by Don Sakers
What is it about dragons that fascinates us so?
Is it their strength, their raw power? The ability to fly? Breathing fire? Or is it that dragons are in the myths and legends of so many cultures? Do we see in them the great deeds of long-ago heroes on hopeless quests? Are they a composite of so many of our fears—of reptiles, winged predators, gargantuan wild beasts, fire itself?
Or can we trace our fascination back to Peter, Paul, and Mary? And if so . . . what made the titular Puff resonate with so many of us?
On first glance you might imagine that dragons are the quintessential fantasy creature, with no place in the rigid framework of science fiction. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, there’s a long tradition of SF writers finding ways to justify the presence of dragons in stories based on real science.
Through the decades SF writers have taken a number of different approaches to dragons. Let’s take a look, including some notable examples.
One way to get around the fantasy aspects of dragons is to use another big, strong reptile instead—the dinosaur. Sure, it means abandoning the fire-breathing trope, although it’s not unusual for such a story to make a point of how noxious a dinosaur’s breath can be. From Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912) to Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park franchise (1990), dinosaurs have often filled the place of dragons. There’s even a subgenre of SF that replaces dragon-fighting knights with dinosaur-hunting time-travelers, as in Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” (1952), “A Gun for Dinosaur” by L. Sprague de Camp (1956), and Dinosaur Beach (Keith Laumer, 1971).
A more plausible way to introduce dragons into SF is the introduction of aliens who share some or all of the characteristics of dragons. Alien dragons feature prominently in Jane Yolen’s Pit Dragon series (1982), Jeffrey Carver’s Dragon Space omnibus (1992-93), and the Dragon Temple Saga by Janine Cross (2006-2008). As recently as last year, the Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian included a battle with the huge, powerful, acid-spitting (and legendary) beast called a Krayt Dragon.
Of course, if dragons don’t exist, then one might invent them. Some science fiction dragons are technological rather than biological, constructed beings that mimic “real” dragons.This approach was used in such tales as Avram Davidson’s Rogue Dragon (1965), Killbird by Zach Hughes (1980), and Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter (1993).
Or dragons could be constructed in virtual reality, as in Kevin J. Anderson’s Gamearth trilogy (1989). A dragon could also be a mental construct; in Cordwainer Smith’s classic story “The Game of Rat and Dragon” (1955) dragons are the shape given to inimical hyperspace forces by psi-gifted adepts who protect starships.
If you’re going to build dragons, though, the best way is to produce them is by altering existing creatures. Nuclear radiation produced one of the best-known dragon figures in all SF, the creature called Gojira or Godzilla (1954). Godzilla’s long-time foe, the three-headed dragon Ghidorah (1964), has had several origin stories through the decades.
Of course, there’s always genetic engineering. Biogenetics has given us some of the most beloved dragons in SF, including those in Jack Vance’s 1962 classic Dragon Masters and Anne McCaffrey’s dragons in the Dragonriders of Pern series (beginning in 1967).
Finally, science fiction can just throw up its arms and postulate that the classic dragons of myth and legend do (or did) exist. The dragons of the movie Reign of Fire (2002) slept through millennia, until awakened by human activity. Dragons, hunted nearly to extinction, are fundamental to the superbly-constructed world of the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005).
I can’t end this discussion without mentioning the 2016 anthology Unnatural Dragons, which includes stories of dragons using several of the different approaches listed above.
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Domesticating Dragons
Dan Koboldt
Baen, 352 pages, $16.00 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-9821-2511-0
Genre: Biological SF, Dragons
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It’s a rare science fiction reader who doesn’t harbor a desire to own a robot. Similarly, who among us wouldn’t like to have our own personal dragon? In Domesticating Dragons, author and real-life genetics researcher Dan Koboldt takes us to a future of a dragon in every household.
In this near future, a canine plague has wiped out all dogs on Earth. Humanity, emerging from a period of grief, needs a new companion animal. A successful genetic engineering firm, Reptilian Corp, believes they have an answer. For years the company has custom-designed huge, strong dragons for specialized industrial use. If they can design and produce a smaller, more docile version suitable as a pet, a fortune awaits them in the consumer market.
