Reviews and Comments

A fascinating and entertaining book about living on a world in a universe where people can come in different scales. Here, there are eight of them, each one half the size of the previous scale. This comes about because there are eight different kinds of leptons (like electrons) with different masses, causing the atoms they make to have different sizes. Egan explores the possibilities this difference in sizes causes to mass, biology, physics, chemistry, etc. to come up with a world where people of different sizes have learned to live next to each other.

But all may not be well. At the start of the book, a private investigator is hired to find a missing sister. His investigations would lead his to discover a secret being hidden by some people from a smaller scale. As he passes on his investigations to fellow investigators from the smaller scale, what they find would lead to the discovery of a secret that will alter the delicate negotiated balance the people of various scales have agreed to on how to share their environment. And now, the race is on to find a solution to avert a possible crisis that may involve weapons of unimaginable power being used on the peoples of other scales.

Egan expects the reader to be able to pick up the physics of the world from the situations and characters presented in the book, without much exposition being dropped in by him. If you find the consequences of living at different size scales puzzling, then this might not be a book for you. Otherwise, the reader will find living in a world where people are of different scales to be a fascinating experience.

Egan also gives a thoughtful and rational look at how people of different scales interact with each other and what can happen if people of one scale discover they have the ability to radically change the balance of the relationship between themselves and people of other scales: a rough equivalent would be people of different cultures on our world interacting with each other to share a common environment. The debates and arguments that ensue show the different possible reactions, and it is left to the reader to discover which option will be the one that will determine the future of all the people at various scales.

A fabulous coffee-table sized book, featuring hundreds of images taken during the Apollo missions, along with some from the earlier Mercury and Gemini missions. As described at the end of the book, the images were digitally scanned from the original master images from the missions that have been kept in cold storage. The scanned images were then altered to adjust the contrast and colour and to remove dust, damage and other artefacts. Panoramic images were stitched together, while some images were stacked to improve the image quality and recover some image details.

The result are large, fantastic images of space, the Earth and the Moon that are close to what the astronauts would have actually seen. You may have probably seen similar images to those in the book from other publications or website, but few, if any, look as excellent or as true to life as those featured in this book.

Captions are provided with each image, giving a reference number and the context for the images: what the image is showing, how the image was taken and, if known, who took the image and when.

At the time of this review, there are plans to return people to the moon. Until then, these images are probably the best images available that show what it was like to travel through space and to walk and explore on the moon.

An average issue, with interesting stories by Ben Berman Ghan, S.L. Huang, Lu Ban and Vandana Singh.

• "Law of Tongue" by Naim Kabir: negotiations between the matriarch of an Orca pod and humans may not go well for humans when the price to be paid for the negotiations to conclude is revealed.

• "Keiki's Pitcher Plant" by Bri Castagnozzi: an AI run biological lab that has been helping with ecological restoration makes an unusual call for assistance. The person answering the call would discover a startling outcome to a secret project involving another kind of restoration.

• "The Resting Place of Trees" by Ben Berman Ghan: a robot makes its case for a future Earth, nearly devoid of life, to be preserved so that it may continue to extract and try to make sense of the remains of various messages people try to pass to each other as the world slowly comes to an end.

• "Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness" by S.L. Huang: a story that initially starts as an investigation into who was sending lots of abusive and trolling messages to a victim that changes into an essay on the goodness and madness that can come from the use and abuse of AIs trained to communicate with people.

• "Upstart" by Lu Ban, translated by Blake Stone-Banks: a fascinating story of a world where the lifespan of people can be predicted. People are offered money by an organization, in return for dying at the predicted date. Known as upstarts, the story follows one upstart who is about to die. But before he does, he gets pulled into a possible conspiracy involving the organization, which ends in a plot twist.

• "Left to Die" by Vandana Singh: on an alien world, one explorer is left to die by her companions. She later figures out that the truth, but in order to be rescued, she will need to communicate with the plant-like life forms on the world to send her message.

• "To Exorcise Mechanical Ghosts" by Laney Gaughan: after a mining accident, a miner is given a cybernetic arm that belonged to another miner who had died in an earlier accident. The miner begins to get audio feedback that may be messages that the arm still retains from its previous user; messages that make the miner rethink about whether the previous miner did die in an actual accident and what he will do with the messages.

• "The Lightness" by Alex Sobel: on an alien world where items from Earth are considered collectables, a woman considers returning home while being a surrogate mother for the aliens, who hope their child can then become an Earth resident.

A good issue with mostly interesting and wonderful stories, some related to the holidays. I especially enjoyed the stories by John Shirley, Vida Cruz-Borja, J. C. Hsyu, Sara Ellis, Alexander Flores and Jo Miles.

