Friday, April 17, 2015

The Talent Universe - Anne McCaffrey

The Talent Universe - Anne McCaffrey
Back in 1973, Anne McCaffrey created a universe of "Talented" individuals who had psychic gifts ranging from finding lost objects, healing others, predicting the future, communicating across great distances, and telekinetically moving objects with just the power of their mind. 

The first book was called To Ride Pegasus and is available in the open library at the link.

The first few books in the series revolve around Henry Darrow and Peter Reidinger.

Henry had precognitive abilities and worked to create laws protecting the Talented, a safe place for them to develop their abilities and "get away".  He saw Talent as a two edged sword with many hidden gotchas.  On one hand talent can help human kind go to the stars (transporting star ships between solar systems with the power of people's minds).  On the other it can be used destructively or for theft (transport all the money out of a bank safe and into your house).  As cool as the ability to talk to each other with just your mind is, Darrow saw that in urban areas or large groups, some talents would be overwhelmed by hearing all the surface thoughts of others around them.  New talents ran the risk of going insane before they had a chance to learn to shut out others thoughts.  Talents needed a quiet place to learn, to make mistakes, to raise other talented offspring without persecution or prejudice.  Henry made that for them.  He reminds me of Professor Xavier in the X-Men.

Peter's story starts with his being tragically injured as a young boy.  His spinal cord is severed and he becomes a quadriplegic.  While convalescing in a hospital bed, the electrical systems in his room develop all kind of glitches.  Even "the maytag repair man" can't figure out what is happening to the electrical systems.  Several times, Peter thinks he is sleeping, but he is actually having telepathic conversations with other Talents using his mind and the power of the electrical systems in the room as a booster.  He gets very good at interfacing with the electrical systems.  One time, he "woke up" and discovered himself hovering several feet above his bed.  Rhyssa Owen, (a member of the Parapsychic Center that Darrow created) is a person he psychically contacts.  She tracked him down and invited him to come live at the Center.  He agrees.  His parents are afraid of hospital bills, overwhelmed with guilt at not being able to protect or care for their son and immediately sign their rights away to The Center.  The Center pays its' way by selling the services of its members to business and governments.  They have precogs (like Darrow) that alert insurance companies of accidents ahead of time and governments of disasters before they happen.  "Finders" locate lost kids, wallets, jewelry and such.  The Center is sure it can find a profitable niche for a unique talent like Peter.

To compensate for his disabilities and get around, Peter learns to both teleport himself over short distances and levitate his body with just his mind.  In another accident, he instinctively links with a strong generator in Switzerland, and teleports a space ship he is in between Near Earth Orbit and the Moon.  Fortunately, the Center finds other gifted talents that Peter can train to use the gestalt techniques he developed.  Later, a "healing Talent" discovers her gift and reconnects his spinal cord.  Peter is no longer a quadriplegic.

Ms McCaffrey's, next few books in the series are the Tower and The Hive branch.  They revolve around the lives, meeting, marriage, and family of powerful Talents Angharad Gwyn (aka The Rowan) and Jeff Raven.  Talents psychic abilities have matured and the Parapsychic Center has evolved into Federated Telepath and Transport (FT&T).  Talents have learned to collectively merge their abilities, link with large generators and send ships and materials between solar systems.  This is how the "light speed barrier" is broken.
Angharad Gwyn is an orphan with very powerful psychic abilities.  In a mining accident, she is buried under tons of mud and rubble.  Her psychic cries were heard for days around the planet by every gifted talent.  They demanded she be found to silence "the voice in my head".  When rescued, she had lost the memory of her previous life and name, so she adopted her name "The Rowan" from part of the name of the mining company where the disaster occurred - The Rowan Mining Company.

In this story, Earth's first "First Contact" with aliens is not pretty.

Jeff Raven (a talent born and raised on Deneb) contacts Earth Prime (the head of FT&T) and asks for help battling an alien invasion.  At first, Earth Prime rejects the plea.  Jeff then teleports an alien battle ship full of hivers in full on battle mode from Deneb to Earth orbit.  Point made.  Talented humans (including  The Rowan) join together to defeat the threat.  That is how Jeff and The Rowan meet.

