Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait, K.A. Bedford, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2008
In a near future Western Australia where time machines for personal use can be bought out of a catalog, Aloysius "Spider" Webb is a time machine repairman. He was a member of the Western Australia police, until he was forced to leave under very unpleasant circumstances.
He spends most of his time dealing with idiot customers who don't bother to read the instruction manual, or are upset because they can't travel to some major event in history, and change things. The Department of Time and Space (DOTAS) has rules about such things, and the ability to enforce them. His boss is a thoroughly dislikable person who everyone calls Dickhead, right to his face.
Things get interesting when, one day, a time machine arrives with another time machine inside it. In that second time machine is a female murder victim. DOTAS comes and slaps a Top Secret sign on everything. Things get even more interesting when Spider finds a future version of himself, brutally murdered. Iris Street, the local police Inspector, is called in. She and Spider had a brief, but torrid, affair while he was a cop. It was part of the reason for his abrupt departure.
Spider meets several other future versions of himself, including a ninja type at the end of time. There is one spaceship of "good guys" holding out against the "bad guys," led by Spider's boss, Dickhead. There are also alien beings called vores, who are literally eating the universe from the outside. Back in the present, Spider, Iris and another future version of Spider deal with the aftermath of a woman who, six years previously, uploaded a video to the internet of her suicide by self-immolation. It was in retaliation for her husband having an affair with Clea Fassbinder (the dead woman in the time machine).
This will certainly give the reader a mental workout. The plot may get a little gory, and convoluted, but it is a really good story, and is very much worth reading.
Showing posts with label bedford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bedford. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Hydrogen Steel
Hydrogen Steel, K.A. Bedford, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2006
Zette McGee is a private investigator, and former cop, in a habitat on Ganymede. She abruptly retired from the force, rather than risk exposure of a personal secret. McGee is called out of retirement by a frantic phone call from android Kell Fallow, who knows her secret, and who swears he did not kill his family. Before Fallow can reach her, he is killed by a bomb in his gut.
At every step in the investigation, McGee, and Gideon Smith, a friend with a shadowy past, are stopped cold. It is the work of a firemind called Hydrogen Steel. Think of an artificial intelligence that has had eons of time (about a hundred years in human time) to grow and evolve. It can do a lot more than just read minds, for instance. Wherever they are, it can disable their ship, leaving them stranded in space. It can infect their neural implants with all sorts of major viruses. It can send an android that looks identical to McGee to destroy her residence. It can create intruders out of thin air, then disappear into thin air, to kill anyone it wishes. Hydrogen Steel can also infect McGee and Smith with bombs identical to the one that killed Fallow, forcing them to get quantum scans of their brains, and those scans downloaded into new bodies.
Hydrogen Steel's mission is to prevent any release of information regarding how the Earth disappeared years before. There wasn't any rubble from its destruction, just "poof." Another firemind, Otaru, finds out the truth, but knows that it will not survive the expected battle with Hydrogen Steel.
This is a gem of a novel. It's a really good mystery/thriller; how does anyone deal with an entity that can reach into your DNA, and do something nasty? It's also quite mind blowing, and is very much worth reading.
Zette McGee is a private investigator, and former cop, in a habitat on Ganymede. She abruptly retired from the force, rather than risk exposure of a personal secret. McGee is called out of retirement by a frantic phone call from android Kell Fallow, who knows her secret, and who swears he did not kill his family. Before Fallow can reach her, he is killed by a bomb in his gut.
At every step in the investigation, McGee, and Gideon Smith, a friend with a shadowy past, are stopped cold. It is the work of a firemind called Hydrogen Steel. Think of an artificial intelligence that has had eons of time (about a hundred years in human time) to grow and evolve. It can do a lot more than just read minds, for instance. Wherever they are, it can disable their ship, leaving them stranded in space. It can infect their neural implants with all sorts of major viruses. It can send an android that looks identical to McGee to destroy her residence. It can create intruders out of thin air, then disappear into thin air, to kill anyone it wishes. Hydrogen Steel can also infect McGee and Smith with bombs identical to the one that killed Fallow, forcing them to get quantum scans of their brains, and those scans downloaded into new bodies.
