Title: The Alien Stars and Other Novellas
Author: Tim Pratt
Twitter:  timpratt
Published: 2021
ISBN-13: 9780857669285
Publisher: Angry Robot Books
Twitter:  angryrobotbooks
Publishers’ Blurb:  In this collection of previously unpublished novellas, Hugo Award-winner Tim Pratt returns to the acclaimed sci-fi universe of his Axiom trilogy. Each of these three stories takes fans and new readers alike deeper into the rich world of the Axiom than ever before, revisiting the crewmembers of the White Raven as they strike out on new and enthralling adventures. Delilah Mears joins the crew of the Golden Spider, as its cyborg captain Ashok leads them deep into space to investigate a mysterious cosmic anomaly, leading to an encounter with a truly unusual band of space pirates; AI (and Trans-Neptunian Alliance President) Shall receives a strange summons from a past version of himself to help defeat an existential threat to the entire universe; And intrepid alien truth-teller Lantern journeys home to confront the monsters of her past, and the deepest secrets of her heart (or the closest thing she has in her circulatory system to a heart)

I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM ANGRY ROBOT BOOKS FOR A FAIR AND HONEST REVIEW. THANK YOU.

My Review:

Three novellas, three different tones, all set in a universe I knew nothing about.  In his foreword, Pratt says these novellas were written to flesh out minor characters from the Axiom series he wasn’t ready to let go of.  OF course, now I want to know more and have added the series to my wishlist.

What I like most is the characters are really diverse and Pratt creates a world where AI are treated as citizens.  We have moved so far beyond Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.

“The Augmented Stars” is probably my favorite novella because it is lighthearted and has a fun, familiar twist.

Ashok’s once human self figured out how to download personality and memories into computers which became AIs.  At this juncture, Ashok has modified himself many times, selling any software he develops for seed money for the next project.  He and his crew on the Golden Spider head for the edges of the galaxy to figure out what’s been making ships disappear.

Once the crew gets to the trouble spot, they find the missing ships trapped by old Axiom tech run by former slaves.  In search of a new job, they do research from old Earth tapes and fancy themselves now to be pirates which gives them permission to pillage the ships and imprison the crews they find.

It is Delilah, ship’s engineer and former citizen of Earth who recognizes the characters as from an old television show Hyerion’s Revenge.  The pirates considered the transmissions to be a documentary and replay the parts endlessly.  Delilah uses this to her advantage and secures release of all ships and rescue of all prisoners.

It’s a cute story and reminded me a lot of John Scalzi’s Redshirts and the movie Galaxy Quest.

“The Artificial Stars” is not quite so lighthearted.

Shall is an AI of high position in government.  With careful consideration, five years ago, he was allowed to spin off a version of himself.  Now, he’s getting a communication from the old self, now named Will, that they need to meet or the universe will end.

But beware old AIs who weren’t properly shut down and allowed to spend years alone.  Like Colussus, or HAL, Will runs amok and is the threat he warns about.  In a plan to lure Shall into smaller and smaller devices which are in capable of holding all of Shall’s memory, Will wants to reintegrate with Shall and, of course, take over the world in retaliation for Shall leaving him behind and alone.  One of the most standard villain tropes in existence, resentment over imagined hurts and revenge against those who perpetrated that hurt.

The description of the smaller and smaller places Shall had to physically go through while facing down the “rats” which were eating the wormhole bridges (Axiom tech) made me claustrophobic.  Shall’s shipmate Uxoma, also part Axiom tech who finds the way to mislead Will enough to be disassembled by a drone.  This time, Will is disconnected properly, no longer able to plot and plan more revenge.

“The Artificial Stars” leans into the fear of what harm unmonitored AI could do.  A fear which blossomed when computers took up rooms and scientist discussed the possibilities.  Happily, the damage is contained and in a “no one need know but us” explanation, Will is elevated to hero for sacrificing himself for the greater good.

