Elentarri’s Reviews > The Collected Stories > Status Update

Out of the Sun ★★★★☆ A lovely but poignant story that explores the concept of life existing within extreme environments, such as the plasma of the Sun.

Let There Be Light ★★★⯪☆ A spoof on the "death ray" trope in science fiction, emphasizing how technical expertise can lead to unintended consequences. An astronomer creates a powerful "death ray" to destroy his unfaithful wife's car, with unintended consequences.

The Other Side of the Sky ★★★★☆ A fun series of linked vignettes featuring future technology and adventures in space, in this case a space station.

The Man Who Ploughed the Sea ★★★⯪☆ The story focuses on the gap between scientific possibility and commercial viability. A scientist develops a way to extract uranium from seawater.
A chance meeting with a wealthy businessman results in a trade of his luxurious yacht for the technology. Only, the costs of extraction outpace the value of the end product, rendering the invention impractical... for the moment.

Security Check ★★★☆☆ A skilled craftsman improves the props for a low-budget sci-fi show so realistically that he attracts the attention of two men in overcoats, appearing like secret police, interrogate the craftsman about where he obtained his "too authentic" technology designs. These agents are not what they seem.

Sleeping Beauty ★★★☆☆ A man bequeathed with a strings-attached, small fortune is given an ultimatum by his wife: do something about his snoring or she is leaving. A visit to a scientist results in a potion which will cure him of snoring... but also of sleep. The wife is not happy with her husbands nocturnal wanderings and demands a reversal of the process. An antidote is delivered... with unintended consequences.

🟢Cold War ★★☆☆☆ A lighthearted parody of Cold War espionage. California business interests, eager to damage Florida's tourism industry, concoct a scheme to tow a massive iceberg to the Florida coast to ruin its sunny reputation. The operation takes an unexpected turn when a Russian submarine intervenes, attempting to seize the iceberg.

🟢The Next Tenants ★★★★☆ A Japanese scientist, disillusioned by the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, trains a termite colony to use technology, with the aim to encourage termites to succeed humanity once humanity has annihilated itself. The story ends with the scientist contemplating introducing fire to the termite colony, as Prometheus did for early humans.

The Ultimate Melody ★★★☆☆ Another tale told at the White-Hart. A physiologist attempts to find the ultimate musical melody that aligns perfectly with human brainwaves. He creates a machine, "Ludwig," to discover this mental trigger, and succeeds in creating the "Ultimate Melody" with unintended results.

The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch ★★☆☆☆ A sound engineer, fed up with his wife's incessant talking, creates a recording device that counts the number of words spoken by himself and his wife, Ermintrude. At the end of the experiment, the word counter shows that the engineer's word count beats his wife's by 100! The engineer is incredulous, and begins debugging the machine...