[bookshare-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, March 13, 2014
- From: "Evan Reese" <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Bob Acosta" <boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx>, <sfclub-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 15:41:37 -0500
Hello Folks,
We had a good showing at our most recent meeting, including a new member.
Welcom Maria! Although some of us had minor caveats, we all liked our book,
Doctor's Orders by Diane Duane. Our next book is a visionary tour de force from
one of the greats of Science Fiction, Greg Bear: Blood Music.
The next meeting of the Science Fiction club will be on Thursday, March 13,
2014.
Place, Book Nook at:
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e
Time: 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific, and 02:00 UTC.
Our book, Blood Music by Greg Bear is available from both BARD:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.63627
and Bookshare:
https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/609156
Here's the NLS annotation:
Biochip researcher Vergil Ulam is fired for his unauthorized development of
lymphocytes, restructured cells capable of thought and communication. Instead
of destroying his work, Vergil injects the cells into his body and
inadvertently unleashes a deadly, intelligent plague.
And here's a review by Martin Lewis from the SF Site:
Vergil Ulam is a brilliant, unkempt, maverick scientist. This SF archetype has
been carrying out private research behind the back of the biotech firm he works
for. When the company find out, he is fired and ordered to destroy his work.
Believing his work is too important to be sacrificed Ulam smuggles it out of
his lab the only way he can; in his bloodstream. What he has injected himself
with is a solution containing cellular organisms, noocytes, as intelligent as
rhesus monkeys. These noocytes continue to evolve within him, getting smarter,
learning about his body. Ulam finds that his eyesight, posture and skin
improve. However, the changes become more and more radical until the noocytes
eventually cross the blood-brain barrier. Too late, colleagues realise what has
happened. They also discover that he is highly infectious. Soon the whole of
North America is infected and the rest of the world is in a state of panic.
This exhilarating section (originally a Nebula and Hugo award-winning novella)
unravels breathtakingly. We are then introduced to survivors of this thinking
plague, individuals who are seemingly immune. With the switch in focus away
from Ulam and the introduction of new characters, the story inevitably slows.
It also cannot help but take on the language and appearance of the
post-apocalypse novel. Greg Bear is in fine company here, his deserted,
familiar/alien landscape is reminiscent of J.G. Ballard's disaster novels, but
it lacks the energy and invention of the opening. However, the introduction of
some speculation about the nature of consciousness and its effect on the
physical universe soon shifts the novel back up a gear.
For a novel that moves so quickly you might expect some fudge for the sake of
plot but the ideas that are presented are fully explored and the characters are
all well drawn. The only real flaw is a story thread that brings itself to an
ambiguous conclusion before the rest of book, leaving the reader somewhat
unsatisfied. Otherwise the various different strands are pulled together well
for a strong conclusion. Bear also succeeds in pulling off probably the hardest
task in SF, depicting a believable strongly superhuman AI.
As can be expected, Bear explicitly references both Frankenstein and
Prometheus. However, although the novel charts the demise of humanity, Blood
Music is optimistic in tone. Despite the prejudices of the masses
Frankenstein's monster is triumphant. The noocytes, cultured in Ulam's body,
are genuinely better than humans and happy to invite them to share this new
future. It is nothing to scared of, as one character says: "were you ever
afraid of not being a baby?"
Blood Music is the most recent of the Orion SF Masterworks series and can be
accurately described as a modern classic. Contemporary science fiction's
richest set of ideas are those that can be grouped under the bracket of
trans-humanism. This includes ideas such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology
and the translation of consciousness. Writing at the same time as the cyberpunk
authors, Greg Bear was amongst the first to explore these ideas. To this day,
it remains the defining novel of "wet" nanotechnology.
Copyright © 2002 Martin Lewis
Hope to see lots of people at the next meeting, including more new members to
talk about this book.
Evan
Other related posts:
