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Ray Jay Perreault

Auteur de Virus: 72 Hours to Live

14 oeuvres 37 utilisateurs 18 critiques

Œuvres de Ray Jay Perreault

Virus: 72 Hours to Live (2015) 6 exemplaires
Gemini (Volume 1) (2015) 4 exemplaires
SIMPOC: The Thinking Computer (2014) 4 exemplaires
Virus: Earth's Last Battle (2015) 4 exemplaires
Science Fiction Anthology (2016) 3 exemplaires
Circle Is Closed: Progeny, Book 2 (2016) 2 exemplaires
Progeny (2015) 2 exemplaires
The Greatest Host (2015) 2 exemplaires
Progeny's Children (2016) 1 exemplaire

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Earth has been hit by a sudden, fast-moving, extremely lethal virus, of unknown origin. Most of the human race has been killed, without even the time to identify the origins of the virus.

Now most of the human race is dead, and the survivors are working to pull their remnants together and save the species and hopefully civilization.

We follow Joan Herl, commander of the Oasis space station, which supported the research colonies on the Moon and Mars, and her husband, Colonel Tom Herl; the US President, and other political and military leaders representing what's left of the US government; the intelligent computers, SIMPOC, Alpha 1, and others, whose programming leads them to choose to support the humans; and Dr. Julius Howard, who sees an opportunity, using his intelligent computer, to become ruler of the world.

They all have serious challenges ahead of them, and more mysteries and challenges to discover. The death toll has been so high--it's possible that fewer than 100,000 humans are left alive--that they've all lost most of the people they knew and cared about, and they need to build a new society in the wake of that. The characters are likable (except, of course, Julius and his intelligent computer), and interesting. The pace moves, the choices make sense, and despite being set in the aftermath of a pandemic that has nearly wiped out the human race (no, I can't explain why I decided to listen to it just now), it's got a surprisingly upbeat tone.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
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Signalé
LisCarey | 1 autre critique | Apr 8, 2020 |
The Mists are microscopic creatures that exist in a cloud, and seek suitable hosts to occupy and live with. They're benign; they live in harmony with their hosts. Unfortunately, their last planet got bombarded by meteors that rendered it uninhabitable. The Mists had to leave, and seek a new, safer planet with suitable hosts.

The Mists reach a planet that has life, the right kind of life, and is much safer from massive meteor bombardment from space. Now, can they find a good species to be their hosts?

They want an animal that's smart enough to have the brain space the Mists need for their own activities, but not so smart that the Mists will disturb the host with their detectable presence. They want a social animal, because it's much easier for both themselves and the host animals if they can spread out over a number of them while remaining relatively close--herd animals are great for that, but it's not the only possibility.

I really don't want to say any more than that. The Mists are likable, thoughtful, considerate of their hosts. It would be fun to talk to them about some of the planets they've lived on. It's a very enjoyable, gentle story, and I think you'll be charmed by the host they find.

I believe I got this audio short story free from the author. In any case, I'm reviewing it voluntarily.
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Signalé
LisCarey | 1 autre critique | Apr 3, 2020 |
Deep Space One is sent out from a deteriorating Earth to find the best candidate New Earth in a region that has several promising choices. They're a small crew, just six people, three couples, and they can all trust each other.

Surely they can all trust each other.

They're spending most of their time in deep sleep, waking for seven-day periods at long intervals, to maintain the ship, review new data, make any course adjustments, check for problems and receive mail from home. Shortly before the halfway point, when the ship will need to reverse itself and start decelerating for arrival at what is now determined to be the right planet.

Small glitches in the received transmissions prompts two members of the crew to take a much closer look at what one member of the crew in particular has been receiving.

The mission isn't what they though it was, and suddenly they can't all trust each other.

And then they receive another surprise.

This is nicely done, good plotting and good characters. Like pretty much all of Perreault's work, it has the things I liked about Golden Age science fiction, while having 21st century social mores, with racial and gender equality baked in, not worked in after the fact. There's so much Golden Age sf I can't go back and reread if I still want to have fond memories of it.

(Yes, there are other things he doesn't deal with at all, perhaps because he doesn't feel comfortable that he can handle them well.)

I really strongly recommend this and all of Perreault's work that I've read so far.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
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Signalé
LisCarey | Feb 11, 2020 |
In a solar system with twin planets orbiting in the same orbit on opposite sides of the star, we meet two alien species, the Raog and the Ora.

The Raog are peaceful, cooperative, with a society that shares out jobs and roles based on ability, not gender or other divisions of society, with the goal being families that grow and thrive. Individual or family wealth isn't a thing they work for. The focus is growing their food crop, jabon. Beyond raising jabon, there are Raog who ask questions about the world and the space beyond it. The main function of their space program is maintaining weather satellites to help in the cultivation of jabon, but Dr. Wong, his son Ornage, and others are asking questions about the wider universe. Dr. Wong thinks he's discovered another planet, on the other side of their sun, and wants to send an uncrewed ship to investigate.

The Raog don't look like humans, but they're bipedal and apparently mammalian.

The Ora are insects.

They have a far more structured, disciplined society than the Ora, and a world that's less bountiful for their needs. They too have figured out that there's another planet, in the same orbit, on the other side of their sun, and they're not engaging in intellectual inquiry. The Ora want to know if the other planet might offer the resources they lack. Their expedition is already set to launch when the Raog satellite shows up. And they're not interested in sharing, or trade.

The Raog are in for some major challenges, that will change their worldview, force them to invent "defensive tools" and fight, and expand their understanding of the universe. Starting with, of course, the fact that they are not alone.

I like the Raog. They're interesting characters, more complex than a brief overview would suggest. They start out naive, but they don't stay that way. At the same time, while their beliefs need to change, they don't let go of their values. The Ora, also, are not just bloodthirsty villains. Some of them, certainly, are not good guys. Yet there are others, all through their society, who aren't happy with the current leaders, and weren't even before the invasion of the Raog's planet, Varo. They want change, and change may be possible for their society.

I listened to the audiobook, and I'm sorry to say that Ed Waldorph is not a terrible narrator, but not a particularly good one, either. It's sometimes difficult to be sure who is intended to be speaking, and there are some Raog words that even by the end I wasn't sure what the intended pronunciation was. I've heard Perreault narrate his own books, and I really would have preferred that he do this one, but obviously that may not have been convenient for him.

Overall, though, Perreault's books are interesting and fun, with the clean, sharp storytelling of the Golden Age of science fiction, without the unfortunate social attitudes of the Golden Age. Strongly recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
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Signalé
LisCarey | Feb 2, 2020 |

Prix et récompenses

Statistiques

Œuvres
14
Membres
37
Popularité
#390,572
Évaluation
½ 4.3
Critiques
18
ISBN
4