Author Topic: Science Fiction / Fantasy (Read 361678 times)

PatH · « **Reply #2680 on:** February 24, 2016, 09:19:42 AM »

Science Fiction / Fantasy

__________________

Welcome to the whole universe! This is where we gather to share our experiences in science fiction and fantasy. We like everything, from Gregory Benford to Stephanie Meyer—hard science to magic and fantasy.

Come in, sit down with us, and tell us what you are reading or have read, what you like or dislike.

Links:
Fantastic Fiction, bibliographies of 30,000 authors

Discussion Leader: PatH

PatH · « **Reply #2681 on:** February 24, 2016, 09:20:18 AM »

They let me renew The Three Body Problem, and it's almost tolerable now, so I probably will get to read it.

Yes, I did read somewhere it was a trilogy.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2682 on:** February 26, 2016, 09:16:55 AM »

WAHHHHH! Leviathan was ready to download from the FPL. Great! When I went to the site I first returned, I thought, a book I was done reding. For some reason, that one stayed checked out; Leviathan disappeared instead. I though I returned the wrong one. So, I went looking for the book to get in line again, and it is nowhere to be found on the site. HUH? Guess I will have to put it on my wish list at Amazon for when I get a few extra pennies to spend. The other books will keep me busy a while.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2683 on:** February 26, 2016, 10:00:38 AM »

I've requested an interlibrary loan for Leviathan. Campbell's newer books are getting very expensive on Kindle. He has a new Lost Stars coming out in May, BTW. I definitely don't like the price.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2684 on:** February 27, 2016, 05:57:54 PM »

Well, I see that the ebook for Leviathan is back up on the FLP site with five people on hold. My inter-library loan has been requested, but I don't know how long it will take. They had to go out of the local system to find it.

Meanwhile, I am reading Echopraxia by Peter Watts. Here is a review. For those of us who read Blindsight, this will be interesting. It includes a link to a short story, called "The Colonel," that is about one of the characters in Echopraxia who is the father of the main character in Blindshight.

PatH · « **Reply #2685 on:** February 28, 2016, 11:55:04 AM »

Let us know what you think of Echopraxia. I had to work very hard to figure out Blindsight.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2686 on:** February 28, 2016, 01:27:01 PM »

So far, Pat, I think it is easier to understand. The review also helped explain a thing or two. The Bicamerals are generally explained as incoprehensible. so I guess I don't have to try to figure them out, just go with the flow, letting Daniel and Lianna try to figure them out.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2687 on:** February 29, 2016, 11:44:25 AM »

I just discovered that Watts has included an extensive Notes section in the back. He's made a few comments and then lists a bunch of scientific studies. These seem, what I glanced over, mostly pschological, neurological and biological. I expect some of these pertain to brain/computer interfacing, but I didn't see anything specific in that department when I scanned over some of the references. I do not remember any such notes behind blindsight, but they may not be on the free ebook versions.

Here is an example in Notes, under the heading, "Psy-ops and the Consciousness Glitch", p358-359, and looking back at what he wrote in Blindsight:

Quote

...the then-radical notion of consciousness-as-nonadaptive-side-effect has started appearing in the literature (1), and that more and more "conscious" activities (including Math!(2)) are turning out to be nonconscious after all (3,4,5)...

He also lists one study that opposes the notion that logical reasoning is an unconscious act. I am not going to try to type in all the references. The ! behind Math is his, not mine.

Daniel Bruks, like Siri Keeton in Blindsight, lives in a world gone mad with escaped GMO's, genetic manipulation, and direct technological interfacing. Daniel is what he calls a "baseline", or one of the few who haven't been or had themselves modified, and are unplugged from the collective networking. What tech he uses is "old school". And here he is (along with us) trying to keep up and make some modicum of sense out of the whole thing.

One of the things that caught my eye is the notion that when you plug into a collective network, you become one small bit of the whole; you lose your sense of self and become something else. A warning perhaps? The WWW and social networking taken to extremes? Plug in 24/7 and you don't exist as a seperate person anymore. The hive monastic hive minds in the book, while they use technology, appear to be plugged in to their collective on a psychic level.

Daniel is quite amusing in his confusion and as he tries to keep up and avoid panicking too badly.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2688 on:** March 05, 2016, 07:00:07 AM »

Everyone will be happy to know that I finished Echopraxia. That is a real condition, BTW, look it up.

