Science Fiction

My favorite genre is science fiction, but it is also the genre I despise the most. It's either really good or really bad. There is very little in the middle. It lends itself best to the short story format. Many science fiction authors can write fabulous short stories, but they can't carry the plot through to a full-length book.

This month I read two science fiction books by authors new to me.

• Rollback, by Robert J. Sawyer
• In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker

Kage Baker invented a future where the secret of immortality has been discovered, and soon thereafter, time travel was also invented. People travel back in time to find children who can be made immortal, who can act as stewards for stuff that they need in the future. Yes, it is a time travel book - one of my favorite science fiction plot devices. This book has a new time travel rule! You can change the past, as long as nothing has been recorded or remembered. So when the child of a poor family disappears, it is not noted historically, and that child can change other things in the past. For example. It's pretty amusing, an interesting premise. She wrote a series of these books apparently, and I think I will try another one.

But Rollback gives us something to think about. The plot is complex, well crafted, and basically boils down to this: in their 80's, a husband and wife are given the opportunity to biologically return to 25 years old. This is a procedure that maybe 60 or 70 people have gone through, is very expensive, but they have a benefactor who offers them the option. They take the treatment, and within a month, it is apparent that the husband is getting younger and younger: his hair has grown back, it isn't gray anymore, he can run up the stairs again... but the wife, for some unknown reason, does not regress. She stays 87 years old. This couple recently celebrated their 60th anniversary. So, after 60 years of marriage, suddenly she is 87 and he is 25. What happens next? Just imagine. And not only that, there is communication with aliens. The wife has spent her life working on the SETI project.

Great books! I have recommended them to everyone who would listen and I am hoping I will have someone to discuss these books with pretty soon