Pratt’s writing serves up great heaping helpings of “and then for the greater good” hopefulness in these novellas.  Nothing wrong with that, especially in these trying times when we could all use some hope.

“The Alien Stars” is the epistolary story of Lantern

Title: From the Dust Returned
Author: Ray Bradbury
Twitter:  Ray Bradbury considered the internet a waste of time
Published: 2001
ISBN-13:  9780380973828
Publisher: William Morrow
Twitter:  WmMorrowBooks
Publishers’ Blurb: In an extraordinary flight of the imagination a half-century in the making, Ray Bradbury takes us to a most wondrous destination: into the heart of an Eternal Family.

They have lived for centuries in a house of legend and mystery in upper Illinois — and they are not like other midwesterners. Rarely encountered in daylight hours, their children are curious and wild; their old ones have survived since before the Sphinx first sank its paws deep in Egyptian sands. And some sleep in beds with lids.

Now the house is being readied in anticipation of the gala homecoming that will gather together the farflung branches of this odd and remarkable family. In the past-midnight stillness can be detected the soft fluttering of Uncle Einars wings. From her realm of sleep, Cecy, the fairest and most special daughter, can feel the approach of many a welcome being — shapeshifter, telepath, somnambulist, vampire — as she flies high in the consciousness of bird and bat.

But in the midst of eager anticipation, a sense of doom pervades. For the world is changing. And death, no stranger, will always shadow this most singular family: Father, arisen from the Earth; Mother, who never sleeps but dreams; A Thousand Times Great Grandmére; Grandfather, who keeps the wildness of youth between his ears.

And the boy who, more than anyone, carries the burden of time on his shoulders: Timothy, the sad and different foundling son who must share it all, remember, and tell…and who, alone out of all of them, must one day age and wither and die.

My Review:
From a very young age, I’ve loved Ray Bradbury’s stories. In a time when I read indiscriminately, I remember Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and, The Illustrated Man.  Even now they’re floating around my stacks waiting their turn for a re-read.

Bradbury is hard for me to review because his work is almost too liminal to be reviewed.  The stories prey on me at a different level than most books.  I can’t describe what it is to read him and be swept into his liminal space.

“… I had been having trouble with Weird Tales all along because they complained that my stories were not about traditional ghosts. They wanted graveyards, late nights, strange walkers, and amazing murders.
“…
“I simple couldn’t do that; I tried again and again but along the way my stories turned into tales of men who discovered the skeleton inside themselves and were terrified of that skeleton. Or stories about jars full off strange unguessed creatures.”

The Eternal Family in From the Dust Returned is preparing for the gala homecoming of family around the world.  The House has always been there, high on the hill, waiting for this.

There’s great excitement, especially for Timothy, the only human in the family.  Left as a baby on the doorstep of the House, he only knows this family and loves them dearly.  As they love him, and turn to him to be historian, to write things down and remember what happened.

Members of the family arrive to the great delight of each other.  Then, one who finds himself unwelcome  does the most horrific thing which can be done to a family such as this.

“The Family was strange, perhaps outré, in some degree rococo, but not a scourge …”

John the Unjust arrives.  His introduction implies he was once known as Vlad the Impaler.  He finds “…there was no room for his decayed persona and his dreadful past.”

And so, in a fit if pique, John the Unjust arrives at the police station to report on the goings on at the House.  Torches and pitchforks are recruited and the Family flees as best it can while this home to a loving family is burned to the ground.

Timothy survives.  He goes to a museum with A Thousand Times Grandmère in his arms and makes a deal.  Grandmère, revealed to be Nef, mother of Nerfititi must have a new home and Timothy must be allowed to visit whenever he wants.  The curator, Alcott, is most understanding and impressed by this boy, and Nef.  A deal is struck and a new home welcomes her.  Of course, Ray Bradbury, tells it more eloquently and makes it seem like the most logical thing of all.

Such is the magic of good tales, and Ray Bradbury was a master.