"Laser Pulse" Discovered Coming From Space

[NorthSideSox72]

Do you read SciFi? I need some book recommendations. I was at the book store the other day looking to pick one up, but I had very little idea what was good (outside of what I've already read) and most of the covers look too queer to be good literature.

There is such a variety of scifi out there, and lots of good stuff. But I've noticed that readers of SciFi tend to love or hate certain authors, which makes it hard to make recommendations.

 

Knowing what little I do, based on your posts, I'll give you three ideas...

 

1. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

2. almost anything by Arthur C. Clarke, though I particularly liked Rendezvous with Rama and The Light of Other Days

3. Collection of short stories (there are a few of these) by Phillip K. Dick

 

Somewhere in there, I think you will find something you like.

 

[StrangeSox]

100 billion is being very conservative actually, there could be as many as 400 billion stars in the galaxy, we don't really know. And as far as the other galaxies out there keep in mind the word "observable," we can't even see most of them from Earth because they're outside of the visible light spectrum because of their position/speed/whatever, or their light is so far away that it's too weak/hasn't even reached yet.

 

But yeah, bottom line, the universe is almost incomprehensibly big.

 

Our observable space is about 13.8 billion light years across. Beyond that, the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light, so we'll never be able to see parts of it.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_volume

 

Like you said, large numbers and scales like this are almost incomprehensible. Just a scale model of the solar system is gigantic:

 

http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/sol...stem/index.html

 

With the sun that size, the page is over half a mile long. That's just a tiny little backwater star in an insignificant galaxy floating through space.

Edited May 18, 2009 by StrangeSox

[False Alarm]

Do you read SciFi? I need some book recommendations. I was at the book store the other day looking to pick one up, but I had very little idea what was good (outside of what I've already read) and most of the covers look too queer to be good literature.

dunno what you've read but knowing that your background's probably in lit fic i'd recommend writers who are at least servicable stylists. i don't recommend ender's game. the book's decent, if a little overrated, but the prose is fairly juvenile and i think that'd turn you off if you've read mostly lit fic and are a newcomer to SF. i'd also be hesitant to recommend dick for the same reason, though his ideas tend to be so strong and cool that any deficiencies in his prose are easy to ignore. he's definitely required reading for peeps interested in SF, but maybe someone you should save for later, when you're more used to SF.

 

some writers i think might work for you: neal stephenson, gene wolfe (who is a complete badass), ursula le guin, william gibson (though he's gotten away from SF as he aged), vernor vinge (who's very good but maybe more in the dick category cuz his writing ain't always the prettiest). right now i'm reading kim stanley robinson for the first time and it's too early for me to rec him, but it's looking real promising and his prose is heads and shoulders above that of most hard SF writers i've read, so you might wanna take a look at him. david mitchell (in cloud atlas, anyway) and jonathan lethem are two more contemporary writers i consider mainstream rather than SF, but their writing's much more polished than most SF writers and they've both done work in the SF field.

 

finally, covers: you've pretty much gotta ignore them when you get into genre fiction. it's just a sad fact that SF and fantasy publishers pander in their cover art.

Edited May 18, 2009 by False Alarm

[NorthSideSox72]

dunno what you've read but knowing that your background's probably in lit fic i'd recommend writers who are at least servicable stylists. i don't recommend ender's game. the book's decent, if a little overrated, but the prose is fairly juvenile and i think that'd turn you off if you've read mostly lit fic and are a newcomer to SF. i'd also be hesitant to recommend dick for the same reason, though his ideas tend to be so strong and cool that any deficiencies in his prose are easy to ignore. he's definitely required reading for peeps interested in SF, but maybe someone you should save for later, when you're more used to SF.

 

some writers i think might work for you: neal stephenson, gene wolfe (who is a complete badass), ursula le guin, william gibson (though he's gotten away from SF as he aged), vernor vinge (who's very good but maybe more in the dick category cuz his writing ain't always the prettiest). right now i'm reading kim stanley robinson for the first time and it's too early for me to rec him, but it's looking real promising and his prose is heads and shoulders above that of most hard SF writers i've read, so you might wanna take a look at him. david mitchell (in cloud atlas, anyway) and jonathan lethem are two more contemporary writers i consider mainstream rather than SF, but their writing's much more polished than most SF writers and they've both done work in the SF field.

 

finally, covers: you've pretty much gotta ignore them when you get into genre fiction. it's just a sad fact that SF and fantasy publishers pander in their cover art.

He's a big McCarthy fan, and PK Dick's writing reminds me a bit of McCarthy. That was why I thought it was a good connection.

 

[Balta1701]

Has anyone ever thought of the idea of proportion in the universe?

 

I don't know, but I've never heard anyone even humor the idea that aliens visiting from far reaches of the universe are hundreds of times larger than we are. Do we just assume that because laws of physics are consistent across the universe that extraterrestrial beings would be similarly portioned to us? Couldn't they be far larger, or maybe smaller?

What you should actually think about this statement is that there is a reason why a Polar bear is huge and why humans are roughly 1.5 meters to 2 meters tall and why that species of "Hobbit" humans was found on an island in the middle of Indonesia, IIRC.

 

The size of species in fact directly relates to selective pressures on its development...which directly relates to the physical laws governing the universe. Typically, when you put a species on a small, tropical island, it shrinks. Even happens to humans. If you limit its supply of nutritients, and at the same time put it in a warm environment such that big bodies are disadvantaged, there's a strong selective pressure to shrink.

