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La Mano Servita
Futuro, in qualche parte dell'universo. Nella città modulare di Mendelia la divinazione eseguita sul DNA dei cittadini è una pratica obbligatoria. Che storia si nasconde dietro l'uccisione di un indovino? Toby Korsakov, della Polizioteca, indaga fino a una sconvolgente “verità genetica”. Nanotecnologia, bioetica, ingegneria genetica: nel racconto di Sawyer tutti gli elementi per una intelligente discussione multidisciplinare, riguardante anche l'umanità del presente, sono magistralmente intrecciati in una vicenda poliziesca breve ma intensa.
Robert James Sawyer (Ottawa, 29 aprile 1960) è un autore di fantascienza canadese. Si definisce uno scrittore di fantascienza hard, ma di fatto il suo interesse per la caratterizzazione e la psicologia dei personaggi è molto superiore a quello tipico del sottogenere. Le sue opere hanno spesso connotazioni metafisiche, alla Arthur C. Clarke; appartiene in pieno alla scuola secondo cui la fantascienza è letteratura di idee. Per le sue opere ha vinto trentacinque premi nazionali e internazionali, tra cui in particolare il premio Nebula del 1995 per il suo romanzo Killer on-line (The Terminal Experiment), e il premio Hugo del 2003 per il romanzo La genesi della specie (Hominidis). I racconti di Sawyer sono apparsi su Analog Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, On Spec, e numerose antologie. Dal suo romanzo "Avanti nel tempo" è stato ideato il serial televisivo FlashForward.
Robert James Sawyer (Ottawa, 29 aprile 1960) è un autore di fantascienza canadese. Si definisce uno scrittore di fantascienza hard, ma di fatto il suo interesse per la caratterizzazione e la psicologia dei personaggi è molto superiore a quello tipico del sottogenere. Le sue opere hanno spesso connotazioni metafisiche, alla Arthur C. Clarke; appartiene in pieno alla scuola secondo cui la fantascienza è letteratura di idee. Per le sue opere ha vinto trentacinque premi nazionali e internazionali, tra cui in particolare il premio Nebula del 1995 per il suo romanzo Killer on-line (The Terminal Experiment), e il premio Hugo del 2003 per il romanzo La genesi della specie (Hominidis). I racconti di Sawyer sono apparsi su Analog Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, On Spec, e numerose antologie. Dal suo romanzo "Avanti nel tempo" è stato ideato il serial televisivo FlashForward.
- GenresScience Fiction
23 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
17 people want to read
About the author
Robert J. Sawyer
226 books2,496 followersRobert J. Sawyer is one of Canada's best known and most successful science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian (and one of only 7 writers in the world) to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan.
Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young age, and he vividly remembers watching the televised Apollo missions. He claims to have watched the 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey 25 times. He began writing science fiction in a high school club, which he co-founded, NASFA (Northview Academy Association of Science Fiction Addicts). Sawyer graduated in 1982 from the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University, where he later worked as an instructor.
Sawyer's first published book, Golden Fleece (1989), is an adaptation of short stories that had previously appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. This book won the Aurora Award for the best Canadian science-fiction novel in English. In the early 1990s Sawyer went on to publish his inventive Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, about a world of intelligent dinosaurs. His 1995 award winning The Terminal Experiment confirmed his place as a major international science-fiction writer.
A prolific writer, Sawyer has published more than 10 novels, plus two trilogies. Reviewers praise Sawyer for his concise prose, which has been compared to that of the science-fiction master Isaac Asimov. Like many science fiction-writers, Sawyer welcomes the opportunities his chosen genre provides for exploring ideas. The first book of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Hominids (2002), is set in a near-future society, in which a quantum computing experiment brings a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel Earth to ours. His 2006 Mindscan explores the possibility of transferring human consciousness into a mechanical body, and the ensuing ethical, legal, and societal ramifications.
