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| Re-imagining "Cosmic Engineers" by Clifford D. Simak. |
January
The most visited blog post for all of 2019 is Retrotelepathy. For that blog post, I got into my time machine, went back to 1939 and read "Cosmic Engineers" by Clifford D. Simak. The story includes aliens who are mysteriously related to humans, robots, telepathy, time travel and space travel to the far edge of the universe, all written as one might expect it to flow from the pen of a non-scientist in 1939. It is fun to imagine how stories such as "Cosmic Engineers" influenced the young Isaac Asimov right at the start of his writing career.
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| blastipositor |
The most visited blog post for February 2019 is Gift Clone. The mysterious "Tricia" and Izhiun provide a "gift clone" to Zeta Gohrlay. Zeta's little Mind Clone grows up to become Tihri, who functions as a node in the Mind Clone Network.
"Tricia" previously played the role of Maria Green and erased from Earth's history the discovery of negative mass hierions. This act of theft was required in order to prevent a technological catastrophe on Earth.
"Gift Clone" introduced the idea that some human variants such as the tryp'At have a blastipositor that can be used to insert a blastocyst stage embryo into another person.
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| cover illustration |
The most visited blog post for March 2019 contains a story called "The Case of the Arlesheim Elf" which is part of what I think of as the "Sessily Trilogy". It is a First Contact story in which Thomas Iwedon discovers that an alien has secretly been living on Earth.
One of the characters in "The Case of the Arlesheim Elf" is Isaac Asimov. I like to imagine that Thomas and Isaac had a rather long and contentious relationship, but when it comes time to help an alien in need, they are able to bury the hatchet.
All works out well for Thomas; he also finds his soul mate, Cecilie, who is a miraculously instantiated version of woman who lived in the far future of the Asimov Reality.
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| The Mind Clone Network |
The most visited blog post for April 2019 is The Mind Clone Network. One important function of the Mind Clone Network is to provide a telepathic conduit by which Yōd, who is inside the AR Simulator, can transmit information to the Editor, back on Earth.
As the brain of the Mind Clone node Roxzel (Yōd's daughter) grows and develops, the Editor is able to start receiving messages from Yōd. Unfortunately, this unusual telepathic contact comes while the Editor is asleep.
Three nodes of the Mind Clone Network constitute the MC1 sub-network, which makes it possible for information to flow from the ER Simulator and the Writers Block of Eternity to Earth.
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| Don Berwick |
During May, I like to celebrate the science fiction stories of Jack Vance (he died on May 26, 2013). The most visited blog post for May 2019 is paraVance which concerns a story that Vance published in 1958 called "Parapsyche". In "Parapsyche", Vance provided an in-depth exploration of the idea that "ghosts" can exist within some sort of paraworld, "living" a "second life" as a remnant of a person's mind after their death.
It is easy to imagine how Vance's "Parapsyche" was influenced and shaped by his having read stories such as "The Phantom Farmhouse", a story that was originally published by Seabury Quinn in Weird Tales.
June
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| The Buld spaceship visits Earth |
"Nereid Loop" includes the idea that Nora was able to telepathically communicate with her "copy" who left Earth with the Buld. It was that communications channel that eventually led to a second visit of the Buld to Earth during which they picked up "Tricia" and Izhiun. That was important for keep Earth in compliance with the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact.
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| Earth Day 1 |
The most visited blog post for July 2019 is Earth: Day One, which holds Part 1 of a 25,000 word science fiction story about Parthney's mission to Earth in the Ekcolir Reality. The Exode Saga originated with the story of how Parthney was sent to Earth as an Interventionist agent. He teleported Hana off of Earth, initiating her great adventure among the stars investigating Genesaunt civilization.
I originally imagined that Exode would be a stand-alone novel set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, but I later realized that it was part of the larger Exode Saga which includes Foundations of Eternity.
August
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| Wendy's adventures |
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| retro-SIHA award winner |
The most visited blog post for September 2019 is Cloonaris, which was part of a series of posts about Stanisław Lem's science fiction novel Solaris and related films. I decided that the 2002 film version of Solaris should be awarded a retro-SIHA as an interesting story about aliens.
October
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| The Phari Network |
This blog post provides an account of Zeta, Rylla and Nora in the days just before they all give birth to babies who become nodes in the Mind Clone Network. There is speculation that the three fetuses are in telepathic contact and they are delaying their own birth.
Rylla is in telepathic contact with Georgy at Observer Base. Rylla tells us that: "While on Earth, Georgy was under the thumb of her mother. Now that she is on her own at Observer Base, she is still very young and her wild side has been liberated." In a later blog post, we learn more about Georgy's wild side.
November
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| hacking into the ER Simulator |
In "Mary on the Moon", Mary has been teleported off of Earth so that she can explore Genesaunt Society and the origin of the human species. Colleen Liscan is able to conduct an interview of Mary by hacking into the Ekcolir Reality Simulator.
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| source |
Related Reading: the decade in review - 2018 year in review
Next: Ekcolir and the genmod virus
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