Book Review: Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
In Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson writes what aspires to be the definitive colonization-by-generation-starship novel, with an emphasis and focus on the implausibility and folly of such a scheme. (Note:This review atypically spoils a lot of the book as it is a virulent reaction to a lot of the elements in the book I could not otherwise discuss.)
Book Review: The Ark by Patrick S. Tomlinson
Bryan Benson is one of the lucky few, one of the 50,000 or so humans left in the universe. A descendant of those who built and escaped on a generation ship fleeing a disaster for Earth undreamed up by even the imagination of Irwin Allen, Benson is an ex-sports hero, and now a detective. On the last bastion of humanity, slowly approaching their goal of Tau Ceti, there isn’t a lot of work for the detective beyond the usual sort of petty crimes one expects. The margin and tolerance for anything greater just isn’t there when all of the species is in one boat, literally. So, when Benson is handed a missing person case that may not be a missing person, or even an accidental death, but rather a murder, the ex-sports hero will have to become a different sort of hero.
