Bridging Infinity is a collection of short sci-fi stories
edited by Jonathan Strahan (whose rather good collections I’ve reviewed
before). It’s part of a wider sequence of collections, each with their own theme and scope. The theme of this collection, though, is, as
the name suggests, mega-engineering projects. The scope, to try and generate a
sense of awe in the reader, is a subtle, clever, broad-ranging one. That it
often succeeds doesn’t hurt either.
Environments are, as one might expect, a large part of the
stories in this collection. There are marvels on display here that stretch the
imagination to envisage, but are certainly awesome. They range from the
battleship crafted using the entire output of an interstellar level
civilisation, pushing its people and economy to the brink of collapse, to a
form of Dyson ring, spread out across the solar system to provide power and resources to the inhabitants. There’s
time for smaller dramas as well, of course.
The slowly crumbling world of “Rager
in Space” shows us a humanity devoid of technological assistance in a
post-Singularity universe, where toasters are emancipated, and the only
functional AI is struggling to understand what people are, and what they’re
for. There’s a gentle melancholy there, mixed in between the partying and the teenage
slang, a carefully constructed sense of decline, and inevitability, at odds
with the peppier overall message.
Then there’s the canals of drowned New York from “Monuments”. Here, the plan to cool the world is posited
by AI systems now acting in a seeming partnership with humanity. The broken
columns and skyscrapers of cities after catastrophic temperature and sea level
rises serve as a physical monument to humanity – but also to the hubris of
attempting to control a global system. Here, the sun shade project is one whose
implementation spans the generations. Here there’s a sense of isolation, of
declining hope and a feeling of humanity sleepwalking into inevitable
extinction. It’s not necessarily a positive story, in many ways, but it is a
very human one.
For example, Ken Liu’s “Seven Birthdays” gives us a more intimate view,
of the relationship between a child and her emotionally distant mother over the
course of years; whilst the latter has been driven to work on large eco-repair
projects, it is the former whose efforts to move humanity forward are truly
breathtaking in scope, as she works to create a kind of immortality. Her
motivations, though, are entirely tied up in character: her pain at the
emotional separation from her mother, the desire to break the hold of mortality
in the face of that estrangement of affection, to create more time – these are
gently, subtly played, and marvellously done, even as the civilisation-shanging
scope of her work becomes clear to the reader.
There’s a few stories where character seems to take a
backseat to science; “Mice Among
Elephants” had characters which held their place reasonably enough, but where
the grandiose idea of orbiting micro-black holes, used as a gravity wave
emitter, were very much the centrepiece. That said, there were some charming
moments with lifeforms made of plasma, which injected, oddly, a little more
humanity into the prose.
Overall, this collection achieves its goal – to astonish and
awe with the idea of what is possible on a grand scale in science fiction. It
evokes the memories of Heinlein and Asimov in doing so, but then blends those
with a more modern context – not only do we have high concept work, showing off
some wonderfully imaginative ideas – but there’s a space in there for humanity,
as well, a feeling of intimacy, a sense that these grand projects are dependent
on and shaped by the relationships of the people and machines orchestrating
them. This blend worked really, really
well for me – I’d struggle to find a story through the collection that I didn’t
enjoy, to one degree or another. If you’re in the mood for some stories which
will challenge and entertain you, whilst throwing open the breadth of the
universe to the interrogation of your imagination, then I’d say give this
collection firm consideration.
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