Noah Parker, the ink on his genetics Ph.D. still drying, is tasked with creating a domesticated dragon. He’s used to making minor changes for different industrial clients; the challenges of turning dragons into pets are immense. The breed’s size and bulk must be reduced, general metabolism toned down, temperament adjusted—pet dragons must be made orders of magnitude more safe to handle. Noah is under pressure from all directions.
As an added complication, Noah’s beloved brother is the victim of a genetic disease; in his spare time Noah struggles to find, if not a cure, at least genetic treatments that can help the boy.
Then Noah discovers an anomaly buried in the genetic codes of the domestic dragon . . . one apparently inserted by orders from the highest levels of the company. When his efforts to find the source and meaning of the errant code are rebuffed, Noah begins to suspect that there’s some nefarious purpose lurking behind the whole project.
With his colleague Summer and prototype dragon Octavius, Noah follows a nebulous trail into the desert in search of a secret that potentially threatens the whole world.
Koboldt is the author of the Gateways to Alissia fantasy trilogy and editor of a Writer’s Digest volume called Putting the Science in Science Fiction. His credentials as a genetic researcher are impeccable: he has coauthored scores of papers published in Nature, Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, and many other journals. He’s a scientist who can write for a lay audience; his nonfiction articles have appeared in the likes of Clarkesworld and Apex Magazine.
Domesticating Dragons is a fun romp of a genetic thriller, a worthy addition to the corpus of science fiction involving dragons.
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Screens
Christopher Laine
Garden Path, 336 pages, $14.95 (trade paperback)
iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $8.99 (ebook)
Series: Seven Coins Drowning 4
Genre: Cyberpunk, Dystopian SF, Near-Future SF, New Wave SF
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Once upon a time, the field of science fiction was hit by a tsunami called the New Wave. Beginning in the early 1960s and originating in England, the New Wave divided and transformed the field, introducing many techniques and concerns of mainstream literary fiction into science fiction. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com), while admitting that it’s difficult to define New Age SF, notes that it “. . . shared the qualities of the late-1960s counterculture, including an interest in mind-altering drugs . . . a satisfaction in violating taboos, a marked interest in sex, a strong involvement in Pop Art and in the media landscape generally, and a pessimism about the future that ran strongly counter to genre SF’s traditional optimism.”
Although the New Age crested in the 1970s and afterward receded, the aesthetic of the movement never went away. New-Wave-flavored works and authors continued to appear, for example Paul Di Filippo and Rudy Rucker.
Christopher Laine is the latest incarnation of pure-quill New Wave SF.
Although Laine has been writing for decades, he’s recently been getting some attention for his Seven Coins Drowning series based loosely on the classic Seven Deadly Sins. Screens is the fourth in the series; the previous three titles are Uncle Willingston (2015), The Black Chili (2016), and The Trove (2017).
The narrator of Screens, a mid-thirties bicycle messenger in 1990s San Francisco, was a recovering heroin addict and part-time drunken bum—and by the time we encounter him in the form of this memoir, he assures us, he is probably dead.
Screens tells the story of the narrator’s encounter with a mystery known only as The Manuscript. This document, which exists only in the form of a physical typescript on paper, cannot be digitized or in any way conveyed online. Before one reads The Manuscript, one is cautioned to turn off any and all screens, because “THEY are watching you.” No one knows where The Manuscript comes from, or how its recipients are chosen.
Those who have read The Manuscript are never heard from again. Some are the victims of brutal murder, others disappear completely, and still others disconnect themselves from the online world and remove all virtual traces of their presence.
The Manuscript tells of The Network: of a malevolent force that lives behind our screens, feeding off humanity and pursuing the dreadful goal of destroying all life on Earth.
In pursuing this mystery, the narrator has only a name, Halpin Chalmers. He makes contact with the shadowy, paranoid world of those who have survived reading The Manuscript, an anonymous collective devoted to fighting the force behind the Screens.
Screens is a full-immersion dive into a gritty, covert world of conspiracy and counter-conspiracy. We’re never sure if the narrator is fully reliable, if those he meets are friends or enemies, or even if The Manuscript and the secrets it conveys are true. The narration is interrupted by various printed notices, flyers, and pages found in odd locations around the world, random clues pointing the the vast scope of The Network.
If you’re not looking uneasily at all the screens around you by the time you’re halfway through this book . . . then you’re not paying attention.
* * *
Tyger Bright
T.C. McCarthy
Baen, 272 pages, $16.00 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-9821-2517-2
Series: Tyger 2
Genre: Military SF
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T.C. McCathy’s Tyger Burning (2019, reviewed here in the September/October issue) introduced the Sommen, an alien race that attacked the Solar System and were driven away only with great travail. A former soldier named Maung, last of the dreaded cyber-enhanced Dream Warriors, became the champion of humanity when he forced the Sommen into a retreat, giving the Solar System some breathing room to prepare for the foe’s return.
Tyger Bright picks up the story years later, with the Sommen return still comfortably in the future. Maung’s biological daughter, San Kyarr, was raised by the Fleet. With her body and brain enhanced, and given special training, San knows she is meant for a specific purpose. Now, as she turns eighteen, that purpose is revealed.
San joins a classified order of nuns, a military order composed of women with extraordinary abilities and talents. Their mission is to travel to the Sommen homeworld, infiltrate Sommen society, and gather desperately-needed intelligence about humanity’s enemies.
It’s a dangerous assignment. If their efforts are detected, the Sommen will surely launch their assault on Earth immediately . . . long before Earth is ready to defend itself.
But that’s not all—the order must also contend with the labyrinthine politics within the Fleet. A faction hostile to the order learns of the mission and determines to stop the effort by any means necessary. This faction sends its own agent to prevent San from proceeding, even if it means killing her. This agent is none other than San’s estranged brother, himself enhanced and trained to be more than a match for her.
San finds herself between two dangers: discovery and destruction at the hands of the Sommen, or betrayal and treachery by her brother. If she can navigate a safe path between these obstacles she may survive to help the Fleet defeat the Sommen; if not, her own death will be followed by the end of humankind.
There’s one hope, for San is developing another enhanced ability: the power to communicate across the gulfs between stars. This new ability may save her life, as well as providing a new weapon against the implacable Sommen. But in order to master her new ability, she may have to leave her humanity behind and become another type of being entirely.
Filled with intrigue, conspiracies, betrayals, and deliciously convoluted politics, Tyger Bright is a worthy successor to Tyger Burning.
* * *
Candidate Spectrum
Brian Cato
BC Studio, 342 pages, $14.39 (trade paperback)
Kindle: $4.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 979-8-6436-4955-7
Genre: Alternate History, Psychological/Sociological SF, Superheroes
* * *
Now that the strangest election in American history is in the rear-view mirror, perhaps it’s safe to consider an SF book about a different kind of Presidential election.
Brian Cato is a relatively new name in our field. With degrees in philosophy and chemistry from Brown University, he’s worked as a synthetic organic chemist at Merck, a teacher of English in China, a tutor for the Princeton Review, and a web programmer. He’s written a few short stories and a couple of novelette-length books on the fringes of the field.
In the alternate present of Candidate Spectrum, exactly one superhero exists: Spectrum, a refugee from a destroyed planet with (as the saying goes) powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Arriving as a baby, Spectrum grew up a lonely child, his only role models the imaginary heroes in comic books: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the like. Naturally, he patterned his life after them—when the book opens, Spectrum has spent seventeen years helping people. In that time he’s seen enough pain, misery, and death for multiple lifetimes.
After much introspection, the disenchanted superhero decides that he can do much more good for people by turning his talents to politics . . . specifically, by running for President.
