been explained, the pace slowed down dramatically. There was a lot of driving around to different places, during which the environment expanded to cover theoretical alternate universes. People were dispatched in gruesome fashion, and it all felt as though it was building toward something momentous … but it sort of petered out by the time the climax arrived. I think The Flicker Men held a lot of promise, but didn’t quite deliver.

But what it did deliver was a masterclass in excellent prose. The characterisation was also, top notch. The complexity of the science was brilliantly handled, I just think it was just the ending where it somehow failed to deliver.