Friday, August 03, 2018
Millenium
by John Varley
This one's a tale of time travelers from the distant, dystopian future. The human race is dying, poisoned by millennia of pollution and environmental damage. In an effort to save the race, some people have turned to the past, embarking on a program of snatching people from fatal disasters. (So as not to change history, of course.) But then a real disaster strikes--a piece of future technology left behind in a 1983 airplane crash threatens to create a paradox and unravel history as they know it. It's an entertaining little tale, with enough mystery and plot twists that kept me reading until the end
waiting room material
LibraryThing link
This one's a tale of time travelers from the distant, dystopian future. The human race is dying, poisoned by millennia of pollution and environmental damage. In an effort to save the race, some people have turned to the past, embarking on a program of snatching people from fatal disasters. (So as not to change history, of course.) But then a real disaster strikes--a piece of future technology left behind in a 1983 airplane crash threatens to create a paradox and unravel history as they know it. It's an entertaining little tale, with enough mystery and plot twists that kept me reading until the end
waiting room material
LibraryThing link
Labels: JohnVarley, WaitingRoomMaterial
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Red Lightning
by John Varley
This one's a sequel to Red Thunder, the story of how good, ol' American ingenuity beat the Chinese to Mars. (Well, okay, it was American ingenuity backed by the nigh magical invention of an idiot savant.) It's some twenty years later and two of those first humans on Mars have settled onto the Red Planet. They run a hotel. Humanity is reaching for the stars, while the less adventurous settle for an interplanetary vacation. The story, however, really doesn't deal with that. The focus of Red Lightning is Earth. Earth has just suffered a great disaster--an object travelling at near light speed has skipped off the northern Atlantic Ocean and kicked up the most devastating tsunami the planet has ever seen. We're then privy to the adventures of the Garcia-Strickland clan as they deal with the disaster and its repercussions. Some of the latter are expected, some are, well, going off on a tangent. It doesn't make for great literature--it is a sequel, after all--but it's enjoyable enough.
It's very good waiting room material.
LibraryThing link
This one's a sequel to Red Thunder, the story of how good, ol' American ingenuity beat the Chinese to Mars. (Well, okay, it was American ingenuity backed by the nigh magical invention of an idiot savant.) It's some twenty years later and two of those first humans on Mars have settled onto the Red Planet. They run a hotel. Humanity is reaching for the stars, while the less adventurous settle for an interplanetary vacation. The story, however, really doesn't deal with that. The focus of Red Lightning is Earth. Earth has just suffered a great disaster--an object travelling at near light speed has skipped off the northern Atlantic Ocean and kicked up the most devastating tsunami the planet has ever seen. We're then privy to the adventures of the Garcia-Strickland clan as they deal with the disaster and its repercussions. Some of the latter are expected, some are, well, going off on a tangent. It doesn't make for great literature--it is a sequel, after all--but it's enjoyable enough.
It's very good waiting room material.
LibraryThing link
Labels: JohnVarley, WaitingRoomMaterial
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