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Blind Lake
Blind Lake takes place in a close future and deals with alien contact and the difficulty of interpreting alien behavior. If you don't want to read further (but I will not include real spoilers, only the setting of the book), I can already summarize as follows: if you liked The Chronoliths or Darwinia, then you will like Blind Lake.
In the book, Blind Lake is one of two locations with an ultra-advanced telescope. This device doesn't work optically, and in fact nobody really understands exactly how it works (there is some amusing technobabble in the book about infinite complexity, adaptive self-programming and the like -- you know the drill), since it was invented accidentally. Anyway the result is that with this telescope, scientists can examine the surface of very far planets in great detail, they can even track an intelligent alien being through its daily life. The book follows Marguerite, a team leader at Blind Lake, her ex-husband, her young daughter (who suffers from a mild personality disorder), and a team of journalists. Marguerite leads a team of "interpreters," which leads to plenty of interesting discussions on how difficult this work is -- it is almost impossible to write the life story of the alien, since we tend to map what we observe to our own habits. Is the alien admiring the view or is he enjoying the air pressure? Etc, etc. Already from the very start of the story, Wilson injects a thriller element: Blind Lake goes into quarantine, with robot drones guarding the perimeter. Nobody knows why. Did something happen with the other telescope? Why are all data streams blocked?
Blind Lake is written with the same attention to detail as The Chronoliths, and the characters are equally well developed. There isn't much adventurous action in the book; it is built rather like a mystery novel with thriller elements, interjected with several interesting ideas. The pacing is similar to that of The Chronoliths. Wilson takes time to flesh out his characters and various background details. I like this thoughtful approach. Towards the end, various new ideas are introduced which are bigger in scope than the original storyline.
While I liked the almost metaphysical (even somewhat new age) concepts introduced in the later chapters, I actually preferred the original storyline (I had the same feeling with Darwinia, which evolves from an alternative history novel into a totally different story). Still, this is only a minor issue and most SF readers will experience a great deal of satisfaction with this book.
I would score Blind Lake 8/10. As a comparison with other Wilson books: I think it's as good as The Chronoliths, while I would rate Darwinia as a 7/10.
Interesting links
- Author's homepage
- Interesting reviews of Wilson's books
- The Blind Lake page at Barnes&Noble has interesting other comments (maybe even already a bit too much info if you haven't read the book yet).
You can purchase Blind Lake from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Horror/Sci Fi writer Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. They say celebrity deaths come in threes, guess it is true. Truly an American icon.
first
YOU WERE THE BADDEST OF THE BAD
Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account. Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal. Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account. Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal. Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account. Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal.
Ref:Amazon has this book for $2.50 less than bn.
Also, buy $7.50 more stuff and get free shipping.
To observe this Sept. 11, 2001, anniversary, I urge critics of Attorney General John Ashcroft - especially the Democratic presidential candidates - to read the article "The Falling Man" in the current Esquire.
A photo on page 176 shows the article's subject plunging headfirst from the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Taken by celebrated Associated Press photographer Richard Drew, the picture was printed once in various newspapers - then banned by the U.S. media as too awful for public consumption.
The riveting article, by Tom Junod, chronicles the search to identify the "falling man," but the larger point for today, two years later, is that hundreds of people were driven by heat and smoke to leap to their deaths before the towers collapsed. The article is must-reading because - since the horror of the jumpers has been hushed up - it's a new wake-up call about the menace of terrorism.
Al Qaeda is still out there. Cells may be operating right here in the United States. Osama bin Laden still wants to wreak terror on America. Radical Islamicists have declared that using weapons of mass destruction to kill women and children is part of the holy duty of jihad.
As Bob Woodward reports in his book "Bush At War," President Bush's first order to Ashcroft after 9/11 was that his job no longer was to prosecute terrorists as criminals, but to prevent them from attacking America again. And that's what Ashcroft has tried to do - so far, successfully.
Yet, to listen to Ashcroft's critics, one would think he was a greater threat to American well-being than bin Laden or the terrorist leader's top planner, Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
The loudest of the critics is the Democrats' frontrunning candidate, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has outrageously said that Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in American history, worse than Richard Nixon's AG, John Mitchell. "And he was a criminal," Dean noted.
Dean also declared that "John Ashcroft is not a patriot. John Ashcroft is a descendant of Joe McCarthy."
In the so-called Democratic presidential debates, does anyone besides Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) ever call Dean on the things he says? After all, Mitchell organized a burglary at Democratic National Committee headquarters and helped cover it up. McCarthy used anti-Communism to ruin lives and terrorize the entire U.S. political system.
