(2006 continued...)

The review can now be viewed here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

Wikipedia casts its net further and further. Here is an entry about one of my favorite "Golden Age" science fiction series.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

H. Beam Piper. The Terro-Human Future History. The Fuzzies. The Paratime Police. Well, Williamsport (Pennsylvania) may have forgotten him (and the local paper has forgotten that if you put up a link, it ought to stay up!), and that's probably why this profile is so late in coming. I wish that somebody reprint these (maybe Baen in their classic SF line or one of the small houses). more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 113 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

The reivew can now be seen here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 11 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

Sort of. When he died in 2001, Gordon R. Dickson had been working on a continuation of his long-running Childe Cycle of novels called Antagonist. Looks like it has been finished off, but the co-author, David W. Wixon, is not a name that is familiar to me (but this brief entry at the Locus site suggests that he is well familiar with Dickson's work).

I wonder if Antagonist will be the first of a pair of novels, as some of Dickson's other later works were. From what I recall, the novel had been called Childe.

It would be wonderful if his notes could get published. The original plan for the cycle was to be several historical novels, several contemporary novels and several future history novels. The way the cycle worked out was a number of future history novels greater than the original plan. I'd like to see whatever exists for the historical and contemporary novels, to see what the grand vision would have been.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 174 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 15 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

Forwarded to me by my former First Sergeant...

Civilian Friends: Get upset if you're too busy to talk to them for a week.
Military Friends: Are glad to see you after years, and will happily carry on the same conversation you were having last time you met. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 332 words, total size 2 kb.

(2006 continued...)

Some interesting stuff here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 12 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

I am shocked (still) to find that the person who made such a major contribution to several of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's books (especially The Mote in God's Eye and the other books in that series; Exiles to Glory, where he appears as a character; and Lucifer's Hammer, where he appears as a character) still does not have his own Wikipedia entry. Surely somebody who knew him at JPL or in fandom in California can do something about this!

(2007 Addendum: A stub of an entry is better than none!)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 97 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

Sometime last school year my daughter started getting interested in Pokemon. It was partly due to her peers, partly just due to exposure (the beforecare and aftercare programs showed videos on Friday).

She's been bugging us for a Pokemon Gameboy and we'll probably (with great trepidation) grant her wish for her birthday.

Today since I had to go into work and she was off, I brought her along. We stopped at Barnes and Nobles on the way in and I asked if they had any Pokemon books in the kid's section. One book we picked up was Let's Find Pokemon!, which seems to be a book of activities, mazes, puzzles and the like.

The other book was The Best of Pokemon Adventures. Manga. Yes, her first manga.

And so it begins...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 137 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

There's a list of science fiction and fantasy books making the rounds. Let's see how I do. Bold means I read it and liked it, italics means I read it and did not like it, plain old text means I have not read it. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 625 words, total size 6 kb.

(2006 continued...)

A new Pynchon book? Hmmm...Of course, this description could be my dorm room in college, if you remove the bong (allergies):

All of this appealed immensely to the stoners of the 1970s. It was a time of The Dancing Wu-Li Masters and Godel, Escher, Bach—books which linked quantum engineering to eastern religion, to be discussed over a well-stoked bong with a side of Tangerine Dream playing in the background. The Illuminatus trilogy was big at that time, too, with its talk of cabals and "immanentising the Eschaton" (maybe a young Dan Brown was taking notes). Literary criticism meantime was turning towards scientism. The Derrida school of deconstructionists drooled over Pynchon while semioticians sharpened their troping-shears.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 121 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

One more reason by Baen Books is not only one of the best SF publishers, but the best eBook publisher around. Bar none. Now all their books are free to disabled readers. Let's see the other distributors of eBooks match this.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 59 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

An online version of Terry Bisson's classic tale. I had seen (earlier this year) an online short film, but that seems to have gone poof.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:53 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 37 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

Inspired by a reading of the Neil Gaiman book, my daughter said she wouldn't trade me for two goldfish. She'd rather win them at the church picnic.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 47 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

And speaking of Schrodinger's Cat (yes, I was speaking of Schrodinger's Cat), here's a list of popular references to that famous abused kitty. I've seen a few of these references, only a few!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 43 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

(I haven't re-posted any of the items I put up over the years from Ye Olde Blog on the passing of various personalities, but Jack Williamson was—and is—one of my favorite writers.)

I have just received word that famed science fiction writer Jack Williamson passed away. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 365 words, total size 3 kb.

(2006 continued...)

A retro-review of science fiction and fantasy from the 1980's. I still have the Bob Shaw volumes mentioned, but must admit that most of the other stuff passed me by.

Addendum: The view from the oughts. The 1990's retrospective. I'll keep watching for the 1970's retrospective.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 52 words, total size 1 kb.

(2006 continued...)

"Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book. Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?"

(The Duke of Gloucester, on being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 38 words, total size 1 kb.