Hydrogen Steel's mission is to prevent any release of information regarding how the Earth disappeared years before. There wasn't any rubble from its destruction, just "poof." Another firemind, Otaru, finds out the truth, but knows that it will not survive the expected battle with Hydrogen Steel.
This is a gem of a novel. It's a really good mystery/thriller; how does anyone deal with an entity that can reach into your DNA, and do something nasty? It's also quite mind blowing, and is very much worth reading.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Orbital Burn
Orbital Burn, K.A. Bedford, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2004
Louise "Lou" Meagher is an unlicensed private investigator in the city of Stalktown on the planet Kestrel. Down on her luck, she ekes out a living solving petty crimes. One day, a neuro-enhanced and abused beagle named Dog asks (yes, asks) Lou to find its master, a biological android boy named Kid. This wouldn't be so unusual, except for two things. The first is that the planet Kestrel is to be destroyed in less than ten days by a planet-sized rock heading its way. Lou wants nothing more than to start over elsewhere. She can't do that, because the second unusual thing is that Lou is clinically dead, and the dead have no rights. Having inhaled a nasty nanovirus when she was younger, she is kept alive by an expensive, and extensive, nanobot treatment. Lou is overdue for another treatment.
As time goes on, Lou discovers that a man of questionable reputation named Etienne Tourignon is also interested in Kid, along with a synthetic mind named Otaru. Lou is unable to find Kid before D-Day, so on one of the last ships off Kestrel, heading toward an orbital station, she watches Kestrel's last moments. When the rock is only minutes away, it suddenly starts shrinking, until it actually disappears.
On the orbital station, Lou shoots and kills (so she thinks) another member of the Tourignon family. At her trial, in front of a religious court, Lou is looking at a one-way trip in an airlock. Otaru gets her out of jail, due to her not-exactly-alive status. Lou is now the property of Otaru, and gets her nanobot treatment.
For a while, Lou and Dog thought Kid was dead. Their only connection with Kid was through a psychic connection with Dog. Finding that Kid is not dead yet, and is on the station, doesn't answer the overriding question: Why is this defective biological android so important?
This one is surprisingly good. It's interesting and well done, it has plenty of Strange and the author does a fine job at making the characters into real people. This is a gem of a story.
Louise "Lou" Meagher is an unlicensed private investigator in the city of Stalktown on the planet Kestrel. Down on her luck, she ekes out a living solving petty crimes. One day, a neuro-enhanced and abused beagle named Dog asks (yes, asks) Lou to find its master, a biological android boy named Kid. This wouldn't be so unusual, except for two things. The first is that the planet Kestrel is to be destroyed in less than ten days by a planet-sized rock heading its way. Lou wants nothing more than to start over elsewhere. She can't do that, because the second unusual thing is that Lou is clinically dead, and the dead have no rights. Having inhaled a nasty nanovirus when she was younger, she is kept alive by an expensive, and extensive, nanobot treatment. Lou is overdue for another treatment.
As time goes on, Lou discovers that a man of questionable reputation named Etienne Tourignon is also interested in Kid, along with a synthetic mind named Otaru. Lou is unable to find Kid before D-Day, so on one of the last ships off Kestrel, heading toward an orbital station, she watches Kestrel's last moments. When the rock is only minutes away, it suddenly starts shrinking, until it actually disappears.
On the orbital station, Lou shoots and kills (so she thinks) another member of the Tourignon family. At her trial, in front of a religious court, Lou is looking at a one-way trip in an airlock. Otaru gets her out of jail, due to her not-exactly-alive status. Lou is now the property of Otaru, and gets her nanobot treatment.
For a while, Lou and Dog thought Kid was dead. Their only connection with Kid was through a psychic connection with Dog. Finding that Kid is not dead yet, and is on the station, doesn't answer the overriding question: Why is this defective biological android so important?
This one is surprisingly good. It's interesting and well done, it has plenty of Strange and the author does a fine job at making the characters into real people. This is a gem of a story.
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