Pat, I think it is worth reading. It might be a good idea to read the notes in the back first. The notes help to explain some of the concepts, speculations and theories Watts incorporated into the book, but then, they might just make the book a little less "eye-popping". I am off to see what I can find some of the studies, books and other papers he referenced in the back. Also, I need to check up on Max Planck's work. Oh, no! He is one of the originators of Quantam Theory; might as well go back my head up against the wall now. I need one of those Quantam Physics for Dummies books.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2689 on:** March 07, 2016, 06:36:27 AM »

I can't get this book out of my head. Pat, in Peter Watts' notes, he let us know what the main theme of the book is. I missed it; I shouldn't have, but I did. I got carried away with all the current/cutting edge research incorporated in the book. I plan on buying the book to reread later with Blindsight BTW, Firefall is the name of the two volume set. I've decided I want hardcopy on this.

Now I am reading, finally, Jack Campbell's Leviathan. What a come down off the "high" of reading Watts. Also, I just started the Science Fiction section in Bradbury's book of essays. In the first section, I discovered that Something This Way Comes was originally done as a screenplay for Gene Kelly (written at his request). Kelly couldn't find the funding, so Bradbury wrote it up as a book. I can't imagine it being done as a venue to show off Kelly's dance/coreography routines. To my mind, it would have been lighter, perhaps more happy type magical. I didn't read the book (or don't remember it) but the movie that did eventually come out seems to me, although certainly magical, a bit darker. Am I remembering wrong?

Steph · « **Reply #2690 on:** March 08, 2016, 08:55:01 AM »

The movie was scary to me, but then so was the book. Bradbury could do spooky way too well.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2691 on:** March 09, 2016, 02:18:11 PM »

Real life "zombies"

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/fungus-turns-frogs-sexy-zombies

There is also a fungus that tuns an ant into a zombie, a parasitic wasp that turns spiders into zombies, and a parasitic fly that does the same to honeybees.

Philosophical Zombies: In the Philosophy of Mind category of philosophical theories, it is mostly a thought experiment supporting the notion of dualism, which in turn is a set of views having to do with the relationship between mind and body (or matter). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie This is a real life philosophical argument not a scifi invention, although I can't say that isn't where the philosophers got the idea.

Did you know that some people can see time? http://psych-your-mind.blogspot.com/2011/12/time-space-and-synesthesia.html

Frybabe · « **Reply #2692 on:** March 09, 2016, 02:36:22 PM »

Want to harness tornado power to generate electricity? This guy is trying to do just that:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-06/man-wants-power-world-tornadoes

The future in movies? Oh, gee, a new form of "gaslighting" someone. http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2005/04/4785-2/

Frybabe · « **Reply #2693 on:** March 09, 2016, 02:55:21 PM »

Pat, I found this on the Peter Watts website about the Theseus Mission from Blindsight. To tell you the truth, I don't even remember mention of any "Firefall" event in Blindsight.
http://www.rifters.com/echopraxia/theseusmission.htm

BTW, everyone will be super happy to know that I am taking the book back to the library tomorrow. I'm don't perusing the references for now.

Now back to Laviathan we are just about to go into battle - again. The Dancers have just shown up in force.

PatH · « **Reply #2694 on:** March 12, 2016, 12:11:24 PM »

Frybabe, I do remember the firefall, but not much about it. I'm going to have to review Blindsight before going on to Echopraxia.

Thanks for the synesthesia reference. Synesthesias have always fascinated me, but I didn't even know there was a seeing time as space one. I suspect I have a very slight bit of it. I see my schedule for the near future laid out on a conventional calendar month, with a large square for each day's activities. That's what I use, and whenever I try to switch to some other format, it doesn't work. I have some of the remembering past events in great detail they mentioned, too,

PatH · « **Reply #2695 on:** March 12, 2016, 12:32:55 PM »

Maybe that explains Ovid's vivid description at the beginning of Metamorphoses--the changes spun into a single continuous thread, spiraling down from the beginning to the present.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2696 on:** March 13, 2016, 07:43:42 AM »

If you are interested in the synesthesias, you might like this book. Non-fiction, it is one person's account of his life with synesthesia. He seems to have several. I plan on reading it. It is being offered free on Amazon at the moment.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Toaster-Oven-Mocks-Me-ebook/dp/B011JQH2M2

JoanK · « **Reply #2697 on:** March 13, 2016, 04:42:46 PM »

Thanks, FRY. I ordered it. Unfortunately, my kindle doesn't have color, so I may have trouble following with the color graphics.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2698 on:** April 10, 2016, 05:54:47 PM »

I haven't neglected my SciFi reading even though I am reading other things. My current read is the second of the Ember Wars series by Richard Fox. The stories are good, but nothing spectacular. I like some of the characters. Fox also writes a spy series which I may look into sometime, but I have the Daniel Silvas still waiting for me first.