• "Sacrificial Drones" by John Shirley: starting with a dramatic scene in Africa when a boy witnesses a violent act, the story moves forward in time to when a researcher meets a rich African who wants to improve the world using her nanodrone technology. But what stands in their way are warlords out to murder them for threatening their way of life, but not if the rich African gets his way.

• "Though The Heavens Fall" by Louis Evans: when two spaceships have a dispute, it is up to another, much older and more powerful ship to settle the dispute and to ensure justice is done for the cyborg slave at the centre of it.

• "The Shotgun Lucifer" by Bennett North: two fugitives run away together in an unusual world where sound can create vision. But one of there is from a different kind of place and hopes to lead them there to escape their pursuers.

• "Child Of Two Worlds" by Vida Cruz-Borja: a fascinating tale of a girl who grows up in the mortal and fantastic world, and must choose which world to live in when the time comes. But as that time approaches, she meets a boy who wants to map the world, and she makes her choice, if her mortal and magical guardians will let her.

• "Optimist Cleaver’s Last Transmission" by J. C. Hsyu: a woman who acts as a link in a chain of private transporters for private data misses a drop, leading to acts of violence on those around her, which turn on out to be linked to her past as a leader of a gang; but she is a leader with a good heart.

• "Crypt Currency" by Sara Ellis: in a world where hexes and spells live with technology, a girl who snatches body parts from the dead for use in spells get an unusual request: a request that she suspects may be for another sinister purpose. When she acts on the request but in her own way, she may save a life but risks her own.

• "Iconophobe" by Sam J. Miller: set after a series of suicide bombings by a cult group who believes photography is evil and separating humanity from nature, the story follows a journalist who managed to embed himself into the group years ago and wrote up a popular book about his experiences. But one embellishment in the book about an initiation ceremony would come back to haunt him, as well as a person in the cult whom he fell in love in, who may still use him to achieve the ultimate purpose of the cult.

• "To Carve Home In Your Bones" by Aigner Loren Wilson: a rather winding and violent story set in a future where strange creatures have taken over the world. On an island where a crash has occurred, the survivors, all women, struggle to survive as they are picked off, one by one, until only two are left to fulfil what the island's non-human inhabitants require of them.

• "Skin Of The Beast" by Alexander Flores: a fascinating short short story of the wife of a beast, who plots revenge against her beastly husband: a revenge that would require them to change roles.

• "Santa Knows" by Jo Miles: an entertaining Christmas tale about children who write letters to Santa to complain about the app, Santa Knows, that monitors their behaviour. Of course, Santa has to do something about that.

• "Water Music" by Michael A. Gonzales: a saxophone player gets a 'blessing' from an unusual creature that enables him to play extraordinary notes. He then moves to the big city to play, but the playing skill gradually leaves him, making him realize that he would have to meet the creature again, who may not take too kindly to how he had used his gift.

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Isabel J. Kim, Nadia Afifi, Yang Wanqing and Ann LeBlanc

• "The Rhythm of the Soul" by Michelle Julia John: a boy (and others) develop a special skill that causes them to be imprisoned and beaten 'for their own good'.

• "Accountability, and Other Myths of Old Earth" by Aimee Ogden: aliens arrive to put the world in order, whether humans like it or not. But some people don't like it and do small acts of rebellion and, in the end, one big act of rebellion while the aliens still wait for humanity to take account of their actions.

• "Calf Cleaving in the Benthic Black" by Isabel J. Kim: two scavengers are first to a derelict colony spaceship, only to discover something that may prevent their salvage rights, unless they are willing to kill for it; or come up with a different plan to save what they have found.

• "The Lonely Time Traveler of Kentish Town" by Nadia Afifi: a fascinating story of a person with the ability to view the past. Now trying to make a living in a country that dislikes foreigners and migrants, she is approached by a Palestinian who wants to view a historical confrontation between his grandparent and Winston Churchill. The risks they take to view and record the event would change both of their future actions.

• "Hummingbird, Resting on Honeysuckles" by Yang Wanqing, translated by Jay Zhang: a mother grieving for the loss of her daughter finds some solace in recordings of her as capture by her robotic flying hummingbird. But then she realizes that in this future where AI technology is ubiquitous, there may be a way to bring her daughter back in a different form, for a time.

• "The Transfiguration of the Gardener Irene by the Dead Planet Hipea" by Ann LeBlanc: an interesting story of an off-world shoot of a world-spanning fungal-like organism on a spaceship, who learns of the destruction of its world and is now fighting for its survival on the ship with the help of the ship's gardener.

• "The Whelk" by Samara Auman: a robot discovers and inhabits a near-derelict spaceship on a beach. They watch and learn as a world that has now turned its back on space exploration discusses their fate. In the end, the robot decides that together, they can do more than accept their fate on that beach.