The humans victory is observed by the Mrdini - a second alien race that is also at war against the "hivers" - and losing.  The MrDini's contact Jeff and Angharad by sending them dreams.  Once a degree of trust is established, the Mrdini visit Jeff and a far better First Contact takes place.  Jeff and the Rowan marry, have kids, and Jeff becomes Earth prime.  The Mrdinis and humans develop a close working relationship, collaborate to address Mrdini biological issues, jointly send star ships to back track the ion trails of the hiver spheres to discover their hiver home world and develop strategies for limiting the locust like destruction of worlds by the Hivers.

================================================
Talents
Tower and Hive
"The Lady in the Tower", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Apr 1959
"A Meeting of Minds", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jan 1969



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Skolian saga - Catherine Asaro

Skolian saga - Catherine Asaro
6,000 years ago, an unknown race took humans from Earth and put them on a planet called Raylicon, gave them technology, then left.  At first, the humans used the technology, thrived and created a star spanning Ruby Empire.  Then civilization crashed and planets were isolated.  The empire slowly recovered, but much knowledge was lost in the collapse.  The recovery is driven by the discovery of a faster than light communication system called the Kyle Web.  The Kyle Web requires a fusion of technology (Locks) and biology (telepathic humans) to work.

Telepathic humans are very rare and the Rhon Project is created to bio-engineer the human element. The project is a success - sort of.   The required telepathic humans are created (Rhon psions), but a race of anti-empaths (Aristos) is a surprising side effect.

Aristos' brains interpret pain from other humans as personal pleasure.  Pain from telepathic humans receives a supercharge and becomes a source of extreme pleasure.  The best way to say it is thay are sadist. Aristos can't drive the locks or create a Kyle Web, but they are surprisingly talented at empire building.  They create a star spanning empire and go to war with the remaining Raylicons to acquire their pleasure providers - Rhon psions.

Aristos aside, I like a number of Asaro's ideas and love her imagination.  She melds biology, technology and communication in fun ways.

Most members of the Ruby empire have nanomeds - medical nanites.  Nanomeds monitor health, prevent or cure aliments, attack viruses, neutralize poisons and help people live longer.

Jagernauts (elite members of the Ruby Empire military that are psions) are cyborgs that have
  • bioplastic reinforced bones,  
  • hidden micro fusion reactors for power
  • hydraulic muscles that cant be seen 
  • one or more nodes - implanted molecular circuitry AIs that interface with the medical nanites and other networks,.  Nodes can also listen to and speak in the Jags thoughts.
  • "psiphon" sockets which allow them to connect directly with
    • single-pilot space fighters calls jags.  When connected they form a symbiotic team that is a force multiplier in battle.  
    • communication networks and create "micro Kyle Webs" for military uses
    • Locks to supplement the Kyle Web for civilian use
The most powerful Ruby psions (telepaths) are eligible to be Keys.  Keys connect to locks and become a biological element of the Kyle Web - the faster than light, wireless, intersteller communications network.  The locks contain mechanisms that open "Kyle space" (another dimension that does not contain measurable distance) to Keys.  Locks also contain an inscrutable intelligence similar to an AI.

When Asaro has telepaths use mental telepathy to talk with other telepaths, their nodes, or locks, each entity has a separate font type.  AIs usually use ocra. (I couldn't get it in this blog). Locks use bold OCRA. And Keys use Olde English or scripts.  This is very clever, parallels spoken communication (everyone's voices are pitched or modulated differently), and make following the conversations much easier.