PatH · « **Reply #2699 on:** April 10, 2016, 06:59:21 PM »

I've neglected everything, as you'll see in The Library, but I'm back on track now.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2700 on:** April 11, 2016, 06:11:23 AM »

Yes, I noticed you have been scarce and was beginning to get concerned. Such sad news.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2701 on:** April 17, 2016, 06:55:31 AM »

I accidently signed up for the free trial of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited. You can bet I am doubling up on my SciFi reading beginning with the third book of the Ember Wars series I am reading. Interesting, but not great. I wasn't sure I wanted to continue the series, but as long as I can drop it and try another without having to wait a month for my next borrow, I thought I'd let it go for the trial period.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2702 on:** April 17, 2016, 07:41:11 AM »

During my daily rummage through free book sites, I discovered this. http://www.loyalbooks.com/book/after-london-or-wild-england-by-richard-jefferies The description states that this is one of the earliest examples of post-apocalyptic fiction. Richard Jefferies, the author, was primarily a nature writer. Project Gutenberg lists a number of his books. Since this is a Librivox recording, I assume they have this one their website too.

PatH · « **Reply #2703 on:** April 18, 2016, 06:37:27 PM »

It only hits the start of the apocalypse, but what about Mary Shelley's The Last Man, published in 1826? It's the narrative of the only man left after a gigantic plague. (No woman left, so that's it for mankind.) I've only read a bit of it. Shelley takes the members of her literary circle as models for her characters, and sets them in motion in ways I found rather tiresome.

And I didn't realize until I was checking the date of Shelley's work, that it owes something to Le Dernier Homme, a fantasy in the form of a long poem by Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville, 1805.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Dernier_Homme

Nothing ever gets done for the first time.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2704 on:** April 19, 2016, 06:03:32 AM »

An old axiom I remember from long, "There's nothing new under the sun." Remember James Burke's Connections series? I loved that show, as well as Jonathan Miller's The Body in Question.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2705 on:** April 25, 2016, 12:56:24 PM »

My reading has been slowed down this past week or so. I did manage to finish the third of the Ember Wars series by Richard Fox. Before I pick up number four, I want to finish Way Station by Clifford D. Simak.

Way Station is not an action type book. It is about a guy who ends up being the station keeper of a transit station for alien travelers passing through. The station keeper does not age as long as he stays in the station which he mostly does except to go for a walk and to pick up his mail every day. A few outsiders (the locals don't poke their noses in anyone's business) have started to notice. When the story begins, he is about 124 years old.

PatH · « **Reply #2706 on:** April 26, 2016, 01:39:10 AM »

I had a feeling that I'd read it eons ago, but looking at the summary in Fantastic Fiction, I don't think so. But I've read something with a similar concept.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2707 on:** April 26, 2016, 06:36:09 AM »

I wouldn't be surprised, Pat. The writers seem to feed off each other. BTW, the book has the "feel" of an extended Twilight Zone.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2708 on:** April 27, 2016, 04:35:22 PM »

Pat, I just got a shock/surprise. I finished Way Station. At the end there was a bio of the author. He book was originally copyrighted in 1963; the edition I read is a 2015 publication. You could very well have read it "eons" ago. The book has an anti-war message that creeps up on you. It was well worth reading.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2709 on:** May 09, 2016, 02:32:45 PM »

I am caught up to the latest in Richard Fox's Ember Wars series (five so far). Interesting characters,some very likeable, some rather strange and improbable.The series is kind of hard to describe. Alien probe convinces grad student to develop technologies to save the human race from total destruction 60 years into the future, fast forward to the actual invasion of the alien species bent on destroying all intelligent life in the galaxy. The lucky few that were saved now have the task of rebuilding the human race, killing off the remaining sentinel drones and completing a wormhole gate the aliens started, preparing for the next inevitable invasion, finding needed advanced technologies on another planet, finding the mastermind behind the invading drones, dealing with another nasty group of aliens, dealing with an Alliance of alien species, and as a fail safe, preparing a few colony ships take humans out of the galaxy to colonize a new planet. I probably missed some things.

