[bksvol-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, April 12, 2012

From: "Evan Reese" <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 19:52:43 -0500
Hello Folks,

We had an excellent turnout at last night's meeting. Everyone who read it liked 
our book, Star Soldiers by Andre Norton.

Our book for the next meeting deals with one of the most important questions 
there is: Are we alone in the universe? For next month, we'll be reading 
Infinity Beach, by Jack McDevitt.

The next meeting of the Science Fiction club will be on Thursday, April 12, 
2012.

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 24:00 UTC.

Infinity Beach is available from NLS web braille, and as a Publisher Quality 
book direct from HarperCollins on Bookshare at:

http://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/356085

Here's the NLS synopsis:

People living on the Nine Worlds, and on the
starships keeping them connected, believe they are the only
life in the universe. Searching for her clone/sister (who
disappeared on a space mission twenty-seven years ago),
scientist Kim Brandywine discovers they may not be alone
after all. Strong language. 2000.

And here is the long synopsis from Bookshare's version:

We are alone. That is the verdict, after centuries of Search for 
Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence missions and space exploration. The only living things in the 
Universe
are found on the Nine Worlds settled from Earth, and the starships that knit 
them
together. Or so it's believed, until Dr. Kimberly Brandywine sets out to find 
what
happened to her clone-sister Emily, who, after the final, unsuccessful manned 
SETI
expedition, disappeared along with the rest of her ship's crew.Following a few 
ominous
clues, Kim discovers the ship's log was faked. Something happened out there in 
the
darkness between the stars, and she's prepared to go to any length to find 
answers.
Even if it means giving up her career...stealing a starship...losing her lover. 
Kim
is about to discover the truth about her sister -- and about more than she ever 
dared
imagine.

Finally, here's a short review from Publishers Weekly taken from the Amazon 
page for this book:

HA thousand years in the future, on the terraformed planet Greenaway, humanity 
has
everything to make itself comfortable and complacent--longevity, leisure and 
luxury
are all readily available. But one question remains: Is humanity alone in the 
universe?
Kimberly Brandywine doesn't necessarily believe in aliens, until she hears that 
her
missing elder "sister," of whom she's a clone, may have been murdered, along 
with
some crewmates, by celestial beings after a voyage aboard a space yacht. Her 
sister/clone's
disappearance has long haunted Kim, whose search for the truth takes her 
underwater
and into space, loses her a lover and causes her to commit crimes (including 
stealing
a spaceship). Kim's efforts to solve the mystery of the vanishing and to make 
first
contact with the aliens presumably behind it are hampered by the general malaise
society has sunk into. And since death appears to follow in the wake of the 
aliens,
Kim wavers about whether first contact will be beneficial or will destroy 
civilization
as she knows it. McDevitt (Eternity Road) has created a future that is 
technologically
sound and filled with hubristic, foolish people who make choices based more on 
how
they will look to history than on what's best for it. Though his aliens are 
insubstantial
(both physically and on the page), the mystery of what happened to Kim's sister 
and
her fellow celestial seekers unfolds as precisely as an origami flower, and will
hold readers in thrall.

Hope to see lots of people at the next meeting to talk about this exciting tale.

Evan
[bksvol-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, April 12, 2012

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