Ashcroft doesn't begin to compare with either scoundrel. And, whatever limited infringements on civil liberties he has presided over, they don't begin to compare with those America has experienced in prior wars - Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus or Franklin Roosevelt's internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans for four years.
Instead of rebutting Dean's overstatements, his rivals are competing with him to ride a wave of Ashcroft-phobia raging semi-hysterically on the American left - and also, to some extent, on the right.
At the Congressional Black Caucus debate Tuesday night in Baltimore, Ashcroft's next-most vociferous critic, Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), said that "the last thing we need to do is turn our rights, our freedom and our liberties over to John Ashcroft."
Edwards also repeated the canard, spread by the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Library Association, that Ashcroft has FBI agents "going to our libraries and keeping records of the books we're checking out."
Under the U.S.A. Patriot Act, which Edwards voted for along with 97 other Senators, the government is entitled to search business records - and, yes, library records - in pursuit of potential terrorists. It takes a court order to do so, however, as it does in regular criminal cases. It's a fact that the 9/11 terrorists used computers at public libraries to communicate with one another. Does Edwards seriously think that the FBI is snooping into the check-out records of average citizens, when it fears an al Qaeda attack?
Dean and Edwards are in the lead, but all the Democratic candidates take routine swipes at Ashcr
I really liked the deliberate pacing of the book (I can understand that some might find it slow), following the characters through a carefully constructed story. Slow? It makes Ayn Rand novels look like a choose your own adventure.
This sounds so gay as to be positively unreadable.
I bet you just love all the attention he pays to Uranus.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Anyway the result is that with this telescope, scientists can examine the surface of very far planets in great detail, they can even track an intelligent alien being through its daily life.
Sounds like the ultimate unreality show.
Science fiction sucks ass. It is entirely too little of the former and does not even do a good enough job of the latter for the "willing suspension of disbelief" necesary for true fiction. Why do lame ass reivews of even lamer "books" make it to the front page? Not all of us drool over cyber-punk-anarchy-robot-clone-spaceship-pseduoint ellecutal-prosetylizing garbage.
Light emanating from earth really does'nt die out, right? So if it was possible for us to either travel faster than light or warp space time into a circle and then get a powerful enough telescope, then we should be able to see events from the past, right?
That is travel faster than light, to a long distance, turn around and then look at earth with a powerful telescope, we should be able to see kennedy getting shot? wouldnt we? Or maybe bend spacetime so that all the light which left earth years ago comes back to earth ?
.ACMD setaloiv siht gnidaeR
MF*!!
UR GONNA BE F*KED SOON U LUNATIC PUSSY A$$.
I ROCK. I WON. I AM GAY.
please rape my ass...\
PLEASE DONT USE SO MANY CAPS!!! ok, then...
asdjfasjkl asdlvbj as alksjd aslvj asldfjjasljdfblasdhjfb lsdjafbhasdfbhsadhbf asdjfasdf a s df asdf a sd f as df d fas df asd fs a fa sdfasdfasd f a sd f asfas dfas df a sdf asd fa f a sd fas dfsadf ds f as f asdf asd asd sd
end of filler
It's sad that people's attention spans have dropped to the point that just the thought of a book being slow is enough to drive ppl away. I bet if someone a hundred years ago picked up the book, they would say it was lightning fast.
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
In the book, Blind Lake is one of two locations with an ultra-advanced telescope. This device doesn't work optically, and in fact nobody really understands exactly how it works (there is some amusing technobabble in the book about infinite complexity, adaptive self-programming and the like -- you know the drill), since it was invented accidentally.
Probably based on professor Farnsworth's smelloscope technology.
Why does the side bar overlap the comments with Mozilla Firebird?
It works perfectly fine with IE.
Is it that slashdot is a shitty webpage, or the Firebird is a shitty browser?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Hey... wait a sec... That's not sad news. That's not sad news AT ALL!!!
