REVIEW: THEN WILL THE GREAT OCEAN WASH DEEP ABOVE

Cover by Kay Sales

THEN WILL THE GREAT OCEAN WASH DEEP ABOVE

APOLLO QUARTET 3

BY

IAN SALES

ISBN: 978-0-9571883-6-5

Pages: 71

Publisher: Whippleshield Books

Published: 30 November 2013

On the cover:

 It is April 1962. The Korean War has escalated and the US is struggling to keep the Russians and Chinese north of the 38th parallel. All the men are away fighting, but that doesn’t mean the Space Race is lost. NASA decides to look elsewhere for its astronauts: the thirteen women pilots who passed the same tests as the original male candidates. These are the Mercury 13: Jerrie Cobb, Janey Hart, Myrtle Cagle, Jerri Sloan, Jan Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Bernice Steadman, Wally Funk, Sarah Gorelick, Gene Nora Stumbough, Jean Hixson, Rhea Hurrle and Irene Leverton. One of these women will be the first American in space. Another will be the first American to spacewalk. Perhaps one will even be the first human being to walk on the Moon.

Beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, deep in the Puerto Rico Trench north of San Juan, lies a film bucket from a KH-4 Corona spy satellite. It should have been caught in mid-air by a C-130 from the 6549th Test Group. That didn’t happen. So the US Navy bathyscaphe Trieste II must descend twenty thousand feet to retrieve the bucket, down where light has never reached and the pressure is four tons per square inch. But there is more in the depths than anyone had expected, much more.

This is not our world. But it very nearly was.

    Having previously enjoyed the first two Apollo Quartet books (reviews here and here), I was really looking forward to see what Sales would do this time. That's one of the strengths of the Apollo Quartet; the books are themed around the US space program that led to the Moon landing, but Sales does something different with it each time. This time we get pure Alternate History, the timeline doesn't even reach 1970. But Sales sticks to the science so judiciously that this in many ways reads like Hard SF, or more precisely like Hard SF of the 1950s could have been.

   There's two very distinct story threads this time around. The main one concerns female astronauts. And before I even go into this book, I have to commend Sales for digging up some history on this part of the story. Some of that is shown in a short section at the end of the book, but it really is something I want to look into further.
   The story of the female astronauts is also a very gripping one. There's a lot of tension in some of the things that are going on. This is solid storytelling, and it will come out favourably compared to any Science Fiction concerned with human near-Earth space travel. It may feel a bit old-fashioned because of the time it is set in, but that doesn't detract from it as a very compelling story in my opinion.
   With the solid factual base behind it, and Sales' excellent extrapolations from it, this reads very much like a history of human space exploration. Sales also gives us a plausible explanation for why events have turned the way they have in this timeline, and you can see how easily this could have been our world.

   In the other story Sales goes off at the deep end, literally. We're taken on a very deep sea dive outside of Puerto Rico. There's the same kind of tense excitement here as in the other story thread, we are after all in another environment that is hostile to human life.
   We get a slightly different type of story here though, this has a bit more of the Spy Thriller in it, and there's even an element here that comes straight from the fringes of UFOlogy. That is not to say that this lacks in realism in any way. In fact there's not really anything that says this isn't what really happened. At least until the very end.

   Both of the stories are more introspective than action oriented. We follow the inner thoughts of the two protagonists and these are important to the novella. I never missed any action, or more outright Science Fiction elements though.They are simply not needed here, and would just get in the way of what Sales wants to tell us.

   The characters become important in stories such as these, and how you feel about them can be integral to your enjoyment of what you are reading. The two we meet here are nice to get acquainted with. Although this is a novella we do get fairly close to them, and can see what makes them tick in the situations we see them. That the level of characterisation is so good makes this feel like it spans over a much greater number of pages. Sales manages to convey a lot in the few pages he has allowed himself.