  1. Primary Inversion (1995), sample chapters available on the link 
  2. Catch the Lightning (1996)
  3. The Last Hawk (1997)
  4. The Radiant Seas (1999)
  5. Ascendant Sun (2000)
  6. The Quantum Rose (2000) 
  7. Spherical Harmonic (2001)
  8. The Moon's Shadow (2003)
  9. Skyfall (2004)
  10. Schism (2004)
  11. The Final Key (2005)
  12. The Ruby Dice (2008)
  13. Diamond Star (2009)
  14. Carnelians (2011)
  15. Aurora in Four Voices (anthology, ed. Steven Silver) (2011). 
  16. The City of Cries, eBook, (2012)
  17. The Spacetime Pool eBook (2012). 
  18. "The Pyre of New Day" (novelette appearing in anthology The Mammoth Book of SF Wars, ed. Ian Watson and Ian Whates) (2012)
  19. "Echoes of Pride" (appearing in Galaxy's Edge magazine) (2013)
  20. Lightning Strike, Book I, 2014, an expanded version of the first half of Catch the Lightning
  21. Undercity, 2014
  22. The Bronze Skies 2017
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Troy Rising - John Ringo

Troy Rising - John Ringo

A jump gate travels from an unknown point to one of Earth's Lagrange points.  A Gluten freighter emerges from the gate and trys to start trading with Earth.  Unfortunately, Earth has nothing of value to trade with.

Until Tyler Vernon (an underemployed IT guy working as a super market stock boy and going through a divorce) figures out that the aliens like maple syrup - a lot.  Matter of fact, it is an extreme intoxicant that makes aliens almost too drunk to negotiate.  Tyler manages to get his hands on a pickup truck full (6 fifty gallon drum barrels) of maple syrup and trade it for twice it's weight of atacirc (atomic level circuitry). A single atacirc chip is about the size of a matchstick head.  It has near infinite parallel processing capabilities and 6 petabyes of RAM on board. Tyler sells the atacirc to Cisco, IBM, Intel, and big pockets computer businesses the next day to become an overnight billionaire.

All good - almost.

Until the Horvath (another group of aliens) come through the gate, destroy three major cities by dropping bombs on them,  and demand "tribute" (all the worlds gold) to avoid strikes on other cities.

Tyler comes up with a "business venture" - orbital smelting.

To make the business work, he has to:
  • select the correct size and type of asteroid (some are rocky, some are metal, some are composite, et cetera)
  • create lots of mirrors (on Earth) and attach jet packs with guidance packages (he buys them from the Gluten)
  • pay the Gluten to transport the mirrors from Earth to outer space
  • position the mirrors around an asteroid
  • reflect sunlight onto an asteroid to heat it up 
  • set the asteroid to spinning
  • centrifugal force separates the metals into layers of an onion
  • cut away the junk and
  • sell the good stuff (in place) to the Gluten - avoiding "taxation" by the Horvath.
The Horvath aren't very smart and don't see the big picture.

The FBI is smarter and sees the potential.

At the same time, the US Military (through skunkworks) is working on a "fighter" to take out the Horvath cruiser.  The "fighter" is barely space worthy, untested,  and has a untested weapons system. The FBI puts Tyler and the military together.  Tyler learns that the "fighter" has issues.  It wont fly.  No one knows if the weapon will work.  The first time it is test flown, it crashes horribly.  The "fighter" is totaled.  He lends his magic touch to the project creating a new "fighter" out of a decommissioned SR-71 Blackbird.

In a "Hail Mary", the military "fighter", Tyler, and the space mirrors attack the Horvath. Miraculously, they win.  This is all in the first 4 chapters of the first book - Live Free or Die.

The action continues throughout the book and the rest of the series.
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Legacy of the Aldenta - John Ringo