 

Conversely, if you put a species in a very cold environment, there's going to be a selective pressure to build up a very big, fat-lined body, because thermal diffusion is proportional to surface area, and the bigger your body is, the lower your surface area to volume ratio is, thus the less heat you will lose.

 

If you evolve a multicellular species on a highly geologically active world but beneath an ice ocean, you may well get some interesting results. Ditto if you develop on a hotter planet. Roughly speaking though it's difficult to imagine going more than an order of magnitude each direction, but hey, life does some crazy stuff.

[False Alarm]

He's a big McCarthy fan, and PK Dick's writing reminds me a bit of McCarthy. That was why I thought it was a good connection.

i can see that. kinda a workmanlike, pulp version of mccarthy's writing but similar rhythms and sensations in places. might work for dylan then.

[BobDylan]

dunno what you've read but knowing that your background's probably in lit fic i'd recommend writers who are at least servicable stylists. i don't recommend ender's game. the book's decent, if a little overrated, but the prose is fairly juvenile and i think that'd turn you off if you've read mostly lit fic and are a newcomer to SF. i'd also be hesitant to recommend dick for the same reason, though his ideas tend to be so strong and cool that any deficiencies in his prose are easy to ignore. he's definitely required reading for peeps interested in SF, but maybe someone you should save for later, when you're more used to SF.

 

some writers i think might work for you: neal stephenson, gene wolfe (who is a complete badass), ursula le guin, william gibson (though he's gotten away from SF as he aged), vernor vinge (who's very good but maybe more in the dick category cuz his writing ain't always the prettiest). right now i'm reading kim stanley robinson for the first time and it's too early for me to rec him, but it's looking real promising and his prose is heads and shoulders above that of most hard SF writers i've read, so you might wanna take a look at him. david mitchell (in cloud atlas, anyway) and jonathan lethem are two more contemporary writers i consider mainstream rather than SF, but their writing's much more polished than most SF writers and they've both done work in the SF field.

 

finally, covers: you've pretty much gotta ignore them when you get into genre fiction. it's just a sad fact that SF and fantasy publishers pander in their cover art.

 

Thanks, I'll take a look at these writers.

 

As far as being dubbed a big Cormac McCarthy fan, it's actually not true. While I love The Road, outside of Blood Meridian, I don't think he is anything special. The Border trilogy is fun, but far from outstanding or memorable. You mention I'm probably into stylists, and this is true. McCarthy is not a good stylist, and at times, his prose is worse than Bukowski (who I oddly love.) Some of my favorite writers include: Nabokov, Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Capote, Beckett, Kafka, Camus.

 

EDIT: I should mention style is not my only prerogative. I also love Bukowski (already mentioned), Ray Carver, Hemingway, Chekov, etc. (I could even lump Kafka into this category.) I guess, some might consider these writers to have beautiful stylistic prose, and I do to a certain extant, but their writing style is like an ugly bastard child compared to some like Melville, Joyce.

Edited May 18, 2009 by BobDylan

[NorthSideSox72]

Thanks, I'll take a look at these writers.

 

As far as being dubbed a big Cormac McCarthy fan, it's actually not true. While I love The Road, outside of Blood Meridian, I don't think he is anything special. The Border trilogy is fun, but far from outstanding or memorable. You mention I'm probably into stylists, and this is true. McCarthy is not a good stylist, and at times, his prose is worse than Bukowski (who I oddly love.) Some of my favorite writers include: Nabokov, Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Capote, Beckett, Kafka, Camus.

That's interesting - in that case, drop Card from my list. Keep Clarke and Dick, though neither are quite properly stylists.

 

One guy who is a sylist of sorts is Heinlein, but that is a whole different can of worms. His stuff reads like a great author who is forced at gun point to write soft core space porn. Its an interesting effect, and his better known stuff like Stranger in a Strange Land is fun to read. But its fluffy as hell.

 

[Kyyle23]

That's interesting - in that case, drop Card from my list. Keep Clarke and Dick, though neither are quite properly stylists.

 

One guy who is a sylist of sorts is Heinlein, but that is a whole different can of worms. His stuff reads like a great author who is forced at gun point to write soft core space porn. Its an interesting effect, and his better known stuff like Stranger in a Strange Land is fun to read. But its fluffy as hell.

 

 

ha, I recommended heinlein to him too. Puppet Masters and Starship Troopers come across a bit differently from book to film

[FlaSoxxJim]

That's interesting - in that case, drop Card from my list. Keep Clarke and Dick, though neither are quite properly stylists.

 

One guy who is a sylist of sorts is Heinlein, but that is a whole different can of worms. His stuff reads like a great author who is forced at gun point to write soft core space porn. Its an interesting effect, and his better known stuff like Stranger in a Strange Land is fun to read. But its fluffy as hell.

 

I like soft core space porn description on Heinlein — it's especially apt for his later stuff. I have no problems with the "fluffiness" of Stranger, though. The originally released version of was nowhere near as bloated as the posthumous re-release, but I much prefer the re-release.

[False Alarm]

yeah i thought about mentioning heinlein. so influential, and good heinlein is so freaking good, but bad heinlein can be pretty embarrassing. he'll always have a place in my heart anyway.