I came across Yudhanjaya's writing in the anthology 2054, where i found his very enjoyable Deep Ocean Blues. So having really enjoyed that novella i thought i'd go and have a hunt around and see what else Yudhanjaya has written.

The Slow Sad Suicide of Rohan Wijeratne is, i believe, Yudhanjaya's first book, albeit just a short story. It tells the tale of a poor little rich kid who has never had to work for anything and has essentially squandered his life. He's now so fed up with his pointless rich existence he just spends his time trying to kill himself. But he's so rich his parents had him filled with nanites that heal his every wound and illness, preventing him from ending his own life, no matter how hard he tries.

Then, one day, while driving a tuk tuk, Rohan hears about a space program wanting volunteers to be shot straight into a black hole: even the nanites won't save him this time.

All in all, this is a really good short story, well written, but it does get lost here and there in the terminology and theories of black holes. But Rohan is also completely lost with all the science of it, his nanites stopped working after 30 years in cryo-sleep to get to the black hole and he's lost a lot of his intelligence. Essentially, being baffled by all the science nonsense puts you right in the mind of Rohan as he plummets into the abyss. Have fun!

Yudhanjaya's next book is Numbercaste, which i shall get around to reading at some point in the future.… (mere)

Markeret

5t4n5 | 1 anden anmeldelse | Aug 9, 2023 |

Numbercaste af Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

This is a super good story, especially considering the way data is currently being used and what it all might mean in the future.

I'm sure there are people who would read this and think it's a great idea because they'd assure themselves that they would just work hard to get a high number and be a great success, but every system that creates winners, by necessity, has to create losers. There's only ever 100% of the pie and if the top 1% take 50% of that pie then what exactly will be left for the bottom percentages after all the middle people have had their slice? Changing the system so that you have a different 1% is not going to ever solve the problem.

The world is full of people who think they can solve the problem called Homo sapiens, but the reality is that Homo sapiens can't be fixed. The problem called Homo sapiens will only be solved when Homo sapiens becomes extinct.

In the meanwhile we have to endure this death-by-a-thousand-cuts inflicted upon us by the top 1% and their sycophants. Hopefully not too much longer until we arrive at Armageddon.

So yeah, good story, let's hope it doesn't become too prophetic for most of our sakes.

The next book in Yudhanjaya's timeline is Deep Ocean Blues.… (mere)

Markeret

5t4n5 | 2 andre anmeldelser | Aug 9, 2023 |

Messenger af Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

After the aliens invade people have their consciousnesses uploaded into giant avatar machines of Hindu gods to fight the alien invaders. What happens when ordinary humans are given the physical bodies of gods?

A good little story.

Markeret

5t4n5 | Aug 9, 2023 |

The Salvage Crew af Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

The big evil corporation sends an AI controlled drop ship with 3 humans to grab some salvage from a colony ship that crashed onto a planet.

The planet is supposed to be unclaimed by others, uninhabited and safe for the humans and drop ship. But as with most evil corporations, the truth isn't exactly on the menu when they want to recruit people for the job.

So the AI ends up with 3 humans that the AI is supposed to look after and control, but who have other ideas, especially when things don't go according to plan.

At the heart of the story is Yudhanjaya's favourite theme of literary AI's/machines, and what happens when two AI's evolved enough to be poets meet each other and how they deal with the meat puppets that are problematic for their way of communicating.

All in all, another fine story from Yudhanjaya, and if you haven't got around to reading any of his work yet, i do humbly suggest you give it a try, you may be rather pleased to discover a wonderful talent in a quirky corner of sci-fi hitherto not explored much.

I did like snippets like this:

Humans react to shock in all sorts of unexpected ways. Hysteria and numbness are the most common patterns. Given a world that terrifies them, people either scream at it or stop caring. But there are other patterns. Anna seems to have gone through her scrubbing phase into what we call hypercompetence—adopting a set of behaviors that [or so the human thinks] will give them the greatest chance of survival. Some of the most famous survivalists in known space, for example—Wolf Bjorn, Dana Jayawardana—all had some deep, traumatic incident in their childhood that turned them into the kind of mad person that will happily land on a desert planet with no tools except their own fingernails and proceed to survive there for six months while making a reality-TV show out of it.

This story is followed up by Odysseus, which is set in the same universe.… (mere)

Markeret

5t4n5 | 6 andre anmeldelser | Aug 9, 2023 |

Se flere anmeldelser