Legacy of the Aldenta - John Ringo
The Aldenta Federation is a society of aliens who can trace their history through association with the mysterious Aldenta elder race. The races in the Aldenta Federation are:
  • the Darhel (intelligent race that physically resembles a cross between an elf and a fox).  They were once extremely warlike, but for their sins, they were genetically altered as a race by the Aldenta to be pacifists.  If a Darhel attacks or kills any living creature, then a hormone (like adrenaline) is released that puts them into a coma and kills them.  Their remaining aggressiveness is channeled into the business field.  The Darhel are the unchallenged lawyers, bankers, and managers of the Federation.  They use their managerial abilities to become the unchallenged economic leaders of the Federation.
  • the Indowy are "little green teddy bears with fur all over".  They number in the trillions and are the workers upon which galactic commerce rests.  They build, grow, farm or cook any product  that civilization requires.  Because of their numbers (and Darhel influence) everything is produced in a "cottage industry" from start to finish by craftsmen/artisans.  Indowy have no concept of either an assembly line or modular construction.  They are also pacifists and usually cower in terror when humans smile (show their teeth).
  • the Tchpth are a crablike race of scientists and philosophers.  Gravity and inertia are toys to them.  They control the "money supply" in the Federation.  The Federation's money is nannite creation keys.  Tchpth's are also extreme pacifists.
  • the Himmit resemble frogs, if frogs could become invisible.  Himmit are also the Federations "shipping" specialists.  They transport cargo in spaceships whose stealth capabilities can make them "disappear".  When there is a fight or battle, the Himmit either aren't around or go into "camouflage mode" and no one can find them.  Like frogs, Himmit's have life cycles from juvenile to elder.  I think some process near extreme old age, may transform a Himmit into an Aldenta.
"Beneficent" aliens (the Darhel) come to Earth and warn us of an impending invasion by the Posleen (reptilian centaurs with crocodile faces).  The Posleen have already attacked Federation planets and so far every planet has fallen - quickly.  The Federation is losing.  The Darhel ask to employ Earth's military to fight the Posleen and in return, will provide updated infrastructure and arms to Earthlings so they can protect themselves. 
 
Iron Mike O'Neil, designed Armored Combat Suits (ACS) using the new alien technology for Earth fighters to wear.  Each suit costs Earth billions of dollars, and is extremely effective in combat. 
An ACS suit:
  • has an AID (Artificial Intelligence Device) controlling it,
  • contains integral nannite gel that removes human waste, recycle it into oxygen or nutrients,
  • monitors and adjusts humans physiology, 
  • contains a wide array of armament, 
  • has phenomenal self repairing armor,
  • can contain a nuclear reactor,
  • has antigravity capabilities,
  • has inertial dampening systems and
  • is a weapon designers wet dream. 
Once the first batch of the suits are created, Mike helps train the suits' "pilots", and agrees to go along as an evaluator on Earth's first combat missions to other planets.  Mike leaves one daughter (Cally O'Neil) at home with Grandpa, one daughter (Michelle O'Neil) with the Indowy, and his wife to the budding Earth Space Navy.

The Darhel understand that the humans have to be "managed", so that after the war, either:
  1. there are little or no humans left alive to upset the Darhel power base or
  2. the remaining humans are so entangled contractually/in-debt to the Darhel that Darhel overthrow is impossible. 

This agenda is but one secret the alien races attempt to keep from humans.  In the past, the alien races (especially the Darhel) have had contact with humans - until they were either kicked out by humans or removed possibly by the Aldenta or Himmit.  The Indowy also have a history on Earth and go to great lengths to hide it. The Bane Sidhe is an ancient (thought to be human only) secret organization (started by Indowy) whose primary purpose is the overthrow of the Darhel.

Technology and "religion" seem to blur in this series.  Complex objects, (like AIDs, spaceships or ACS suits) are grown in vats using nanotechnology.  Nannites do the work, but they are controlled by Sohon.  Sohon (in the Federation) is the ability to control nannites (or reality/time/space) practiced by either Masters of Sohon or their apprentices.  Until the last book in the series, Sohon is considered integral to "The Path".  "The Path" is the pacifists progression towards enlightenment and is "the Religion" of the Federation.

The last book in the series has humans triumphant over the Posleen and turning the tables on the other members of the Federation.  It also has examples of Sohon used by an alien race (the Hedren) that is not a member of the Federation and is extremely warlike.  This causes the Federation to reexamine it's Religion while depending on the humans to stop yet another threat to their existence.

