Confessions from the Killer Mime Cult

Books: This is the promised review of the stories in the Extreme Science Ficition book. Anomalies by Gregory Benford. There is a mistake in the universe and it has to fix itself. Like we are living in the matrix or something. Left me cold. '...And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon', by Paul Di Filippo. Better, kind of an extended joke, so I can't tell you much about it. 'Cruxifiction Variations' by Lawrence Person. An interesting examination of parrallel universes. Like if you're Christian and you live in a universe where Christ wasn't the son of God. 'The Pacific Mystery' by Stephen Baxter. This is about a world where the Pacific is uncrossable and so, Nazi Germany won the Second World War. Kind of bla. 'Flowers from Alice' by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. I don't know how two guys can write a story together, but I don't have to know. It's an interesting exploration of what it would be like to be post human. I think they go in too much of a technoligcal direction, but still curious. 'Merlin's Gun', by Alastair Reynolds. A space opera. Interesting. 'Death in the Promised Land' by Pat Cadigan. About Virtual Reality. I think virtual reality is the 3-d of our generation. In the fifties people thought all of our movies by now would be 3-d, and now we think we will have holidecks. 'The Long Chase' by Geoffrey A. Landis. This is a great idea. Someone sends their personality into space in a nano-machine and this machine is chased throughout time by another machine. 'Waterworld' by Stephen L. Gillett and Jerry Oltion. This is an interesting story about the practical difficulties of space exploration. 'Hoop-of-Benzene' by Robert Reed. This is probably the third best story in this anthology about cultural differences, and mans inhumanity to this time, aliens. 'The New Humans' by B. Vallance. An interesting exploration of transhumanism, circa 1920. 'The Creator' by Clifford D. Simak. Some scientists in the twenties come up with some mumbo jumbo and meet god who happens to be a violent scientific Demiurge. 'The Girl had Guts' by Theodore Sturgeon. This is probably the inspiration for the Alien movie series, and happens to be much more disgusting. 'The Region Between' by Harlan Ellison. I have to say, that this is probably the best story I have ever read. Ever. And I went to university and studied English lit. There's interesting character development and the format, the layout of the text is brillant. 'The Days of Solomon Gursky' by Ian MacDonald. Also a space opera. It drags. 'Wang's Carpets' by Greg Egan, I know I keep saying this, but it is another good exploration of the ways different life forms may evolve. 'Undone' by James Patrick Kelly. This is the second best story in the book and it uses layout in a similar way to 'The Region Between', but I think the story is by far less compelling. 'Judgement Engine' by Greg Bear. About a person who gets resurrection to judge his descendents at the end of the universe. 'Stuffing' by Jerry Oltion. Another joke story, about a world where people have stopped eating.

talk to the Snail by Stephen Clarke. I don't know why I picked up this book as it is about the French and the amusing things they do. It's funny, and I realize that I could write something like that someday about Poland. I also read 'Zanna's Bedside Manner' by Josh Skinner. I know he has alot of problems with it, but there's a good mood to it.

Labels: books