Category Archives: Library

Starfarers

Posted on July 20, 2009 | Comments Off on Starfarers

This was my first Poul Anderson epic novel and it’s a dandy. I see why he’s one of scifi’s revered masters. As previously mentioned about some other such books, the Amazon reader-critics are pretty harsh, for such reasons as it being hard to keep the saga’s many characters straight.

That’s inane. It’s easy to flip back a few pages to remind yourself, and the story is worth the effort. The tale’s overarching idea, that most of humanity eventually becomes bored with space travel and retreats to study itself, is a shocking thought. Then you remember how we landed on the moon on this very day and forty years later what do we do? Except for our robots (and their contribution, however limited, certainly is worthwhile) we’re not even exploring the solar system, let alone the stars.

UPDATE:  Indeed, fifty-one percent don’t even want to go to Mars. Sigh.

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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space

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The publishing game

Posted on July 19, 2009 | Comments Off on The publishing game

Boy, talk about a gamble. I admit to being more than a little tired of rewriting query letters and reworking a synopsis to suit the needs of various agents I am submitting my Civil War novel to. But I have to say they’re in perhaps the toughest racket I’ve encountered.

Not only do they have to make a time judgment (whether to spend six hours reading 240-plus pages) based on a query letter, a synopsis and the first five pages, they then have to risk their reputation on whether their judgment will make a sale.

Not just to the editors of the publisher they represent, but, once the book is edited, covered, printed, etc., to the reviewers. Who may ignore it. They ignore most books. Then, on to the booksellers. Who may or may not take any copies. They’re not required to. And even if they do, there’s no guarantee anyone out there in digital and bricks-n-mortar bookstores will buy it. Ever. That is stress. All I have to do is rewrite the query letter.

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Posted in Library

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Kindle creeps me out

Posted on July 18, 2009 | Comments Off on Kindle creeps me out

Nevermind the ease of reading and the low cost of electronic publishing. Amazon reserves the legal right to reach out across the airwaves and remotely delete books from your Kindle wherever you are. Might not be long before the government is examining your reading habits and deleting what it doesn’t like.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Scribbles

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Destiny’s Road

Posted on July 17, 2009 | Comments Off on Destiny’s Road

I’ve read so many Larry Niven novels and stories by now that I can’t remember them all. This was one of the most satisfying, on a par to my mind with the Ringworld series. Jemmy is a lovable character who always means well and has to be pushed to do bad.

In the end he gives back in the most meaningful way: freeing his people from a tyranny imposed by the colony planet’s founders. I don’t understand the really savage criticism of the book by a majority of reviewers at Amazon: don’t waste your time, big disappointment, a mess, etc.

I agree with some of them that the dialogue was occasionally hard to follow. But reading back over it didn’t take a lot of energy and I was soon set right. Likewise with puzzling out a few typos. Sometimes I think the Amazon reviewers are sheep, and this is one of those times. I especially loved the ending, which I reread several times. I hope the amateur reviewers didn’t hurt the book’s sales and that we see more of Destiny, down the road.

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Posted in Library

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Michael Jackson versus Jimmy Cagney

Posted on July 13, 2009 | Comments Off on Michael Jackson versus Jimmy Cagney

It’s the dancer Michael Jackson that I remember. That was years ago, before the plastic surgery and the scandals. He did and still reminds me of Jimmy Cagney, not because I’m old enough to have seen Cagney in person or his movies upon their release. I saw these two (in three clips) on television when I was a kid in the 1950s and the boob tube played lots of old black-n-white movies. What a dancer Cagney was.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Obituaries, Scribbles

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Attention Surplus Disorder

Posted on July 9, 2009 | Comments Off on Attention Surplus Disorder

This phrase, which I found in Neal Stephenson’s Anathem (a book I gave up on reading, by the way, as just too abstruse for enjoyment) was meant to be humorous. But I think it accurately describes a little known condition which I’ve long had, sometimes to my detriment: Too many ideas, too little time.

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Posted in Library

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Aztec flower wars

Posted on July 9, 2009 | Comments Off on Aztec flower wars

Reading T.R. Ferenbach’s Fire and Blood, a History of Mexico, I encountered the Mexica (or Aztec as they are called in English) concept of flower wars. Which made me think of the San Antonio Fiesta’s Battle of The Flowers.

The Mexica version was the fifteenth century pursuit of thousands of prisoners for human sacrifice to the bloodthirsty Aztec gods. The San Antonio one, which began in 1891 as an April 21 salute to the heroes of the Texas revolution, has become a chamber of commerce event where floats are decorated with flowers.

In early years the Texas participants threw flower petals at each other. Otherwise the only apparent connection between the two is that some San Antonians undoubtedly are descendents of the Mexica. But, to my cluttered mind, it’s a strange coincidence that probably bears scrutiny.

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Posted in Library, South of the Border, Texana

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