The River of Time
David Brin, 1987, Sci-fi
Here's a short-story collection by David Brin, who is best known for the Uplift novels. Here, he shows off a variety of interesting concepts and ideas in short form.
"The Crystal Spheres" and "Lungfish" explore one of the more annoying questions in astronomy: With all the planets and stars out there, why haven't we seen radio signals from any other intelligent species? "Thor Meets Captain America" has absolutely nothing to do with comic books, but is about a world where the Nazis found an awesome secret weapon in 1943. "Tank Farm Dynamo" shows engineers and astronauts fighting a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy with science. The other stories are mostly OK, but the ones mentioned are the best.