Rockrats

Endless Frontiers, Volume IV: Life Among the Asteroids (edited by Jerry Pournelle and John F. Carr, Ace, ISBN 0441-48232-5).

So here I am, I say to myself, "Self, we really must finish all the short story collections we've started before we start another one." Fine and dandy, and what do I do tonight after dinner? Start another short story collection. Sigh. Me, myself and I will never learn.

Foreword: The Endless Frontier (Jerry Pournelle): Pournelle talks about starting this series of books nearly ten years earlier. He also talks about his experiences during the first Reagan administration when things look they might move in the space program (public and private). Well, that didn't happen, did it. One very good quote about NASA:

NASA took a Saturn V, the most powerful machine mankind ever built, a fully operational man-rated rocket, and laid it on its side as a lawn ornament, thus making sure that this monster didn't launch another SKylab to threaten Space Station Freedom.

Yep, boys and girls. We had a second Skylab and now it's an exhibit in Washington, D.C. We could have launched that puppy and had someplace for the shuttle to visit. Instead we're still waiting for the completion of the ISS (or Space Station Alpha, as it was briefly named).

Life Among the Asteroids (Jerry Pournelle) This non-fiction essay has been collected a number of times in various Pournelle authored or edited anthologies. He takes a look at how a constant-boost vehicle (atomic pile or fusion reactor) could open up the Solar System. He outlines a couple of scenarios (the first of which you'll see in the next entry). A good non-fiction piece, it even seems to have inspired a website or two (first appearance: Galaxy Science Fiction).

Tinker (Jerry Pournelle): This story is another one that Pournelle has anthologized multiple times. It is part of the so-called Hansen series, made up of multiple short stories (most found in the collection High Justice) plus the novel Exiles to Glory. Pournelle takes some of the ideas from the essay mentioned above and applies them to a short story. Why did the stockholders of Jefferson and Freedom Station want to charter a ship without having any cargo to ship? Pournelle has explored this setting further with another essay and with a novel, I wish he had done more with this. However, he seems to excel in setting up scenarios and not using them more than once or twice! Oh well (first appearance: Galaxy Science Fiction).

Tool Dresser's Law (Jack Clemons): Blue collar workers in outer space! Anybody else find it odd that while the rest of the solar system gets various explorer types in their stories, the Belt inevitably gets grungy worker types? (Speaking as a grungy worker type, myself...) (first appearance: Amazing Stories).

The Grand Tour (Charles Sheffield): A good story, other than the fact that it does not take place in the asteroids! A bicycle race (!) to circum-lunar space and back. Yes. Bicycle race! Sheffield explains all, never fear (first appearance: Project Solar Sail).

Industrial Revolution (Poul Anderson): Hey, a previously unread Anderson! Cool! A pretty good tale that reminded me of Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in various ways. A good revolution by mistake/unintention tale (first appearance: Analog).

Those Pesky Belters and Their Torchships (Jerry Pournelle): Non-fiction by Pournelle, a companion piece to Life Among the Asteroids. Considers various propulsion methods for travel among the asteroid belt and to and from the planets (above) (first appearance: Galaxy Science Fiction).

Traveling Salesman (Peter L. Manly): Pretty good short story in which the Belt is settled not only by various miners, but splinter societies. A traveling salesman (no jokes, please) approaching a religious splinter society suffers a massive systems breakdown in his drive and other ship systems. How to survive to the point where the salvage ships get him. He wants to survive, naturally, to live, but also so they can't profit from salvage (first appearance in this volume).

Teddy Bug and the Hot Purple Snowball (Philip C. Jennings): Far Frontiers was one of the many Jim Baen edited or created "bookzines" (along with Destinies, New Destinies and others). I spent some time over the past two years recreating my collection (lost during a basement flood), so I'll look for other tales by this gentleman when I start reading/re-reading these. Jennings' tale is interesting in that it predates Charles Stross' stuff in Accelerando by many years but has much in the same "technology". An odd society is depicted, but one you could see coming to pass. As for the technology, I'm not convinced anybody could "live" in such a manner, but it would be a fascinating existence! Like I said, I need to find more by Jennings (first appearance: Far Frontiers).

Stealing a Zero-G Cow (Brooks Peck): Funny tale of an asteroid family seeking revenge on another (larger and wealthier) asteroid family. Strong overtones of earlier Jerry Pournelle stories (which had overtones of early Heinlein stories; there is nothing new under the sun!). Good background and plot, so I'll need to seek this author out to see if he? she? has written anything else (first appearance in this volume).

Asteroids: The Better Resource (Eric Drexler): Long before he became known for his work in nanotechnology, Drexler was involved in the L-5 Society, a group dedicated to the development of colonies at the Lagrange Points, as well as things such as mining the Moon and the Asteroid Belt. In this non-fiction entry, Drexler argues against Pournelle (who is something of a Lunatic, that is, a lunar advocate) as to where would be a better place to put our space-faring efforts: developing lunar resources or developing Belt resources (first appearance: L-5 News).

Iceslinger (John Hegenberger): Interesting background, not much in the way of story or characters (first appearance in this volume).

Ginungagap (Michael Swanwick): Definately the feel of a John Varley story here. A lot of fun, and another good tale from Swanwick. One question, though. What is it with SF writers and cats? Go figure (first appearance: TriQuarterly).

Afterword: Nunc Dimittis (Jerry Pournelle): Pournelle makes the case (as he did in a few other entries) for lunar colonization as well as the development of waldo technology (first appearance: Analog).

Made up of: Foreword: The Endless Frontier (Jerry Pournelle); Life Among the Asteroids (Jerry Pournelle); Tinker (Jerry Pournelle); Tool Dresser's Law (Jack Clemons); The Grand Tour (Charles Sheffield); Industrial Revolution (Poul Anderson); Those Pesky Belters and Their Torchships (Jerry Pournelle); Traveling Salesman (Peter L. Manly); Teddy Bug and the Hot Purple Snowball (Philip C. Jennings); Stealing A Zero-G Cow (Brooks Peck); Asteroids: The Better Resource (Eric Drexler); Iceslinger (John Hegenberger); Ginungagap (Michael Swanwick); Afterword: Nunc Dimittis (Jerry Pournelle); various bits of material in between stories (counting as one entry, written by Jerry Pournelle).

Counts as eleven entries in the 2006 Short Story Project.

Counts as four entries in the 2007 Short Story Project (collection completed).