Larger Than Worlds (Two)

Gregory Benford and George Zebrowski (editing, introduction, notes): Skylife: Space Habitats in Story and Science (Harcourt, Inc., ISBN 0-15-100292-4)

This is another collection that every science fiction fan (especially fan of "hard" science fiction) ought to have on her or his bookshelf. The introduction (by the editors) and the Selective Bibliography (by tireless SF commentator Gary Westfahl) are worth the price of admission alone.

The End of the Beginning (Ray Bradbury): A nice little tale about the launching of the first ship to build a space station. An amazing contrast to the grumpier Bradbury that we saw in later years.

Bigger Than Worlds (Larry Niven): A non-fiction contribution by Niven outlining various schemes for living in space, ranging from the "small" (expanded and hollowed out asteroids) to the very, very, very large (a Dyson Sphere around an entire galaxy, anyone?). Niven drops enough hints and scenarios for a dozen or more stories in the course of this essay, it is too bad that they were never followed up on (his idea for a gothic-style SF setting is one I would love to see!).

The Other Side of the Sky (Arthur C. Clarke): At the dawn of the space age (and some, like me, think we're still in the dawn phase) Clarke wrote a series of short linked stories about the building of the first space stations. Wildly optimistic in some ways and wildly off base in others, they are still excellent in terms of style, ideas presented (some mined again by Clarke and others) and brevity (a skill that many authors do not practice!).

Tank Farm (David Brin): A relatively near-future scenario in which a private consortium has been harvesting the external fuel tanks from the NASA space shuttle and putting them to use as habitats, storage and even fuel and other expendables until the government decides to put the squeeze on them. There's a fair bit of hard science used, in a very clever fashion. It's a tale worthy of the likes of Robert L. Forward! The plot resembles, to my memory, the novel The Descent of Anansi by Larry Niven and Stephen Barnes. I'll have to re-read that at some point to see how much of the resemblance is memory vs. reality. It makes me wish Brin would get back to writing fiction!

Breakaway, Backdown (James Patrick Kelly): A somewhat strange little narrative, written as if you can hear only half a conversation. During the course of the narrative, you learn a bit about those (Breakaways) who live in orbit and why the narrator chose to return to earth (Backdown). Also somewhat disturbing. It's nice to be disturbed by fiction, on occasion.

The Wind from a Burning Woman (Greg Bear): A woman takes revenge upon the murder of her grandfather (and the crew of an asteroid ship) by aiming it at Earth. More poetical than most of Bear's writings. One amusing bit is the fact that the Earth is run by the "Naderites". One puzzling bit, the technical or scientific "class" are called "Geshel". Ring a bell with anybody?

View from a Height (Joan D. Vinge): Vinge is somebody I wish would write more science fiction. I first encountered her shorter works in Analog, with the stories of Heaven's Belt. She has produced three collections (Fireship, Eyes of Amber and Other Stories and Phoenix in the Ashes) and several longer works. A long-expected new edition of the Heaven's Belt stories seems to be in limbo (going on several years now). (She was married to what's-his-name and is currently married to prolific editor James Frenkel. Am I being sexist by mentioning that? Probably not, the first marriage is the one everyone thinks of!)

Phew! Long introduction to a short story! View is a diary-type narrative told by a woman living in exile. She has no resistance to nature, she was a "bubble girl" (instead of the famous "bubble boy"). Pursuing a career in astronomy, she volunteered for a long-duration mission to be sent beyond the edges of our Solar System to enable parallax studies of distant astronomical objects. She lives the live of an astronomical monk, cut off from all other direct human contact (she is so far away that it takes many hours for messages to travel back and forth). The crisis in the story revolves around the revelation that a cure is found for her condition, but far too late for her to benefit from it. Could such a mission exist? Perhaps. Given a large enough instrument (which is what is depicted in the story), adding on a life habitat would not add much to the vehicle. Having a human there would allow for better decision-making, repairs and the like than a robot. But could a person survive such a long period (a life long period) of isolation? Despite the hard SF trappings, a good human interest story.

