Amber's Weird Library

This is my first Robert Silverberg story. I heard many praises of Silverberg from other Booktubers and friends online so I was excited to try him out. I found his novella, "Sailing to Byzantium" on Kindle Unlimited. I picked this story because I was also a fan of William Butler Yeats and his poem of the same name. I was interested to see how the poem connected with the novella.  "Sailing to Byzantium" was first published in the magazine, Azimov's Science Fiction in 1985. It won the Nebula Award for best novella in 1986. It is about immortality and identity and finding purpose in a post scarcity world.  The story takes place in the 50th century. The Earth is barren except for 5 cities that act as more like theme parks. The five cities change their themes and settings constantly and the humans go from place to place in their replicated cities. In 2024, these types of cities would be called the Disney World version of the cities. The cities become places like Roman...

  Masters of Everon by Gordon R. Dickson is an ecological themed science fiction book published in 1979. The story follows the human, Jef Robini and his pet maolot, Mikey, an alien telepathic cat-like animal on their journey to the planet Everon. Jef is bringing Mikey back to the maolot home on Everon after doing research on Mikey on Earth. Jef not only wants to bring Mikey home but wants to discover how Jef's brother was killed on Everon a few years before. Jef plans to travel to his brother's grave and to talk to the human colonists to uncover the truth. He is also curious why the human colony on Everon has not yet succeeded even though the nature is comparable to Earth's. Jef explores the planet, going on an adventure while discovering the powerful truth of the planet and humans' responsibility to nature. It is a simple man vs nature plot. This is a future where Earth is crowded and dirty. Where humans are self-centered. Humans seek new planets to colonize to have mo...

  Blindsight is a first contact science fiction horror story written by Peter Watts in 2006. In the near future, the Earth is attacked by extraterrestrial probes. Months later, scientists discover the source of the signal in the Solar System's Kuiper Belt. Siri, a man with half of a brain is part of a 5-person crew on the ship Theseus, sent to find out more about the ship sending the signal. The crew not only make first contact but discover something chilling that questions their very existence.    Humans in 2080 have changed due to advancements in technology. Humans augment their children with enhancements. Those who don't are bullied. Scientists found another species of prehistoric humans who were more predatory and vampire-like. They bring back these creatures using genetic manipulation. Scientists have discovered that because they live long and can resurrect after a long sleep, vampires are perfect for long travels in space. Doctors splice the vampire’s genes into hum...

When searching for book recommendations, one book that came up was Old Man's War by John Scalzi. It is a military science fiction story with an interesting twist. It was also free on Kindle Unlimited, so I decided to try it out. Though I liked the interesting way humans in the future created an army to fight aliens on the other side of the galaxy, I could not get over the fact that I couldn't stand the main character and his poor attempts at humor.  Far in the future, Earth finds a way to make super soldiers defend their colonies on other planets from war-like alien armies. Old people are recruited because of their experience and wisdom. Their minds are uploaded into super soldier bodies. Half of the book is about the protagonist, John Perry and his old people crew (The Old Farts) going through training and learning how to use their super soldier augmentations. However, though our protagonist has an elderly mind, he is still very immature. All of the characters were very snar...

I decided to do a reading challenge. I will read 100 science fiction books. It might take a couple of years. I hope to discover the best that science fiction has to offer. First, I need to figure out which books to read.  Instead of going to a science book list or a website, I chose to see that was popular on Kindle Unlimited. An author on the top was A. G. Riddle. I chose his book Quantum Radio because I thought it had an interesting concept. I jumped right in to give the book a try.  Quantum Radio was a disappointment, but is that my fault for not researching the book more before reading it? Quantum Radio   Quantum Radio by A G Riddle is a science fiction thriller book though some describe it as military sci-fi. The book  follows a  physicist, named Dr. Tyson Klein, who discovers a signal from another universe using a particle accelerator. A mysterious group is trying to stop him from uncovering what the signal means even if it means killing him. Dr. Ty...

      In today's science fiction representation matters. One way that authors represent marginalized people is to write stories about mental illness. It is not only important to have characters who suffer from some sort of mental illness but to treat it with compassion and to try to bring awareness. It isn't surprising that Star Trek Picard Season 2 has decided to tackle this topic. Will it only be about representation?     S cience fiction explores technological innovations and the possible consequences to society. In stories about mental illness, a writer will take us to a world where a civilization or our future civilization has proclaimed that they have cured mental illness and then analyze how this would affect society while also making commentary on social problems we face today.      A small example of this is the short story by Robert Bloch, "Comfort Me, My Robot". This story takes place in the 22nd Century, in a time after a blast de...

       The number one movie of 1991 was Terminator 2 . Arnold Schwarzenegger was still the king of Hollywood. Terminator 2 is basically the same story as the first Terminator, but updated for the 90's. Robots were no longer clunky. They were now liquid and could shapeshift. Terminators can be influenced by the innocence of a child. No longer were they only killers but could be protectors. This movie was less gory and less like a sci-fi horror film but more of an action thriller with a bit of humor. Nuclear war wasn't necessarily in our future. We had hope that we could change the future. This movie was number one not only because of the awesome CGI effecrs, but because of the positive message of hope.       Terminator 2 wasn't the only science fiction movie to come out that year. The Rocketeer, a fun "diesel punk" science fiction movie came out. Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey brought a bit of light surrealism when evil robot clones of Bill and Ted...