Customer Reviews

Galileo's Children: Tales of Science Vs. Superstition

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A collection with the theme of persecuted scientists, in general. Dozois has to together a high quality collection, which is not all that easy with a theme presumably (Stories 3.61 average). There is also a decent intro.

Galileo's Children : The Stars Below - Ursula K. Le Guin
Galileo's Children : The Will of God - Keith Roberts
Galileo's Children : The Way of Cross and Dragon - George R.R. Martin
Galileo's Children : The Pope of the Chimps - Robert Silverberg
Galileo's Children : The World Is a Sphere - Edgar Pangborn
Galileo's Children : Written in Blood - Chris Lawson
Galileo's Children : Falling Star - Brendan DuBois
Galileo's Children : Three Hearings On the Existence of Snakes In Human Bloodstream - James Alan Gardner
Galileo's Children : The Star - Arthur C. Clarke
Galileo's Children : The Last Homsxual - Paul Park
Galileo's Children : The Man Who Walked Home - James TiptreeJr
Galileo's Children : When the Old Gods Die - Mike Resnick
Galileo's Children : Oracle - Greg Egan


Telescopic mining.

4 out of 5


Demonic telecommunications.

3 out of 5


Judas Star Knights.

3.5 out of 5


Talking ape theology just as mistakenly murderous as the human variety.

4 out of 5


Post-apocalyptic global idea recovery retribution.

3.5 out of 5


Religious DNA transcription is a killer vulnerability.

4.5 out of 5


After a serious virus destroys computer chips, years later an old astronaut has to deal with the peasants in his town.

4 out of 5


Bloodwork shows religious interbreeding problematic.

3.5 out of 5


Jesuit crewing for amusement finds supernova technology treasure cache is Star of Bethlehem reference point.

3.5 out of 5


Politics of everything is a disease.

3 out of 5


Annual accidental time travel peepshow.

4 out of 5


Kirinyaga magic vs medicine decision.

3.5 out of 5


In a reality where a man, similar to Alan Turing is working for the government in rather more unpleasant circumstances is visited by a reality hopping android woman things change rapidly. A man somewhat similar to C. S. Lewis has problems coping and believing.

4 out of 5

I found the first stories in this book somewhat dull. But the Pope of the Chimps on page 97, it began to be more interesting. Then, from Written in Blood on page 149, I enjoyed the remaining stories very much. Although Arthur C. Clarke is one of my favorite authors, I thought that his story called The Star didn't quite match the other stories in the book. They are concerned with the struggle of science against superstition and The Star seemed to me to be the other way around.

I normally prefer novels to short stories but the title of this book attracted my attention and the publisher is known for high quality works. While some of the stories in this collection were less than inspiring or thought provoking, the overall theme was the conflict between scientific thinking and dogmatic belief. This is always a worthwhile question for speculative fiction to expore.