Engine of Recall

by Karl Schroeder, Stephen Baxter (Introduction)

Aurora Award Nominee, 2006 Gathered here for the first time are the finest science-fiction stories, including the previously unpublished novelette "Alexander's Road," by the award-winning Karl Schroeder. The Engine of Recall tales are of ordinary people in astonishing circumstances. Whether stranded alone on the frigid oceans of Saturn's moon Titan, or searching for stolen nuclear bombs under the rusting oil derricks of Azerbaijan, Schroeder's characters assert their humanity in inhuman circumstances. Combining classic adventure and sophisticated speculation, the ten stories in this collection are sure to satisfy a broad range of readers. Includes an introduction by Stephen Baxter. The original story "Alexander's Road" was nominated for the Aurora Award -- Canada's top Science Fiction award -- for best short work in English.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Karl 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.

Reviews

[Robert Runte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schroeder makes my list of top ten authors, so I've been meaning to read this collection for some time. I tend to prefer novels to short stories for bed time reading, and I'd already read several of these when they first came out, including one I'd published myself as co-editor of Tesseracts 5 (and was subsequently reprinted in David Hartwell's anthology The Hard SF Renaissance) -- I like to think I was one of the editors that 'discovered' Schroeder, though that's pure pretension on my part--so hadn't got around to the collection. For one thing, I knew that they would be more downbeat than the novels, and that turned out to be true. His novels all have (relatively) happy endings. And I guess that is sort of true of the stories in the collection, though its the 'get-to=live-another=day,-not-quite-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been' Canadian-style endings here, rather than the 'achieved-our-goals' American-style happy endings. But for all that the stories tend towards the somber, I really enjoyed the book. The writing is excellent, his ideas are original, and its refreshing to read the Canadian version of the genre. And it's interesting to look at the evolution of Schroeder's writing: the man is a genius, one of the best hard SF writers around, so well worth reading his entire cannon. I look forward to his next collection.

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bit uneven, as Schroeder is finding his legs in some of the earlier stories, but there isn't a bad story in the bunch, and several are very good indeed. The run the range from near-future scenarios to space opera, and Schroeder shows a high degree of facility across the range. Many deal with the limits of the human condition, including a few forays into arguably the post-human. Solid read for fans of good hard SF.

[Brian Gaston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schroeder launched his career with short stories and this collection shows why.

[Robert (NurseBob) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great selection of stories grounded in sci-fi but with a heavy psychological component to counterbalance the high-tech stuff. Engaging from the first page to the last.

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's sort of inspirational to see that mostly bland short stories could launch a career eventually resulting in the more spectacular Lady of Mazes or the Virga books.