   All in all this is a very good novella. The story is compelling in itself but the history behind it, that is given an alternate twist, gives it more depth and punch. This is a story that has importance outside of genre, and deserves to be read widely far outside the confines of SFF.
   This is absolutely brilliant Alternate History, it covers angles that is (as far as I know) ignored within that genre, and stands as a great testament to how serious and close to reality you can get within this genre.
   Sales is again showing that he can write very engaging fiction about space exploration while sticking to the rules of Hard SF. This is fascinating and engaging storytelling with enough depth to satisfy the most discerning reader.

NOTE: I got an e-ARC of this from the author.

REVIEWS: Adrift on the Sea of Rains  The Eye with Which the Universe Beholds Itself

LINKS: Ian Sales  Whippleshield Books

REVIEW: THE EYE WITH WHICH THE UNIVERSE BEHOLDS ITSELF

Cover by Kay Sales

THE EYE WITH WHICH

THE UNIVERSE BEHOLDS ITSELF

APOLLO QUARTET 2

BY

IAN SALES

ISBN: 978-0-957-18833-4

Pages: 77 (Including glossary/appendix)

Publisher: Whippleshield Books

Published: 17 January 2013

On the cover:

(From the publisher's website)

For fifteen years, Earth has had a scientific station on an exoplanet orbiting Gliese 876. It is humanity’s only presence outside the Solar System. But a new and powerful telescope at L5 can detect no evidence of Phaeton Base, even though it should be able to. So the US has sent Brigadier Colonel Bradley Elliott, USAF, to investigate. Twenty years before, Elliott was the first, and to date only, man to land on the Martian surface. What he discovered there gave the US the stars, but it might also be responsible for the disappearance of Phaeton Base… 

   Like Sales previous Apollo Quartet novella, Adrift on the Sea of Rains (review), I'd define this as Hard SF Alternate History. It's not a direct follow up to the previous novella, in fact it's not even set in the same timeline. That sounds strange for two books that have a title collecting them together, but it really isn't. The operative word in the quartet's title is Apollo. That is what keeps these stories together. Not the god by that name, but NASA's Apollo Program.

   This time the main character is Bradley Emerson Elliot, who we follow at two major turning points of his life. Both have to do with space exploration, and both have significance for much more than Elliot himself.

   The Apollo space program, specifically the alternate history expansion of it, is very well handled by Sales. It's used as a really strong foundation for the story, and keeps it grounded in our reality even when it diverges from it. There's absolutely no doubt that the author has done his research. I especially liked how theories from the "fringe/alternative" corners were integrated.

   Sales has managed to stay on the right side of the Hard SF worldbulding/infodumping divide. There's more show than tell, and even when he does tell he manages to do so in an interesting manner.

   Being a novella, there's not much space for intricate character building (, not that I think there should be). But Sales has found room for giving us some insight into the character traits of Elliot that effects the story. Within the confines of this little slice of his life, Elliot is fully formed. And we also get some insight into his personal life that gives us a deeper understanding of him.

   There's isn't really room for getting to know the other characters that pop up in the course of the story, but that doesn't matter one bit. At least it was not something that I felt was missing. This is in one way the personal story of one man, and the focus on him makes the story more intimate.

   This is really an intimate story, but at the same time it's a very big one. The main character is present at some very important events, and thus this becomes his personal story. Bu for humanity as a whole, this story has much greater implications. And the story excels at that blending that together. Elliot isn't dumped into events, he as a natural place in them.

   There's a lot of tension in the story, even when we know that what the story makes us fear is not going to happen. Sales is very good at building up that atmosphere of uncertainty, there's a real feeling that anything can happen. Which is a testament to good writing when the storyline is split into two parts that are twenty years apart.

   More important than the mysteries though, is the journey. Both Elliot's personal/physical journey, and the bigger one that humanity does because of what Elliot experiences. The former is connected to space exploration and the latter follows from that. And although there are certainly strong Science Fiction elements in both, they feel like they are a natural extension.

