Reviews and Comments

A story of a reporter who visits a community of people living in a landfill to discover their views on having enough to eat. But what they can now eat may make the reader uncomfortable, and it is the reporter's way of regaining respect, for she once worked at the company that imploded when the method used to allow the landfill people to eat was revealed.

An average issue with reasonable stories by Harmony Neal, Sarah Brooks, Rich Larson and David Cledem.

• "Alts" by Harmony Neal: in a comedic variation of HG Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau", a genetically engineered 'person' sits in on a group of similar altered people, trying to figure out what they are good or; or rather, what a military complex thinks they may be good for.

• "Dogfights in Olympus and Other Absences" by Ryan Row: a strange planet with a huge atmosphere becomes the backdrop for this dogfighting story around an ace pilot who only wants what's best for his daughter. But then the daughter wants to become like him.

• "The Hunger of Auntie Tiger" by Sarah Brooks: in a desert future, two kids eke out a living among the wreckage of a city, being told tales of a hungry tiger. But will the tale become true when they are caught in a huge dust storm, and they see a familiar figure in the sand.

• "You Make Pattaya" by Rich Larson: sex, deception and money form the backdrop of this story of a future Thailand, when a man sees an opportunity for quick gains by exposing a celebrity secretly looking for adventure.

• "Rock, Paper, Incisors" by David Cledem: the story of a young girl tricked into become her tribe's chosen hero / monster by transforming herself in one of three types of creatures to do battle with the other tribe's hero / monster. But when she senses a connection with her enemy, she may be able to escape being killed and, perhaps, escape the constant strife between the tribes.

• "My Generations Shall Praise" by Samantha Henderson: a story about a prison inmate being signed up for a procedure to allow a dying relative take over her body in exchange for money for her children. But can she go through with it, especially when she realizes that doing so would make her children end up being effective body slaves to her relative in the future.

A very entertaining graphic novel about how it might have been if Ada, Countess of Lovelace and Charles Babbage had managed to bring to life the Analytical Engine. The book starts with the real-life stories of Ada and Babbage, then branches off into a 'pocket universe' where the Analytical Engine is created and run by them.

In a series of adventures, the pair hilariously show off the Engine to Queen Victoria who wants to 'RULE THE WORLD!', called to save Britain from a global financial crisis, fight off the mathematical Luddites, try to mechanize fiction writing by statistically analysing a book by Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) and even try to visualize the third dimension (remember, the characters live on a two-dimensional page).

Probably one of the most hilarious short parts of the book is when George Boole (of Boolean logic fame) is reduces to mumbling "Error, error," when asked a non-boolean question (not a "Yes" or "No" answer) while being served a drink!

The book is full of footnotes by the author pointing out historical, mathematical, engineering and computing references to the situations depicted. Making the book more true to life is the effort the author went through to ensure that the words being said in the novel closely match what Ada, Babbage and other characters (like Isambard Kingdom Brunel) actually said or wrote in real life.

The book ends with a very technical appendix outlining how Babbage's Analytical Engine would have worked if it actually had been built.

A very entertaining read indeed.

An excellent book on the continuing adventures of a young Ada Byron (later to be Countess of Lovelace) and young Mary Shelly who, breaking all kinds of Victorian rules, set up a detective agency together and proceed to solve crimes. In this story, Lady Mary Sommerville asks them to investigate the pending marriage of a young girl to a peer who seems very anxious to get his hands on her family's fortune. Also involved is a mysterious girl in grey seen running in the streets that may be related to the case. If you pay attention to the story, you may be able to figure out the solution one step ahead of the girls, but not by much.

This is the second book in the series that plays a what-if with Ada and Mary, born years apart in reality, were about the same age, met and set up a detective agency with the help of young Charles Dickens and, in this book, their sisters. It's a fascinating scenario and quite well done. You also see young girls who, acting against Victorian norms, set out to do something instead of acting like 'damsels in distress'.

I look forward to reading the next book in the series, with hints dropped by the author in this book, of even bigger events to happen in the universe of the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency.

