Reviews and Comments

A fascinating story of a scientist and passionate elephant conservationist whose consciousness was scanned and later put into the mind of the matriarch of a group of revived mammoths, in the hope that she can teach the group how to be mammoths again in the steppes of Siberia. As the story begins, she discovers the deaths of several male mammoths from hunters. Thus, begins her own vendetta against the hunters to protect her group.

As the story develops, we learn the backstory of the scientist and the state of the world, where elephants have been hunted to near extinction for their ivory and other body parts. While mammoths are protected by the huge wilderness they wander in, they are no longer safe from hunters, unless the scientist, and the mammoth body she inhabits, can push the group into doing something they have never done before: becoming the hunter.

A story full of thrills, suspense, and a look at what a passionate person can do if given the chance the inhabit the body of her passion. But now, her choice is to decide what to do with body she has been granted.

An interesting near-future thriller mainly set on the Con Dao archipelago in Vietnam, where a species of intelligent, communicative octopus have been discovered. To try to communicate with them, a specialist in octopus has been called in, and she will have to work alongside an android, which may be the first sentient AI created, and a security officer who is deadly serious in protecting the area from all intruders.

The attempts at communication with the octopus is the main basis for the story. But layered upon it are philosophical discussions over the nature of the octopus itself, how they may see the world and how you approach and communicate with sentient beings that don't share the same senses or even a brain network with us: octopus limbs can operate independently of the brain, and they send messages by changing the patterns on their skin.

Subplots in the story focus on a hacker who has been asked to hack into an extremely sophisticated neural network, and on a slave crew on an AI controlled ship hunting for fish in a world where predatory fishing companies have overfished the oceans and are eager to exploit the remaining places with fish. They serve to flesh out this world where wars have been fought, and new regional nations have risen, eager to make their mark on the world. AI technology has also matured and taken over many jobs, while people feel more isolated in a world where AI mediated communications is the norm.

At the end, various parts come together to show that the octopuses have their own ideas on communicating and dealing with humans, leaving the future open for further interactions, but on the octopuses terms.

An excellent book about a global machine that people don't often think about: the global ocean. A machine takes in energy and does work, and the author shows how the ocean does that. The ocean takes in the energy of the sun, stores it mainly as heat, and uses it to move water in great currents all over the world. This affects how organisms live, for those at the surface to those living in the depths.

The book starts with showing how the machine works physically. Light from the sun heats the surface, causing evaporation and currents to form as cold water moves in to replace the lost water. The earth's rotation swirls the currents as they move north or south, which are further affected by land masses in their path. The author goes from the equator to the poles, showing how the workings of the machine affect the local conditions in areas.

All of this, of course, affects how organisms will live, by taking advantage of the conditions caused by the machine, whether to move about, eat or to breed. Humans are not exempted, as sailing ships and other early vessels also took advantage of the currents. Reading the currents also allows humans to predict where good fishing ground might be located.

All this human activity has lead to disruptions in the global ecosystem, for marine organisms depend on a predictable machine in order to survive. As an example, whaling lead to a collapse in marine microorganisms because the microorganisms depend on iron to grow, and a major source of iron was whale poop, which is now in short supply. The changing climate has also led to warmer water temperatures and changing currents, which are disrupting the lives of organisms.

In closing, the author offers some thoughts on how to reduce such disruptions. But the major point of the book is to make people more aware of the ocean and the machine that is running in it, and not to treat the oceans as a 'blank spot' that we can all throw our troubles (and refuse) into and not consider the consequences.

An average issue of Interzone, with interesting stories by E.G. Condé, Prashanth Srivatsa, Matt Hollingsworth and R. Wren.

• "Sibilance" by E.G. Condé: an investigator goes to Jupiter to discover why production of a vital source of fuel for fusion is diminishing. What he discovers would be an unexpected source of intrusion that can drive people, and machines, mad.

• "Warmth" by Seán Padraic Birnie: in a bedroom, a shadow moves in a way that shadows don't, and the occupant can only freeze in fear, or be warmed by the end.

• "Drafting" by Rachael Cupp: a teenager drafts a letter to a friend, first for hating her for stealing her boyfriend, then correcting it to maybe it is for the best, in a world where they are isolated from each other in shelters.

• "The Spirit Machines" by Prashanth Srivatsa: in an alternate past and future, two robots animated by magic guard a Buddha's relic from the relatives of a king who want to claim in. In the end, they fail; or do they?

• "When I Was the Red Baron" by Matt Hollingsworth: in a story containing violence and self injury, a young boy sees his father commit suicide, which has him rolling his crayon in the blood, which gives him chilling powers of destruction when used from drawing. As he becomes a parent, having used the crayon a few times to deadly effect, he is now faced with one final choice. But it may be his young son who might change his decision.

• "Carrigan" by R. Wren: an Irish person goes home to the farm where he/she grew up. But having to deal with relatives who don't know what to make of her is the least of her problems when her uncle accidentally awakens ancient people from the bog. Now they need to be appeased to leave the land alone.

• "The Clockwork Heart of Heaven" by Roby Davies: a fantastical story about a mechanical deity born from the mind of a man who might go on to dominate the earth and absorb humanity in its quest for godhood. But not if one man and a team of intelligent primates can stop it in time.