Here's my latest entry from 2011 Reading Recollections:
Lois McMaster Bujold's novel Cryoburn, in an odd way, reminds me of Gregory Benford and Allen Steele. Gregory Benford, as a scientist and science fiction writer, is a real believer in Cryonics. When he dies, he has apparently planned to have his body cryogenically frozen, in the hopes that in the decades (or more likely, the centuries) to come, medical expertise will allow him to be brought back to life.
In Allen Steele's novel A King of Infinite Space, the protagonist awakes in the future. His aging body has been replaced with a young one, but all his carefully laid financial plans have gone wrong. He is now a slave, the property of the person who bought him as a commodity.
In Bujold's novel, her popular character Miles Vorkosigan investigates a cryonics corporation. He discovers that bodies have been preserved using cut-rate fluids, materials, and other processes. In the process, many of the bodies have degraded so that the people can never be resurrected.
Cryogenics offers us hope of another life, or potentially everlasting life in our mortal bodies. Cryoburn reminds us that while the emerging field of Cryogenics holds great potential, the potential of something going wrong during the physical process of preservation, storage, and reincarnation is highly probable, given the long span of time involved, and the all-too-Human natures of those charged with caring for our delicate bodies.
Still, like the ancient Egyptians with their mummification techniques and their pyramids, we live, and die, in hope.
Dragon Dave
In the movie "Passengers," a mechanic awakens from hibernation to discover that his spaceship is ninety-years away from the new world he had hoped to colonize. Without being able to reactivate his sleep pod, he spends a year alone on the ship before giving into desperation and awakening another passenger. Together, the couple work through her anger at losing her planned future, and help save the five thousand sleeping passengers when the malfunction that awakened him threatens to destroy the ship.
A few years ago, I met Allen Steele. One of his most famous novels is Coyote, which tells about a group of people who make a similar voyage to another habitable planet. In one long section, a man awakens from sleep to discover that his hibernation pod has malfunctioned. Without a way to reactivate it, he will die of old age before the ship reaches Coyote, the world he had intended to colonize. Unlike the mechanic in "Passengers," he does not give into his loneliness and attempt to awaken another passenger. Like the mechanic in "Passengers," he constantly tries new things, learns new skills, and lives a fulfilling life aboard the spaceship.
A couple years ago, I had the pleasure of hearing Allen Steele speak at a local convention. Later, when he signed my copy of Coyote, I told him I had particularly enjoyed that section of the novel. He said that section was close to his heart also: one of his biggest fears about embarking on such a long journey would be that his hibernation pod would malfunction. It was nice to connect with him in that way, and meet someone who had taken me on a wondrous interstellar journey through his novel.
I don't know if Coyote inspired the brain trust behind "Passengers," or Allen Steele was consulted, in any way, on the movie, but it was nice to see a movie that didn't rely on the normal Crash Boom Bang of Big Tentpole Sci-Fi Hollywood movies. It was intelligently written and visually stunning. It's the kind of film I'd like to see more often, and one I highly recommend.
Oh, and if you're interested in reading a great science fiction novel about colonizing another world, I've got a novel I can recommend too.
Dragon Dave
While "Appaloosa" shared sets and locales with films like "3:10 To Yuma" and "Cowboys And Aliens," author Robert B Parker and director Ed Harris was more concerned with exploring the type of people who would try to settle an untamed land. Central to the story are the lawmen who keep the peace. Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch don't talk much. To Ed Harris, they're the type of men who could ride side-by-side all day, never say a word to each other, and be perfectly content with the nature of their camaraderie. In fact, Cole seems a stranger to words, a man who uses them when necessary, but sparingly, knowing they can inflict as much harm as the guns he wields. Cole frequently looks to Hitch to help him find the appropriate words in a given situation. But what he lacks in education, he makes up with determination, by reading noteworthy authors like Ralph Waldo Emerson, and attempting to embody the ideals he finds in their books.
"Everett, listen to this," Cole says one day, looking up briefly from his leather-bound volume of Emerson. "What I must do is all that concerns me," Cole reads slowly and haltingly, "not what the people think."
Everett Hitch regards his friend somberly, and nods in reply.
Later, when enforcing the law proves tricky in Appaloosa, sidekick Everitt Hitch suggests that they are gunmen first, then lawmen. If they know what's right, maybe it's okay to bend the law in this one instance, for the sake of the greater good. Virgil Cole's answer is straight-forward and immediate. He simply wouldn't know how to look at himself, if he saw himself as anything other than a lawman first.
As SF authors such as Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and Allen Steele have suggested, it'll take strong, forceful characters to establish self-sufficient colonies on other worlds. People like Gerald Skibbow, Father Horst Elwes, and Quinn Dexter in Peter F Hamilton's novel The Reality Dysfunction will all attempt this in their own ways. But when the people of such a colony are looking for someone to establish the law and maintain the Peace, they could do much worse than employ someone Virgil Cole, and his loyal friend Everett Hitch.
Dragon Dave
Three years ago, I attended a Science Fiction convention in which Allen Steele served as the Author Guest of Honor. I enjoyed hearing his input on panel discussions, as well as his views on contemporary society. He seemed eminently approachable, without pretension, and a real down-to-earth guy.
He told us an interesting story about meeting his writing hero Robert Heinlein. As a young man, he snuck into a private party at a Science Fiction convention. When Robert Heinlein arrived, he approached the great author only to find himself tongue-tied, and unable to tell Heinlein how much he admired his stories.
While Allen Steele signed my books, I told him about meeting SFWA Grand Master Robert Silverberg. How I had gotten tongue-tied, and felt embarrassed afterward. Thankfully, I was able to speak clearly and concisely with Allen, and told him about sections of two of his novels that had really spoken to me. He thanked me for my input, and shared with me what had motivated him to write those particular scenes.
As I walked away, I heard something rip behind me. Somehow, my shoe had gotten wrapped in the fabric draping the signing table, and I had just torn half of the fabric away from the table. Hurriedly, I reattached it, and left the signing room.
So much for meeting my literary heroes without (in any way) embarrassing myself.
Happy Birthday, Allen Steele! Thanks for being so approachable, for sharing with your fans, and for writing your fantastic novels!
Dragon Dave
Related Internet Links
Allen Steele's website