In his secret identity of Grant Goslin, Spectrum gathers a team to pursue the White House as an independent candidate. At first the political problems seem easy: a special vote in Congress defines the superhero as a natural born citizen, while a successful term as Governor of Missouri supplies needed political experience. But soon the race gets more complicated.
When Spectrum leaves a rally to rescue thousands in Bangladesh from a typhoon, while declining to intervene in a Portuguese terrorist attack, the resulting political agitation threatens to derail his campaign. And then there are those supervillains he’s defeated through the years, every one of them itching to cause trouble. . . .
Candidate Spectrum is on one level a political story with satiric undertones. On another level, it’s a thought-provoking examination of political and social identity, polarization, and the question of whether then political process can succeed in addressing the country’s many problems.
* * *
The Founder Effect
Edited by Robert E. Hampson & Sandra L. Medlock
Baen, 400 pages, $16.00 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-9821-2509-7
Genre: Colonization, Original Anthologies, Other Worlds, Shared Universes
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The first true shared universe projects in science fiction were literal shared worlds: someone (an editor or team of writers) created a fictional planet, and SF writers set stories on that world. Early examples include The Petrified Planet (1952), A World Named Cleopatra (1977), and Medea: Harlan’s World (1985). Later, the focus of shared universes broadened beyond worldbuilding to include multiple worlds, histories, societies, and characters.
The Founder Effect is something of a return to that original style, concentrating on the settlement of Cistercia, the third planet of the real-world TRAPPIST-2 planetary system. The editors have credentials: Robert E. Hampson is a professor of physiology/pharmacology and neurology who frequently consults with hard SF writers on matters of science and technology. Sandra L. Medlock is a freelance journalist specializing in both music and technology, newsletter editor, and tutor in math and English.
The organizing theme of the anthology is how the deeds of early settlers become legends of semi-mythical founders. These are the tales that will become legends of Cistercia. To that end, each story is followed by a fragment of legend from the future literature of the planet, demonstrating how history becomes myth.
There are sixteen stories by fifteen authors, plus an introduction by Larry Correia. Some of the authors are familiar members of the Baen stable: D.J. Butler, Sarah A. Hoyt, Les Johnson, Jody Lynn Nye, Brad R. Torgersen, and David Weber. Others are newcomers or less familiar. The stories fall into three basic time periods: the journey to Cistercia, the initial landings and settlements, and a subsequent period of trials and tribulations. If you’re looking for a bunch of good stories about the settlement of a new, alien world, look no further.
* * *
Agent of the Imperium
Marc Miller
Baen, 368 Pages pages, $16.00 (trade paperback)
iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $8.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 9-78-1-9821-2507-3
Series: Traveller Universe
Genre: Galactic Empires, Games/Gaming, Space Opera
* * *
The great-grandparent of science fiction role-playing games is Traveller. Designed by Marc W. Miller (with contributions by Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, and Loren K. Wiseman) and first published by Game Designer’s Workshop in 1977, the game resembles the venerable Dungeons and Dragons. Guided by various sourcebooks, players adopt the roles of characters in the game and play out adventures in imagination. A game-master guides the narrative by describing events and locations to the players. Dice are used to introduce a random element into the story.
Traveller is set in a consistent far-future universe with all the trappings of space opera: humans, aliens, and robots; FTL travel and an efficient gravitic spacedrive; no hyperwave, subspace, or other form of interstellar communication; lots of interstellar trade and not a few wars; limited psionic abilities; and a stratified society complete with nobles, a merchant class, and several thriving undergrounds.
The focus of the game is on exploration and trade, with characters struggling to build up their own wealth, social prestige, and political power—but the universe is broad enough to permit just about any type of story the players wish.
Agent of the Imperium takes place in the Third Imperium, which ruled a large portion of the galaxy for about four centuries of the usual ups and downs. Protagonist Jonathan Bland is a Decider—which is to say, he’s a freelance agent whose power and authority comes directly from the Throne. Bland is called upon whenever there’s a danger to the Imperium; he operates outside normal channels and sometimes breaks rules to accomplish his aims. It’s said that Bland has ended more lives than anyone in history . . . and saved millions.
