The Nitty Gritty and More!

Deja Vu

A few months ago, I happened to catch the Sci-Fi channel’s Saturday night movie  A Sound of Thunder.   The premise of a time-traveling expedition to prehistoric times which resulted in disastrous repercussions on the modern world seemed vaguely familiar.  I forgot to check the credits at the end of the movie to see just what element of this story had niggled at something in my memory.  Soon enough, I forgot all about it.

By some odd chance a couple of months later, I happened across my old copy of Ray Bradbury’s The Golden Apples of the Sun. Nostalgic about the stories that inspired my love of science fiction, I decided to re-read it.  To my surprise, there it was on page 108 – the short story “A Sound of Thunder,” written by Bradbury circa 1952; the basis for a movie adaptation released in 2005!  While great creative liberties were taken, the movie wasn’t half-bad, really.  It was an edifying reminder that stories written by people like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Gene Roddenberry, Stanislaw Lem and Larry Niven still resonate in our consciousness so many decades later.

Even now, I am electrified every time I read the final words of this story:
“He did not move.  Eyes shut, he waited shivering.  He heard Travis breathe loudly in the room; he heard Travis shift his rifle, click the safety catch and raise the weapon.
There was a sound of thunder.”

There’s First Contact and There’s First Contact…

Reminiscing aside, it’s been my woeful experience that most of the best Science Fiction stories were written decades ago.  Finding a truly brilliant Science-Fiction gem, written at any time in the last ten years has proven to be quite a rare treat for me.  Of course, this lament about truly wonderful, modern sci-fi stories and media to be found can be easily disputed.  This is most likely due to the fact that by my reckoning, the measure of a great work of science fiction is based solely upon the extent to which I enjoy the piece; how it resonates, how it gets the wheels turning in my head.  Respect is due to the scholars and all that, but great stories are meant to be enjoyed by anyone with an open mind, not reserved for the pedants and snobbish upper-crust of the literati (haha – is there even such a thing?)

From time to time, I do happen across such a gem and this is how I came to now be raving about Rajnar Vajra’s novella, Doctor Alien, which was featured in the January/February 2009 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 

Cover of the January/February 2009 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact

Doctor Alien is a highly entertaining account of one intrepid psychologist’s endeavor to diagnose a motley group of never-before-encountered extraterrestrials, at the behest of intergalactic traders who have dipped their er… appendages into the grand stream of human commerce.   Hilarity ensues and mystery abounds when the Tsf Traders allow a human to set foot on their space station for the very first time.  While they harbor doubts that their guest, one Doctor Alanso J. Morganson actually possesses the intellect to solve a mystery that they could not, these unabashedly arrogant beings are practical enough to allow for the slim possibility of his success.

I started reading Doctor Alien simply because I happened across a preview of it on the Analog homepage and got so caught up that I was dismayed when the words stopped abruptly.  I hurried to purchase the January/February 2009 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact just so that I could finish this particular story and it was well worth it.  I will definitely be hunting down more stories from this awesome author.

On a side note:
I did a quick Google search and although I was glad to find that he has quite a prolific presence on the web – in terms of how often his works have been mention and gotten positive reviews, I could not find the author’s actual website.  Why don’t you have a website Mr. Rajnar Vajra? Why???

Click to read the preview of Doctor Alien on the Analog website.