The Voyage That Lasted Six Hundred Years (Don Wilcox): If you can get past some of the silliness, you'll find a story that still influences science fiction today. For example, "tired old chestnut" is the story of the plodding generation ship making the long voyage only to be beaten to its destination by FTL ships. You read it here first. Hibernation? Used here. A generation ship slipping into savage conditions? See it here! Some silly moments, but some excellent writing and thinking as well.

Redeemer (Gregory Benford): See my review here.

Bindlestiff (James Blish): This story is part of Blish's longer Cities in Flight sequence (They Shall Have Stars; A Life for the Stars; Earthman, Come Home; The Triumph of Time). It is probably the one part of the story that you are most likely to encounter. It's interesting to see how much thought Blish put into these tales. The cities must eat, they must trade, they must do repairs. Actions have reactions. This is a long story in the book and tells of the adventures of New York City in a galactic rift, doing a little planetary "engineering", fighting bindlestiffs and (as usual) scraping by. I'm really going to have to pull out the whole sequence one of these days, I don't think I've read them since college and it is high time for a re-read!

Open Loops (Stephen Baxter): This definately shows the influence of Olaf Stapledon on Baxter (I could say the influence of Arthur C. Clarke, but given that Stapledon's influence was found there as well...). The story is a series of snapshots dealing with astronaut Oliver Greenberg and his life on a near-Earth asteroid called Ra-Shalom. Each snapshot covers a greater and greater span of time, as humanity evolves and spreads throughout the galaxy. Baxter ties the tale into the explorations of Fermi's Paradox that he used in his Manifold trilogy as well as the collection Phase Space. You definately get the feeling of deep time with this one.

Spomelife: The Universe and the Future (Isaac Asimov): A non-fiction contribution by the late Good Doctor. Asimov gives a nice general overview of "spomes" (space homes), ranging from asteroids and ships to planets. The collection would have been nicer if they had included his Strikebreaker short story (quoted in the essay).

Reef (Paul J. McAuley): Life in vacuum? No, not people living in tin cans in outer space, but life in vacuum? Folks like Freeman Dyson have talked about it in the past, Paul J. McAuley presents it in a great story. Is there any more in this literary universe of yours, Mr. McAuley?

A Dream of Time (George Zebrowski): An excerpt from Zebrowski's ground-breaking novel Macrolife. I'm way overdue for a re-read of this novel. The excerpt is from the end of the book, where humanity has spread into the galaxy and beyond and must now grapple with the end of the known universe. Here's a recent look at the book from the folks at SF Signal (it'll do for a review of the whole novel until I can re-read it.)

Space Stations and Space Habitats: A Selective Bibliography (Gary Westfahl): A very comprehensive (even if it is "selective") listing. An excellent jumping-off point to explore the concepts in fact and fiction.

Made up of: Introduction: We All Live in the Sky (Gregory Benford and George Zebrowski); The End of the Beginning (Ray Bradbury); Bigger Than Worlds (Larry Niven); The Other Side of the Sky (Arthur C. Clarke); Tank Farm (David Brin); Breakaway, Backdown (James Patrick Kelly); The Wind from a Burning Woman (Greg Bear); View from a Height (Joan D. Vinge); The Voyage That Lasted Six Hundred Years (Don Wilcox); Redeemer (Gregory Benford); Bindlestiff (James Blish); Open Loops (Stephen Baxter); Spomelife: The Universe and the Future (Isaac Asimov); Reef (Paul J. McAuley); A Dream of Time (George Zebrowski); Space Stations and Space Habitats: A Selective Bibliography (Gary Westfahl).

Addendum (June 30, 2006): The idea of moving out into space is still being discussed!

Counts as sixteen entries in the 2006 Short Story Project.