[bksvol-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, February 11, 2010

From: "EVAN REESE" <mentat3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <scifi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:04:17 -0500

Hi Folks,

The next meeting of the Science Fiction club will be on Thursday, February 11,
2010.

Time: 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific, and 0100 UTC.

Place: Book Nook at

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

The book we're reading this month is Night Train to Rigel by Timothy Zahn,
available from Bookshare at

http://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/26415?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9rZXl3b3JkPSZxdW90O25pZ2h0IHRyYWluIHRvIHJpZ2VsJnF1b3Q7Jg%3D%3D#mainContent

and available from NLS as a BARD download at

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.62671

or on tape with number RC 62671.

Bookshare's copy does not have a long synopsis, but here is the short one:

When former intelligence agent Frank Compton discovers a Quadrail ticket in his
name
in a dead man's pocket, he decides to use it and see where the train takes him.

Here is the NLS synopsis:

2084. A dying messenger hands Frank Compton a ticket for a seat on the
Quadrail--an interstellar
transportation system run by the Spiders--destined for an
Earth colony in the Rigel star system. Once he's aboard the Spiders recruit
Frank to stop trans-galactic weapons smugglers who could be plotting an attack.

Finally, here's a slightly longer description from Publishers Weekly taken from
Amazon:

Hang on! Hugo-winner Zahn (Cascade Point ) takes off on a rip-roaring
interstellar train ride with hard-boiled hero Frank Compton, recently fired
from Earth's Western Alliance Intelligence for whistle-blowing on the costly
Yandro colony boondoggle, a U.N. scheme to make humanity a real interstellar
power. From Earth's mean streets, Compton hops the Quadrail, a mysterious
galactic system run by the alien Spiders, who give him four months to defuse an
interstellar war being engineered by the gestalt entity the Modhri. With Bayta,
"The Girl" sent by the Spiders to recruit him, Compton blasts his way through
layers of subterfuge and teams of unpronounceable alien baddies. Seeing a new
chunk of the truth fall into place about every hundred pages, Compton carries
comic-strip action to dizzying extremes in this highballing romp. Situations
predictable from tough-guy PI fiction and characters straight out of Dick Tracy
(even though some wear chipmunk fur and others inhabit telepathic coral
colonies) make this night train a juicily familiar joyride.

Sounds like tremendous and imaginative fun from someone who knows how to do it
well. Hope lots of you will give it a try and can drop in next month to talk
about it.

Evan

[bksvol-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, February 11, 2010

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