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Crisis in Zefra
A fictional narrative designed to illustrate emerging concepts and technologies that could become part of Canada's Army of the Future.
- GenresScience Fiction
First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Karl Schroeder
95 books383 followersKarl Schroeder is an award-winning Canadian science fiction author. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality and interstellar travel, and have a deeply philosophical streak. One of his concepts, known as thalience, has gained some currency in the artificial intelligence and computer networking communities.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 5, 2016
In the near future, Canadian forces are on-hand in Zefra, a new and struggling African city-state, to peacekeep and prepare for their first democratic election, but when terrorists strike they must go into action to deal with the threat. The methods of warfare may have changed with new technology, but the dedication remains the same.
This isn't your usual story. It was specifically commissioned by the Canadian Armed Forces as a way to explore how emerging technologies may change the shape of war a couple decades down the line. I'm reading it mostly because the writer they chose for the project, Karl Schroeder, is one of my favorites (and also because it's available free online, just google the title). He's also not who I would have expected as a first choice to write a book like this, although with a little deeper consideration, it makes sense. Schroeder himself is not a soldier (although the credits indicate that a number of military personnel did advise on the project) and was raised Mennonite, and although I don't know if he holds to the strict pacifism of that faith, I do notice that his work often includes cases of people in conflict coming to resolution in non-violent ways. For a peacekeeping-centered force in an urban environment filled with non-combatants, this may actually be a nearly ideal outlook for a writer going in... dealing with the threats while minimizing collateral damage or actions that can be spun to the enemy's propaganda.
It does read like a traditional SF story, approximately of novella length, albeit with breaks for discussion questions for the target audience to consider. At the same time though, it is written to a purpose, and so while there are characters with realistic motivations, it's not a heavy focus and so they can come off a little flat.
As a showcase for technologies and tactics the military my have to deal with, it's pretty interesting. As a story... it didn't really work for me as well, but then, I'm really not the target audience. Still, I did find it worth reading for the speculative fiction elements (and there are extensive footnotes with links to web articles talking about the technologies in development, although I suspect some of those links themselves may have died, which itself shows something of a minor failure of foresight). Also of note is that there's an essay at the end detailing a history of the Canadian military using what's essentially science fiction to explore the future of warfare. To my surprise, there's a much more extensive history than I would have previous thought, although this was the first such effort in a while.
Even though I only rated it two stars, I remain quite impressed and proud that this exists at all, and that there's a sequel, Crisis in Urlia. Despite my somewhat lukewarm reaction, I do eventually plan to read it.
This isn't your usual story. It was specifically commissioned by the Canadian Armed Forces as a way to explore how emerging technologies may change the shape of war a couple decades down the line. I'm reading it mostly because the writer they chose for the project, Karl Schroeder, is one of my favorites (and also because it's available free online, just google the title). He's also not who I would have expected as a first choice to write a book like this, although with a little deeper consideration, it makes sense. Schroeder himself is not a soldier (although the credits indicate that a number of military personnel did advise on the project) and was raised Mennonite, and although I don't know if he holds to the strict pacifism of that faith, I do notice that his work often includes cases of people in conflict coming to resolution in non-violent ways. For a peacekeeping-centered force in an urban environment filled with non-combatants, this may actually be a nearly ideal outlook for a writer going in... dealing with the threats while minimizing collateral damage or actions that can be spun to the enemy's propaganda.
It does read like a traditional SF story, approximately of novella length, albeit with breaks for discussion questions for the target audience to consider. At the same time though, it is written to a purpose, and so while there are characters with realistic motivations, it's not a heavy focus and so they can come off a little flat.
As a showcase for technologies and tactics the military my have to deal with, it's pretty interesting. As a story... it didn't really work for me as well, but then, I'm really not the target audience. Still, I did find it worth reading for the speculative fiction elements (and there are extensive footnotes with links to web articles talking about the technologies in development, although I suspect some of those links themselves may have died, which itself shows something of a minor failure of foresight). Also of note is that there's an essay at the end detailing a history of the Canadian military using what's essentially science fiction to explore the future of warfare. To my surprise, there's a much more extensive history than I would have previous thought, although this was the first such effort in a while.
Even though I only rated it two stars, I remain quite impressed and proud that this exists at all, and that there's a sequel, Crisis in Urlia. Despite my somewhat lukewarm reaction, I do eventually plan to read it.
January 31, 2017
In the near future, a Canadian humanitarian response team, part of our military, deals first with a drought-and-famine situation in a new African city-state called Urlia, then with a new, possibly bioengineered sickness, and an attempt by extremist groups to use that chaos to seize power.
This is a follow-up to Crisis in Zefra. Both were projects commissioned by the Canadian military as exercises in attempting to forsee the possible changing tools, strategies, and role of the military in the future (and are available free online). Although it is an interesting idea on its own, I read them mainly because one of my favorite SF authors did the writing portion. Zefra focused more on squad-level tactics, while Urlia is centered more on command-and-control and 'big-picture' thinking.
Although it is told in the format of a story (with regular breaks for discussion questions and copious footnotes linking to the scientific ideas explored in the text), it's still a little light in that respect. There are characters, certainly, but most don't get too much development other than to showcase some science fictional idea of where we may be heading as a society. Deep character studies aren't really the point of the exercise, and so most of the space is devoted to other matters. That's okay, understandable even, but since I am rating this as fiction it is one of the negatives. What it does well is showcase a number of cool ideas, some of which I've been exposed to before from reading the author's other works, but still interest me enough that I'm happy to see more incarnations. For instance, there's an area of land that has been given legal rights and its own 'desires' through a simple AI, and must be negotiated with for water rights. Or people who are citizens of 'virtual' nations that they is considered just as real as Canadian citizenship. And the idea of situations that are so complex that no person can truly understand it all, and yet through collaboration groups of people can understand a part of it enough that if they work together they can solve tricky problems.
Because the ideas were more interesting and explored well, I think I like it more than Zefra, slightly. It's still not the kind of book I'd recommend to people as fiction, unless they have a particular interest in this type of strategic foresight.
This is a follow-up to Crisis in Zefra. Both were projects commissioned by the Canadian military as exercises in attempting to forsee the possible changing tools, strategies, and role of the military in the future (and are available free online). Although it is an interesting idea on its own, I read them mainly because one of my favorite SF authors did the writing portion. Zefra focused more on squad-level tactics, while Urlia is centered more on command-and-control and 'big-picture' thinking.
Although it is told in the format of a story (with regular breaks for discussion questions and copious footnotes linking to the scientific ideas explored in the text), it's still a little light in that respect. There are characters, certainly, but most don't get too much development other than to showcase some science fictional idea of where we may be heading as a society. Deep character studies aren't really the point of the exercise, and so most of the space is devoted to other matters. That's okay, understandable even, but since I am rating this as fiction it is one of the negatives. What it does well is showcase a number of cool ideas, some of which I've been exposed to before from reading the author's other works, but still interest me enough that I'm happy to see more incarnations. For instance, there's an area of land that has been given legal rights and its own 'desires' through a simple AI, and must be negotiated with for water rights. Or people who are citizens of 'virtual' nations that they is considered just as real as Canadian citizenship. And the idea of situations that are so complex that no person can truly understand it all, and yet through collaboration groups of people can understand a part of it enough that if they work together they can solve tricky problems.
Because the ideas were more interesting and explored well, I think I like it more than Zefra, slightly. It's still not the kind of book I'd recommend to people as fiction, unless they have a particular interest in this type of strategic foresight.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews