"Blood Music," by Greg Bear

This was a great story. I think I read it a long time ago. I am not sure but it seemed familiar. I know it is a classic. The science in it is fascinating. Greg Bear always makes his science fiction read just like it is real science and so possible it is happening. He tells the tale of a scientst gone bad, one who ultimately experiements on himself like so many others, but this time he has injected himself with what we would call today nanomachines. Each has been programmed to improve him and change him for the better. He loses weight, he looks better, his back doesn't hurt, but all these are at the cost of being human. His spine, his heart and other internal organs and everything about him has changed and then they eventually communicate with him and take over. A friend, who is a doctor, tries to stop it all by killing him while he takes a bath, but the doctor and his wife become infected and the end suggests that these nanomachines are loose and will change the world. It is a great story.

"The Winter Market," by William Gibson

OK, so I am not sure that I got this one at all. I admire Gibson's imagination and his talent but often after I finish one of his works I scratch my head and feel like some inferior creature for not getting it, for not being a fan like all the cool people who read and admire him and give him rewards. All I can really remember from the story, and I just read it, is that this guy likes this model and can't get away from her all because, as the introduction in the anthology goes, "he suggests that people who know exactly what they want can be a little frightening--particularly if they need you to get it for them." Lise is this artist he has an experience with through dreams and technology when he should be professional and just working with her. I might re-read it to try to get it and I might not.

Star Trek, the movie

OK, so I know that they are trying to get a new generation of viewers but they killed off Kirk's dad and Spock's mom, thus bringing them closer? I like the way things were and the novel by William Shatner with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Star Fleet Academy, was better. With so many changes in the new movie, I think they will lose some loyal fans in their desperate attempt to resuscitate this franchise. I guess it gives them all kinds of new possibilities and they could even go back in time again and straighten out the timelines but they had Spock the elder meet Spock the younger. Whoa, that should have ended the universe right there. Oh well.

Terminator: Salvation, novelization by Alan Dean Foster

OK, I am embarrassed to admit that I read a novelization by anyone, especially since I haven't seen the movie yet and this should have killed all the surprises for me. I don't make it a habit of reading novelizations because they are just a beefed up screenplay so I wouldn't normally post on such material but I had to say that this was terrible for two reasons. One, it seemed hastily and sloppily written for such a professional as Alan Dean Foster who has written more than I ever will. He uses disinterested when he meant uninterested and maybe I am the only one who should care about such things but it bugs me when a writer loses control of the language. Second, it seems hastily written in that the writing was rushed and not exactly thought out, as in a thesaurus was used some times. Instantaneous or other words were overused and thus the thesaurus was underused in some areas. All in all, it was less rewarding than watching the movie will be, I am sure. It did set up another novel by Timothy Zahn, whose Stars Wars' books I enjoyed, so maybe the sequel to the prequel will be better: Terminator Salvation: Rise from the Ashes. The prologue and first chapter of this book are in the back of Terminator: Salvation. So far, the writing is better and seems less rushed and more interesting, but the key character in Terminator: Salvation, Marcus Wright, is missing so far. His character kept the book going for me because he is a hybrid, half-human and half-terminator, with both a CPU and a human brain. He even saves John Connor and keeps the timeline, though it is now twisted, going. All for this one....

Spook Country, by William Gibson

I realize that I never posted anything about this great book. It has been a while since I read it but it left some definite impressions. For one, the idea that stuff is kept in shipping containers, hidden and moved around yet almost untraceable, that only a few people know about, is pretty scary. I read on Gibson's that he does research as he goes in order to keep his work current and beyond what anyone has already written, which makes it hard for him to pitch a book. This idea, coupled with some obscure groups of people, rather like the mafia and spies, working beneath the world we all live in, makes the idea of daily life almost frightening. It is as if all these different forms of culture exist at the same time and yet never interact with each other. You just have to read the book for yourself. I might have to re-read it just as I did with his first book, Neuromancer, just to understand more of it myself. I often find that the first reading of any of Gibson's work is an experience. The thought and intellectual activity only happens after a second reading.

"The Pure Product," by John Kessel

I just read this short story in the Best of the Best collection drawn from Gardner Dozoi's Annual The Year's Best Science Fiction. This is a strange one, even to me. You are kept interested in the story without knowing much about the main character/narrator. He seems to be immortal, which you don't learn right away, until he attempts suicide, but you gradually learn that he is trying to stimulate himself through various efforts such as tossing a Molatoff cocktail at an innocent bystander, picking up a 17-year-old girl who likes to shoplift and kill people as well. They have a wild ride for a while and then he dumps her. He seems bored with humans, though you never know what species he is or where he's from. We only get a snapshot of this immortal's life, which makes it such a great story. His attitude, his behavior, and his interactions with others all portray a man tired of living yet those words are never said anywhere. It is what we imagine might happen to something that can not only liver forever but travel through space and even time.

Back

Well, I haven't posted in a while but I thought of reading some short stories and then posting a response or review of each one after I have read it. It should help me with the story I am writing inspired by Springsteen's song "Magic" from the penultimate album with the same title. "There is a fire down below/and it's coming up here/so leave everything you know/carry only what you fear." I love those lines and wonder what someone would carry if he or she could only carry what he or she fears. At any rate, more posts on my reading coming up.

National Novel Writing Month

I am going to give it a try but it means about 1600 words a day if I am going to write 50,000 words by the end of November. Given all the papers I have to grade over the next month, that could be tricky, but I like the motto of the whole program--quantity not quality. I am not going to worry over what I write, just write and write and write. Wish me luck.

This Mid-season finale thing stinks!!!!

I have to say that I can't wait for some new episodes, at least to find out who is the fifth hidden cyclon in the human fleet. The vision of a burnt-out earth was a little frightening as I have always wondered if, to quote Charlton Heston from Planet of the Apes, "You (we) finally did it. You (we) finally blew the damn thing up." I like the director's guts to have earth fried up but it is depressing at the same time. Guess it would have been too pretty if they had traveled all that way and found the 13th colony and life would have been hunky-dorey, but where the heck is this going to go???

Guess I have have to wait and see.....