"Sir, have you considered the converse of engineering? We fall into it so naturally, but in the end every project expires, and one way or another every team is dismantled, and that's something we're not wired to deal with. It saddens, even traumatizes us. That's where geniuses are needed, to engineer the conclusions of things."

(The Collapsium, Wil McCarthy)

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"Okay, Seaman Sanson, this is your safety briefing," the rep said, grinning again. "Be aware that the platform you are using for entry is poorly constructed and may collapse. Be aware that on the far side of the gate you may experience reduced air quality. Be aware that on the far side of the gate you may experience increased or decreased gravitational field. The far side of the gate may not be at ground level and you may experience vertical movement on exit. Upon returning you may find that you do not hit the platform in which case you will experience an approximately twenty-meter fall to ground level. The gate may not return to this same location at all in which case you may find yourself in any location in this universe or in any other universe. The environment suit that you are using is not warranted by the manufacturer for use in any nonterrestrial environment and, therefore, you are using it at your own risk. Do you understand this warning?"

(John Ringo, Into the Looking Glass)

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"What is his background Mr. Secretary?"

"NASA, then defense contractors," the secretary said, smiling faintly. "Ph.D.s in physics, aeronautical engineering, optics, electronic engineering and some other stuff. Smart guy. Very bright, very sharp, high watt."

"Fifty-ish, balding," the Homeland Security director added, chuckling. "Fifty pounds overweight, pocket protector, five colors of pens, HP calculator on his hip."

The defense secretary just smiled. more...

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"Just remember," Miller growled, over the radio. "Once you ignite the fuse, Mister Satchel Charge is not your friend."

(Into the Looking Glass, John Ringo)

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He dialed his phone again.

"Garcia."

"Have the detectors arrived?"

"About an hour ago, and you were right. There's a fairly continuous stream of subatomic particles coming out of it. I think it's degrading."

"Okay, good," Weaver said.

"Is that firing I hear?" Garcia asked.

"Yeah, we're being invaded," Weaver replied and yawned. "Monsters from the eighth dimension or something. I think we're about to get overrun."

"Jesus! Get out of there!" more...

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"Shit," Sanson said, dropping out his magazine and slapping in a new one.

The reason for his exclamation was clear. A new type of creature was pouring through the gate. These were bipedal and large but otherwise similar in general appearance to the earlier attackers. The big difference was in their armament. The tops of their beaks appeared to be hollow and as Weaver watched they stitched the line of defenders with projectiles. Two of them concentrated on the big machine gun, which had been gotten back into action, and the two man crew was riddled with the projectiles, their blood splashing all over the truck, which was still painted in desert camouflage.

The beasts were, also, heavily armored and seemed to shrug off most of the rounds coming their way. Only the heavy rounds of the MG-240s seemed able to penetrate their armor and the things were now concentrating on taking out the machine guns one by one. more...

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Weaver waved at the sergeant and showed his Pentagon ID again.

"I'm Dr. Weaver with the DOD," he said. "This is Command Master Chief Miller with SEAL Team Five. What do you have?" more...

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A science fiction writer he knew always carried a black backpack that he called his "alien abduction pack." "Everything I need to survive for twenty-four hours in eighty percent of terrestrial environments." It was really a "I crashed in somebody else's hotel room at a con" or "the airline lost my bags" pack. Weaver had started carrying one as well and he was glad for it now. He could shave with his own razor and brush his teeth with his own toothbrush. He'd used up the bottle of water the day before but that was easily remedied.

As soon as he was done with his shower, hair brushed, wearing new underwear thanks to the "alien abduction pack" again, he was ready to face the day.

(Into the Looking Glass, John Ringo)

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(Reposted from 2006, also referenced in 2007.)

Review can now be found here.

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Bruce Moomaw writes about Cassini's exploration of Saturn's moon Lapetus. Lapetus? Lapetus? That's a new one. Maybe he's talking about Saturn's mysterious moon Iapetus, featured in Sir Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2001: A Space Odyssey (where it was misspelled as Japetus)?

Check, please! Spell check, please!

(Addendum: May 9, 2007: See the update, below.) more...

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I kid you not. They've apparently merged Luke and Han.

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Rejoice all ye unwashed masses! Dave Langford's has posted the latest issue of his always entertaining and ever-informative Ansible. Especially recommended are the ongoing As Others See Us and Thog's Masterclass sections. Priceless!

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Another request for information. Can anybody identify the artist who did the covers for these four Ballantine (not Del Rey!) editions of works by Arthur C. Clarke? more...

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Another information search! Anybody ever come across a map of Hal Clement's most famous creation, the planet Mesklin? I've seen a report that a "globe" (if you read a description of the planet, you'll see why that is a slippery term!) of the planet existed and was auctioned at a science fiction convention in the 1960's. The NESFA omnibus The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 3: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton (made up of Mission of Gravity, Star Light, plus the shorter works Lecture Demonstration and Under) contains Clement's essay Whirligig World, which shows a diagram of Mesklin's orbit, a cross section of the planet, a scale drawing (no details) of the planet and its ring system...and this enigmatic hint, which leads back to that "globe":

On the whole, I have a rather weird-looking object. The model I have of it is six inches in diameter and not quite two and a half thick: if I added the ring, it would consist of a paper disk about fourteen inches in diameter cut to fit rather closely around the plastic wood spheroid. (The model was made to furnish something to draw a map on; I like to be consistent. The map was drawn at random before the story was written; then I bound myself to stick to the geographic limitations it showed.) I was tempted, after looking at it for a while, to call the book, Pancake in the Sky, but Isaac Asimov threatened violence. Anyway, it looks rather more like a fried egg.

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A look at one of my favorite obscure science fiction films.

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In a review from the January 2007 issue of Locus, Gary K. Wolfe looks at the "future histories" of Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter.

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An interesting comparison between a text that was translated into Chinese and then translated back into English..and what the original text said.

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I am listening to a piece called Les Preludes (Symphonic Poem) by Franz Liszt.

Quick! What's the connection with science fiction?

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I was recently in our local (to where I work) Big Box Book Store and noticed a couple of changes. For one, jackhammers were at work (behind curtins), apparently tearing out the Starbucks that dominated the center of the bookstore. Whether it will be replaced by another chain or by the Big Box's own effort, I do not know. more...

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Graham Sleight (writing at Locus Online) takes a look back at two Alfred Bester classics (printed in the June 2006 issue).

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