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eBook Category: Science Fiction HOMer Award Finalist
eBook Description: It's the second half of the 21st century. Japan's invention of a "neuro-spine" interface that makes tall buildings resistant to earthquakes and terrorists has made Japan the undisputed, leading economic world power. Bio-historian Masazumi Harihoto heads a research team tasked with uncovering the source of the Japanese rise to power. He makes an astonishing discovery...

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Black Mist and Other Japanese Futures, ed. Orson Scott Card and Keith Ferrell, 1997
Fictionwise Release Date: October 2002

59 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [73 KB], eReader (PDB) [30 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [17 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [15 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [68 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [88 KB], hiebook (KML) [67 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [43 KB], iSilo (PDB) [14 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [18 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [45 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [26 KB]
Words: 4658
Reading time: 13-18 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"In Paul Levinson's "A Medal for Harry" the close of the 21st century finds Japan the undisputed technological and economic master of the globe. The Japanese people, however, are insecure in their supremacy without a "why" to explain the "what" of their good fortune. Levinson provides it, in a provocative and disturbing tale."--Strangeworlds

"Hai!" The waiter bowed quickly and receded like the warm wind in autumn. Masazumi "Harry" Harihoto knew he would soon have the freshest tekkamaki in New York on his plate. He also knew he wouldn't enjoy a bit of it.

He looked at the rice papers, the rows and rows of crisp, translucent rice papers on his lap, and shook his head.

Somehow the neat lasered letters were out of place on this ancient kind of paper. Such letters belonged on screens; the delicate paper deserved the tender ministrations of a pen in hand. The combination of the two--the government's requirement, its attempt to cling to some tradition in a written realm otherwise given over to virtual glyphs--made him uneasy.

What the letters said--the report he would deliver tomorrow--was even more disturbing.

In fact, it might well make him the most hated person in Japan.

Harry had few illusions, especially about who he was. An unknown, though hardworking, psychometric bio-historian. One of many researchers caught up in his nation's obsession to find out why they had become the undisputed global power on Earth by the middle of the 21st century. Computer chips like jewels that made the world run; space stations that gleamed in the sky; pearls of bio-mass in the seas to jump-start the food-chain; and all the gems were Japanese.

Oh, everyone was aware of the proximate reason. The 21st century was the most earthquake-prone in recent history. No one knew why. But Japan had finally come up with buildings that stood up to earthquakes, a saving interface for cities that shook like castanets. "Neuro-spine" construction, the media called it. Grids ran through the centers of buildings with sensors in every room, every tile, every wall, every floor--self-sufficient networks of such intelligence and power that they could change the arrangement of those rooms, tiles, walls, floors literally as an earthquake hit. The skyscraper became a lean, tall surfer, expertly negotiating the massive waves below, bending here, leaning just right there, so that it stood proud with just a splash or two of water on its face, a pittance from a faucet, when the drum roll was over. Neuro-spine rigging worked just as well against a terrorist attack on a building, though none had occurred since the 2040s.