Schitterende Wereld
Mel Hartman
262 pages
published in 2013

Mel Hartman is a Flemish writer of mostly fantasy, whose series Fantasiejagers has been relatively popular in the Low Countries. Because I haven't been paying attention to Dutch language science fiction or fantasy I don't know her, but the cover of Schitterende Wereld caught my attention in the library, so I picked it up, browse through the introduction and was intrigued enough to take it home.

Because it turned out Schitterende Wereld (beautiful world or wonderful world) was a homage to the classic science documentary series Een Schitterend Ongeluk (A Beautiful Accident), in which six very different world class scientists got to talk about life, the universe and well, everything. Apparantly Hartman was quite taken by the documentary and accompanying book and it inspired herto write 12 stories based on the work of these six scientists: Rupert Sheldrake, Oliver Sacks, Stephen Toulmin, Freeman Dyson, Daniel C. Dennett and Stephen Jay Gould. That seemed interesting enough to take a punt on, especially since I quite liked that documentary series myself.

Unfortunately this turned out to be a bit of a disappointment though. The stories were pedestrian, puzzle stories with mostly predictable twists and little of the influence of the featured scientists noticable. The characters strive towards two dimensions, the language used is workman like and after reading several of these stories in a row you really notice Hartman's little tics. Her characters shrug a lot, often violently, as a way to show emotion and every story seemed to have at least one instance of this.

In general, it struck me how old fashioned these stories were. Most of them could've been published as minor stories in a fifties Analog or Galaxy. They're entertaining, but no more than that, with one or two exceptions. It's a shame, because Hartman certainly has the enthusiasm and will to start such an ambitious project, just failed in making it interesting.

• Rupert Sheldrake
  • Herinneringen (Memories)
    The first story is also the best one in the book. Martijn suffers from epileptic attacks in which he's thrown back in his memories as if he travels back in time. When he notices that he can actually influence his younger self's decisions, he starts to meddle in his past...
  • Toekomstvisies (future visions)
    Anton is a very uncurious fellow with one very special gift: through morphonic resonance he's able to pick up images of live on an alien planet. This gift is exploited by a company that uses his visions to create new and improved consumer goods, as well as more sinister applications. The twist here is revealed in the title.
• Oliver Sacks
  • Achter de Muur (Behind the Wall)
    A man who suffers from a condition that means he can only see things that aren't moving, notices that if he concentrates and looks long enough at a single spot he can see images from another world. He falls in love with a woman he sees there but when he realises her husband is attempting to have her murdered, there's no way he can save her, or is there?
  • Achter de Spiegel (Behind the Mirror)
    A blind woman suddenly sees a strange woman in her home. Is she a hallucination caused by optical nerves being understimulated, or something more? And does she have to chose between her and her husband?
• Stephen Toulmin
  • Pas op wat je Wenst (Be careful what you wish for)
    A woman dies in a car crash and lands in Heaven with knowledge she shouldn't have, then is caught in a bureaucratic nightmare as Heaven tries to make good its error.
  • De Man die nog Tien Vingers te Leven Had (The Man Who Still Had Ten Fingers to Live)
    In future where everybody's chipped and beggars no longer exists, one of the last remaining beggars has a fool proof way to keep himself alive without being caught in the mazes of a perfect system of control...
• Freeman Dyson
  • Cyclus van een Persoonlijkheid (Cycle of Consciousness)
    The other stand out story of the collection. With Lifeshift (tm) technology, your personality can be detached from your memories and sold on to others, as you try on a personality more suited to your lifestyle. Of course, there's always room for unscrupulous people to take advantage of the system...
  • Cyclus van het Leven (Cycle of Life)
    An expedition to plant life on a distant planet to enable the survival of humanity, comes to a horrifying discovery when investigating it: they're not the first there. Barely readable because of the obnoxious protagonist and hoary cliches of the "and then they discovered this strange planet was actually our own Earth" ending.
• Daniel C. Dennett
  • Mechanisch Bewustzijn (Mechanical Consciousness)
    A singleminded robot guarding the cryochamber of a frozen millionaire throwing himself into the future in search of a cure for his cancer, starts developing faults in its programming.
  • Zonder Bewustzijn (Without Consciousness)
    Slowly, without fuzz, all means of communication disappeared, newest to oldest...
• Stephen Jay Gould
  • Op Zoek Naar het Einde van het Heelal (In Search of the End of the Universe)
    A ranting astronaut slowly going insane in search of the physical end of the universe. The worst story in the collection.
  • Het Einde van de Beschaving (The End of Civilisation)
    Deeply cynical story about a woman who has herself cryogenically frozen so she can see the future and ends up long after humanity has died out and cockroaches have become intelligent..