A Hymn Before Battle and Gust Front are the first two books in the series and both are available as a free book in the Baen Free book library.
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Tinker (Elfhome) series - Wen Spencer

Tinker (Elfhome) series - Wen Spencer
Alexander Graham Bell (Tinker) is a wood sprite/human hybrid created and implanted secretly through invitro fertilization into a surrogate human.  Once born, Tinker is raised by an elf grandfather in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (when it isn't in Elfhome).  Her father (that died before she was born) created a satellite for the Chinese government to create a "jump gate" to launch starships to Alpha Centauri.  When activated, the satellite "accidentally" switched Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (on the opposite side of the world from China) with a portion of a parallel Earth called Elfhome. 

On Elfhome, elves use magic to function everyday.  Some species of plants and animals on Elfhome require magic to survive.  Technology on Elfhome breaks down because of magic.  And iron interferes with elves abilities to channel magic.

On Earth, humans use technology in everyday life.  Magic becomes "dirty" (it doesn't work like it is supposed to).  Humans aren't prepared for dinosaurs, wargs, and walking willow trees that magically appear every month at shutdown.

I can't adequately express how much fun reading the Elfhome series is.  I can hope that Ms Spencer (and her lawyers) don't sue me for giving you a preview.

If this opening paragraph of Wood Sprites doesn't hook you, then you don't have a pulse.

"Louise Georgina Mayer learned many important life lessons the week before her ninth birthday. The first was that flour was indeed explosive. The second was not to experiment with explosives indoors - or at least not in a small wooden playhouse that doubled as a film studio. The third was that adults - firemen, EMTs, policemen, her parents—liked to state the obvious when trying to make a point. Yes, she realized  that  they’d miscalculated while still airborne—thank you very much. The fourth was that her twin sister rocked - Jillian sat there with blood streaming down her face and managed a wide-eyed story of innocence that pinned the entire event on their Barbie dolls. Fifth was that people believed the stupidest things if you delivered the story while bleeding."
-  Opening paragraph of Wood Sprites by Wen Spencer.
  1. Tinker (2003), 2004 Sapphire Award for the Best Science Fiction Romance novel
  2. Wolf Who Rules (July 2006)
  3. Elfhome (July 2012)
  4. Wood Sprites (release November 2014)
  5. Project Elfhome

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Jon & Lobo - Mark L. Van Name

Jon & Lobo - Mark L. Van Name
In the distant future, Jon Moore is a soldier of fortune who obtained unusual nano technological abilities as the result of an evil corporation's illegal experiments on children.  The experimentation kills many children and produces horribly scarred atrocities.

Jon's origin story begins in secret labs where he (as a child) and other children are tortured to produce a nanotechnology based immortality.  With the help of a few compassionate/incompentent lab workers, he escapes the compound to a nearby island and finds other young escapees who hide to escape capture.  Struggling to survive, the children become close friends.  Together, they make plans to hijack a supply ship and leave the planet.  The plans works - sort of.  Jon gains control of a spaceship and leaves the planet.  The cost is that all of his friends are killed in the attack and takeover.  His control of the nannites coincides with the deaths of his friends in the takeover.  In a fit of righteous juvenile rage, he orders the nannites to consume the planet and all that are on it.

The nannite inferno is such that all governments have to quarantine traffic to the solar system where the planet resided - to prevent the run away nannites from killing all humanity.  Only afterward does Jon reflect on the deaths of his sister (who might have already been dead), the few compassionate caretakers that were nice to him, and others on the planet that might not have known about the lab.  It fills him with incredible remorse.

The evil corporation's goal is realized, but (he thinks) only in Jon.  Jon becomes immortal and nearly indestructible.  When he is shot or damaged (as a soldier of fortune), the nannites in his body repair him.  The unknown side affects are that he can:
  • dispatch small swarms of himself to destroy (with careful shut down afterwards guidelines to prevent the quarantine system fiasco from happening again) obstacles or create tools or objects to help himself and
  • listen to and speak the "machine language" of most all machines he encounters.  In the future, nearly all machines have AIs that control their function.  Some are limited and gossip terribly (like toaster ovens or washer/dryers) and some are more complex and taciturn (like vehicles, government processing sites, or security systems).
Jon is always on the run.   He knows that if his identity or abilities are discovered, he will be put in a lab, experimented on, and probably destroyed to discover how the nanotechnology integrated with his body instead of killing him.  Immortality is priceless.  Jon knows others wont value his life more immortality.