A fascinating book about mammals, starting with their origins in the Carboniferous, alongside the group that would become the dinosaurs, then following their development through the various ages before becoming the dominant large animals after the downfall of the non-avian dinosaurs. The book makes clear that mammals did not develop from dinosaurs, nor were mammals prevented from diversifying during the age of dinosaurs (some common myths). Instead, mammals may be small, but they diversified and occupied various ecological niches before the asteroid strike gave mammals the opportunity to get large. Even then, it was not a given that our kind of mammals (placentals) would dominate the Earth, as placentals shared it with other kinds of mammals before eventually dominating the Earth. The book closes with a look at the current extinction crisis being faced by mammals (and other animals).

What follows is a chapter by chapter summary.

• Mammal Ancestors: the story of mammals starts in the Carboniferous period. Two groups of animals would develop from the early amphibians: the Diapsids (reptiles and dinosaurs) and Synapsids (mammals). As the climate became drier, they diversified in various ways. For Synapsids, their teeth would become diverse, allowing them to handle different kinds of food. The Synapsids would lead to the Therapsids, who have a more upright posture. At this time, indications that this group is becoming warm-blooded become apparent. They would also develop one mammalian feature: hair.

• Making a Mammal: in the Permian period, the Therapsids would give rise to Cynodonts. But the Permian would end with a massive extinction event due to super volcanic eruptions. The Cynodonts would then diversify, but became smaller and nocturnal. The dinosaurs and crocodilians would, however, became larger. The Cynodonts would also become fully warm-blooded. At this time, a defining feature of mammals would develop: a new kind of hinge for the lower jawbone, which would give mammals the ability to chew.

• Mammals and Dinosaurs: It is now the Jurassic period. Mammals have become small, and appear nondescript. But diversification among different groups of mammals still continued, and some groups of mammals would become extinct. At this time, evidence for the development of mammary glands and milk can be found. And some bones that once formed the jaw of mammals would migrate to the inner ear, allowing better hearing. This would happen many times among different lines of mammals due to the many ways of chewing food, which affects bone development.

• The Mammalian Revolution: during the Cretaceous period, the supercontinent, Pangaea, begins to break apart into northern and southern hemispheres. Mammals could now be found everywhere in the northern continent, but were mainly rodent-like. A group of mammals called Multituberculates would evolve to feed on the new flowering plants now appearing. Another mammals ground, the Therian mammals, would come up specialized molar teeth to handle insects now showing up to pollinate flowers. The Therians would give rise to modern day marsupial and placental mammals. The Monotreme mammals (like the platypus) would develop in the southern continents.

• Dinosaurs Die, Mammals Survive: heading into the Palaeocene, an asteroid hits the Earth, causing large scale extinctions, especially the non-avian dinosaurs. They were too large, with specialized diets, to be able to survive. The small, generalist mammals would survive, and eventually grew bigger as Earth recovered.

• Mammals Modernize: the Eocene period would be populated by mainly placental mammals that were now larger. They are also recognizable when compared to modern day mammals. Modern DNA analysis can now be used to generate the family tree of mammals. They showed that the first placental mammals to appear were the hoofed animals and primates, followed by the rodents and carnivores. South America would have its own host is mammals different from the northern continents, including predatory marsupials. But DNA would show that South American rodents and primates were from Africa, probably arriving via drifting vegetable rafts from Africa.

• Extreme Mammals: mammals have now grown into various extremes, based on sizes and their habitats. In Africa, mammals ranging from elephants, manatees, and aardvarks to golden moles, would be found to be more closely related to each other via DNA studies. There were also numerous elephants, some bigger than current day ones. Bats would also master flight, but how is not clear due to a lack of fossils. In contrast, fossils of various whales have been found, showing that their ancestors were small, hoofed animals that could swim.

• Mammals and Changing Climates: during the Oligocene and Miocene periods, other recognizable mammals like rhinos, camels, horses would appear. Grasslands would develop and spread during a cooler and dryer climate. Mammals would form various adaptations for eating grass, like having longer teeth or constantly growing teeth. During this time, the Marsupials in the southern continents would start to die out, replaced by placental animals, except in Australia.

• Ice Age Mammals: the cooling climate would lead to various Ice Ages and ice age mammals like the mastodons and mammoths in North America. North and South America would meet during this time, leading to a major migration of species. Other megafauna like woolly rhino and sabre tooth cats could now be found.

• Human Mammals: the story of primates would start with the first, very early primates discovered in Montana, which was a tiny tree dweller with teeth adapted for fruits and soft vegetation. Primates would spread around the world before going extinct in North America. Afterwards, primates would become reduced in numbers in the rest of the world, except Africa. It is in Africa that hominids would get their start in walking and tool making and began to spread throughout the world. Big mammal extinctions would begin, probably caused by humans and climate change. The domestication of dogs and other animals and plants would also being.