Solaris Rising pt. II

My final blog post, here at last! What a truly sad occasion. As I mentioned in my previous post I have finished reading "Solaris Rising" edited by Ian Whates. The book is a collection of short science fiction stories, something that has been around for a long time, but was brought to fame by the iconic sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov. The stories all featured very abbreviated plot lines that focused on answering a what-if question. What if the Earth was going to be hit by an asteroid redirected by extremists? What if giant space vessels could reproduce in a process similar to animals? What if exposure to a time-space phenomenon allowed a man to traverse all dimension, releasing explosive amounts of energy as he goes? Another pattern, in apparently essential pattern, of these stories is that they place the reader in a state of unknowing, and the author will slowly and carefully reveal what is happening in their story, until a climax of understanding is reached. 

My absolute favorite story in the book was one about a "Trans-dimensional superhero" (Hutchinson 60). It is about a researcher at a super-collider doing, well, research. His team is in the process of performing what is supposed to be a ground-breaking experiment, when something goes terribly wrong. In short, the main character is able to traverse time and space, and manipulate the two at will. He is left to wander around a wasteland, which is another dimension with various portals of sorts to earth, and, I would assume, other places. This type of story, one dealing with vastly complex possibilities and questions of physics, are the one I enjoy the most. In the story's conclusion, the main character states, "what I really want is to be ordinary again, and that, of all things, I cannot do"  (Hutchinson 60). Like nearly all people displaced by the sudden acquisition of something that is completely unheard-of and impossible to relate to, this character did not ask for it. He was living -- maybe not completely enjoying, but tolerating -- a rather normal life, and preferred that it had not been interrupted. But had this wish been granted, such an interesting story would not be possible!

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book, as I did all the other books I read! I enjoyed this project as a whole, and was glad to have been given the opportunity to read some books of my choosing, even if it was on a tighter timeline than I would have preferred. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog (all 3 of you), and thanks!