NOT! For a much better book on Aliens watching us try Armageddon, the Musical. Guaranteed to raise more than a chuckle.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
towed out into the deep water, & coerced into writing bad checks. fiction, you say?
that old tune title (hope we don't get 'busted' for using it) "make the world go away", takes on new/varied meaning in these times.
the prevalent notion that 'everything will be taken care of' without yOUR knowledge/participation is insidiously misleading.
in our estimation, the biggest 'threat' against US (aside from continuing to fire bullinedly into the 'crowd', whilst demanding applause), would be a failure to recognize our 'role' in the problems. we're victims for sure, but whoare ALL the perpetrators (see also: corepirate nazi puppets), gets lost in the ?pr? ?firm? generated propaganda spew.
consult with/trust in yOUR creator. seek others of non-aggressive behaviours/intentions. that's the spirit.
the lights ARE coming up now. pay attention (to yOUR heart, for example). that could lead to new ways (see also: newclear power plan) of thinking about/dealing with, the needs/rights of others EVERYWHERE on the planet.
having the attention span of a gnat, & similar ambitions, might be ok if you are just planning to be a consumer/type one liners.
take care of each other, you're all we've got. we're here for you. get ready to see the light.--
worth reading, again, with feeling.
"It takes a long time to teach the judges, legislators, and public to understand technology. Right now, they're getting a strong dose of "education" on the Internet's threats and harms, and not hearing so much about its potential. Shouts of "piracy" often outweigh consideration of how we might communicate with more open media formats, but judges like Stephen Wilson in the Grokster case are starting to listen through the shouting. We're encouraging more people to think about how the law shapes technological innovation, how the technology itself can foster creativity, and then to do something about it to advance the public interest."--
"The stability of the large world house which is ours will involve a revolution of values to accompany the scientific and freedom revolutions engulfing the earth. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing"-oriented society to a "person"-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A civilization can flounder as readily in the face of moral and spiritual bankruptcy as it can through financial bankruptcy."
Darwinia is quite good, with a surprising twist about halfway through and yet another twist at the end. In a way it reads like three different books. I recommend it highly.
- -
Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
To observe this Sept. 11, 2001, anniversary, I urge critics of Attorney General John Ashcroft...
blah blah blah
by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 12, @09:24AM (#6943482)
...will I read a /. review of a fiction book.
As an entertainment form, I value reading higher (WAY higher) than movies and television. Combine that with a fickle disposition for genre and style and the result is that there are too few fiction books that will satisfy me. The last thing I need is some amateur wack job disclosing the whole plot in a "review" and ruining the book entirely.
IMHO, the "review" that I am referring to should have been removed faster than a goatse link on the main page labeled "microsoft goes bankrupt."
Thanks for the reviews guys, but fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I'll have to murder you and your whole family with a pack of silly straws and a cantaloupe.
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
Another fairly recent sci-fi book that tackles the problems in interpreting alien behavior is Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow. The book follows a technician at SETI who discovers an alien signal from a nearby star and eventually is drafted onto the first mission to explore this newly discovered civilization. Interestingly the spaceship and crew is provided by the Jesuits.
That may sound odd, but this is an exceptionally fine book with well-developed characters and a compeling story. Russell is an anthropologist by training and her understanding of what it means to encounter a truly alien society and the consequences of that are profound and impactful.
Highly recommended if the wider implications of Blind Lake appeal to you, or you enjoy thought-provoking literature.
Sailing over the event horizon
unless they're in front of their computers without a shirt and sweat droplets dripping down while waiting for an IM to pop up, eating cheetos with one hand and flipping pages with their big toe on their left foot.
I would score Blind Lake 8/10. As a comparison with other Wilson books: I think it's as good as The Chronoliths, while I would rate Darwinia as a 7/10.
I read Darwinia last week, and I think the reviewer here is underrating it. Then again, I also thought that the giant midbook twist (which he complains about above, and which I won't spoil here) was possibly the best part.
It appears that the plot of the book was stolen from a late 70's early 80's short cartoon depicting Martians viewing earth thorough a telescope and concluding that machines are the dominate species with an unknown virus consistently destroying all of the machines creations.
Anyone else remember this cartoon. It was around the same time that the Gods Must Be Crazy was released.
I hope /. is getting some money for this kind of thing even if a real person is posting it. But it sure makes me wonder if Amazon has some kind of bot that watches for book reviews and posts the 'save money' thing as an AC.
Note to moderators -- pleez do not moderate this kind of thing up. We are all smart enough to shop around if we want to save money and it just encourages them...
