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Hello, we're back with another vlog. I know it's been a while.
we just had the Academic Bowl here, with a bunch of high school kids coming from all over the country. I've been working and focused on that.
Now that I'm done catching up, the book I'd like to review this week is "Three Science Fiction Novellas."
"Three Science Fiction Novellas?" I know it's not the most interesting title in the world.
But the book IS super-interesting. The stories were written in the late 19th- and early 20th Century by a Belgian author who
lived around the same time as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, who are both very well-known science-fiction authors.
This guy is pretty obscure and not very well-known, but his work is a lot more scientifically rigorous than those other two.
I mean, a time machine? A voyage to the Moon? Doesn't sound quite accurate.
But this author wrote some interesting stories, including these three.
The first one is set pretty long ago, before civilization emerged in our history. A bunch of forest and plain tribes somewhere in
Eastern Europe or western Asia suddenly encounter a new race of creatures. They appear to be sentient and able to communicate with one another.
But they don't look human at all. They look like cones, cylinders, and spheres. You can see through them, and they all have "stars" that function as their hearts.
The biggest problem is that they're aggressive. They start killing people and need to be contained, but keep expanding into human territory.
So the tribes unify in order to fight back, and go to war. It's interesting to see how the author writes his characters.
They're primitive men, but undergo a process of experimentation and testing in order to figure out how to kill these things.
They manage to win out, and exterminate them all. It's a really interesting story, and a little creepy!
I mean, how DO you deal with that kind of creature?
The second story happens in the early 20th Century, when a man is born with pale lavender skin and strange eyes.
He can't see in color, only in shades of black and gray. However, he can see a much broader spectrum than most people.
This means he sees things that most humans can't, including another universe existing side-by-side with us, but we can't see or interact with it.
It's really eerie. Not scary so much as it makes you look around you a little bit and wonder what's crawling under your feet.
You hope you're not touching any of these!
The third one is set in the far future, after the environment collapses, the Earth has grown unstable, and all the water has vanished.
There are only a very few people left, scratching out a life in the desert. There are no oceans, lakes, or rivers.
Unfortunately, a new form of life has emerged, one that's iron-based and highly magnetic. They've started forming their own societies.
They're not aggressive, but their magnetism is so strong that they can suck the iron out of your blood if you get too close.
Your blood literally seeps out through your skin. It's pretty awful.
Still, it's totally unintentional -- just bad luck. So these people are constantly struggling to survive and eventually fail. It's sad.
But all three stories are fascinating! It's a new take on science fiction in general, and one that's highly recommended.
The stories are unique and very good. I really enjoyed reading them.
That's it. Thanks and so long!