Re-Read Ringworld Engineers

Published in 1979 to tie up the many, many loose ends from his 1970 novel Ringworld (mentioned earlier here), it holds up well, even better than the first one.  Might get around to the remaining two books in the series later this year, but I need a break from Niven stories for the moment.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the book is the dedication in the front matter, where the author details all of the, um, help he had from True Fans (that last really needs the old html <blink> tag) in fleshing out the Ringworld itself.  Obsessive proofreading.  Design for a seafloor sediment recycling system.  Calculations for the minimum tensile strength of the underlying structural material.  MIT students chanting at a sci-fi convention about the inherent instability of solid rings orbiting stars.  Even Freeman Dyson(!!) got in on the letter writing.  In the end it was all too much for Niven, so he had to write this book.  Honestly, the first one is incomplete without this, so if you read the first, be prepared to dive into the second immediately.  Well, maybe sandwich Protector between reading the two, mostly for the break but also for some in-universe background.

Adventures planned, so onward with the day.

Book Mention: Take Me to Your Leader

Continuing this week's alien theme, I finally finished reading through Neal deGrasse Tyson's latest book, Take Me to Your Leader last night.  It's a fun little romp through all of the pop culture, credible sworn testimony, conspiracy theories, and blurry pictures of the last eighty or so years, along with reasonable musings on the Fermi Paradox, what forms extraterrestrial life (and their perceptions and senses) might take, etc. etc.  With all that, we are left with one stark, undeniable observation:

There is not one whit of actual evidence of alien visitation.  No artifacts, no hard data, and, despite upwards of seven billion digital cameras on this planet, no unambiguous pictures.

With that uncomfortable truth in mind, the author plows forward with his usual good-natured skeptical, slightly sarcastic way, considering all sides of the issues and philosophical conundrums.  It is very clear that he's open to any evidence, even an outright personal abduction.  However, to date, there just isn't any there there, and he's quick to gently point this out.

Recommended, but only if you generally like this sort of thing.

Finally, if you do manage to get yourself abducted, please take Seth Shostak's advice and pocket an alien artifact on your way out the door/hatch/portal/whatever.  We've all had more than enough of heartfelt testimony on these matters.  It's time for a metamaterial multitool, or whatever else they're using these days.  Plonk it down on the table in front of skeptics, say a hearty "nyeh-nyeh-nyeh," donate it to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, write a bestseller, and enjoy the good life.

Call Went to Voicemail

This week's episode of Big Picture Science is titled Calling All Aliens, which is naturally enough, about recent SETI and METI efforts.  By chance, I was asked by a friend earlier this week about my opinion on the general topic.  The three thoughts I had on the matter were:

1. 
   Imagine our galaxy as a pizza – a really big pizza – one meter across and one centimeter thick.  Now imagine a bubble of space radiating out from Earth in this pizza-galaxy.  A bubble big enough for our first powerful radio signals to have reached another civilization, and for them to have sent a reply back.  At the one meter pizza scale, that bubble would be about the size of a sesame seed.  Would we really expect to have reached anyone in such a small sample?
2. More quantitatively, take a current credible guesstimate at Drake's Number – about 86,400 contactable civilizations in our galaxy.  Seems a little high in comparison with numbers I've previously seen, but let's roll with it.  Given the speed of light, expect about a 50-50 chance of that bubble in Item 1 to encompass another civilization in about 330 years.  What's more, these Drake Equation results are all over the place, and numbers as low as 100 are reasonable.  That puts the expected time to a 50-50 chance of contact out around 3200 years.  Frankly,* it's just too soon to reasonably expect any return replies.
3. However, we should still keep listening, especially given the continuing and amazing increases in signal processing power.  Don't let those two-way contact numbers in the previous item discourage you.  Unlikely as it seems, a random alien signal could come crashing in any given day – and we'd best be listening.
4. Finally, if aliens ever do find us, they'll probably view us about the same way we view the Sentinelese (see inset picture): present, but violent and not worth contacting.  Best left alone.

On that note, time for a bike ride.  Anyway, the above-linked podcast is well worth an hour's listen, and one of the more noteworthy recent episodes  at Big Picture Science.

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*10 Internet Points if you caught that one.

Re-Reading Ringworld

You know how it goes.  Or you should – in which case you should remedy this deficiency ASAP.  In any case, here's a graphic from Larry Niven's site, and encouragement to re-read it yourself.

