Geoff Nelder

The follow up to ‘Suppose We’, ‘Falling Up’ is the second book in ‘The Flying Crooked’ series. In ‘Suppose We’, titled after the spaceship, four human colonists arrived in the Kepler system and landed on Kepler-20h to explore and assess its suitability for human colonisation. The crew consisted of a two-fisted American Commander named Penn, French science officer Gaston and two talented females, Delta and Em.

After certain adventures, they established contact and friendly relations with the native Keps, members of an ancient civilisation who look like oblong balloons but can pass straight through a human. Communicating with them was difficult and matters were complicated by developments with the Suppose We AI, CAN, which has grown more independent.

As ‘Falling Up’ begins, the humans are still exploring the planet and its wonders but there are several crises building. The Keps have allowed human genomes to be spliced onto their native bacteria, partly to help with a plague that almost wiped them out but Gaston isn’t sure that the combined human and Kep genomes won’t mutate into something dangerous.

Delta is very ill with some unknown medical condition. Worst of all, a race of alien AIs is attacking the Kep system in retaliation for the Keps stealing a giant sphere of gas from them. The Keps didn’t know it belonged to anyone but the AIs now think the Keps are a threat and so attack. Keps are pacifists and prefer not to fight if they can avoid it and definitely don’t want to kill any sentient species. They send Em out to negotiate with the invaders for the pleasing reason that humans can lie and cheat.

As in ‘Suppose We’, the story moves swiftly and there are plenty of technological marvels. Author Geoff Nelder is very much in the ‘sense of wonder’ school of Science Fiction and has the technical know-how to make his creations realistic.

He’s on a par with Arthur C. Clarke for coming up with amazing gadgets, I was reminded of ‘Rendezvous With Rama’, but probably better at portraying human frailty and stupidity in some cases, mostly with the men. He’s also up there with E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith when it comes to cosmic awe, shifting planets around and slicing up moons with gay abandon but in a more matter of fact fashion than Smith.

This is another good dose of old-fashioned Science Fiction with likeable characters and a positive outlook but updated with modern scientific knowledge. Most SF fans should enjoy it.… (más)

I've reviewed a few of Geoff Nelder’s SF stories in ‘Perihelion SF’ and liked them so he felt emboldened to send me an advance copy of his new collection, ‘Incremental’. I’m glad he did. The blurb says: ‘These twenty-five tales from Geoff Nelder have increment as a theme.’

The meaning of: Increment: Noun – an increase or addition, especially one of a series on a fixed scale. I didn’t always see this theme in the stories but they were so good I didn’t care.

The opening yarn is ‘Pothole’. In Madrid, cyclist Mateo comes across a small pothole on a minor road. He goes back the next day to cover it or put up a warning sign for others and finds that it has doubled in size. What’s more, it keeps doubling in size. He contacts his clever friend Zoe for help and she calculates that the whole of Spain will fall into it in a matter of weeks.

Doubling a number to see how quickly it gets huge is an old kids game and Nelder even finds a scientific rationale for the hole. This could have changed into one of those fifties SF disaster movies with a learned young professor (pipe and spectacles) a stupid general and a beautiful girl but Nelder stayed with the kids’ story.

The theme of little people affected by big events shows up again in ‘Wrong Number’ in which Ken gets a call on his thirtieth birthday. The phone is a cheap knock-off given by his brother and the call is surprising because no one has his number yet. The call is either gibberish or details of a radio frequency. Another clever idea and well realised.

When the Perseid meteor shower is somehow diverted and several strike the Earth in ‘Gravity’s Tears’, it’s another big event and again we see it through the eyes of ordinary characters. Emma and Quil are driving on the unlit Manitoba Highway over undulating prairies towing a two-bed trailer. Towing it too fast as far as she’s concerned. It’s early days in their relationship and she’s not sure about him. As in all good stories, events illuminate character. Another good one.

One of my favourites was ‘Tumbler’s Gift’. Tumbler Recks has the power to unlock anything, just by being near it. His courtship of cute redhead Ember is interrupted when the authorities grab him for an important mission. One of the Portals has somehow become locked and they hope he can fix it. Portals are gateways that lead instantly to Mars or other cities. There are few of them. Like so many of the stories, this twists in an unexpected direction. Tumbler is from a near future which is cleverly put across by a variety of new words with meanings you can infer: Citzen, Crimpolice, cofftea and so on.

Sticking with SF, which forms a large part of the book, there’s ‘The Judgement Rock’. Jed is spaced for trying to steal an asteroid from a mining corporation. He’s wearing a spacesuit but that won’t keep him alive for long. However, the suit has a built-in AI which converses with him and it’s quite droll and Jed has a plan. I first read this excellent story in ‘Perihelion SF April 2017’ and it’s just as much fun revisited.

There are quirky fantasies here, too. In ‘View From’, a teacher not looking forward to his day of ‘wild animal management’ wakes to find himself stuck to the ceiling, looking down. ‘Mind Of Its Own’ has Merlin casting a spell that goes wrong. ‘In Absentia’ starts with an old man trying to figure out who he is while ten-year-old Amy chatters away at him. This was a great idea and turned in a totally unexpected direction. Straight fiction features in ‘Dummies Guide To Saving Lives’ where a nice man tries to persuade someone from jumping off a bridge in Chester. This won the Cafe Doom Story Contest in 2004.

Nelder writes well and even has bursts of poetic description in certain passages. These ruffles and flourishes add to the flavour but the meat of the thing is the story. Much of what Geoff Nelder does is like 1950s SF, those clever shorts by the likes of Phillip K Dick and Robert Sheckley. Although his characters have feelings and are affected by events, he eschews the modern misery and sense of futility that has become such a part of English Science Fiction. His stories are entertaining and include a bit of hard science, too. All in all, this collection is a treat.

Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/… (más)

I’ve reviewed a few of Geoff Nelder’s SF stories in ‘Perihelion SF’ and liked them so he felt emboldened to send me an advance copy of his new collection, ‘Incremental’. I’m glad he did. The blurb says: ‘These twenty-five tales from Geoff Nelder have increment as a theme.’

The meaning of: Increment: Noun – an increase or addition, especially one of a series on a fixed scale. I didn’t always see this theme in the stories but they were so good I didn’t care.

The opening yarn is ‘Pothole’. In Madrid, cyclist Mateo comes across a small pothole on a minor road. He goes back the next day to cover it or put up a warning sign for others and finds that it has doubled in size. What’s more, it keeps doubling in size. He contacts his clever friend Zoe for help and she calculates that the whole of Spain will fall into it in a matter of weeks.

Doubling a number to see how quickly it gets huge is an old kids game and Nelder even finds a scientific rationale for the hole. This could have changed into one of those fifties SF disaster movies with a learned young professor (pipe and spectacles) a stupid general and a beautiful girl but Nelder stayed with the kids’ story.

The theme of little people affected by big events shows up again in ‘Wrong Number’ in which Ken gets a call on his thirtieth birthday. The phone is a cheap knock-off given by his brother and the call is surprising because no one has his number yet. The call is either gibberish or details of a radio frequency. Another clever idea and well realised.

When the Perseid meteor shower is somehow diverted and several strike the Earth in ‘Gravity’s Tears’, it’s another big event and again we see it through the eyes of ordinary characters. Emma and Quil are driving on the unlit Manitoba Highway over undulating prairies towing a two-bed trailer. Towing it too fast as far as she’s concerned. It’s early days in their relationship and she’s not sure about him. As in all good stories, events illuminate character. Another good one.

One of my favourites was ‘Tumbler’s Gift’. Tumbler Recks has the power to unlock anything, just by being near it. His courtship of cute redhead Ember is interrupted when the authorities grab him for an important mission. One of the Portals has somehow become locked and they hope he can fix it. Portals are gateways that lead instantly to Mars or other cities. There are few of them. Like so many of the stories, this twists in an unexpected direction. Tumbler is from a near future which is cleverly put across by a variety of new words with meanings you can infer: Citzen, Crimpolice, cofftea and so on.

Sticking with SF, which forms a large part of the book, there’s ‘The Judgement Rock’. Jed is spaced for trying to steal an asteroid from a mining corporation. He’s wearing a spacesuit but that won’t keep him alive for long. However, the suit has a built-in AI which converses with him and it’s quite droll and Jed has a plan. I first read this excellent story in ‘Perihelion SF April 2017’ and it’s just as much fun revisited.

There are quirky fantasies here, too. In ‘View From’, a teacher not looking forward to his day of ‘wild animal management’ wakes to find himself stuck to the ceiling, looking down. ‘Mind Of Its Own’ has Merlin casting a spell that goes wrong. ‘In Absentia’ starts with an old man trying to figure out who he is while ten year-old Amy chatters away at him. This was a great idea and turned in a totally unexpected direction. Straight fiction features in ‘Dummies Guide To Saving Lives’ where a nice man tries to persuade someone from jumping off a bridge in Chester. This won the Cafe Doom Story Contest in 2004.

Nelder writes well and even has bursts of poetic description in certain passages. These ruffles and flourishes add to the flavour but the meat of the thing is the story. Much of what Geoff Nelder does is like 1950s SF, those clever shorts by the likes of Phillip K Dick and Robert Sheckley. Although his characters have feelings and are affected by events, he eschews the modern misery and sense of futility that has become such a part of English Science Fiction. His stories are entertaining and include a bit of hard science, too. All in all, this collection is a treat.

Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/… (más)

This is perhaps the most innocently thought provoking book I have ever read. What would happen if everyone began to experience memory loss? How would the world be affected by the gradual but constant loss of days, months, and years by every single person on earth? What happens if we all eventually regressed to infancy? Geoff Nelder attacks this question with fear and humor in “Aria: Left Luggage”. When the crew of the International Space Station finds a metallic suitcase mysteriously stuck in the struts of the space station the first question that arises is how did it get there? Then the inevitable question follows, should they open it or send it back to the labs on Earth to be examined? When the case is finally opened using less than secure procedures a virus is released on Earth that is unlike anything scientists could have imagined. Little by little people begin to lose their memories. Called ARIA, Alien Retrograde Infectious Amnesia, it sweeps the world, seemingly airborne and unavoidable. This is a fascinating tale of how important our memories are and how much we take them for granted. Nelder weaves a subtle tale where recent memories go first but as time goes by more and more memories are lost. Tension builds as younger victims are reduced to childhood and even infancy. Professionals like doctors and scientists regress until they are unable to perform job duties because they have forgotten what they learned to do. Panic ensues as violence and chaos sweep the earth. Amazingly there are pockets of people unaffected by the virus because they were able to avoid contamination. Meanwhile another suitcase appears on the ISS. Will this contain a cure or is there an even more disastrous virus about to be released on Earth? This is not simply a science fiction story. This is a story of the collapse of civilization as we know it and the behaviors of people thrust into unknown territory. The characters are real people confronting a frightening new world, some desperate to retain some semblance of normalcy while others struggle to function in spite of their mental deterioration. How much of our humanity relies on our ability to remember? How far would we go to protect ourselves from a sweeping virus that could eventually take everything that defines us? This is a story that confronts basic issues and makes the reader stop and think. A unique and insightful story it is a must read.
… (más)