- -
Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
In the great tradition of farce, Three's Company is the comedy that pushed the envelope by matching two attractive young women and one handsome, but clumsy, willing and able young male chef living under one roof. Jack, Janet, Chrissy, Cindy, and Terri all resided in apartment 201. And their presence made American audiences gladly want to knock on their door each week. Copyright 2000 ABC,Inc. The laughs began when American producer Donald L. Taffner saw the success in adapting and "Americanizing " British television comedies for the U.S. Acquiring the Changed Format Rights for the Thames Television hit Britcom, Man About The House, Taffner partnered with former TV DuMont television executive Ted Bergmann and they flew to Los Angeles to pitch the networks CBS, NBC, and ABC with the idea. In the fall of 1975, all three networks balked at the risque premise of two single women living with one single man. Three's Company was a novel and shocking first-timer for an American sitcom. Copyright 2000 ABC,Inc. While each of the big three networks originally passed on the idea, newly appointed ABC Programming Chief Fred Silverman (a fan of the concept from his days at CBS) surprised everyone and contacted Taffner and Bergmann. Dennis Doty, Bridget Potter, and Tom Werner had been developing the program at ABC when Silverman gave them the green light to produce a pilot. Larry Gelbart, who penned the first four years of MASH and his stepson, Gary Markowitz, who coined the show's title, "Three's Company", were the first writers hired. At this point, no one involved knew that it would take three pilots and one year until the show would go to air. At the time, John Ritter was best known for his role as Rev. Matthew Fordwick on The Waltons. Although his role on the popular drama The Waltons was a completely different character type, Fred Silverman saw something in Ritter and convinced the actor to audition for the role of David Bell (the name was later changed to Jack Tripper) in January 1976. Everyone including Larry Gelbart knew he was right for the part. One down, two more to go. More than 250 female actresses auditioned for the roles of the roommates. Valerie Curtin won the role of Jenny (the name was later changed to Janet) and Suzanne Zenor was cast as Samantha (which later became the role of Chrissy). Michael Eisner, then an ABC Programming Executive, inspired the casting of Norman Fell and Audra Lindley as the nosy landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Roper. The casting was complete, but unfortunately, ABC executives didn't feel this first pilot was strong enough to air. Back to the drawing board ... ABC enlisted the help of the Emmy-winning writers and producers of All in the Family and The Jeffersons, Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, and Bernie West.
Michael Eisner stepped in again and suggested that two new actresses be found to play the female roommates. Nicholl, Ross and West knew Joyce DeWitt was perfect for the smart, wise-cracking roommate known as Janet, but they were still short a blonde. Susan Lanier, who was then famous for her role as Bambi on Welcome Back Kotter, was given a shot.
The second pilot was taped, yet producers still felt something was missing. They needed to find another Chrissy. Fred Silverman remembered Suzanne Somers from her guest appearances on The Tonight Show and knew she was just what they wanted. The clock was ticking and a third pilot had to be created that would convince the network the show was good enough to air. Somers read for the part early January 1977 and the producers made their decision -- Somers was the Chrissy they had been looking for. The third and final pilot was filmed Friday, January 28, 1977 and soon after the first five episodes followed.
Three's Company first appeared on television Tuesday, March 15th at 9:30 p.m. and was ranked 28th in the Nielsen ratings on its premiere night. The remaining five episodes of the first season aired Thursday nights at 9:30 p.m.-never falling out of the Nielsen's Top Ten. The show was a hit with audiences though the critics were
You know an original post, the review, and the book itself must be pretty lame when the most interesting comments are from the troll gallery. In honor of John Ritter I think I'll do a comedic pratfall on top of my cubicle.
This sounds an awful lot like "Macroscope" by Piers Anthony. Has anyone read both books? Ripoff or coincidence?
"You cannot find out which view is the right one by science in the ordinary sense." - C.S. Lewis on Intelligent Design
In the source for the end of the article:
I would score Blind Lake 8/10. As a comparison with other Wilson books: I think it's as good as The Chronoliths, while I would rate Darwinia as a 7/10.
<cite>Darwinia<cite>
should be changed to:
<cite>Darwinia</cite>
Specifically the cite tag needs to be closed properly. The way the article is now, all of the text after the article (including the comments) is italicized.
I'm 2/3s of the way through Macroscope right now, and this sounds kind of similar...
----------- Sig what?
Read the reviews at amazon, shop at buy.com!
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
On reflection, I've spent most of the summer reading nonfiction for a change...
Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
Swofford was a Marine sniper during Gulf War I, and this book talks about that experience and his experience in the Corps. It's an extremely good read, and unlike most "military" theme books it is neither "pro" nor "anti" war, but instead lays the whole deal on the table with a tremendous amount of honesty and self-awareness from one grunt's somewhat nihilistic point of view.