A passionate advocate for science fiction, Sawyer teaches creative writing and appears frequently in the media to discuss his genre. He prefers the label "philosophical fiction," and in no way sees himself as a predictor of the future. His mission statement for his writing is "To combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic."
http://us.macmillan.com/author/robert...
Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young age, and he vividly remembers watching the televised Apollo missions. He claims to have watched the 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey 25 times. He began writing science fiction in a high school club, which he co-founded, NASFA (Northview Academy Association of Science Fiction Addicts). Sawyer graduated in 1982 from the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University, where he later worked as an instructor.
Sawyer's first published book, Golden Fleece (1989), is an adaptation of short stories that had previously appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. This book won the Aurora Award for the best Canadian science-fiction novel in English. In the early 1990s Sawyer went on to publish his inventive Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, about a world of intelligent dinosaurs. His 1995 award winning The Terminal Experiment confirmed his place as a major international science-fiction writer.
A prolific writer, Sawyer has published more than 10 novels, plus two trilogies. Reviewers praise Sawyer for his concise prose, which has been compared to that of the science-fiction master Isaac Asimov. Like many science fiction-writers, Sawyer welcomes the opportunities his chosen genre provides for exploring ideas. The first book of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Hominids (2002), is set in a near-future society, in which a quantum computing experiment brings a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel Earth to ours. His 2006 Mindscan explores the possibility of transferring human consciousness into a mechanical body, and the ensuing ethical, legal, and societal ramifications.
A passionate advocate for science fiction, Sawyer teaches creative writing and appears frequently in the media to discuss his genre. He prefers the label "philosophical fiction," and in no way sees himself as a predictor of the future. His mission statement for his writing is "To combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic."
http://us.macmillan.com/author/robert...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 7, 2024
Winner - Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award for Best Short Story of the Year (1997)
Finalist - Hugo Award for Best Short Story of the Year
Finalist - Aurora Award for Best English-Language Short Story of the Year
Finalist - Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story of the Year
The murder of a soothsayer in space is investigated.
If you follow the link out to buy the short story you will see it is available for Kindle for just 99 cents. In Italian only though. There are several options to acquire it in English:
1) Space by Robert J. Sawyer. This short story collection includes "The Hand You're Dealt" as its third story. Comes with 12 other Sawyer short stories and an essay about Sawyer for only $3.99 as an eBook.
2) Purchase one of the three collections or two anthologies listed by ISFDB as containing the story in the used book market.
3) Read the short story for free on Sawyer's website: https://www.sfwriter.com/sthand.htm
I chose to read the short story straight from Sawyer's website. It seemed easiest; I'm not sure I'm up for an entire story collection of Sawyer's right now.
I really enjoyed "The Hand You're Dealt." It's a murder mystery set on a future world, probably a space station of some sort, and dealing heavily with genetics. I have read that Sawyer is a hard SF writer, and here the science was the genetics, mostly. I liked the story because it had its human element too. Recommended!
Finalist - Hugo Award for Best Short Story of the Year
Finalist - Aurora Award for Best English-Language Short Story of the Year
Finalist - Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story of the Year
The murder of a soothsayer in space is investigated.
If you follow the link out to buy the short story you will see it is available for Kindle for just 99 cents. In Italian only though. There are several options to acquire it in English:
1) Space by Robert J. Sawyer. This short story collection includes "The Hand You're Dealt" as its third story. Comes with 12 other Sawyer short stories and an essay about Sawyer for only $3.99 as an eBook.
2) Purchase one of the three collections or two anthologies listed by ISFDB as containing the story in the used book market.
3) Read the short story for free on Sawyer's website: https://www.sfwriter.com/sthand.htm
I chose to read the short story straight from Sawyer's website. It seemed easiest; I'm not sure I'm up for an entire story collection of Sawyer's right now.
I really enjoyed "The Hand You're Dealt." It's a murder mystery set on a future world, probably a space station of some sort, and dealing heavily with genetics. I have read that Sawyer is a hard SF writer, and here the science was the genetics, mostly. I liked the story because it had its human element too. Recommended!
