Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion
Science Fiction
>
Welcome Sci-Fi Authors and Readers!

++Sarcasm detected.++
“It was green Mommy.” She looks older than she is, already 79% of adult height at only 1.8 kD.
Starburst follows her older brother in laughter. “What about sunset, daddy? The sky is red, and pink, and purple.”
Fluorescent: “That's different. During the day the sky is blue.”
Lightbulb: “Now that I think of it, yesterday morning it looked yellow.”
Fluorescent laughs. “Yellow! The sky is blue for millions of days, and then one Tuesday morning it decides, you know what, today I think I feel like being yellow.”
Cottonball raises her volume a little, “Question: was the sky green?”
The motherly voice that can be heard throughout the room says, “Yes.”
Troll exclaims in Fluorescent's face, “Ha!,” blushing her light cheeks. She punches him in the arm. “Sky colors! I told you!”
He shows his arm to the ceiling. “This is okay?”
No response.
Fluorescent: “How can the sky be green?”
Motherly: “There has been a sinusoidal shift in the celestial refracted spectrum on the order of point 9 percent, which shifts in wavelength at a rate of 23,000 microflivvers per day.”
Green and Lightbulb look at each other.
Carrot: “Well, I guess that settles that then, hmm?” He chuckles aristocratically.
Starburst asks Cottonball, “Mommy, what does that mean?”
Blue answers: “Ask your father. He's the astro-physicist.”
Fluorescent: “Astrophysicobiochemist, . . .but only on Thursdays from 14 to 20.”
Troll: “Oh come on.”
They wait for an answer.
He speaks loud. “Question: What does that mean?”
Motherly Voice: “Redirecting.”
The side wall turns into a giant screen. Science News is on.
^^^^ Science News is on. The anchorwoman stands at a transparent podium and announces, “As I said earlier...” To her side is a video of cloud patterns, and another of people looking toward the heavens, pointing and commenting. “Read my lips: The sky is green.” She put her hand on her dais. A chart of radiation wavelengths and a table of wavelengths appear. “We'll have more on this story as it develops.” She pauses. ^^^^
Fluorescent slurps more yellow from his long and winding multicurlicuing transparent straw.
Carrot: “It looks more purple to me.”
Starburst: “Blue with little bits of red in between.”
Fluorescent's voice gets high/supersonic/disturbed. “My arm is blue with little bits of purple.”
Troll says to Starburst, “You are so much like your father.”
Carrot: “No need to get insulting.”
Troll: “I meant the biologist, not the journalist.”
Carrot: “So did I.”
Lightbulb: “Well leave me out of it.”
Cottonball: “You were out of it.”
Bowl: “Daddy is a journalist too.”
Cottonball: “Oh you're right, sonny boy. I forgot.”
Lightbulb: “Musical Journalism in Anthropology is different anyway.. .
Lightbulb: “Aren't you a little curious about why the sky is green one milliDay and purple the next?”
Blue: “Oh, they'll figure it out. Can't you just enjoy anything? I think it's wonderful.
Excerpt from 11,984

In a sense, Turnerianism challenges current order. On one hand, one has suffocating economic inequality rivaling that of Charles Dicken's time. On the other, we have ISIS and other factions convinced that the "End Times" have come and only they will survive. In a sense, each is a side to the same pessimistic coin.
Turnarianism is born of optimism. It is better than pessimism in every way but one: it requires often misunderstood drive and initiative. My guess is that Turnerian novels and stories won't be all that popular any time soon, but "the time has come". thanx Obama
Interestingly, Perceval Lowell who believed Mars would be the next great frontier gave his lectures practically next door to Frederick Turner. The two timed their lectures so legendary figures liked Teddy Roosevelt, Sam Clemens, William (Bat) Masterson and Wyatt Earp could attend both.
It was a time of visionary excitement.

I chose to concentrate on parapsychology, also known as ESP. What would be the effect on the individual and on society? On the police? What limits might there be?
I used a familiar stimulus for SF writers: I considered the CIA's efforts in the late 20th Century to develop such abilities and asked, what if they had succeeded? Reportedly the effort failed...
But that led me to write Combat Wizard, which I followed with Wizard at Work, Talent, and yesterday with Veil of Time. That last one went live sometime during the night.
It's free to KU and Prime members, $3.99 for others.
http://www.amazon.com/Veil-Time-Paran...

"Electric Wizard...Mad Scientist...Public Enemy #1!
A classic-style SF novel about the greatest inventor ever forgotten.
Visionary Inventor Nikola Tesla sent a message to Mars...what happened when they answered?"
http://tinyurl.com/nwxaj4m
If any SF writers want to trade reviews, let me know.


Hi Len, I have no idea how to message you on Goodreads (I'm new to this...) but I can send you a .mobi or pdf if you can figure out how to message me.

Anyone who would like to review the book can get a free copy as a mobi file.
If any author wants to trade reviews I would gladly do so, but I'm only into books with an anti-violence, anti-war message and I'm not interested in anything considered erotic.

I'm not sure of the etiquette of review trades...but I think that if someone just reads a book because they feel obligated, their review won't be as good. Then there is the question of honesty, and what if you didn't really like the book? I realize how harmful a bad review can be. Do you just email the person with the review and ask them 'is it OK to post this?"
My book is called Tesla's Signal.
http://tinyurl.com/nwxaj4m
Check it out, read the sample, and if you think this might interest you, email me at woodswalker88@gmail.com .


I read the sample and so far I like the character of Niko (Tesla), a young person who is misunderstood and suffers because of his special ability to see the world differently from everybody else. I like that concept.
On the other hand I'm not sure you will like some of the concepts underlying the story of "When Hope Came".
The main villain for instance is a "crazy scientist" and his intellectual counterpart, "the good scientist" is a a Jesuit.
The idea is, that scientific, intellectual as well as financial elitism run amuck -in particular in the form of today's ever more popular transhumanism- would inevitably lead to the destruction of humanity.
In my opinion science must be kept in check by an ethical mindset, which first and foremost protects human life and dignity. And elitism should be replaced by a genuine humility, one that realizes that talents are given not to dominate others but to be of service to them.
Traditional universal religions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism I see as having the potential for promoting this view and providing this kind of ethical check on science and intellectualism. All these thoughts have gone into the story.
If you are still interested in sending me your book and reading and contemplating a review of mine, my e-mail is: evehuman2013@yahoo.com
If I should not be able to give your book 4 or 5 stars, I won't rate it at all or publish the review, but send my thoughts to you in private.


Unfortunately, religions have also been used for evil just as often as good.

Actually you can't generalize the "sociopath" or "not sociopath" statement.
There are in reality here and now scientists who actually do state that they want humanity to be "culled" by 90%.
As for the book: Hope's society isn't run by a central authority at all, but in tiny de-centralized direct democracies.
The question of checking science then lies in the funding.
Funding can be procured globally on a voluntary basis.
However if the combined population of all those tiny autonomous entities decide they don't want to fund certain forms of scientific research, it won't be done.

Unfortunately, religions have also been used for ..."
L. you are absolutely right, both science and religion can be co-opted by the power-mad, the question is how to prevent these kind of power-games. Is it at all possible or are we humans by our very nature addicted to the pursuit of power?




Interesting thought, L, but maybe we don't have to go to other planets or galaxies to see a different behavior.
What if Darwin was wrong and instead Kropotkin, the Russian biologist and evolutionary theorist, was right?
The latter looked as closely at nature as Darwin, but about fifty years later, and he came to a somehow different conclusion about the origins of life:
Kropotkin thought that life on earth was predominantly not the result of a constant struggle for the "Survival of the Fittest", but the result of "Mutual Aid" within a symbiotic system.
According to him it is cooperation that drives evolution predominantly, not competition.
If this is true, then it isn't earth's biology which compels human beings into power and domination games, but actually the rejection of the laws of nature which are the laws of cooperation.
(The contradiction between those two theories are part of the When Hope Came story as well)

There are few scientists who are regular readers of fiction and even fewer who fiction writers.
There are however numerous examples of scientists who not only have allowed their research to be used for the nefarious purposes of slaughtering or maiming people they actually have participated willingly in those acts, either to further their research or because they thought that the life of other human beings had little value. The Nazi-scientists of Dachau come to mind and some of the ones in the Manhattan program, who did not only built the bombs, but had them used not for ending the war (that was just for propaganda purposes, the Japanese were already in the process of surrendering) but in order to test them and investigate what those bombs would do to buildings and living people.
Well, they did find out and few showed any signs of remorse. If this isn't sociopathic, I don't know...

