Fair warning

[james_davis_nicoll]

I plan to reread and review this in 2020:

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Total   F   M  Mu  F/T
 10     1   9      .10

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Lovely John Berkey cover. He's just about my favorite.

"By 2020, we will have gleaming spaceships whose design will be not particularly sensible, but which will look really cool."

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

"in the future, lots of cool bits will project out of us at exciting high-tech angles."

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

greebles:spacecraft::racing stripes:cars

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

They're spoilers! I wonder what the spaceship version of doing donuts is.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

I was initially confused by your comment- "How can it be a spoiler, it's right on the cover for crying out loud!"

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

It's even more apparent in these photos (http://thegoldenagesite.blogspot.com/2013/09/john-berkey.html). At least one of those is totally a tricked-out El Camino in space.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Berkey's aesthetic is pretty much what I was always shooting for when building Lego spaceships. Only with more steering wheels, and astronauts sitting in open cockpits.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

When did we lose this kind of starship? Did this kind of glossy-steel trig-function starship just fade out of fashion, or is it an element of the 70s Patina that gives covers like this that great style?

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Only 6 years, eh? Another future soon to become a "paleofuture"...

[w. dow rieder (from livejournal.com)]

No discussion of the future awaiting us in 2020 would be complete without a reference to "Sealab 2020" which I remember being fond of as a child, although without any details. Are you going to review that in 2020, too?

[nwhyte]

Why wait till 2020 for this sort of exercise? Next year you can gp for Time Enough for Love by Heinlein, and the short stories "Runaround" by Asimov and "Earthlight" (not the novel) by Clarke.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Quite a few years ago, Nicoll did a whole series of "we've caught up to the future" reviews, with the "Millenial Reviews" series. http://cloggie.org/esseff/millennial-reviews.html

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Which bit of TEFL was set in 2015?

[nwhyte]

D'Oh! I meant I Will Fear No Evil.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Googling leads me to a near-future version (http://www.amazon.com/2020-Visions-Rick-Novy/dp/0983170908). Dueling reviews!

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Did any of them predict laser eye surgery?

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall Niven having that in some of his stories, although maybe not this one.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I think the Niven is moved to a later date in Known Space timelines.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

To 2135.

[(Anonymous)]

There's a bit in one of the Star Trek movies where Kirk is wearing glasses, and the other character in the scene (Spock?)says something or other about that, prompting Kirk to remind the other character that he (Kirk) is allergic to the commonly prescribed drugs that cure myopia & hypermetropia -- so, there are other SF takes out there, on possible future technology in ophthalmology, besides the laser-zappity approach. TSM_in_Toronto

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Did van Vogt ever put the Bates eye therapy method into an SF story?

(I haven't read much van Vogt, possibly because I've read too much Damon Knight.)

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Yes, he did. "Siege of the Unseen", according to sf-encyclopedia.com.

[whl.livejournal.com]

I consider myself warned, and will attempt to be out of town then.

[le-trombone.livejournal.com]

I recall reading that anthology, and could probably outline four of the stories in it, the Niven and Spinrad stories in particular.

I can't recall the Ellison story, but I do recall the introduction to the story. This is not as weird as it sounds, and I'll be interested to hear your reaction.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

Just re-watched Space Seed, ST TOS. Apparently eugenics was supposed to take off in the early 90's. I kept waiting for Khan to be asked the burning question of the early 90's: Did Courtney really kill Kurt?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Unless Khan was some kind of vat-grown six-year-old adult when they shot him into space, it seems to me that he would have had to be already alive when the episode aired, or not long after. I always wondered about that: were they proposing that the eugenics program was already going on in secret, run by Nazis in Argentina or something?

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Courtney didn't kill Kurt. The explosion of Ceti Alpha 5 did. Courtney's anger and bitterness led to the duel with Dave Grohl in the Nirvana Nebula.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I have seen that cover. I think I owned and read it as a teenager. Unfortunately I don't remember the contents!