Fox also writes a spy series, but I haven't read any of them.

My current read is Spy Night on Union Station which is #4 of the EarthCent Ambassador series by E. M. Foner. Still funny, Kelly and the bunch are trying to put together a spy orginization because, apparently, the other alien species are suspicious of Earth precisely because they don't have one.

PatH · « **Reply #2710 on:** May 09, 2016, 05:25:05 PM »

I haven't read a lot lately, but I did get a collection of short stories recently--Carbide Tipped Pens--edited by Ben Bova and Eric Choi. It's quite good so far. One, by Cixin Liu, is adapted from a fragment of The Three Body Problem, and makes me regret that my library copy didn't lose its perfume in time for me to read it. It's a most ingenious notion of developing computers in ancient China using soldiers as working parts. I'll have to look for an uncontaminated copy.

A few weeks back I read a short story by Liu's translator, Ken Liu, who seems to be American either by birth or upbringing. This Liu looks good too.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2711 on:** May 10, 2016, 06:28:05 AM »

The name looks familiar (Liu). I have probably read one or two of one or the other's short stories in one of the short story anthologies I borrowed a few months back, but I don't think any were Bova's. I am now down to #4 in line for The Three Body Problem.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2712 on:** May 10, 2016, 07:49:27 AM »

Oh, I lied (unintentionally)! I just checked my email and there it is - ready to download from the library.

PatH · « **Reply #2713 on:** May 10, 2016, 09:14:33 AM »

Oh, good. Let me know what it's like.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2714 on:** May 12, 2016, 04:31:35 PM »

Pat, I am a third of the way through The Three Body Problem. After some interesting background and character building, the story seems to have settled down into some kind of a myster/quest type of thing. The story is set in China and in the scientific (mostly physics) community. The book kind of reminds me of The Celestine Prophecy or maybe Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist in tone. It is in the back of my mind that some of this is allegorical, but I have nothing specific right now (in other words, by the time I got up here to post, I forgot what triggered the thought - the VR game maybe).

PatH · « **Reply #2715 on:** May 13, 2016, 08:01:33 AM »

If there's allegory, I'll probably miss it; I'm not very good at getting allegory.

I finally got around to getting hold of Remnant Population--just started it; it looks promising.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2716 on:** May 13, 2016, 08:24:41 AM »

Wonderful, PatH. Let me know what you think of it.

I did a little mini-exploration of Mozi, one of the historical characters in The Three Body Problem. I'll be darn if I can find anything about him related to astronomy or physics. From what I read (skimmed, really) he wasn't particularly fond of "modern" (for him) ideas and technology. He didn't even like that people started to dye silk in colors. He must have been an excellent negotiator/mediator as he is credited with preventing or stopping a number of wars.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2717 on:** May 13, 2016, 07:21:56 PM »

More discovery! The three body problem is a mathematical problem - for real. Not being up on advanced math and physics, I didn't know this. I'm not sure I want to research it; it looks complicated. I only just last year comprehended what a LaGrange point is.

PatH · « **Reply #2718 on:** May 14, 2016, 01:11:14 PM »

I first ran across LaGrange points many years ago in a short story by Hal Clement--Trojan Fall. (A Trojan point is one of a subset of LaGrange points.) The criminal is trying to hide from a pursuing spaceship by not using any detectable power, so he cowers in the LaGrange point making a triangle with the two suns of the system. It turns out that a Trojan point is only stable if the other two bodies have masses differing by at least a factor of 25, so he drifts closer and closer to the suns until the ship burns up. Clement's villians often come to grief by not knowing enough physics. I would say comprehension is too strong a word for my notions of LaGrange points, but Wikipedia has a decent description of them.

I gathered from the reviews of The Three Body Problem that Liu uses the term in some clever political metaphorical way.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2719 on:** May 14, 2016, 01:27:55 PM »

Well, the basic what a LaGrange point is anyway. Trojan Point I have not run across. The latest bit is a making a "human computer" (36 miles square made up of soldiers holding two flags, one black, one white) while explaining the basics of machine lanquage. I don't know about the political metaphor. I'll have to pay some attention to that. It may become clear at the end.

News:

Author Topic: Science Fiction / Fantasy (Read 361678 times)