Adam you are right and as another example of evil in classic literature take for instance the story of Goethe's Faust:
Even before Faust makes his deal with Mephisto (the devil) in his strive for immortality, he muses about the nature of science and if the ends justify the means, reminiscing about the times when his own father, a doctor and researcher, had deliberately infected a whole village with a deadly illness to test his cure.
Although hundreds died in the process the villagers celebrated Faust's father as a savior who eventually saved some of them, for the villagers had no idea that they had been used as guinea pigs.

Right now, we have a dangerous horse race between cynicism and pessimism and unbridled optimism. Optimism is in the lead but the finish will be close. It all depends on how soon we find another/other Second Earths and where that discovery leads. The World Economic forum at Davos Switzerland says it will happen by 2023. That date works for me.

The human map has expanded faster than at any time in history and its current limit is about 1000 light years.
God if we mean the Supreme Being is real. Most if not all of the civilzations we encounter will agree on that point Who or what God is may not be so universal.
God is greater than this planet.
God is greater than this solar system.
God is greater than the galaxy.
God is greater than the universe.
the Bhagavad Gita may be correct when it says God is 100 billion years old.
One of the driving forces of Human expansion will be the search for who and and what God is.
Any idea of an End Time is nonsense. If we had never found proof of other planets, all that conjecture than civilizations only last 10,000 years (or some such number) might have been reality. But, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz made the crucial discovery. Twenty years ago this October, they confirmed the existence of 51 Pegasi b, a hot Jupiter 50 light years away. Since that time, we have found 5440 other planets including 80 terrestrial planets and 200 super Earths. We've learned that just about every star has a solar system and in those solar systems are life zones where water and water/ice can exist. Water, by the way, is the only necessity for the existence of organic life.
Humanity had be ready for the long haul because that's exactly what we're facing. How long? How about 50 or 100 thousand years at which time we'll be ready to move to another universe.
It's a load for the book and maybe not everything will be included but I'll give it a royal try. The books should be ready by next year.

It sure is difficult to find something that fills all of these requirements.

How many reading this have ever heard of Dutch biologists Martinus Beijerink (1851-1931) or Lorens Bass Becking (1895-1963)? They are as important as Darwin in understand life and how it came to be.
They said, "everything (organic life) is everywhere: the environment selects." They were speaking about "everywhere" as Earth. The extremophiles and poly extremophiles prove more and more everyday that Beijerinkc and Becking were absolutely correct.
My guess is that combining "everything is everywhere: the environment selects" with Charles Darwin's evolution will pretty much prepare us as we venture cross the Cosmos.

I ask because optimism in any other sense may well be in the eye of the beholder. Take our mutual hero Dr. Asimov, a great believer in science and a generally upbeat guy. Yet one of his robots irradiated our home planet for a so-called greater good; and the original Foundation Trilogy posited top-down rule by an elite cadre of mind controllers as a Good Thing. Just because Asimov and Heinlein loved science doesn't mean some of their stories aren't dark. And the fact that those authors might have liked to live in the worlds they created doesn't mean that their readers did. If I ever had to live under Trantor's iron heel, I would be executed as a dissident. Asimov famously expressed surprise that many people found the Earth of "Caves of Steel" claustrophobic and depressing: he didn't see it that way at all! These are wonderful books but I wouldn't describe them as optimistic in the sense of being "happy-clappy."
Of course, I'm not sure you'd describe them as happy-clappy, either. Which brings me back to my original question. What do you mean by optimistic? Happy endings? A world you'd like to live in? Something else?
As an aside, if you haven't read them yet, you might enjoy "Leviathan Wakes" et al. by James S.A. Corey. There is some recognition that the laws of physics are actually real. :)



While I've been enjoying this conversation, it's helped me try to classify my sci-fi novel into one of these two categories. Interestingly, when I started writing my story, I wasn't very well versed in sci-fi, preferring other genres instead. So when I started writing my own novel (and a science fiction one at that!), I wondered if I should go familiarize myself with the genre first. My answer was, "not yet", because I had hoped that my effort would be a fresh take on the genre. Since then, I have been reading more sci-fi, both contemporary and classic.
Based on the musings of Len, L, Adam, and Eve (really? Adam AND Eve posting in the same thread?!), I would easily classify my book as being more "optimistic" based on the escapist qualification mentioned above.