Bland is so valuable to the Imperium that when he died, his personality was recorded, kept as the Imperium’s last resort. Across centuries, he is revived and reactivated whenever he’s needed to combat new threats.
Trouble is, Bland is a dangerous person to have around, more cunning and powerful than any Emperor. Each time he’s resurrected and saves the Imperium, afterward he’s dismissed, returned to the limbo of death.
Until finally, Bland draws a line. He’s tired of being dead . . . and pity those who stand in his way.
More than just fun space opera, Agent of the Imperium is loaded with historical and background details of the Traveller universe. Anyone who’s played the game will delight in all the secrets and easter eggs. And those who haven’t played . . . might find themselves inspired to start a game.
* * *
Busted Synapses
Erica L. Satifka
Broken Eye Books, 104 pages, $14.99 (trade paperback)
iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $4.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-9403-7258
Genre: Cyberpunk, Psychological/Sociological SF
* * *
Here’s another relative newcomer who’s taking the field by storm. Erica L. Satifka’s first short stories were published in 2007 and 2008; since then she’s written three dozen or so stories, appearing in such venues as Interzone, Clarkesworld, Shimmer, Lightspeed, and The Intergalactic Medicine Show. Her debut novel (Stay Crazy, 2016) won the British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer.
Busted Synapses is a nice, tight cyberpunk thriller set in (of all places) Wheeling, West Virginia. Alicia, a young runaway from the corporate-controlled urban world of the coast, ends up in decaying Wheeling without quite knowing why.
In the near future of Busted Synapses, Wheeling and places like it are the end of the line for many, where despairing people are like washed-up flotsam jettisoned by a society and economy that has no use for them. Jess and Dale are a couple struggling to survive, their lives filled with pointless labor, drugs, and the virtual reality games that keep the population occupied.
When Alicia encounters Jess and Dale, the three of them uncover facts that the corporations wish hidden . . . and begin tracking down answers that may very well transform society and clear away the dead-ends that limit the lives of so many.
It’s a quick, well-crafted story with great characters. For all the dystopian gloom, Busted Synapses winds up being a very hopeful book. Definitely recommended.
* * *
The Golden Age of Science Fiction: A Journey into Space with 1950s Radio, TV, Films, Comics and Books
John Wade
Pen and Sword, 240 pages, $42.95 (hardcover)
iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $17.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-5267-2925-5
Genre: Nonfiction, World SF
* * *
Librarian and SF fan Peter Graham famously quipped that “The golden age of science fiction is 12,” and there’s more than a bit of truth in that statement. We usually consider SF’s “Golden Age” to be the period 1938-1946, but that’s from a perspective largely limited to American pulp magazine SF. In terms of other media—radio, movies, television—other periods might be golden ages. Similarly, different countries may have different golden ages.
John Wade’s personal golden age was the 1950s in Great Britain. In this beautiful volume, filled with color illustrations, he waxes nostalgic about growing up surrounded by science fiction, both American and British. Some of what he covers is familiar to Americans: movies like Invaders From Mars, Godzilla, and Forbidden Planet; authors such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and John Wyndham; magazines like Astounding and Amazing. Others are all but unknown on this side of the Atlantic: radio serials Journey Into Space and The Lost Planet; TV hero Professor Quatermass; comic strips like Space Story Omnibus, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, and Jeff Hawke; magazines New Worlds, Nebula, and Science Fantasy.
Wade fills the book with personal reminiscences and details about the creators of the works he covers. What makes the book sparkle, though, is the enthusiasm and joy that shines through on every page. Though time and place may be different, anyone who grew up loving SF will surely enjoy this love letter to the field.
And now I’m out of space. Watch out for dragons and I’ll see you next time.
Don Sakers is the author of Meat and Machine, Elevenses, the Rule of Five serial at http://donsakers.com/ruleof5/, and A Cosmos of Many Mansions, a collection based on previous columns. For more information, visit http://donsakers.com/sw/.
Copyright © 2021 Don Sakers