   I must make a small addendum to my mention of the journey here. When you reach the end of the novella itself, it doesn't feel very fulfilling. It's like there is something missing, and there is. The following Glossary and Coda are a part of the story. They fill in the little bit that was missing, and adds quite a lot more of the history around what precedes it. I'd like to add that the story we get through the appendices to some extent exceeds what is contained within the relatively few pages of the book.

   Overall this is a great Hard SF novella. It is also a great Alternate History novella. Sales has created an excellent alternate world, that reads like Near Future Hard Science Fiction of the 1960s without in any way feeling old-fashioned. There's enough story here to comfortably fill a much larger volume, but it still doesn't feel crammed together. 

   This is an excellent starting point for those that want to take a look at Hard SF or Alternate History. For anyone who enjoys those genres this is an absolute must.

NOTE: I got an e-ARC of this from the author.

REVIEW: Adrift on the Sea of Rains

LINKS: Ian Sales  Whippleshield Books

REVIEW: ADRIFT ON THE SEA OF RAINS

Cover by Ian Sales

ADRIFT ON THE SEA OF RAINS

APOLLO QUARTET 1

BY

IAN SALES

ISBN: 978-0-9751883-1-0

Pages: 75 (Including Glossary/Appendix)

Publisher: Whippleshield Books

Publsihed: 6 April 2012

   On the cover:

When a nuclear war breaks out and the nations of earth are destroyed, it maroons a group of astronauts on the Moon. Using the "torsion field generator", they hope to find an alternate Earth that did not suffer nuclear armageddon. But once they do, how will they return home? They have one Lunar Module, which can carry only four astronauts into Lunar orbit...

   Sales's novella is very Hard SF one, but as it becomes clear rather quickly it is set in an Alternate History. This may seem like being a contradiction, but Sales manages to make it work very well.

   Interestingly it is neither the Hard SF nor the Alternate History elements that are the best thing in this story. What stands out most is the feeling of desolation and claustrophobia that Sales conveys through his writing. There is an underlying tension to the whole of this, that together with the chilling Alternate History scenario in the background makes for a very eerie read.

   Being a fan of Alternate History, I care about how "what if..." scenarios are presented. It doesn't matter how interesting an idea the diversion from our history is if there's no plausible way to get to the alternative world that the story contains. Fortunately, that is not a problem here. Sales presents a future that seems to be  just a flicker of coincidence away from the history we know.

   There is something that has to be mentioned about the Hard SF in this novella, namely that it very easy to argue that there is none. This may sound a bit strange of me to say when I have already stated that this is "very Hard SF", but the SF is only Hard SF in the Alternate History setting of the story.
   If you, like some people I have seen online, argue that Alternate History is Fantasy, rather than Science Fiction, then this would be a Fantasy novella. As someone who has a strong interest in History, I would say that Alternate History is without a doubt Science Fiction (, i.e. scientific speculation about how history could have diverged), and thus I don't hesitate to say that this is a Hard SF story in an Alternate History setting.

   Without going into spoilers, I will say that there is an element that isn't very realistic. But in the way it is handled here that is not a problem. Rather it feels as an integral part of the alternative timeline of the story, and in my opinion doesn't detract anything from the Hard SF feel of this novella.

   The story itself is very well written. Sales manages to convey a lot in a limited amount of space,  especially the worldbuilding is excellent. Most of the history of this timeline is presented in its own passages, as retrospectives. I found this to work very well, they add to the main storyline without being disruptive to the flow of the story.
   I've already mentioned the tension of this story, and that builds nicely as the narrative moves along. It's never clear what is going to be the conclusion to this tale, and the ending comes with a very satisfying twist.

   There's no doubt that this story will be a great read for those who are fans of Hard SF, and the Alternate History elements make it worth picking up for fans of that genre. It's connection to the Apollo program will also make this a good read for anyone interested in real world human space exploration.

Note: I won a Hardcover edition of this in a competition on the author's website, and I have received an e-ARC for review.

LINKS: Ian Sales  Whippleshield Books