Owner: Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic URL:http://vastandcool.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Wed, 07 May 2008 00:20:18 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: John Markley’s blog about science fiction and fantasy. Has book reviews and commentary on various authors and themes in speculative fiction. Also has occasional commentary on science and technology, video games, movies, and strange and humorous things f Site statistics:Click here
Great endings 2008-05-06 23:53:00 Warning: this post has what you might call a thematic spoiler for Jack Vance’s The Book of Dreams, though nothing that would be likely to diminish your enjoyment of that book.A few days ago, SF Signal had a discussion on the best and worst endings of books. This got me thinking about the subject, because endings are often the aspect of fiction that I find the most interesting. They’re the Read more:Great
Thoughts on Poul Anderson 2008-05-03 00:30:00 Baen Books has done some fine work bringing older science fiction back into print, often for the first time in decades. This, however, is by the far coolest thing they’ve done- no, the coolest thing any human being who isn’t Poul Anderson
has ever done. Baen Books will be releasing a collection of Poul Anderson’s Technic History stories this September. It’s apparently called The Van Rijn
Fun with cloning 2008-04-28 23:07:00 Biology in Science Fiction has a post on the depiction of cloning in movies. Sadly, they left out The Sixth Day (spoilers upcoming), arguably the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movie about evil clones Robert Duvall has ever had a supporting role in. Okay, the science is absolutely ridiculous, with full-grown human clones whipped up in minutes and a doohickey that record the complete contents of
Ironically, Laplace's demon foresaw that I would post this 2008-04-27 01:54:00 First caught wind of this at Roderick Long’s blog. There’s been some discussion here and there about a recent study announced by the Max Planck Society on human consciousness. To quote from the press release I’ve linked: In the study, participants could freely decide if they wanted to press a button with their left or right hand. They were free to make this decision whenever they wanted, but
Essential concepts 2008-04-25 01:51:00 John C. Wright offers an invaluable lexicon of science fictional terms for the uninitiated. My personal favorite:Rishathra is sexual congress, without the benefit of marriage, between two mutually sterile intelligent hominids, usually for the purpose of solemnizing a treaty or somesuch. So if your girlfriend has left you for a Neanderthal or a Slan, this is the word for it.Ah,The Ringworld Read more:Essential
An intermittently updated science fiction blog by any other name… 2008-04-21 21:13:00 The blog is reborn! Or, more accurately, the name of the blog is reborn. The name only just occurred to me recently, and I was never intensely attached to the old one. It’s not as if I’m losing a huge amount of accumulated name recognition here. When I’m seventy, I don’t want to look back wistfully and wonder what might have been, if only my blog had a cooler name.
And they said I was mad to build a robot out of bacon! 2008-04-09 01:54:00 Peter Watts has an interesting post about some of the work being done in robot design which suggests the possibility that machines of the future may have more “lifelike” attributes than people usually think. For instance, mucous is apparently an important aid in the acuity of human smell, and mechanical olfactory sensors can be made much more effective by covering them with a polymer snot
Curse you, Gregory XIII! 2008-04-02 00:05:00 I hate April Fool’s Day. I'm absent-minded and often have only a vague idea of the current date, and so the same pattern repeats every year. I’ll be wandering the internet, and come across some sort of wonderful news. “Square-Enix announces Final Fantasy VII remake for Playsation 3," “Entire staff of The New Republic devoured by timber wolves,” “Mayo Clinic study proves 87% of foxy brunettes Read more:Gregory
Interview with Neal Asher 2008-03-30 15:04:00 Those filthy microbes thought they could stop me, but I am not thwarted so easily. My interview with Neal Asher
is now up at FantasyBookSpot. Have a look. You can also check out my review of Asher's The Skinner, or my review/discursive ramblings on Gridlinked. Neal Asher's own blog can be found here.
Arthur C. Clarke, RIP 2008-03-21 18:31:00 Arthur C. Clarke
has passed away at the age of 90. My first encounter with Clarke did not go well, though I didn’t even know who Clarke was at the time. We watched 2001 at school in 4th or 5th grade, and it bored me to tears. Still does. I may be the only person on earth who actually thinks the movie 2010 is better.A few years later, as I was starting to get deeper into science fiction, I Read more:Arthur
Gary Gygax and me 2008-03-14 18:50:00 I wanted to say something about Gary Gygax, because I owe him a great deal. I know far more about Dungeons and Dragons than is reasonable for someone who has never actually played it, save through computer game adaptations like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment. Tabletop roleplaying games aren’t my thing; I’m too shy and too uncomfortable in groups for it. (Yes, that’s right: I’m too nerdy
My top ten of 2007 2008-01-16 00:26:00 Read in 2007, that is, not necessarily published in 2007. I acquire books more rapidly than I can read them and always have a large backlog waiting to be read. As a result, my top ten for 2007 includes very few books actually published in 2007. My top ten, in no particular order:
Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds- Collects the short stories set in Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe. Great
How do you know you're a geek? 2007-12-30 21:22:00 I’ll tell you how. You know you’re a geek when you and a friend of yours meet to give each other Christmas gifts, and you have both, unbeknownst to the other, bought Robert E. Howard books.
