Ten science fiction stories by various authors. I really liked And Now The News by Theodore Sturgeon, and Gomez by C.M. Kornbluth. Old favorites they are. I did not care for Rogue Ship by A.E. Van Vogt or A Sign In Space by Italo Calvino.
Read:
5/2007
Words I Had To Look Up:
Once again the bus hirpled off down the broken road (pg. 173) -- A Scottish word, to limp.
Quote:
The dream of time is the traitor, and we are all accomplices to the betrayal of ourselves. (pg. 185) Hobson's Choice, by Alfred Bester.
Co-author Eytan Kollin. Man from four hundred years in the past is awakened in a world where there are no taxes, but people and corporations (and the government) own shares in each person. Better than I expected. Best guffaw was the "refrigerator" incident.
Girl kidnapped 17 years before returns to family. Brother and sister deal with her return. Told in a flashback style. Probably a surprise ending if one hadn't read the last few pages first...
Book three in the Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels series, first one I've read. Pretty bloody. The story moves right along. Too many brand names mentioned. Jack doesn't seem to ever have a flashlight to hand when she needs one. Maybe she ought to checkout reddit.com/r/flashlight?
A boy finds a rare baseball card and is ripped off by a dealer. By about $ 980,000!! Boy recruits friends to get card back. Chaos happens.
Read:
2/2012
Quote:
"It says their sirens are one hundred and seventy-five decibels louder than revving jet engines." (pg. 106) -- Gosh, that is roughly the sound level of the Tunguska Meteor hit, and more than an atomic bomb explosion!
Lady Astronaut Novel #1. Meteorite wipes out Washington D.C., climate change, better get some off-Earth colonies started! Set in the 50s. I really liked it a lot, read the darn thing in one 24-hour period!
Second book in the Wings trilogy, odd story of the boy Peter, and later the man Peter, making an odd trip in an odd America.
Words I Had To Look Up:
matutinal (pg. 72) -- pertaining to or occurring in the morning. crepuscular (pg. 86) -- active mainly at dawn and dusk. mobcap (pg. 173) -- large high frilly cap with a full crown; formerly worn indoors by women. paucity (pb. 215) -- dearth: an insufficient quantity or number. plenitude (pb. 215) -- plenty: a full supply. pelisse (pg. 219) -- a sleeveless cape that is lined or trimmed with fur.
Quote:
...the area of which is defined by the equation S = π2 (R + r) (R - r) where R is the major radius of the torus and r is the minor radius of the torus, an equation that to this day makes me hot.
On a planet far far away, women are recruited for a special unit to defend their small country from belligerent neighbors. Gosh, wish the two appendixes had been listed in a table of contents so I could have USED them while reading!
A biography of John Kraus in nice little chapters leading eventually to the development of the Big Ear radio astronomy facility, along with many other things he was involved with. I enjoyed reading it very much.