Tag Archives: Amazing Stories

Katherine MacLean and “The Trouble with You Earth People”

Today, January 22, is the birthday of Katheirne MacLean (1925-2019). She was most active during the 1950s, although she continued to publish occasionally up through the late 1990s.

What’s that, you say? You didn’t know women wrote science fiction back in those days? I thought I’d dealt with that myth already.

I’ve not read much of her work, just a few stories in anthologies,mostly in high school or undergrad. She specialized in anthropological science fiction. Let’s look at one of her stories. Continue reading

A Review of The Chaplain’s War

Chaplain's WarThe Chaplain’s War
Brad R. Torgersen
Baen Books
Trade Paper, $15.00
ebook $8.99

I’m a little confused about this one. Baen’s site says the book is due to be out sometime this month (October). When I checked Amazon earlier today to find the exact release date, the book was listed as having been released on September 15. I suspect that might actually be October 15 and a slight slip-up on Amazon’s part.

None of which is really important. What is important is that Brad Torgersen’s first novel is soon to be available, and if you like military sf with a bit of depth, you should read it.

The Chaplain’s War is what is sometimes called a fix-up novel, meaning that it was originally published in parts and the parts have been fixed up to make a novel.  There is nothing wrong with this approach.

I read the first two stories that make up the novel in Torgersen’s first collection, Lights in the Deep, which I reviewed at Amazing Stories.  And while I enjoyed “The Chaplain’s Assistant” and “The Chaplain’s Legacy”, to be honest, I liked some of the other stories in the book better.

Still, I jumped at a chance to read the novel and would like to thank Baen Books for the eARC.  I discovered something.  Even though I knew what to expect for the first part of the book, I found I enjoyed the story more the second time around.

There’s a lot of military sf out there, and while I’ve not read a great deal of it in recent years, I think it’s safe to say that Torgersen’s approach is a little different.

The story concerns Harrison Barlow, a young man who is a POW on a harsh planet.  Humanity has encountered a race of hostile and very advanced aliens bent on being the only sentient race in the galaxy.  The aliens resemble preying mantises and are called mantes by the humans.  Barlow was the chaplain’s assistant.  He made a promise to the chaplain as the man lay dying that he would build a chapel for the survivors.  When the story opens, a mante scholar arrives at the chapel seeking to learn about humanity’s God.  The aliens practice no religion, and the concept of spirituality is one that is difficult for them to understand.

Through his growing friendship with the alien, Barlow is able influence the course of the war so that humanity isn’t eradicated.  A fragile peace forms, but it doesn’t last.  Barlow finds himself in the position to trying to broker a more lasting peace if he can survive.

“The Chaplain’s Assistant” is reprinted pretty much as it appeared, but Torgersen inserts a number of new chapters into “The Chaplain’s Legacy” showing Barlow’s time in basic training.  This will come to have an impact on the ending of the novel.  The military aspects feel real because Torgersen is in the reserves.

The thing I liked best about this book was that Torgersen treated the concept of faith with respect.  Not surprising since Torgersen has made no secret of his religious beliefs.  What made things really interesting is Barlow is a nonbeliever when the book opens and does his best to remain so throughout.

Before you think the author is going to beat the reader over the head with his religious beliefs or that the book is one long sermon, it isn’t.  Torgersen mixes the spiritual aspects of the book with subtlety, integrating questions about God and faith into the story organically.  The result is thought provoking questions arising as part of an entertaining story.

And the story is entertaining.  Torgersen doesn’t shy away from conflict, violence, or space battles.  Barlow is a complex character, one with his own frustrations and internal conflicts.  This is very much a military sf book, one that shows aspects of military life not always seen in other works in this subgenre.  And a book I thoroughly enjoyed.  I’m looking forward to reading more of this author’s work.

What is Science Fiction?

A couple of weeks ago, over at Amazing Stories (TM), Paul Cook stirred up a great deal of controversy when he took some well known authors to task for writing what he viewed as something other than science fiction.  The well-known included Gene Wolfe, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Sharon Lee & Steve MIller.  Of course there was a reaction, including this rebuttal at Amazing by Nina Munteneau; in other places this one and this one as well.  I’m sure there were people voicing their thoughts in parts of the interweb I don’t go into after dark.  (Or before dark, either.)

GatewayI’d already been thinking along these lines, and I’m ready to put my thoughts down in writing, if for no other reason than to get them out of my head.

I like cross-genre writing.  While none of you have seen any of them yet, much of the fiction I attempt to write is a blend of mystery and some other genre, with the mystery being the secondary genre.  In fact the second and third longest things I’ve ever written, and the two longest things I’ve actually completed, are a science fiction private eye story and a fantasy who-done-it.  You may see the latter soon.  Both are too short for traditional publishing and too long for the short fiction markets.

I also like my science fiction pure, like the high end product you can only buy on the schoolyards in the rich part of town.  Err…forget I said that.

Science fiction is one of those things that people can’t necessarily define, but htey know it when they see it.  Kind of like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall’s definition of pornography.

Here is my definition:  Any story in which the science is so integral to the story that the story collapses without it.  That story can be set in the future, the past, or a time that never was or will be.  The story can be a mystery, a thriller, a western, or (gasp) a romance.  And of course, there’s always the scientific puzzle story.  Whether the science fiction is the main genre or the supporting genre really doesn’t matter as far as this definition is concerned.

Now I personally prefer my science fiction either fairly straight, or if I’m indulging in a mixed genre, on at least equal terms with the other genre.  I realize not everyone feels this way, and that’s fine.  If you won’t tell me what to read, I won’t tell you where to go.Kuttner Thunder in the Void

As a practicing scientist (some would say a scientist who hasn’t practiced enough), I personally prefer hard science and the scientific puzzle.  I also love space opera, military sf, and a good time travel story.  I’m a sucker for a rousing space adventure, especially one with well thought out aliens who are more than just caricatures of the things that used to appear on the covers of second rate pulps.

If an author is a good enough writer to put some other genre in the mix, then great!  I suspect some of Mr. Cook’s objections grew out of finding someone else’s genre mixed in his science fiction.  He’s certainly entitled to his opinion, and I can understand where he’s coming from, even if I don’t completely feel the same way.