So, a thought about the Foundation series I'd rather not have had

Eschew thinking about the Foundation in terms of ( Read more... )

This is a first

Spotted in my LJ inbox, the first time I've received one of these via LJ:

( Read more... )

What safety tips would you have for people forced to use crutches

(Which does not include me at this time)

Storm drain grates are sometimes wide enough to let a crutch tip through.

Crutches slow you up a bit, enough if you're exiting by the rear door of a bus and you are wearing a backpack, the door can close on the backpack and haul you sideways.

Your head at mid-stride will be just a little higher than it was and those lintels you now just clear will now be obstructions.

Anything else?

The British have no idea how to make an upbeat movie about nuclear war

OK, When the Wind Blows starts off ok but the ending is a bit of a downer.

Ontario Premier Resigns

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has announced a surprise end to his tenure as Liberal leader, saying that it is time for his party to put a new leader at its helm.

The Cosmic Computer: 0

You might think it was this eye catching cover that made me pick this up in the 1970s:



but in fact I'd encountered other books by him and I was reflexively picking up anything I saw by him. I'm not a huge fan of Whelan's art in this period but I will admit he produced some eye-catching covers for the Ace re-release of Piper in the 1970s:










Wikipedia provides a decent enough sketch of the author. He's also been the subject of some reviews by Hugo-winner Jo Walton (there are others. I just picked three) and I am going to quote from one of the comment threads I did not link to (I will, if I get to Space Viking

Doug M: You know, it's not like you to give someone the benefit of the doubt that way. And I do it too, I bend over backwards to give Piper the any and every benefit of any and every possible doubt every time, even knowing he wrote a Confederate-positive story, even with all the Iron Dream-oid stuff and the ("Aryan-Transpacific") trouble he went to to get white people into the US. I think he must have been a fundamentally likeable person. The personality that comes over in his work feels like a someone we feel fond of, so that even when he's being really wrongheaded one wants to say "To Nifflheim with that, he was just a romantic individualist who happened to be extremely fond of Empires."

Because Piper, despite his flaws, has enough virtues to keep drawing readers back in (Well, readers of a certain vintage. Some elements of his books - perhaps not the ones you are expecting - have not aged well).

As it happens, his The Cosmic Computer and Space Viking cover some of the same territory as the Foundation series so I thought it would interesting to give the libravox versions a listen.

The Cosmic Computer: chapters 1 through 4

The full text of the novel may be found here.

General comments: I really prefer plays to simple readings. On the plus side, while I find Mark Nelson's reading a bit flat, he is clearly audible and intelligible, which you wouldn't think would be a detail other audio entertainments shirk but they do. They do.

Spoilers. Pointless rambling.
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