Jonathan Strahan, ed.
Engineering Infinity.
Solaris. 2011
rating : 3.5 : worth reading
review : 29 September 2013
The universe shifts and changes:
suddenly you understand, you get it, and are filled with wonder.
That moment of understanding drives the greatest science-fiction stories
and lies at the heart of Engineering Infinity.
Whether it’s coming up hard against the speed of light – and, with it,
the enormity of the universe – realising that terraforming
a distant world is harder and more dangerous than you’d ever thought,
or simply realizing that a hitchhiker on a starship consumes fuel and
oxygen with tragic results, it’s hard science-fiction where a sense of
discovery is most often found and where science-fiction’s true heart lies.
A great collection of hard SF short stories. The highlight for me is definitely the Stross story, combining plausible zombies (probably not what you think) with a feel for the vastness of space.
Contents
- • Peter Watts. Malak. 2011
- An artificial intelligence war drone gets an artificial conscience.
- • Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Watching the Music Dance. 2011
- Augmenting your children may make them very different.
- • Karl Schroeder. Laika's Ghost. 2011
- Soviet secret planet escape.
- • Stephen Baxter. The Invasion of Venus. 2011
- Interstellar agressors enter the solar system, and head for Venus.
- • Hannu Rajaniemi. The Server and the Dragon. 2011
- A server alone outside the galaxy has an idea.
- • Charles Stross. Bit Rot. 2011
- The effects of an exploding magnetar have dire consequences for the starship crew.
- • Kathleen Ann Goonan. Creatures with Wings. 2011
- Drunkard Kyo, Zen novice, escapes a doomed earth.
- • Damien Broderick, Barbara Lamar. Walls of Flesh, Bars of Bone. 2011
- Why does the man in the old home movie look so familiar?
- • Robert Reed. Mantis. 2011
- Infinity windows show a virtual reality, in both directions.
- • John C. Wright. Judgement Eve. 2011
- The last night on an Earth condemned by alien law.
- • David Moles. A Soldier of the City. 2011
- What do you do after you witness your god's murder?
- • Gregory Benford. Mercies. 2011
- Why has the number of serial killers dropped so dramatically?
- • Gwyneth Jones. The Ki-anna. 2011
- Investigating his twin sister's death, he discovers a vital difference between alien and human litter mates.
- • John Barnes. The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees. 2011
- Geo-engineering can have unforseen side-effects.
