Jlawrence’s Comments (group member since Mar 08, 2010)

Jlawrence’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

OK, we'll meet Tue, June 5 to discuss Night's Master et al.

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Then we'll back to our regular schedule, meeting on Monday, June 25 to discuss the June book.

Hi all, apologies for being late posting the May meetup date!

Since our normal date would fall on Memorial Day, I'm negotiating with Borderlands a different day, and will update the thread once I know.

Sorry, James and Robert, got trapped at work. Hope you have a good conversation about the Bobs!

WOOT! Congrats!

In a remote Antarctic lab, the fusion of CRISPR tech, dinosaur DNA and a Boston Dynamics robotic chassis means a real-life Lem the Dragon will finally be unleashed upon the world.

Veronica wrote: "lame-ass Veronica can't make it after all. I'm so sorry, I've had a horrible headache for three days and I just need dark rooms and quiet time. :("

You were missed, Veronica! Hope the headache has been chased away.

We discussed the urban-legend stand-up arcade-game Polybius (and a podcast that pretended to be a documentary about it), our confusion about the end of A Unkindness of Ghosts, if Spielberg can bring it for Ready Player One and (argh) Indiana Jones 5, if the kaiju-bashing and city-destroying of Pacific Rim: Uprising matches the original, and I unintentionally scared away a nice old lady who was eavesdropping on us.

Next meetup in Mon, April 23 at Borderlands Books cafe!
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Also, the Bay Area Book Festival is being held in Berkeley on Sat, April 28 and Sun, April 29. We had a S&L meetup several years ago at the Festival - anyone interested in doing that again?

A ton of the sessions look interesting. Here are some specific S&L-related ones:

- The Art of Science Fiction: Interview with Sylvie Denis
- Gary Snyder & Kim Stanley Robinson
- Women & Speculative Fiction

You can buy a 15$ general pass (all sessions, but not a guaranteed seat) and/or 10$ per session priority seating at a specific session.

I'm definitely going on Saturday and seeing the Gary Synder/Kim Stanley Robinson session at least.

Next meetup is Mon, March 26 at Borderlands Books!

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Philip K. Dick mixed Christian theological ideas (especially Gnostic ones) in a lot of his work, especially strongly and explicitly in VALIS where the protagonist deals with a mystical experience (beamed into his mind by an alien intelligence) that seems to reveal the true Gnostic nature of the world.

Of course, the nature of objective reality is almost always in question in Dick's books, but he definitely goes beyond exploring beliefs - it is often on the table (especially in VALIS) that the theological ideas/cosmology being presented is concretely true.

As mentioned above, Blish's A Case of Conscience presents a science fiction world where Christian concepts are objectively true (view spoiler)[the gentle intelligent alien race discovered in the book, who seem to be benign and are completely without religious beliefs, turn out to be literally created by Satan to ensnare humanity into abandoning a faith-based view of goodness. (hide spoiler)].

I shared some of the frustrations of others in this thread with C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, where some beautiful world-building eventually got buried under simplistic "secularism is BAAAADDDD!!" axe-grinding.

I pledged a dozen for the sword, and a dozen for the laser.

I have 2 lasers down (Frankenstein and Brave New World) for Jan, so an OK start.

Robert, sorry you missed the last time! If it helps, it's usually the 4th Monday of the month, barring holidays, etc.

Speaking of which, next meetup is Monday, Feb 26!

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Woot and congrats! *waves a sword and a laser wildly, alarming co-workers*

INTO THE NEW YEAR....

Next meetup is Monday, January 22

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Next meeting will be Monday, November 27!

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James, I hope you've done more reading in the Star Justice series so you can update us on our favorite starfaring weretiger's harem!

Oh man, that cover is badlicious! It matches tone & content of what you described perfectly!

Yes, really fun meeting, thanks for coming, everyone! I'll have the next date up soon.

Hi York, I'm not aware of any, but will be looking around since I moved south of SF. You could also start a thread in this subforum asking if anyone in the San Jose area's interested in starting a S&L one.

October event listing is up! We'll meet Monday, Oct 23 at 6:30pm:

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Hey guys, I'm further behind on packing for my move to Mt. View than I should be (and the moving truck comes Sat!), so I'm not going to make it tonight. Have a good discussion, and hopefully Fresno Bob will take everyone for drinks again!

I'll make the October meet-up (my new place is walking distance to Caltrain, so trips to and from the city won't be be big burdens.)

Fresno Bob wrote: "Jlawrence wrote: "We had a return to form in August, and even a find round of drinks afterwards!

The next meeting is Monday, September 25!


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"


I even bought this book!"

:O :D

I dug up my used paperback copy!



I'm on page 25.

But I still plan to be finished by club time!

We had a return to form in August, and even a find round of drinks afterwards!

The next meeting is Monday, September 25!

RSVP here!

Ok, glad that was not too much of a bummer, Andrew.

The next meeting is Monday, August 28!

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May we all shoot as straight as Roland...