Tag Archives: Gregory Benford

I Have Met Infinity

Meeting Infinity
Johnathan Strahan, ed.
Solaris Books
Paperback $14.99, ebook $8.99

Before we get started, I’d like to thank Solaris books for the review copy of Meeting Infinity. It’s the fourth volume in the series of anthologies entitled Infinity Project. I’ve not read all of them yet, but for the most part I’ve liked the ones I have read. (The inaugural volume Engineering Infinity is reviewed here.) Strahan’s taste is close enough to mine that I know any anthology he edits is probably going to have more stories I like than dislike.

Having said that, Meeting Infinity probably diverges from my taste more than most of his anthologies, although I did find myself liking the majority of the stories (including a few that I thought went off the rails into heavy-handed sociopolitical messages at the end). It contains 16 stories. They range from near future dystopias to far future scenarios. Here are some highlights: Continue reading →

Crossing the Sea of Suns

Across the Sea of Suns
Gregory Benford
Kindle $6.64

Some months back I reviewed In the Ocean of Night, the first volume in Gregory Benford’s Galactic Center series. Across the Sea of Suns takes place a number of years later, and it’s just as good as the first volume in the series.

The Lancer is a deep space ram ship that scouting nearby stars for possible Earth-like planets. The target is a nearby star with only a catalog number that has since been christened Ra. Signals have been detected coming from that star.

Aboard is Nigel Walmsley, the protagonist from Ocean. He’s a bit older, but more cantankerous than ever. He doesn’t get along with Ted Landon, the bureaucrat in charge. After the events in Ocean, Nigel doesn’t exactly think like everyone else. This causes friction between him and Ted because Ted is very much a bureaucrat. It doesn’t help that Nigel is usually right. Too bad Ted doesn’t listen very well. Continue reading →

Sailing the Ocean of Night

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In the Ocean of Night
Gregory Benford
ebook $9.78 Kindle $10.99 Nook
paperback $22.99

This one has been around for a while. I read it in high school, which should tell you something right there, although it had been a few years when I first read it. I didn’t really connect with the book at that time. I think I had gotten it and the sequel, Across the Sea of Suns, as a combination deal through the SFBC. I never read the sequel.

I recently decided to reread In the Ocean of Night. I’ve been in the mood for some hard science space adventure. Bowl of Heaven only scratched the itch.

So how did the book hold up when returning to it after nearly 30 years? Pretty well, on the whole. Even though time has caught up with the novel’s timeline, so that it opens in what is now the past.The novel opens in 1999 and closes in 2019.

The story concerns Nigel Walmslely, a British ex-pat in the US astronaut corps. He’s sent on a mission to destroy an asteroid that has changed course due to a sudden gas jet erupting on the surface. The new course will result in a collision with Earth. Continue reading →