These great hollow globes of artificial super-metals, and artificial transparent adamant, ranged in size from the earliest and smallest structures, which were no bigger than a very small asteroid, to spheres considerably larger than the Earth. (Olaf Stapledon, STAR MAKER)
Wednesday, October 31, 2001
Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Rays!
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day show "anticrepuscular rays" over Colorado. What mad universe.
MPOD: October 20, 2001
Today's images courtesy of the Mars Global Surveyor include: Ancient layered rocks in Schiaparelli Crater; fractures and pits in West Utopia; dune fields in Herschel crater; and the toe (!) of the Ganges Chasma Landslide.
Current SF
My current reading in SF is mostly firmly set in good old (and new) space opera. Primarily, it has been:
David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series: "Something new" in the litany. Not the greatest things since sliced bread, but a lot of fun. Plus, Baen Books distribution methods (more on that in a separate note) makes it easy to get into the series.
A. Bertram Chandler's stories of "John Grimes": Classic SF by the late Aussie-based author. I've got most of the books, but now I've been able to buy the Grimes stories (and I hope that this gets expanded to the rest of his writings) in the PalmOS-based Peanut Press format. I've read three of the books so far, two of them were new-to-me, the third was a collection of short stories that I first encountered way-back-when in "Galaxy" magazine (what a great meagazine that was!). Good stuff.
Finally...by various authors...Perry Rhodan: Over 2,150 books in the series (running since the early 60's). I'm only looking for the books published by Ace books in the late 60's and in the early to mid-70's. Definately hack, definately pulp, but fun. I've got most of the books right now, but I'm continuing to buy (primarily via eBay), trying to get a unified set (the early volumes were published twice, so there are different covers) in good condition (difficult!).
2013 Update: The entire Grimes series can now be gotten from Baen Books in DRM-free multiple formats. How far we've come...but I keep hoping the non-Grimes SF stories will see the light of day. Please?