Though not the same book, sadly. That would have been cool; like an O. Henry story, but with more brutal violence and rippling thews.
New stuff 2007-12-19 17:04:00 I’m back! It feels good, too. I’ve been busy- recovering from my hospitalization, seeking more work, getting my exercise routine up and running again, and getting some computer problems dealt with. Now, back to business. Something I stumbled upon while searching Amazon.com- an upcoming Neal Asher book entitled Shadow of the Scorpion that is apparently a prequel to the Ian Cormac series, Read more:stuff
Quick thoughts on Steven Erikson 2007-10-17 17:50:00 I'm not generally a huge fantasy reader, compared to science fiction. I love Glen Cook, Robert E. Howard, and George R.R. Martin, as well as the fantasy work of David Drake and John C. Wright, but it's definitely secondary to science fiction for me. I bought Gardens of the Moon because of all the raves I had heard about Steven
Erikson and his Malazan series, and especially because I'd heard his Read more:Quick
, thoughts
I guess I'll have to drop out of that ass-kicking contest 2007-10-09 20:50:00 Sometimes life takes a crap on you. I just got out of the hospital, after a minor blister on my right big toe became badly infected and refused to respond to the antibiotics I was originally prescribed, developing into an abscess and leaving me unable to walk. It was huge- it looked like I had sprouted an extra toe. By the time I was admitted to the emergency room to have it lanced, it looked
Next, I want the "Jem" theme in Sanskrit 2007-08-28 19:19:00 You may, if you're around my age, remember the Super Mario Brothers Super Show. You may also remember the intro sequence. Now, revisit the magic… in German! Read more:Sanskrit
The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction 2007-07-23 17:26:00 I discovered The Solaris
Book of New ScienceFiction
quite by chance while browsing at a local bookstore. I’d never heard of Solaris, but the cover’s promise of new stories by Neal Asher, Peter F. Hamilton, and Stephen Baxter caught my eye. So, I thought, why not? Happily, that decision paid off, because this is an excellent collection, bringing together a wide variety of stories. My
Casting books 2007-07-13 18:16:00 I’m not dead! I vanished for a while due to personal stuff (Good stuff, but time-consuming) and let the writing slide. I’ll try to be more consistent in the future.
Alastair Reynolds mentions something interesting- he envisioned Clavain from the “Revelation Space” series as Sean Connery- specifically, Sean Connery as he looked in “The Hunt for Red October.” I have, on occasion, envisioned Read more:Casting
Alastair Reynolds news 2007-06-08 17:39:00 Here's something cool: Alastair Reynolds
has a blog. Hopefully Reynolds' much-sought views on labor policy will be forthcoming.
I just snagged a copy of his story collection Galactic North, actually- one of the rare times I haven't waited for the paperback edition. Expect something on that soon.
Lloyd Alexander, R.I.P. 2007-05-17 21:42:00 I just read at the Science Fiction Book Club Blog that fantasy author LloydAlexander
has passed away. He is best known for the Chronicles of Prydain series. He holds a special place for me, so I wanted to say something in his honor.
In fifth grade, we had a contest to see who could read the most books from a list provided. I participated vigorously and ultimately won; I was Class Nerd and
Asimov, State, and Utopia 2008-05-12 19:05:00 I’d like to start by apologizing for the title of this post. I just had to somehow cram the Nozick reference in, no matter the cost. A while back, Alex Zalben, writing at SciFi Scanner, posted the following: Find me a sci-fi movie where there is a Utopia
, and I will point out the worm in the apple. Every single time we are presented with a Utopian society on film, there is also a corrupt Read more:Asimov
, State
Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one? 2008-05-12 17:03:00 I was at a nearby Barnes and Noble a few days ago, and I noticed that they didn’t appear to be running the sort of extensive Mother’s Day promotions they had last year. Last year, to take advantage of fast-approaching Mother's Day they had a large display of books prominently labeled "Books for Mom." Not surprising.
What was surprising was that, prominently displayed under the so
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