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
I know what you're thinking: I only read the book when the movie came out. You're right. That doesn't change the fact that this is an extremely interesting read, which is especially impressive given the lack of embellishment and the attention to historical detail. If you just saw the movie, you're missing out -- some of the most interesting parts of the book come as Hillenbrand sets up the reader's understanding of 1920-30's horseracing and introduces the people around Seabiscuit.
Holy War: The Crusades and their Impact on Today's World by Karen Armstrong
This is a bit more challenging than my previous two selections, but is more than worth the effort. Just after the second anniversary of 9-11, the vast majority of Americans still have no understanding of the history of east/west emnity (which probably explains how Bush Jr. can paint the whole complex affair in simplistic terms of good and evil without getting laughed at). This book covers the root causes of the Crusades and follows the results all the way to modern day. Written in 1988, this book seems almost eerie today in predicting the renewal of this ancient conflict. Armstrong takes hard history and makes it approachable without talking down to the reader -- she's one of those rare authors who can really get your brain in gear with an understanding of complex events rather than just awareness of them. As I mentioned, this book is somewhat of a challenge to read, but the understanding it will impart will leave you much more capable of understanding our modern world.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Let's hope this thread breaks 100 posts. At least to make Michael feel better.
It's not Amazon. It's an Amazon associate who gets between 2.5% and 15% commission, depending on the item. I don't see what everybody's problem is. If you want to give the loser Amazon associate a commission, click on the link. Otherwise, navigate directly to amazon.com and Amazon will get that $1 instead of paying it to the loser.
www.alldirect.com is even cheaper!
I checked the book flaps on amazon.com, these are actually more detailed than the reviewer's (probably on purpose) quite vague description of the story beginning.
The reviewer could maybe just have said "Blind Lake takes place in a close future and deals with alien contact and the difficulty of interpreting alien behavior", but would that be enough to form an opinion?
In short, maybe you're overreacting a little...
I looked at your other /. contributions an this silly rant is, at 2, one point higher that every other comment you posted.
Maybe the "review" was just to bring a special author to the attention of a bigger crowd. I personally enjoy reviews as I get pointers among the higher ranked comments to authors that I might like.
Help fight continental drift.
How the hell can it be modded -1 Informative?
I guess if you had a rather large gravity well and could curve the light back at the source, you could make it do a 180 deg turn and thus see the past. We just have to find the right black hole and look close to it.
..........FULL STOP.
Implement a kind of .plan file for Dashboard for users who desire it. In this (preferrably XML-based) file, it contains a reading list for the user (and even a music list). More interesting (seeings how the Amazon.com stuff is already in the code) would be to link those book selections to Amazon for some good 1-click shopping. Add in a referral reference (maybe have a standard one for the GNOME foundation?) and it could make for a small revenue stream for the developers, although it would make sense to 1) disable such feature 2) change the referral ID to someone else and definately 3) make the user aware of such referrals. (Add in music lists (using GStreamer), same Amazon links, and even maybe implement "streaming" so you have a listen before you buy.. hrm)
/. review that's actually gotten me to go buy a book. Not the book reviewed, however, I instead bought The Harvest by the same auther at the local used book store around the corner. They also have Darwinia which looks nifty and I'll be stopping by the library tomorrow for others. Thanks for the "review" as it did introduce me to a new (to me) author!
And on topic: This is the first
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Wilson's stuff consistently fails to deliver on the promise of the first 1/3 of the book. I've been suckered twice by him, once for "Harvest" and once for "Cronoliths".
Wilson's books seem to focus on the main characters' ordinary lives, even in the face of something really interesting happening, *somewhere else*. You keep hoping that we'll get to see the interesting things, but that never happens.
Property law should use #'EQ, not #'EQUAL.
One of the alternate theories to General Relativity is Lorentzian Relativity. It doesn't require (or indeed, perhaps, allow) time to run backwards, or time to stop, which also doesn't leave us in the lurch the same way trying to imagine what a 0 or -n result from General Relativity means.
Tom Van Flandern uses it to postulate FTL behavior of gravity and electromagnetic effects. Electromagnetic effects include the deflection of particles based on the other particle's "actual location" (as would be based on a much faster than light propagation) as opposed to their "apparent location" (which would be based on a propagation of the field at the speed of light). He proposes something similar for gravity.
Far-flung, perhaps, but objecting to it solely on the grounds that GR is "right" would fly in the face of the whole research process.
Binary geeks can count to 1,023 on their fingers
I kind of like my science fiction with a high threshold on geek plots, and a low threshold on substance...but that's just me. If I wanted substance, I'd read a non-scifi book. Still, I can see how people would be interested in it.
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A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.