[bksvol-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, August 12, 2010

From: "EVAN REESE" <mentat3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <scifi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:24:44 -0400

Hi Folks,

We had a good turnout last night at the Science Fiction club meeting, with most
of us liking the book we read, Coyote by Alan M. Steele..

The next meeting will be on Thursday, August 12, 2010.

Place: Book Nook at

http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e

Time: 9 PM Eastern, 8 Central, 7 Mountain, 6 Pacific.

The book we're reading this month is A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge,
available from both Bookshare and from the BARD site.

You can get the Bookshare version at:

http://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/34431?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9rZXl3b3JkPSZxdW90O2EgZmlyZSB1cG9uIHRoZSBkZWVwJnF1b3Q7Jg%3D%3D

The link to the book on the BARD site is at:

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.35758

Here is the long synopsis from Bookshare's copy, taken from the book jacket.

"Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit the far reaches of space, from
the Transcend where dwell superintelligent entities to the Unthinking Depths
where only simple creatures and technologies can function. These "regions of
thought" are a mystery, but when scientists in the Straumli Realm discover and
release an ancient Transcendent artifact, they unwittingly unleash an awesome
power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial
intelligence. Only a single ship escapes, aboard it a family of scientists with
their two children. When they land
on a planet in the Slowness the parents are killed and the children taken
captive by the Tines: aliens of a medieval society locked in a bitter power
struggle. The fate of races, worlds -- interstellar civilization -- depends on
a rescue mounted
by a crew of humans and aliens that is racing toward Tinesworld -- and a
Countermeasure
that, if they can trigger in time, may stop the Blight that will otherwise
bring a new dark age to the galaxy."

Here are a couple editorial reviews from Amazon.

Amazon.com Review
In this Hugo-winning 1991 SF novel, Vernor Vinge gives us a wild new cosmology,
a galaxy-spanning "Net of a Million Lies," some finely imagined aliens, and
much nail-biting suspense. Faster-than-light travel remains impossible near
Earth, deep in the galaxy's Slow Zone--but physical laws relax in the
surrounding Beyond. Outside that again is the Transcend, full of unguessable,
godlike "Powers." When human meddling wakes an old Power, the Blight, this
spreads like a wildfire mind virus that turns whole civilizations into its
unthinking tools. And the half-mythical Countermeasure, if it exists, is lost
with two human children on primitive Tines World. Serious complications follow.
One paranoid alien alliance blames humanity for the Blight and launches a
genocidal strike. Pham Nuwen, the man who knows about Countermeasure, escapes
this ruin in the spacecraft
Out of Band--heading for more violence and treachery, with 500 warships soon in
hot pursuit. On his destination world, the fascinating Tines are intelligent
only in combination: named "individuals" are small packs of the doglike aliens.
Primitive doesn't mean stupid, and opposed Tine leaders wheedle the young
castaways for information about guns and radios. Low-tech war looms, with
elaborately nested betrayals and schemes
to seize Out of Band if it ever arrives. The tension becomes extreme... while
half the Beyond debates the issues on galactic Usenet.
Vinge's climax is suitably mindboggling. This epic combines the flash and
dazzle of old-style space opera with modern, polished thoughtfulness.

From Publishers Weekly
It has been six years since Vinge's last book ( Marooned in Realtime ), but the
wait proves worthwhile in this stimulating tale filled with ideas, action and
likable, believable characters, both alien and human. Vinge presents a galaxy
divided into Zones--regions where different physical constraints allow very
different technological and mental possibilities. Earth remains in the
"Slowness" zone, where nothing can travel faster than light and minds are
fairly limited. The action of the book is in the "Beyond," where translight
travel and other marvels exist, and humans are one of many intelligent species.
One human colony has been experimenting with ancient technology in order to
find a path to the "Transcend," where intelligence and power are so great as to
seem godlike. Instead they release the Blight, an evil power, from a
billion-year captivity. As the Blight begins to spread, a few humans flee with
a secret that might destroy it, but they are stranded in a primitive low-tech
world barely in the Beyond. While the Blight destroys whole races and star
systems, a team of two humans and two aliens races to rescue the others,
pursued by the Blight's
agents and other enemies. With uninterrupted pacing, suspense without
contrivance, and deftly drawn aliens who can be pleasantly comical without
becoming cute, Vinge offers heart-pounding, mind-expanding science fiction at
its best.

This is one of my personal all time favorites, and I am eagerly looking forward
to reading it again this summer. It has everything a great Science Fiction
novel should have and more: well drawn characters, both human and alien, a very
well worked out alien race, vast scope, plenty of action and suspense, a
scarier villain would be very hard to imagine, and sense of wonder galore. Hope
lots of you can check it out and come to the August meeting to talk about it.

Evan

[bksvol-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, August 12, 2010

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