One night, while we were in these tropics, I went out to the end of the flying-jib-boom, upon some duty, and, having finished it, turned round, and lay over the boom for a long time, admiring the beauty of the sight before me. Being so far out from the deck, I could look at the ship, as at a separate vessel;-and there rose up from the water, supported only by the small black hull, a pyramid of canvas, spreading out far beyond the hull, and towering up almost, as it seemed in the indistinct night air, to the clouds. The sea was as still as an inland lake; the light trade-wind was gently and steadily breathing from astern; the dark blue sky was studded with the tropical stars; there was no sound but the rippling of the water under the stem; and the sails were spread out, wide and high;-the two lower studding-sails stretching, on each side, far beyond the deck; the topmast studding-sails, like wings to the topsails; the top-gallant studding-sails spreading fearlessly out above them; still higher, the two royal studding-sails, looking like two kites flying from the same string; and, highest of all, the little skysail, the apex of the pyramid, seeming actually to touch the stars, and to be out of reach of human hand. So quiet, too, was the sea, and so steady the breeze, that if these sails had been sculptured marble, they could not have been more motionless. Not a ripple upon the surface of the canvas; not even a quivering of the extreme edges of the sail-so perfectly were they distended by the breeze. I was so lost in the sight, that I forgot the presence of the man who came out with me, until he said, (for he, too, rough old man-of-war's-man as he was, had been gazing at the show,) half to himself, still looking at the marble sails—"How quietly they do their work!"

(Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 343 words, total size 2 kb.

Via Baen Books...Get writing!

Announcing the 2nd annual Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest!

Since its early days, science fiction has played a unique role in human civilization. It removes the limits of what "is" and shows us a boundless vista of what "might be." Its fearless heroes, spectacular technologies and wondrous futures have inspired many people to make science, technology and space flight a real part of their lives and in doing so, have often transformed these fictions into reality. The National Space Society and Baen Books applaud the role that science fiction plays in advancing real science and have teamed up to sponsor this short fiction contest in memory of Jim Baen. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 577 words, total size 4 kb.

Something to look forward to! Baen Books is bringing more of Poul Anderson's works back into print.

Volume I: The Van Rijn Method (September 200
“The Saturn Game” (novella)
“Wings of Victory” (short story)
“The Problem of Pain” (short story)
“Margin of Profit” (novella)
“How to be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson” (short story)
“The Three-Cornered Wheel” (novella)
“A Sun Invisible”(novella )
The Man Who Counts (novel, a.k.a. War of the Wing Men)
“Esau” (short story)
“Hiding Place ” (novella)
Total wordage: about 190,000 words.

Volume II: David Falkayn: Star Trader
“Territory” (novella)
“The Trouble Twisters” (novella)
“Day of Burning” (novella)
“The Master Key” (novella)
SatanÂ’s World (novel)
“A Little Knowledge” (short story)
“The Season of Forgiveness” (short story)
“Lodestar” (novella)
Total wordage: about 188,000 words.

Now...if they also do the independents and the Flandry tales, we'll be sitting pretty. And I wonder if they'll include the one short story in The Canon that has, as far as I've been able to determine, been collected, a short work called "Sargasso of Lost Spaceships" (Whoops! See comments for correction information! I was thinking of a classic Andre Norton book, Sargasso of Space!). I finally bought it in the original magazine appearance (Planet Stories), but would like it in something a little less...pulpy.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 02:16 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 221 words, total size 2 kb.

"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."

(G.K. Chesterton)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 31 words, total size 1 kb.

Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.

(Robert E. Howard)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 34 words, total size 1 kb.

Way back at the dawn of time (1977), Spider and Jeanne Robinson co-wrote (first) a award-winning novella and (then) a series of novels about life in space. The tales centered around a ballet dancer.

We've gotten a little bit closer to making that a reality!

Main site here. Samples of the books here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 57 words, total size 1 kb.

Wil McCarthy has a "wiki" where you can contribute to one of three collaborative tales. Will this be a bold new writing frontier? Or a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth?

Boundary Condition

Plant

Release Notes

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 40 words, total size 1 kb.

Via the recently-launched io9 site, tips for organizing your living space...in space!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:19 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 18 words, total size 1 kb.

Late again! Hope to be better in the coming year.

Here's what I've read since my last report:

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens is one of those three people I would invite to dinner, although I think I would lock up the liquor ahead of time. His style is engaging and entertaining, but I think this polemic sometimes preaches a bit too much to the atheist choir. I don't think it would really change the minds of the religious (and to be fair, I don't think that is the goal here). Recommended whether you're faithful, faithless, or somewhere in between.

The current issues of Architectural Digest, Dwell, National Geographic, and one month of Analog magazine.

In progress:

Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett.

Still on deck:

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World, Carl Zimmer.

Still about five months' worth of Analog magazine.

Posted by: JohnL at 03:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 174 words, total size 2 kb.

Via BoingBoing, I'm reminded of Fritz Leiber's classic story Catch That Zeppelin! when I see these images.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 23 words, total size 1 kb.

George MacDonald Fraser has passed away.

Damn. Double damn. Triple damn. And not just because we'll never see the tale on how Harry ended up fighting for both the Union and the Rebs...

Addendum (January 23, 200 : A nice article from Down Under.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 45 words, total size 1 kb.

How To Build a Robot Army. The latest in a series of books to help you protect against various hypothetical invasions.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 25 words, total size 1 kb.

Other Times Than Peace, David Drake (Baen Books, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4165-2076-4, cover by Kurt Miller).

The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

The list can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.

The list can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.

A semi-serious rundown of reading plans for 2008.

"S": If the author's name begins with "s". It seems that "s", along with "A" and "C" appear to be my biggest sources of books.

Serials: I love serials. Poul Anderson's Technic Series. H. Beam Piper's TerroHuman Series. Robert A. Heinlein's Future History.

Shorts: I have a lot of anthologies. Themed anthologies. Best of anthologies, either grouped by year, genre type, or whatever. Anthologies of a single author. It's time to really try and get through some of these. Plus, keep up with Analog and maybe work my way through some backlog there.

Science: Or non-fiction in general. I'm going to continue to read non-fiction. If it happens to fall into the category below, or be full of shorter works, or part of a series, so much the better!

Seven: If it was purchased in 2007, if it was published in 2007, if it was published in the 1970's, if there is a seven in the ISBN, if the book contains a page seven...

Now, I usually end up not following reading plans when I make them. But I think that this one is vague enough to be usable!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 209 words, total size 1 kb.

The Reefs of Taprobane, Arthur C. Clarke (with photographs by Mike Wilson) (Harper Brothers, 1957).

The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

The list can now be viewed here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 11 words, total size 1 kb.

I started re-reading this work earlier, but various things caught up with me and I put it down. As it can be seen from previous occasions, this is one of my all-time favorite books.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 42 words, total size 1 kb.

With the Lightnings, David Drake (Baen Books, 1998, ISBN 0-671-57886-3, cover by David Mattingly).

The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:31 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 27 words, total size 1 kb.