I am not sure how kosher it is for me to do this, but I wanted to put it out there in the event I find some interested parties.
I am running a giveaway on Booklikes that ends this Sunday. Currently, there are still 19 copies left, so plenty to go around, but I haven't even advertised this giveaway, so don't wait!
Check out my novel here:
Illusion of Choice

Hi everyone. I'm new to this group, so I don't know if Lizzie's comment has sparked some reviewers to appear or not, but I am more than happy to read the work of others and leave a review or feedback.
I've already posted about my book, so won't spam you guys with yet more links, but I'd appreciate an exchange of reviews if anyone is willing?
Feel free to contact me on GoodReads or twitter (@GavinMagson) and I'll get back to you asap.
Gavin.

Dystopias are wildly romantic as long as the reader is the hero/heroine. Things seldom work out that way, however. Think: Adolph Hitler. The man was an artist who loved everything Picasso did. He was also a monster responsible for 200 million dead. Well, ISIS is doing its damnedest to kill billions, especially women and children because they represent the future.
Where can post dystopia's go. Simple. Follow the hugely expanding Human map that stretches a 1000 light years wide and includes 5444 planets, 80 of which are terrestrial and 200 are super Earths. By the end of this century, the Human map will stretch to the limits of the galaxy and beyond.
"UFO's are real." Those are the first words of Air Force Col. John B Alexander Phd's book "UFO's: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities" He is the person the man-with-the-cigarette in X Files was based on. His main contention: those military officers who wrote and stood by their incident reports about UFO did so knowing full well that they were committing career suicide.
The point is we will find other civilizations sooner rather than later. One of the casualties will be ISIS and dystopias. What's the point of a romantic End of Days if all the other civilizations only remember us for a minute at most?
Anyway, I will review sci fi and fantasy books, I won't given anything less than a 4 ---if I finish the book. If I don't, I'll make a suggestion or two about how it might be made better. But, first, give me an elevator pitch about the book.


Check out Dwarves in Space if you don't mind a little genre-bending.

The Singularity called contact with another civilization is upon us.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00W...

I took some chances--with admittedly an uneven result--in touching upon potential spiritual and Christian aspects of the entire zombie fiction movement. Stop by if you have the time.

The human map currently stretches hundreds of light years in every direction. A century or two from now, it will stretch across the galaxy. This is what we have learned in the first 20 years of
Planets exist. Small rocky planets far exceed the larger gaseous planets and they travel in circular orbits. This last point was only confirmed this past week.
Organic life exists across the galaxy. "Everything is everywhere. The environment selects" Martinus Beijerinck (1851-1931) and Lorens Bass-Becking (1895-1963) Poly extremeohilles able to resist extreme heat, extreme cold, the airlessness of space and uber extreme radiations for millions and perhaps billions of years especially in biofilms biofilms first discovered by John Anderson in 1956.
Once life is established on a planet, Darwin's theory of evolution generally applies.
These are some conjectures: Organic life spreads in volcanic and other ejecta across the Cosmos in a chain reaction of galactic proportions. The ejecta rained down on Earth, sparking a living planet when conditions were ripe. Ejecta has continues to rain down on Earth but all the niches are occupied.
A living planet a billion years old is very much as Earth was at one billion. Half a billion or so years later, life is very much like we were 500 million years ago. A living planet two billion is very much like we are today.
God exists. The Bhagavad Gita says God is 100 billion years old. God played a hand in the existence of polly extremophiles and quite possibly the existence of our universe. God plays a hand in the creation of new stars and solar systems.
"End of Days" mythology isn't Jewish, Christian or Muslim. It's a corruption of the three religions that came from the Canadian prairie provinces in the 1880's.
If you got through all of that I wrote and want me to review your book, my email address is lrobertsonbooks@aol.com. Send the book in a pdf file.

If you read it and enjoy it let me know!
Hand Of God
An advanced race of humans have seemingly conquered death only to see themselves dying off from stagnation. A crisis on two fronts emerges as their solar system is destined to be swallowed by the super massive black hole in the galactic center. An engineer from earth may hold the key to their salvation but what he learns in the process will forever change him and perhaps all of humanity.

I assume this was directed at me? If so it is on it's way.

