DenebStation SF Book Reviews

 I decided to end my year by reading a new book, I Think We've Been Here Before, published in September 2024. It was listed on my Kindle Unlimited as science fiction and had a free audiobook with it. This book ended up not being the best book to end my year with. I finished the book feeling very depressed.  Scientists discover that the world will be destroyed by a cosmic blast in a few months.  The story centers on a family in rural Saskatchewan and their daughter in Berlin. The family wants to unite together for one more Christmas before the world ends. As we go along the story, strange coincidences keep happening. Things in the background keep changing. Messages seem to come from nowhere. What is the mystery behind all of it? This story really affected me because I live in Germany and my adult kids live in America. I read it right before we all reunited in London for Christmas. I understood the feelings of wanting only to be with family. There were also themes of regret...

 Uller Uprising was the perfect book to read after Downward to the Earth because it is it's opposite. As Downward to the Earth was post-colonial, personal, peaceful, and open-minded, Uller Uprising was unapologetically colonial, violent, and paranoid. It was a very strange reading experience.  Downward to the Earth is definitely a product of the late sixties early seventies. It questioned Western European ideals and promoted cultural relativism. Uller Uprising was a product of the 50's when atomic power and The Space Race were dominant worries.  Uller Uprising was published in 1952 and was written by H. Beam Piper. In the future, Terrans will colonize planets through charter companies to use for settlement and for trade. One of these planets is Uller. The colony is run similarly to how the British East India Company ran India in the 19th Century. In fact, the book is a science fiction retelling of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. The Terrans have made deals with the native alien...

       Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg and was published in 1970. It is a beautiful book about a man's journey to transcendence on a planet formerly colonized by Earth. The title,  Downward to the Earth,  is a reference to the Bible verse found in Ecclesiastes 3:21,  " Who knows if the spirit of people rises upward, and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth? "       In the future, Earth will colonize planets similarly to how the 19th Century European Imperial Powers did in Africa and Asia. Humans will name the planets after the human founder and name the rivers and mountains on these planets not caring about what the local sentient species call them. The planet this novel takes place on was called Holman's Planet by humans. The main species on the planet were sentient elephant-like aliens called Nildoror and an ape looking species called Sulidor. At first, humans treated the Nildoror and the Sulidor like lo...