Never too old: Star Trek

Just a little reminder of what made William Shatner's Captain Kirk such a hit.

PSA from Sulu!

LMAO! This is the funniest thing I've seen this month!

Reserved Meeting Room

Just to let you know that the reservation for the meeting room on the second floor at the library has been confirmed for us on the first Sundays March-June. They only will reserve them for a 6-month block, but we have the room each of those days from 1-5PM, so we can get there early and stay later if we choose. The room is reserved for "The Scifi Book Club" in case you need to ask to have them unlock the door. I'll just have to put in another request for the second half of the year...

Cheers!

Recent book signings

Christopher Moore 1/30/07

Ok, if you haven’t read any of Chris Moore’s works you are missing a great fun read. I have been a fan of his since his first novel came out about 15 years ago. I picked it up and thought, “What an odd title...” and the rest is history. It took Chris several more books before a cult following blossomed. For the past few releases of his I managed to get Chris to come to the store early on the morning of (or after) his book signing in town to have a potluck breakfast with the staff for two hours before the store opened. Call me selfish, but I’d rather him do that than do a signing at the store. (I have pics if anyone os interested) Alas, since I’m no longer at the store that did not happen this year and when I saw Chris it was a good thing too, as he was sick and heavily medicated with Nyquil. But he was a trooper to be here in town to promote his new novel, You Suck: A Love Story, a sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends.



Chris’ books are full of humor and just plain oddities and quirks and not surprisingly he comes across as stand-up comedian. He’s a great speaker and rambles about everything pertaining and not pertaining to his book. He has moved to San Francisco from Maui because as he explains, it’s like dating a supermodel. It’s beautiful and all but then there comes a time when you just need some intelligent conversation. People on Maui are not very deep and intelligent (Ok, I’m paraphrasing here, just in case there’s an Islander who reads this posting...). And he gives his reason why he will never do a book signing in Mississippi. One of his characters is a teenage goth named Abby Normal (who first appeared in his novel A Dirty Job) and he got her teenage girl goth voice down by lurking on VampireFreaks.com to view the users chat. His next book will be based in the Middle Ages.

Great turnout! I estimated about 300 people of all ages showed up to hear him talk and to get his books signed. That’s why I like having breakfast with him... Unfortunately, looking his website, http://www.chrismoore.com/, he is not making an appearance at SLC.

Dan Simmons 2/8/07

As I was fishing about my bookshelves for any unsigned Dan Simmons’ titles, I hadn’t realized how many I acquired since I last saw him. It is not uncommon for me to see Dan between two and four times a year. But then I realized I haven’t seen him since his Ilium book tour. (He did not do any here in town for Olympos that I recall.) It then occured to me that recently, Dan has been something of a recluse of Neil Stephenson-esque proportions. Not sure if that’s good or bad...

Overall there was about 70 people total for the signing of his latest book, The Terror .




Not too bad, but I had expected more. One must admit, however, that Dan’s novels are substantial and not fluff so his following is a minor cult status as opposed to Christopher Moore’s CULT status. Dan started off explaining how he came about to write this novel, his research into the historical records and how Hollywood recruited him to do the screenplay to one of Richard Matheson’s work (got to love tangents) and how they immediately fired him with the moral of the story being, “...it goes to show how Hollywood considers it’s viewership to be essentially brainless.” Then he read a passage from the beginning of the book and took questions. No, he did not visit the Arctic or Antarctic to get the feel for the novel, he did add a homage to Poe, the mentioned the reason he did not think it was just the tainted tinned food that killed so many of the crew, and yes, Hollywood sucks. No one asked what his next project was surprisingly enough. I did get to chat with him about a scene at the end of the novel I was confuesed about; I wasn’t sure if I missed something in another part of the book or if it was another obscure homage reference to something else. He told me that was the most asked question , but as a one-on-one chat rather than a forum question. It all makes sense now after he explained it so if you read the book and run across something you aren’t sure about at the end of the novel, let me know and I will fill you in.

A Couple of Books

Just finished a couple of books. The first was Ceres Storm by David Herter. Its main character is a young boy who over the course of the book discovers his heritage. It was a fun read, and quite short with only 250 pages in small format hardcover. The book reminded me a lot of Poul Anderson's The City and the Stars, which I must have read about 100 years ago. If you enjoyed that book, then you're probably going to like Ceres Storm. (This is supposed to be the first in a series, but you can stop with this one, if you want.)

