The Final Now, by Gregory Benford

Contrast the story in the previous post, Dark Sanctuary, with The Final Now.  Thirty years later Benford is confident enough to tackle an end of the universe story, and take a stab at defining the meaning of the Creation.  Talk about ambitious.  It's not as easy to read as Dark Sanctuary, but deeply interesting for what the author is undertaking. The necessity of finitude is built into Creation, and creation cannot happen without its limit.  Otherwise, you get the logical end point of the Many Worlds thesis--everything possible has happened, an infinite number of times.  That last sentence was mine, it's not part of Benford's point. Came from a Scientific American article on Hugh Everett's theory. 

In any case, this is a must to read if you appreciate religion, philosophy and science.  And a valiant attempt to get one's arms around the whole thing.  Three stars.

Dark Sanctuary, by Gregory Benford

Dark Sanctuary is one of Benford's early efforts, recently posted.  It's an alien contact story, based on the premise that they have been in our solar system for a long time.  An asteroid prospector discovers them by way of a disabling laser flash, then figures out what they are based on sorting out the implications of their behavior.  It's just a little awkward, especially contrasted with later work, but it's a good read.  I liked it.  Two stars, almost three but not quite.

The Nature Articles by Gregory Benford

Gregory Benford wrote several very short pieces for Nature a few years ago, and five of them are available on Free SF Online.  I am reviewing them as a group, as they go together well and it doesn't make sense to me to talk about them separately.  Here are the five:

• The Champaigne Award
• SETI for Profit
• Caveat Time Traveler
• Penumbra
• Gravity's Whispers

These are all one-pagers in Nature's Futures section. They explore pretty standard hard SF themes, but stand out as very good examples of short fiction that's interesting and makes its point well.  Benford is a professor of physics and astronomy himself, and knows what would appeal to Nature readers. But these are good for anyone, and are thought-provoking in what they explore.  They are kind of dystopian, but that's OK, lots of SF is like that.  I would recommend them for nice quick hits that will make you think a bit.  3 stars.