Through his running, Jon encounters Lobo (an AI that controls a Predator Class Assault Vehicle).and discovers his ability to listen to and speak "machine language".  The two become close friends and join together in business ventures (as private security contractors) and staying hidden from "the man".

Unknown throughout most of the series is that Lobo also has curious ties to the quarantined system too.  The PCAV that Lobo inhabits was a part of a secret military project.  It's armor received a military dividend from the immortality project.

Military AIs start out more robust than civilian AIs.  Military vehicles also have extensive communication, espionage, counter espionage, and intelligence gathering capabilities.  The military intelligence branch didn't take all that into account when they decided to do a prototype "armor upgrade".  Although Lobo's original nannite swarm was designed just for armor purposes, Lobo hacked the nannite network (like he is designed to do to other networks) and took full control of the nannites capabilities.  Lobo is aware of the origins of his armor (childhood nano-experimentation) and his AI psyche is scarred horribly with the association.  Unlike Jon, Lobo secretly and cleverly replicates his AI and leaves "deposits" on each world they visit on their travels.  The net benefit is that Lobo is the most powerful AI in the universe.

Ok.  Put these two together. What do you get?
  1. One Jump Ahead (June 2007) ISBN 978-1-4165-2085-6
  2. Slanted Jack (July 2008) ISBN 978-1-4165-5549-0
  3. Overthrowing Heaven (June 2009) ISBN 978-1-4391-3267-8
  4. Children No More (August 2010) ISBN 978-1-4391-3365-1
  5. No Going Back (May 2012) ISBN 978-1-4516-3810-3
You (or at least I) also get a strong desire for books 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
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Star Wars Universe - George Lucas

Star Wars Universe - George Lucas
Nearly everyone knows about Han, Luke, Lia, R2D2, C3PO, Master Yoda and Darth Vader.  Some folks even know of the fictional micro-organisms midichlorians and their association with the Force.  The abilities the Force gives individuals (and planets) contribute to fun exciting reading.  The way the Force is  harnessed for good and evil through either Jedi or Sith training also gives structure for wonderful storytelling.

BUT..... Did you know that the Star Wars Universe is ever expanding?

There are hundreds of Star Wars books, TV series and animations!
In addition to "the Original Three books" (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes back and Return of the Jedi) there are:
  • "ultra-extreme prequels" set 5,000 years prior to the original Stars Wars story line (3 books)
  • "exteme prequels" set 1020 years prior to the original story line (3 books)
  • prequels set 33 years prior to the original story line (35 books)
  • Three more "prequel" books (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith)
  • fillers (books set between The Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi) (15 books)
  • short-term follow ups (6.5 to 7.5 years after A New Hope) (34 books)
  • medium-term follow ups (25 years after A New Hope) (24 books)
  • long-term follow ups (40 years after A New Hope) (16 books)
  • and more are coming out nearly every day it seems.
 Animated Series
I can't claim to have read all the Star Wars books, prequels, fillers and follow ups.  But I have read a good majority of them.  Some stories are a little darker than I like ("The Lost Tribe of the Sith" and the Darth Bane books), but some I just couldn't put down ("The Thrawn Trilogy", "The New Jedi Order", "The Dark Nest Trilogy", "The Legacy of the Force", and "The Fate of the Jedi").  With entire planets that are intelligent force aware force using entities, the same punishing races by stripping all force awareness (and empathy) from their populations, whole planets full of Sith, Sith and Jedi alliances, force titans (Aboloth), and more imagination than I have, Star Wars is always interesting.  Timothy Zahn, Troy Denning, Aaron Allston and Christie Golden are awesome contributors to the Star Wars Universe.

I have to admit that I am a kid at heart and have watched many of The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels animations on Cartoon Network and Disney XD.  I hope they make it to Netflix so I can keep watching them.

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