The Reading Corner.

[Lord Avalon]

The Name of the Wind, The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One, by Patrick Rothfuss. And I'm almost done with The Wise Man's Fear (Day Two). Excellent stuff.

[Valka]

Now somebody read the darn book so you can discuss it with me, if I haven't ruined it by spoiling the ending.  It's still a really good yarn, and deservedly a classic.

I'm loath to say it, but its unlikely a fifty year old novel can be found abroad?

I have this in my library, and would be willing to discuss it... after I've read it. I've actually got quite a few Poul Anderson books I haven't read.

The ones I have read, were read to the point of falling apart and having to be replaced (he wrote terrific time travel stories).

As for finding his books... that's what eBay is for (among other sites where you can find second-hand books in decent condition for not too outrageous an amount). 

[Valka]

Fever Season (Merovingen Nights #2) - CJ Cherryh

Okay, now here's a series I'd love to have a discussion about! Have you read the other Merovingen Nights books?

[Geo]

I'm loath to say it, but its unlikely a fifty year old novel can be found abroad?

As for finding his books... that's what eBay is for (among other sites where you can find second-hand books in decent condition for not too outrageous an amount). 

The book itself may cost next to nothing, but shipping costs to Europe are outrageous.

[Valka]

I'm loath to say it, but its unlikely a fifty year old novel can be found abroad?

As for finding his books... that's what eBay is for (among other sites where you can find second-hand books in decent condition for not too outrageous an amount). 

The book itself may cost next to nothing, but shipping costs to Europe are outrageous.

There are European-based eBay sites, as well as booksellers based in the UK. Also, there's a UK-based Amazon site, and if I remember correctly, there's one based in France. I wouldn't know about Germany; I don't read German, so I never had any reason to check that out.

[Geo]

Well, yay for google and all that. I found it as a pdf.

Only 113 pages? Came as far as chapter 2, but nothing to be impressed at sofar.

[Lord Avalon]

Fever Season (Merovingen Nights #2) - CJ Cherryh

Okay, now here's a series I'd love to have a discussion about! Have you read the other Merovingen Nights books?

I have just started Troubled Waters (#3). So I've only read Cherryh's intro novel (book 0) and 1-2.

[Valka]

What do you think of them so far?

[Lord Avalon]

What do you think of them so far?

I like them. Wasn't sure I would, because it's in her sci-fi Alliance/Union universe, but it's off to the side, and at a kind of medieval-plus tech level in a Venice-ish city. So it's really more of a political series (and things are starting to heat up). I do like her feisty canaler protagonist Altair Jones.

[Valka]

What do you think of them so far?

I like them. Wasn't sure I would, because it's in her sci-fi Alliance/Union universe, but it's off to the side, and at a kind of medieval-plus tech level in a Venice-ish city. So it's really more of a political series (and things are starting to heat up). I do like her feisty canaler protagonist Altair Jones.

I like Altair Jones, too. And ever since I read this series, I've wanted to visit Venice. Every time I see pictures or see that city in a movie or TV show, I keep imagining Altair poling her boat down the canal, while Moghi waits for her to complete the freight run she's on, and the other denizens of Merovingen-Above and Below go about their daily affairs... 

[Buster's Uncle]

Lori, you need to root up a copy of Tau Zero too - I don't think Anderson is too far outside the tastes of an 'Asimov kid', and I'd like to hear from someone with your mastery of cosmology on the science objections I raised.

[Lorizael]

I'm currently reading Gödel, Escher, Bach because I have an enormous amount of free time. I may want some light reading after that...

Also, I don't know if a guy a year away from getting a BS in astronomy can be said to have any kind of mastery of cosmology.

[Buster's Uncle]

You can swing this - it's pretty basic.

I'm most of the way through another re-read of SF classic Tau Zero by Poul Anderson.  -Has it ever occurred to anyone that the resolution of the ship's dilemma is impossible several times over?

a) They are traveling slower than light -the central idea of the book, after all- and would have been drawn into the monobloc with everything else.

b) The cosmic egg should have sucked up space-time along with all the matter and energy, leaving them nowhere to orbit.

c) The creation of a new universe would be an energetic event, to say the least, many orders of magnitude of orders of magnitude beyond surviving a ground zero nuclear explosion.


...Am I leaving anything out?  Any holes in my analysis?  Anyone think they can handwave these problems away?  Geo?  Anyone?...

I merely read the Wiki synopsis, but to me it looks like they'd never even be able to reach this 'monobloc'. The synopsis says they have to keep the engine running for anti-radiation shielding reasons. But between galaxies there's appearantly not enough particles to fuel the engines. Ergo, the engines will quickly run out of (earlier collected, if any) fuel, so the shielding goes down at the worst possible moment, when the ship is already approaching speed of light, with all the increased energetic radiation that comes with that.

Agreed - the first time they reached a new galactic cluster, the radiation should have killed them before the shielding kicked in.

You should read the book - it's still a classic, despite those problems and even though I don't think Anderson wrote women very well.

I should mention that Anderson gave the ship an impressive set of batteries or fuel reserve or something, and they had the magnetic shielding raised for a week (ship time) ahead of when they thought they'd need it leaving intergalactic space.  I don't believe for a second that that's possible -the field just has to consume more power in a day than all of Europe burns through in a year- but he did try to deal with that...

So I finished the book, and two more problems I find insurmountable:

1) I didn't take point b) above far enough.  There's a bit near the end where some astronomers show the captain a light showing in the far reaches of the burned-out universe.  It's the beginning of the new monoboc.   BBBBBBZZZ!  Wrong.  It would be impossible to view it forming at a distance.  The Universe has no center and the cosmic egg forms around you.

2) New universe, new physical laws.  If they'd found a way past the other problems I've pointed out -and there's no way they could-  the likelihood that the new universe would be so similar as to even have three spatial dimensions is so low as to make no difference from impossible, barring bringing in some quantum observer effect where the crew's minds unconsciously shaped the new conditions.

-Actually, that last handwave occurred to me as I was writing, and I hearby invoke it to avoid having to rechristen the book Probability Zero.

Now somebody read the darn book so you can discuss it with me, if I haven't ruined it by spoiling the ending.  It's still a really good yarn, and deservedly a classic.

Track down a copy and get back to me...

[Metaliturtle]

The Name of the Wind, The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One, by Patrick Rothfuss. And I'm almost done with The Wise Man's Fear (Day Two). Excellent stuff.

Pat lives where I live, I'm his banker, Book 3 will be worth the wait.

[Buster's Uncle]

Small world.