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io9.com reports...
Arthur C. Clarke, Futurist and Scifi Legend, Dies
Arthur C. Clarke, author of scifi classics Rendezvous with Rama and 2001: A Space Odyssey, died today at the age of 90 in Sri Lanka. Not only did Clarke create a legend with 2001 (he worked on the film with Stanley Kubrick too), but he also predicted many of the scientific inventions of the twentieth century such as telecom satellites. He was even knighted in recognition of his many mind-bending contributions to the worlds of literature and science speculation. [LATimes]

What's most disturbing to me is that I was browsing some Wikipedia articles about his novels: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, 3001: The Final Odyssey) at about the time that io9 posted the story. Weird.

And did you know that he was among the first to posit the idea of a geostationary communications satellite?

My children - and you know I really do love them - are insane. Honestly, truly insane. I mean, honestly - how else can you explain the "game" they like to play: hitting each other and then being all apologetic from across the room.

Oh wait, Douglas Adams already did:

Brockian Ultra-Cricket:

described as "a curious game which involved suddenly hitting people for no readily apparent reason and then running away"

Of particular interest is rule #5:
The players should now lay about themselves for all they are worth with whatever they find on hand. Whenever a player scores a 'hit' on another player, he should immediately run away and apologize from a safe distance.

Apologies should be concise, sincere and, for maximum clarity and points, delivered through a megaphone.

This morning, when :abby: smacked Noah and then shouted "I'm sorry!" from across the room, it suddenly came to me: it's GOT to be Brockian Ultra-Cricket. Apparently all the times that I read the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in high-school have somehow subliminally seeped into the kids brains. I wonder if they know what 6 x 9 really is......

The Man Who Walked Between The Towers

by Mordicai Gerstein

It's a great story, but since Gerstein is a realist, he mentions that the towers are gone. I know that the pages are coming, and that it's going to once again hit me like a ton of bricks, but every single time, it just stops me cold. There's only one page after that, but it's hard to read when you're all choked up like that. Even so, I recommend this book to anyone - it's a great story, and it's nice to think of the towers in another way.

Sphere, by Michael Crichton.

A psycologist is taken by the US Navy to the middle of the ocean and joined by several people he knows - people he picked out for a government team to deal with an "ULF" - unidentified life form. Things get weirder when they are told that there is a spacecraft at the bottom of the ocean. When they start to piece together where the craft came from, things get even weirder. Accidents start to occur in their deep-sea habitat, and people start to die.

The characters don't get too developed, but that's ok - most of them get killed off very soon. The plot is reasonable, but there are a few leaps that require a bit too much suspension of disbelief. And if you've already seen the movie when you read this, well, it's not going to leave you too happy - the movie adaptation takes the usual liberties, and it's just not the same.

The Stand (Modern Classics)

by Stephen King

When I saw this in the library, I decided to take it out, partly 'cause I wanted to see how the book was, and partly because I never got to see the whole mini-series when it was on TV.

What I got was the "Complete and Uncut" version of the book - which is substantially longer than the originally released version, I understand. The note from King at the beginning of the book indicates that he originally needed to cut a lot for various reasons (including business reasons, apparently), but this new release was more in line with what he wanted to put out the first time - so it's a bit like a "directors cut" of a movie.

If you're not familiar with the story of the book, the premise is that a super-secret US Army base is experimenting with various biological agents and one of them, a shifting antigen variant of the flu, manages to get out. It kills everyone in the underground labs, and a guard at the front gate of the same labs manages to get out before he's locked into his guard shack. He knows what goes on underground, and before he left, he could see that they were all dead - so he grabs his wife and child, throws them in the car and starts to haul ass, thinking that he's not sick now, he won't get sick, and they'll get away from it all. He couldn't be more wrong.

After spreading this new super-flu across the country, the guard ends up crashing into a gas station in rural Texas. The locals call the police, and when he dies en route to the hospital, people start to wonder just what's going on. The CDC gets involved - and the Army starts it's cover up.

The flu spreads like wildfire, taking the life of most of the population of the world (the Army, while attempting their cover up, decides to set some of the flu loose in various other parts of the world, so it won't seem like it was just a problem in the US - bad move).

The folks that are left, scattered around the US, start to have dreams. Some dream of a kindly old woman, some of a scary man who's face is never revealed. People start to travel to whomever appeals to them more, and this is where it becomes clear that there is going to be a final stand off, good versus evil, and the survivors will be the ones making the final stand.

The writing is very well done. King knows how to write, and he does it well - a little too well, since in this case, it took me quite some time to finish this tome (it's frickin' long!).

Some of the scenes are very well done, and the whole concept of the book makes you wonder just whats going on, both with any real "super-powers" and in our own backyards - and in todays climate of terror everywhere, who knows what's going on. The fact that various intelligence community reports say that certain terrorist organizations have access to chemical/biological warfare agents makes it all a little too real, and just a wee bit too scary.

It's definately worth a read, and if you're so inclined, make sure you read the book before the movie - they always drop little bits out of the movies, and you don't want to miss some of the gems hidden in the pages.

$7.50

The Prometheus Deception

by Robert Ludlum

The Prometheus Deception (hard cover or paperback) by Robert Ludlum, needs to be read. Written just two years ago, it reflects some current events and actions.

Nick Bryson is an operative for "The Directorate," a covert intelligence agency that other agencies don't even know about. After being wounded during an operation, Nick is essentially forced to retire after recouperating from his wounds and from the loss of his wife - she left while he was on assigment. Even though he's retired, Nick's instincts stay with him, and he is suddenly drawn back into the web of intrigue that was his old life. He is told by the Deputy Director of the CIA that the Directorate was actually a Russian setup, and they had been working against the US government all along. Many of his co-workers hadn't had a clue, and Nick had been used all along by them.

Nick sets off to investigate the claims and find out for himself what is going on. Along the way he realizes that perhaps his wife, who also worked for the Directorate, though in a less "wet" capacity, may have been a setup from the start, and he starts to question his entire life.

Add to this story a growing number of unclaimed terrorist actions, toss in a Microsoft like entity that has it's hands in every facet of business, industry and government, and mix in a growing call for a lack of personal privacy, and you have quite a read on your hands.

Nothing is what you expect, every corner brings a new twist, and the ultimate enemy that Nick is up against turns out to be even worse than it appears.

$0.69

Philip K. Dick has got to be one of the BEST sci-fi authors ever. Minority Report is a collection of short stories, including the title piece (which is also a new Steven Spielberg flick starring Tom Cruise). I picked it up at WaldenBooks at the mall while stumbling around, half-blind... I've only read the first few stories, but I really enjoyed it.

The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories (Dick, Philip K. Short Stories.)

by Philip K. Dick

PKD (as a good friend of mine refers to him) was great. He's written many books that you've probably never heard of, but you've probably seen a movie adaptation of. The most well known is "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," which you might recall better as the sci-fi epic "Blade Runner," starring Harrison Ford. Or maybe the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," which I believe was the basis for "Freejack," starring Emilio Estevez and Mick Jagger. Peter Weller was in "Screamers," which was based on a great short-story called "Second Variety."

I've always liked Clans of the Alphane Moon, Valis, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and Radio Free Albemuth.