Shine

Shine is an anthology of optimistic sci-fi edited by Jetse De Vries.

I admit I enjoyed the positive or hopeful endings of the stories. Don't be misled by the phrase optimistic sci-fi here the stories are optimistic (in some cases less clear than other) but not "saccharine sweet" there are some good thought-provoking sci-fi short stories here.

Confession, I hadn't come across all the writers in this book before, but I enjoyed all the stories. The range of stories was interesting, including:

• possibility of benign AI in "The Church of Accelerated Redemption" by Gareth L Powell and Aliette de Bodard;
• rise of a developing country "Solnet Ascendency" Lavie Tidhar;
• understanding humanity "Sarging Rasmussen: A Report (by Organic)" by Gord Stellar;

If you like sci-fi short stories, this book is worth a read.

Amped by Daniel H Wilson

Daniel H Wilson has done it again, following his previous book Robopocalyse,  Amped is another fast paced, sci-fi tale, that is both enjoyable and though-provoking.

Essentially, the story revolves around people have neural-implants for medical or just to make them smarter. It starts with the children with these implants being denied access to free education because they are smarter than non-implanted children, and therefore this not fair on the non-implanted children. Very quickly this moves to discrimination of the 'Amps' (implanted people), ghettos of Amps, and resistance movement. Political manipulation of the situation plays a central role in this, but there are other themes running through this. First, what is a definition of a person and what does it mean to be human? Is this form of technology 'right' or does it dehumanise people or does just enhance what is already there?

This book is a good, enjoyable read, with some though-provoking ideas.

Another recent book Departure by Neal Asher has elements of this story; in particular the effect of implanting technology within someone, though in that story there were only a small number of implanted people.

Program or Be Programmed

Program or Be Programmed by Douglas Rushkoff is a thought provoking book, arguing we should understand the tools (computers) we are using. Raising the point about only a minority can actually program a computer. The book essentially (or my take on it) talks about the need to understand the technology we are using and the internet is a social media.

Chapter X Purpose has a great line "If we don't learn to program, we risk being programmed ourselves", we need to understand the underlying technology to understand the in-built bias of the system. I agree with programming should be taught in school, and the point that basic programming is not that hard to learn; all of these ideas fits with the ideas such as Computational Thinking of Jeannette  Wing. It is not about people necessarily becoming professional programmers, but about the skills (e.g. problem-solving, logic) and knowledge (how the device is actually operates).

This book is an enjoyable and thought-provoking book, that raises questions about the technology in the 'West'.




Another that might be worth reading alongside this one is the Filter  Bubble by Eli Pariser which raises Again, we need to understand the technology we use.

The Left Hand of God

This book by Paul Hoffman is interesting and very dark book, Thomas Cale is the central character, a teenager raised by a violent and harsh religious sect the Redeemers, it appears to be a skilled killer. The story revolves around him and two other boys, plus a girl escaping their 'home' the Sanctuary, being chased, ending up in another city with Cale (no one calls him Thomas) falling in-love, killing quite a few people and... well I won't spoil the ending. What the Redeemers' plans for Cale are is not clear, but intriguing.

It is a good book that is a bit hard to categorise is it fantasy or alternative history? Some names of places are borrowed from real places and there is an Agincourt-style battle. I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book, but by the end I did and wanted to know what happens to Cale.