The second book was a piece by Cory Doctorow. This guy is a maverick, what with publishing his manuscripts online and arguing for a new take on copyright. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom itself is a vision of a utopian future where those kids with all those cool ideas that started with Wikipedia have apparently taken over the world. Money, death, and taxes are all a thing of the past. That doesn't mean that there's no unhappiness left: people are still human, in spite of made to order bodies and a kind of hypergoogle interface built into their heads. Like Standard Eastern Tribe I enjoyed this book a lot. (Another author whose style and ideas remind me a lot of Doctorow is Charles Stross.)

Wow! 7 Years!!

Can you believe we've been getting together and sharing our thoughts & ideas since March 2000?? Figured an anniversary is as good a time as any to look back at all the cool (or not-so-cool) books we've read over the past seven years. So here's the list, as complete as I can determine. Lots of very interesting titles I know I would have never read otherwise...


Connie Willis • To Say Nothing of the Dog
Maureen McHugh • Mission Child
L.E. Modesitt • Of Tangible Ghosts
C.J. Cherryh • Downbelow Station
Dan Simmons • Hyperion
Roger Zelazny • Lord of Light
Octavia Butler • Wild Seed
Ursula K. Le Guin • The Lathe of Heaven
Ben Bova • Mars
Margaret Atwood • The Handmaid’s Tale
Mary Doria Russell • The Sparrow
Tim Powers • The Anubis Gates
Lois McMaster Bujold • Falling Free
James Morrow • Only Begotten Daughter
Nalo Hopkinson • Midnight Robber
Gordon R. Dickson • Dorsai
China Mieville • Perdido Street Station
Philip K. Dick • UBIK
Pat Murphy • There & Back Again
J.R.R. Tolkien • The Hobbit
Stanislaw Lem • Solaris
Graham Joyce • Dreamside
David Brin • Otherness
Robert Charles Wilson • Darwinia
Greg Bear • Darwin’s Radio
Alfred Bester • The Stars My Destination
Theodore Sturgeon • More Than Human
Emma Bull • War for the Oaks
Terry Bisson • The Pickup Artist
China Mieville • The Scar
Thomas M. Disch • The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of
Jacqueline Carey • Kushiel’s Dart
Joanna Russ • The Female Man
Al Sarrantonio (editor) • Redshift
Joe Halderman • The Forever War
Frank Herbert • Eye
Stephen Baxter • The Time Ships
Greg Bear • Strength of Stones
Thomas M. Disch • Camp Concentraton
Charles De Lint • Svaha
David Brin • Kiln People
Robert L. Sawyer • Hominids
Julie Czerneda • Beholder’s Eye
Vernor Vinge • A Fire Upon the Deep
Jack Vance • Tales of the Dying Earth
Isaac Asimov • I, Robot
Lisa Goldstein • The Alchemist’s Door
Dennis Danvers • The Watch
Harlan Ellison • Troublemakers
Tim Powers • The Drawing of the Dark
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett • Good Omens
Richard Paul Russo • Ship of Fools
Jasper Fforde • The Eyre Affair
Sheri S. Tepper • The Companions
Ursula K. Le Guin • A Wizard of Earthsea
C.S. Lewis • Out of the Silent Planet
Vernor Vinge • A Deepness in the Sky
James Gunn • The Immortals
Linda Nagata • Memory
Robert Silverberg • The Longest Way Home
Andre Norton • Janus
Gene Wolfe • There are Doors
Michael Moorcock • Gloriana
Joan Vinge • The Snow Queen
Kate Wilhelm • Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
John Brunner • Stand on Zanzibar
China Mieville • Looking for Jake: Stories
Sean Stewart • Mockingbird
Ursula K. Le Guin • The Left Hand of Darkness
Octavia Butler • Kindred
Chris Moriarty • Spin State
Brandon Sanderson • Elantris
William Gibson & Bruce Sterling • The Difference Engine
John Varley • Mammoth
Tim Powers • Three Days to Never
Connie Willis • Miracle
Keith Donahue • The Stolen Child
Peter Watts • Starfish
Nancy Kress • Beggars in Spain
Octavia Butler • Fledgling

March & April Selections

March 4th discussion = Beggars in Spain

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April 1st discussion = Fledgling