August 2, 2013
Free online by Sawyer http://www.sfwriter.com/sthand.htm http://www.sfwriter.com/stindex.htm other short stories http://www.sfwriter.com/scindex.htm excerpts of full novels
Can we reshape our genetic destiny? Building on punchy descriptions of characters and setting, clever solution to mystery is a sad shock in a fast package. Some authors suit the short story format especially well - get across the essentials of an original creation with utmost memorable impact.
In utopian Mendelia where murder is "unheard of", narrator "Tobe", Toby Korsakov, is called by plainclothes Suze Baranski "short red hair and big green eyes", from Cop Shop to office of soothsayer Skye Hissock 51, "chunks of brain .. plastered to the wall" beside his political cartoons. A hidden camera shows client Dale, just 18, adult newly legally entitled to hear own genetic abilities - major strengths for careers, lesser for hobbies, cautionary frailties, possibilities - scientific quantitative predictions and recommendations.
Heir is brother Rodger, "already quite rich .. a muscular man, thick-necked, with lots of black hair and pale gray eyes.", with similar looking sons, energetic Billy 8, and withdrawn subdued Glen, just 18, who regretfully reasons "our whole way of life doesn't work if a soothsayer doesn't tell the truth. You can't play the hand you're dealt if you don't know what cards you've got". (I remembered the basic plot from before I was a GoodReads librarian, but not the solution, or why sad. Since I forgot Sawyer's "Triggers" and most everything else spead-read in mis-spent youth, that's 3-4* right there.)
Suspects are the "only four people whose DNA would open the door to Skye's inner office." Skye, brother Rodger, cleaner, vacation fill-in colleague and body discoverer Jennifer Halasz. Toby is surprised at Rodger's limp-wristed receptionist, trophy-model wife, lookalike sons, and results of bathroom DNA scans for four males in house. Blaster weapon registration confirms killer.
Can we reshape our genetic destiny? Building on punchy descriptions of characters and setting, clever solution to mystery is a sad shock in a fast package. Some authors suit the short story format especially well - get across the essentials of an original creation with utmost memorable impact.
In utopian Mendelia where murder is "unheard of", narrator "Tobe", Toby Korsakov, is called by plainclothes Suze Baranski "short red hair and big green eyes", from Cop Shop to office of soothsayer Skye Hissock 51, "chunks of brain .. plastered to the wall" beside his political cartoons. A hidden camera shows client Dale, just 18, adult newly legally entitled to hear own genetic abilities - major strengths for careers, lesser for hobbies, cautionary frailties, possibilities - scientific quantitative predictions and recommendations.
Heir is brother Rodger, "already quite rich .. a muscular man, thick-necked, with lots of black hair and pale gray eyes.", with similar looking sons, energetic Billy 8, and withdrawn subdued Glen, just 18, who regretfully reasons "our whole way of life doesn't work if a soothsayer doesn't tell the truth. You can't play the hand you're dealt if you don't know what cards you've got". (I remembered the basic plot from before I was a GoodReads librarian, but not the solution, or why sad. Since I forgot Sawyer's "Triggers" and most everything else spead-read in mis-spent youth, that's 3-4* right there.)
Suspects are the "only four people whose DNA would open the door to Skye's inner office." Skye, brother Rodger, cleaner, vacation fill-in colleague and body discoverer Jennifer Halasz. Toby is surprised at Rodger's limp-wristed receptionist, trophy-model wife, lookalike sons, and results of bathroom DNA scans for four males in house. Blaster weapon registration confirms killer.
December 18, 2016
Notevolissimo racconto di SF. Tutti gli argomenti della moderna SF (cloni, analisi DNA, residenze su altri pianeti, sistemi sociali particolari) mescolati in un mix perfetto con un pizzicodi giallo che non guasta ma anzi esalta il piacere della lettura, ahime troppo breve date le poche pagine dell'opera (ecco il motivo delle 4 stelle).
December 26, 2014
A hardy and interesting sci-fi story. Only thing missing is the lack of depth in philosophy discussion of society described in the story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews