4.0
Tales of Old Earth
ByPublisher Description
Written over the course of a decade,
contains nineteen masterful pieces of short fiction—including the Hugo Award–winning stories "The Very Pulse of the Machine" and "Scherzo with Tyrannosaur;" the World Fantasy Award–winning novella "Radio Waves;" Hugo Award finalists "The Dead," "Radiant Doors," and "Wild Minds;" and World Fantasy Award finalist "The Changeling's Tale"—as well as an introduction by Bruce Sterling.
From pure fantasy to hard science fiction, this finely crafted collection from one of the greatest science fiction writers of his generation promises to stretch readers' minds far beyond ordinary limits. These tales are guaranteed to delight and are an excellent introduction to this highly praised author.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesTales of Old Earth Reviews
4.0
““The Very Pulse of the Machine” review only:
A trippy episode of Love, Death and Robots is based on this trippy story that’s set on Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io.”
“Found this short story after watching the Love, Death, and Robots adaptation, and I'm really glad I did. Martha appears to be an unreliable narrator, but through the hours she trudges through Io alone with the body of her crewmate, we get a significant glimpse into her mind and the tragic beauty of her perceptions and worldview. It was hard to be sure whether Io was a figment of her imagination, a product of her tired and sometimes drug-amped mind, or whether the moon was truly sentient and helping her in the only way it knew how. I would like to think it was the latter, because whether we're among our own on Earth or stranded in an alien landscape, there is always some comfort in believing we're not truly alone.
Also, the concept of Io as a living machine composed of various physical and chemical processes is both slightly creepy and strangely alluring. It does hold the title of being the most volcanic object in the solar system, and produces a plasma torus surrounding Jupiter which is not fully understood (and which I think is what the title refers to). Reading about how all these things came together, and seeing the austere, wild beauty of the Io landscape through Martha's eyes, reminds me how so much of our universe, or even the backyard of our solar system, contains ongoing mysteries. Perhaps some of these are meant to be solved and others aren't, possibly beyond the scope of human understanding, but there is also beauty in mystery. And there is also a sort of beauty when considering that even in our final moments, it may not truly be the end, as we are rejoining the universe from which we were created.”
“What a very trippy yet very touching story of survival, loneliness, poetry and humanity — moments before you realize that you are nearing your end. With Jupiter as the backdrop, was Martha really became part of Io, or was it all a shabu overdrive...?
Merged review:
What a very trippy yet very touching story of survival, loneliness, poetry and humanity — moments before you realize that you are nearing your end. With Jupiter as the backdrop, was Martha really became part of Io, or was it all a shabu overdrive...?”
About Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick has received the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Theodore Sturgeon awards for his work. His short fiction has appeared in
,
,
,
, and numerous other publications, and many pieces have been reprinted in best-of-the-year anthologies. He has written nine novels, among them
,
, the New York Times Notable Book
,
, and, most recently,
. Swanwick lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Marianne Porter, and their son, Sean.
Other books by Michael Swanwick
Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling is an American author and one of the founders of the cyberpunk science fiction movement. He began writing in the 1970s; his first novel,
, about a whaling ship in an ocean of dust, is a science fictional pastiche of Herman Melville’s
. His other works, including his series of stories and a novel,
, set in the Shaper/Mechanist universe, often deal with computer-based technologies and genetic engineering. His five short story collections and ten novels have earned several honors: a John W. Campbell Award, two Hugo Awards, a Hayakawa’s SF Magazine Reader’s Award, and an Arthur C. Clarke Award. Sterling has also worked as a critic and journalist, writing for
,
,
,
,
, and
, as well as
,
,
, and
. He edits
, a blog hosted by
.
Sterling is also involved in the technology and design community. In 2003 his web-only art piece,
, was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and became the most-visited piece in the museum’s digital gallery. He has taught classes in design at the Gerrit Reitveld Academie in Amsterdam, Centro in Mexico City, Fabrica in Treviso, Italy, and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Sterling lives in Austin, Texas; Belgrade, Serbia; and Turin, Italy.
Other books by Bruce Sterling
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