The anthology Federations, edited by John Joseph Adams and published by Prime Books in April, has been quite high on my to read list. It contains 23 pieces of short fiction, a mixture of original an reprint, around the theme of interstellar societies. To quote from the back cover:
The stories in Federations continue that tradition, and herein you would find a mix of all-new, original fiction, alongside selected reprints from authors whose work exemplifies what interstellar SF is capable of…
I have very much enjoyed two of Adams’ previous anthologies, Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse and Seeds of Change, but they did prove to be a pain to review. Do you cover all stories and end up with a massive review nobody has the patience to read? Or do you make a selection and risk not doing the entire collection justice? I tried both, and while I think both reviews turned out well enough I am going to try another approach for this anthology.
I’ve hijacked Brain’s Short Thoughts on Short Fiction concept before. I’m now going to use it to discuss this anthology in several parts. For my previous entries in this column I have used stories that are available for free online. Federations obviously is not. On the editor’s website several samples are available though and if I know of any other (legal) sources I will make note of that. If you want to read them all, you’ll have to buy the book. Given what I have read of it so far you could do worse than spend money on this anthology 
Time to get to business, I will discuss the following stories in this entry:
Mazer in Prison by Orson Scott Card
Carthago Delenda Est by Genevieve Valentine (Read here)
Life-Suspensions by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Terra-Exulta by S.L. Gilbow
Mazer in Prison by Orson Scott Card
This story is set in Card’s Ender universe and takes place before the events in Ender’s Game. I reviewed this novel for BSC a while ago and while I thought it was a well written work of fiction, it also has a very disturbing theme. This story one could say, is Ender’s Game in miniature, my opinion of it is pretty similar. You can read this without having read the novel but I think you’ll get more out of it if you have read Ender’s Game. My opinion of the story is very much influenced by reading that book so it may not make much sense if you haven’t read it.
The main character is Mazer Rackham, hero of the first Formic war, and as he puts it “the last best hope of humanity”. After his crucial victory over the Buggers, humanity is now ready to strike back at the aliens. To do this however takes some serious long term planning. Without the ability to exceed the speed of light, the fleet sent to defeat the Buggers once and for all will take many years to reach it’s destination. And the military big shots want to keep Rackham around to lead to lead it. To make sure he is alive and up to the task by the time the fleet arrives, they have sent him on a journey at relativistic speeds. When Rackham arrives from his journey he will have aged five years while decades have passed on earth. Rackham experiences his ship as a prison and feels he is not competent to defeat the Buggers a second time. His superiors feel he is still the best hope but his sacrifice not enough as he finds out when the young Lt. Graff contacts him.
Card basically tells the story of how Battle School came to be. Like the products of Battle School its origins are disturbing. Rackham thoroughly hates the military bureaucracy, which he feels is full of incompetents more interested in keeping their comfortable jobs than running the organisation. He also feels that the way it is being run will result in humanity loosing the war against the Buggers. The way Rackham is being manipulated by the military isn’t pretty but his actions just result in one bureaucracy replacing another. A very single minded bureaucracy that does not shy from unethical and distasteful measures in it’s quest to save humanity. So in the long run, what has he gained? I think Rackham is being a bit short-sighted when it comes to matters of military leadership and competence it does suit the character and circumstances well. His emotional responses to the messages he receives are very well done. Given the thoughts this story provoked, I have to conclude it is a very good story. Even if I don’t particularly like it.
Carthago Delenda Est by Genevieve Valentine
Again a story that deals with the limitations of space travel. Apparently the science fiction authors of today don’t believe we’ll actually manage to surpass the speed of light any more. Four hundred years ago an entity named Carthage sent a message to the peoples of the galaxy. A message of peace so beautiful and inviting that a large fleet of ships from many worlds is on it’s way to find the source of the message.
Ambassadors from each world have been selected to meet Carthage. Nobody is sure how long it will take though. To overcome the limited lifespans of the ambassadors, new ones are cloned whenever the current incarnation is wearing out. The story is told from the point of view of someone taking care of the clones. The main character observes the differences between each generation, which are small but striking. The whole story shows the almost infinite patience and the devotion to the cause of this multi-generational project, though hints of doubts do creep in here and there.
It’s a very intriguing story, and I would say there is more to tell about this particular concept, but then again good short fiction always leaves you hungry for more.
Life-Suspension by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Modesitt is not a very prolific writer of short fiction. He has probably published more novels than short stories. Last year most of his short fiction was collected in Viewpoints Critical. It contained a few good stories but for the most part, they were not memorable.
Life-Suspension is set in a universe where travel is limited by the speed of light (again) but communication is not. For a world not to fall behind of the rest of the universe, staying in touch is essential. Lines of communication are therefore important targets in the frequent wars. The main character is a military pilot. Due to the long distances between the various battle fronts he spends a lot of his time in “suspension” only to be woken up when the ship nears the theatre of the next battle. Approaching the next battle zone our captain falls of a woman on the medical staff. He can’t quite shake the impression he has seen her before.
It’s an entertaining story but Modesitt’s strength is usually in the complex political and social settings of his novels. Something he doesn’t have the space to develop in a short story. I did like the Asian flavour he gave the story though.
Quite a different story from the previous ones. In this story a far future linguist with an interest in what is called Archaic Planetary English. To prove the point that translations from one Galactic Standard to English are in fact possible the linguist selects a random text from his correspondence and translates it. The text deals with new language writer of the text, a Terrologist by trade, encountered in the various projects around the galaxy he has been involved in. I guess you could compare it with translating the manual of your VCR into ancient Greek.
It’s a very clever story. The text reads just fine in English of course, but the author puts in a number of words that don’t have an “archaic” English equivalent. All the while the author does her best to distract the reader by the sheer arrogance of the man who has written the text. His views on terraforming, the way he appears to go about his business and the firm belief he can actually improve whatever evolution put on a certain planet absolutely toe-curling. But that is not the point of the text, is it? This story makes you wonder how much of that arrogance is lost in translation. Doing a proper translation is an art. You’d almost want to see the original after reading this one.
That’s it for part one, I am hoping to have another one ready in about a week.
