[bookshare-discuss] Re: Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, Thursday, April 8, 2010

  • From: "Graham Lewis [gjl]" <gjl@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:17:40 +0000

Not available to non-americans, it seems.  This is a shame as I would very much 
haved liked to have joined this club.

Actually, very little of anu worth is available to non-americans on Bookshare 
and we are at least a decade behind in accessibility to text here in the UK.  
Frustratinh yo see all this good stuff so close yet so far.

Graham

From: EVAN REESE [mailto:mentat3@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 12 March 2010 03:35
To: scifi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 
bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Next Meeting of the Science Fiction Club, 
Thursday, April 8, 2010

Hi All,

A great time was had by all at this evening's meeting of the  Science  Fiction 
Club.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, April 8, 2010.

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

Place, Book Nook at:

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

This month, we're reading an ambitious first novel called:

Singularity's Ring
by Paul Melko
Available for download from both Bookshare and BARD.

The BARD link is:

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.68913
The Bookshare link is at:

http://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/93355?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9rZXl3b3JkPSZxdW90O3Npbmd1bGFyaXR5J3MgcmluZyZxdW90OyY%3D
The book is listed as being of Excellent quality.

Here are some synopses from Bookshare and Amazon.
Bookshare Long Synopsis:
The debut novel from an exciting new voice in SF about what happens after ninety
percent of humanity leaves Earth. There is an artificial ring around the Earth 
and it is
empty after the Singularity. Either all the millions of inhabitants are dead, or
they have been transformed into energy beings beyond human perception. Earth's 
population
was reduced by ninety percent. Human civilization on Earth is now recovering 
from
this trauma and even has a vigorous space program. Apollo Papadopulos is in 
training
to become the captain of the starship Consensus. Apollo is a unique individual 
in
that he/she/it is not an individual at all, but five separate teenagers who form
a new entity. Strom, Meda, Quant, Manuel, and Moira are a pod, as these kinds of
personalities are called, genetically engineered to work as one and to be able 
to
communicate non-verbally. As a rare quintet, much relies on the successful 
training
of Apollo, but as more accidents occur, the pod members struggle just to 
survive.
From Publishers Weekly
This superior debut initially resembles a straightforward YA adventure but 
abruptly
veers into much stranger territory. Various factions struggle for control of the
Ring, a colossal space station built around Earth by engineers who turned most 
of
humankind into a group mind called the Community, which promptly figured out how
to access other realities and vanished from this one. The few remaining humans 
genetically
engineer their children to form pods of individuals so closely bonded that they 
function
as one person. After stumbling on secret research during a training exercise, 
the
teenage pod called Apollo Papadopulos soon find themselves on the run from 
shadowy
forces who want to seduce or kill them. The setting extends from Earth orbit to 
the
Amazon jungle, and the action ranges from a tense space rescue to an almost 
idyllic
trek through the Rockies with a family of genetically altered bears. Though some
loose plot ends dangle a bit, the ingenious character development and startling 
images
and ideas are deeply satisfying.
From Booklist
Earth is surrounded by an artificial ring, former home of the human-cybernetic 
Community,
which vanished in the Singularity, years after which multiple person Apollo 
Popadopulos
(a pod of five individuals) is one of several competitively training to captain 
the
starship Consensus to search for the vanished preponderance of humanity. 
Training
is arduous, and returning to Mother Redd's farm to await assignment proves 
harder.
Apollo meets Malcolm Leto, recently removed from stasis, who was once part of 
the
Community. As Apollo falls victim to more and more accidents, and Leto schemes 
to
bring back the Community, harsh truths come to light about Apollo's origins and 
the
bleak reality of the Community's disappearance. Melko's world is a fascinating 
one,
in which single humans are increasingly rare, pods like Apollo are the norm, and
the Singularity did not necessarily improve the human condition. This strong 
first
novel boasts engaging characters and tight, fast-paced action sustained through 
some
acrobatic plot stunts. --Regina Schroeder
I read a piece of an early part of this novel in Asimov's a couple years ago, 
and I thought it was
excellent. It still sticks in my memory, unlike most of what I read that far 
back.

There's likely to be plenty of Sense of Wonder in this novel, something the 
Science Fiction genre is uniquely suited to provide. I hope lots of people will 
read and enjoy it, and come to talk about it at the next meeting.

Evan

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