Swift Thoughts
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
This collection of stories showcases the work of George Zebrowski, one of science fiction’s masters and a writer Hugo and Nebula Award winner Robert J. Sawyer has called “one of the most philosophically astute writers in science fiction.” Like the writers Olaf Stapledon, Arthur C. Clarke, and Stanislaw Lem, Zebrowski explores the “big questions”—the expansion of human horizons, and the growth of power over our lives and the world in which we live.
In the title story, scientists push the boundaries of human mentality to keep pace with ever-evolving AIs. In “The Eichmann Variations,” a finalist for the Nebula Award, exact copies of captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann stand trial for his crimes against humanity, while in “The Word Sweep,” all speech must be rationed because spoken words take on physical form. In “Wound the Wind,” another Nebula Award finalist, unchanged humans roam freely until captured by those who know what’s best for them, and in “Stooges,” a visiting alien hijacks the persona of Curly Howard. From hard science fiction (“Gödel’s Doom”) to alternate history (“Lenin in Odessa”) to first alien contact (“Bridge of Silence”), and with an introduction by renowned physicist/writer Gregory Benford, this collection presents one of the most distinctive voices writing in the field of science fiction today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 24 highly regarded stories of this brilliant collection span 30 years of John W. Campbell Memorial Award winner Zebrowski's (Brute Orbits) career in fundamentally philosophical hard SF. Convinced that the genre best "rehearses possible futures," Zebrowski succinctly exhibits a wide range of gritty, postmodern, impeccably disciplined glimpses into futures far and near, as well as alternative histories, like the intriguing "Number of the Sand" and "Let Time Shape" from the History Machine series he began in the early 1970s. All probe the innermost reaches of human frailty. Like Kafka, Zebrowski follows each wrenching "what if" opener with remorseless logic to a closing as stark and inevitable as the utter cold of outer space, often a direct result of humanity's violent and spiritually fatal pursuit of power. Most disturbing are Nebula Award nominee "The Eichmann Variations," which questions whether that murderer is capable of remorse and redemption; "Bridge of Silence," an alien contact that cuts to the essence of human hubris; and the shattering "Lesser Beasts," which lays bare the tragic delusional aftermath of the Vietnam War. Humanity's saving grace of humor, which the author sees as a weapon against totalitarianism, dominates "Stooges," an alien encounter via a comedy jam session. Though Zebrowski notes that several of his stories "got away" from him, all demonstrate impressive discipline, logic and mastery of his craft; as his conclusion, "Holdouts," suggests, there is a human need to "rewrite reality itself." Few SF writers have done so with such mathematical elegance.