But, the writers quickly backed away from UFO's to it being a struggle between Communism and the American way. Or, to put it more succinctly, the true blue locals vs the conniving military rife with communists.
Suddenly, its Utah War all over again. The Mormons hate the non believers passing through their Utah and openly dream of founding a new nation, They chased Jim Bridger out of Fort Bridger in 1853 and took it over in 1855. During the Utah war of 1855-58, the Army took over Fort Bridger and kept it as a military post until 1890 when it was closed. It's all ancient history that the Mormons (and probably the Army) would like to forget but suddenly it's front and center in Granite Flats.
What's hilarious is the issue of UFO's. All the old excuses for not believing in UFO's have fallen aside: small planets do exist, in fact there are about as many solar systems as stars and all have life zones. Small rocky planets orbit in circular patterns which means if they are found in a life zone and there is evidence of water, there is life because extremophiles thrive anywhere liquid water exists.
In one chapter of Copernican Awakening my novel slated for next year, the military chastises astronomers for making the existence of UFO's a laughing stock when in fact it nearly sparked WWIII.
Any Granite Flats fans take note: by making the series a thinly disguised far right diatribe against Liberals and Communists, the writers missed the real story. They might argue in defense of their story line that no legitimate religion believes in life and civilizations but that isn't true. The Vatican in November of 2011 in a conference on that very subject said, "the existence of other civilizations does not conflict with our dogma."
I guess what I'm saying is that a Granite Flats or even better a three way Area 51 thriller with laden with Cold War spies, UFO's and intrigue (creating what really existed in the 50's snd 60's) would be a helluva story. Done correctly, the reader or viewer would be stunned to think that UFO's took the US and Russia closer to WWIII than the missiles of October. As for the peoples of both countries, they had no idea that they were an inch away from oblivion.

Here's my science fiction novella and I hope you'll enjoy it. It's about a young woman, Véïane, who can't stand anymore the world she lives in. It's a world without night and sleep...
http://www.amazon.com/Nyxers-F%C3%A9m...

Blue Karma follows three teenagers in a drought-stricken near future where some have to steal water just to survive. As the characters' lives collide, they must overcome both the forces of nature and their own traumatic pasts. There's a touch of dystopia, a touch of romance, and lots of action to keep you turning pages.
I'm currently seeking reviewers to read and share their honest thoughts on my book. If you're interested, shoot me a message; I might send a promo copy your way. Find out more about Blue Karma here on GoodReads, or on my website.


"Through the vastness of space, among the countless timelines, across the myriad dimensions, one race rules supreme. The oldest race, the original race, the first amongst many, Earthmen, now known to all as Quol, named for and after their god, Michanis Quollet, he who made all things possible.
Unstoppable, unbeatable, the Quol are relentless in their pursuit of the 'game'. War is their sport and gambling is their passion. But for all their incredible power, there is still one thing they fear; A thing guarded by an ancient race of weak, old men. Hiding on a remote planet in a medieval world of knights and castles, they shield the Heartstone.
And at last it has been located.
So why is the most powerful race in all existence scared of a small stone?"
Part one of a new and original scifi/fantasy series available on Amazon kindle, kindle mobile app and Smashwords. (more platforms coming soon)
For fans of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.
Like of Facebook for updates and reviews.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0...

USS Krakowski is the story of a disgraced officer and the team he commands when an alien ship arrives in the solar system as a precursor to likely annihilation.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XPZ659M
USS Krakowski


illo by Tom Gauld, from Guardian Review


I'd like to invite Science Fiction readers to check out a new Sicence Fiction book, Spyrits. It has about 44,000 words, 165 Kindle pages.
http://www.spyrits.com
When David meets Dr. Niklas Gruber for the first time, his inner-self knows that somehow they know each other.
Little could he suspect that Dr. Gruber was his Father in a former life over six thousand years ago.
Even when confronted with proof of sorts, he was totally incredulous.
Then one evening, the proof became undeniable.
Over time Dr. Gruber and his associates give powers to David, and his soul-mate Tanya, that are unmatched.
NSA and other organizations could only dream of having David and Tanya's investigative skills.
Some organizations will readily kill in an effort to learn the secret of their rumored hidden talents.
David and Tanya are at high risk of being the next ones sacrificed.
Books mentioned in this topic
Shadows of the Forgotten (other topics)Falling Up (other topics)
Ghosts of the Scattered Kingdoms (other topics)
The Eden Succession: Stories and Essays on Memory, Machine, and What Survives (other topics)
The Tox Shot: The 'Z' Word --- A Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Survival Thriller (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Robert P. Edwards (other topics)David E Graham (other topics)
John D. Clay (other topics)
Stephen B. Anthony (other topics)
Bern B. Hughes (other topics)
More...
If you are interested, read Fredrick Turner's Frontier Thesis (only 2 pages long) and view JMW Turner's great work "Rain, Steam and Speed ---the Great Western Railway" done in 1844. "What's past is prologue" from Shakespeare's "The Tempest" also plays a part..