One of the few non-SFF stories I've read, mainly due to the premise that it revolves around a bookshop. It is an interesting book, told from the first-person perspective of the young niece of the bookshop's owner, and mainly involves the relationship between the niece and her uncle, but with a few books thrown in.

At the start of the book, the niece breaks off her relationship with a co-worker, and moves to live at the bookshop at the invitation of her uncle to recover emotionally. At first, all she does is take care of the shop and sleep. But she gradually opens up after reading books from the shop, and starts to go out into the surroundings, which is famous in Japan as a second-hand bookshop area. She meets and interacts with various residents, getting to know them.

But she has not fully recovered from the break-up, and needs a push from her uncle to do so. She also discovers that her uncle also has secrets from his past, especially over the uncle's wife (the niece's aunt), which disappeared years ago, but suddenly reappears into the uncle's life. It would need a trip with the aunt to discover what happened in the past and the estrangement that occurred between the uncle and aunt. And now, it would be her turn to return to favour and push the uncle and aunt to reconcile.

In short, an enjoyable read about people who bond over books, with some interesting characters and relationships that revolve around books and the people who write and read them.

A story that merges Chinese-style SF with a high stake meeting with aliens that doesn't quite meet the expectations of this reader. The blend of martial arts with futuristic tech is there, but the story's characters and situations didn't really pull me into the story.

The story evolves around one girl who continues the work started by her father, figuring out that much of the advances by human civilizations in the past was driven by periodic visits by aliens. Now, another one is due, and she is determined to go and meet the aliens.

But her plans are complicated by the involvement of two antagonistic men: one is wealthy, with commercial connections through his family, the other is a military AI leader who wants his own Pacific League to triumph over the Atlantic Alliance. Together, through cooperation and rivalry, they will set out together to meet the aliens, survive a test of their skills before the meeting, and then manoeuvrer through the political and military alliances on Earth to present the potential 'upgrade' of humanity peacefully, and for everybody.

While the book is brimming with ideas, the presentation of the science and technology, especially from the aliens, is somewhat clunky, with info dumps that bring the story to a halt while the characters (and the reader) digests the implications. The motivation of the characters are also presented in chunks, which didn't really let me 'get into' the characters as the story progressed.

Thus, this is a book that has a promising premise, but somewhat let down by the way the story is presented by the author.

A fascinating book and a topic that may be easily misunderstood: the application of quantum mechanics to computing. The author does not shy away from the maths of linear algebra and matrix computations, but if you stick with it and work through or think about the maths, you'll get a better understanding of how quantum computing works, instead of getting a 'hand-wavy' non-mathematical view.

The book starts with the basics of quantum mechanics: how the act of measurement alters the properties of a quantum object like light (photons) or electrons. Next, linear algebra and matrix computations are introduced and it is probably best for the reader to work through or become familiar with this, or much of the rest of the book will be incomprehensible. Next, the mathematics are then used to show how measurements of quantum objects cause them to take on the measured states: this is the 'shut up and calculate' form of quantum mechanics, where not much is said about what quantum mechanics is, but only about what it does.

Using mathematics, the author then shows what happens when two particles are entangled and their states measured. He carefully shows how measuring the state of one entangled particle 'instantaneously' causes another particle to take another known state, and why this does not lead to 'faster than light' communication. He also shows the calculations on how Bell's Inequality shows that quantum entanglement is real and not a due to a 'hidden variables' form involving classical particles.

The author then switches topics to introduce logic gates, which leads to the topic of quantum gates. Again, mathematics is used to show how such quantum gates work. These quantum gates are then combined to produce quantum circuits which are then used to show how 'superdense coding' and quantum teleportation work.

Finally, the work culminates by looking at quantum algorithms and how they achieve 'better' results than classical algorithms. Finally, a brief look at how quantum computers could perform better than their classical counterparts is given.

A young girl, whose mother is a witch, feels lonely, and wants to get to know another girl from her school. As their friendships develop, the girl also develops a desire to know magic like her mother. But when her comes into her magic, she discovers magic has been 'hooked' into her friend. Undoing it would lead her into a fight for which she may not be prepared for.