Sometimes, you've just got to get there fast.

Crashlander: Some Things Are Better Left Untold

I just finished reading Larry Niven's short story collection Crashlander, a compilation of his

Known Space tales centering on ace star pilot Beowulf Shaeffer.  The collection serves as a sort of biography of one of the main characters in Niven's future history series, and knits these stand-alone shorts together with brief bridge chapters.  It also adds a new (well, 1994) Shaeffer short story, Procrustes, and somewhat ambiguously wraps it all up with a "happily ever after – maybe" epilogue, which is frustrating in and of itself.

The original set of stories dating from the 60's and 70's are all great.  The new short story is not, and neither are the bridge chapters.  The older stories are sleek tales, where Shaeffer figures out the key puzzle piece and with a narrow margin moves on in one piece himself.  Procrustes and its surrounding bridge stories are more of a wheels-within-wheels slog of tale, with several unsavory characters that a smart guy like the Shaeffer of the earlier stories would have automatically avoided.  Not worth the small price of the new collection, not worth the reading time.

All of the good stuff can be found in the earlier collections Neutron Star and Tales of Known Space, along with many other excellent short stories Niven produced in the same era.  Give Crashlander a pass, buy and read those two other collections.  Then use your leftover time to read (or re-read) Protector.

Movie Review: A Scanner Darkly

I finally got around to this one last night, and kind of liked it, kind of didn't.  The funny thing is, though I like the point of Philip K. Dicks' works, I seldom enjoy his mode of storytelling.  It's a twenty year old movie at this point, so I'll let Wikipedia tell you as much of the plot as you care to read.  I will say though, it is beautifully made and acted, and all the plot loose ends are wrapped up by the finish, and of course and as usual, I agree with the societal commentary PKD was making.  The rotoscoped animation over the live action was a lot of fun to watch as well, and it really worked with many of the plot elements, especially with the "scramble suits."  It's just that a lot of the movie made my skin crawl (yeah, check that opening scene!) for no real payoff.

Three out of Five Stars, and that's knocked down one star from what would be four if I liked PKD's storytelling manner better.  You may care for his style though, so add that one star back in if that's case.  So... conditionally recommended.

Re-Read for the Nth Time: Protector by Larry Niven

After last week's slog-fest, I had to clear my mind with some actual science fiction, and Larry Niven's 1973 novel Protector is always a good choice.  You can find others' plot summaries and spoilers elsewhere, but here's why it's so good.  In a scant 217 pages it tells one hell of a story, but the first 100 pages cover:

• humanity's status on Earth in 2125
• humanity's status in the asteroid belt as well
• a glimpse into the friendly but slightly strained interplanetary politics of the era
• an alien first contact story
• everything you need to know about the aliens' motives and their unusual life-cycle
• how this all ties into one big package
• and finally, several tidbits to link the story into Niven's larger future history universe.

And that's just the first half of the book.  There are many more thrills, chills, and chase scenes in the second half, before the ride comes to a graceful halt with the gas tank nearly empty and all four tires smoking.

You see, this is how a good science fiction author does it.  None of it is forced or rushed, and Niven never, ever resorts to the tired "Well professor, tell us how it all happened" trope.  The whole book is just one big cavalcade of interesting ideas strung together with believable characters and competent prose.

Four point five out of Five Stars,  Recommended.

Book Mention: Recursion by Blake Crouch

Going from a recommendation by Andy Weir to a fan who's read Project Hail Mary 58 times (!, and yeah, that is kind of strange), I picked up a copy of Recursion, and expected science fiction.  However, the core technology of the story – a memory enhancing device that turns out to induce time travel – I just didn't buy into.  I mean, how could a single person's subjective experience warp objective reality for the rest of us?  "Oh, but you see, it's technology-enhanced, so it's more intense."  Well, some psychotic patients have pretty intense visions too, but they don't get to re-define reality on a whim either.  No, I'm not having any of the premise here.  Calling this book science fiction makes zero sense.  It's more of "a science-flavored substance" fiction, to recycle a phrase from hack TV comedy writing.

As a side note, this book might have worked if Crouch had skipped the sci-fi angle altogether and just used a woo-woo meditation method one of the characters discovers, say, deep in the Himalayas or on late-night paranormal talk radio.  Yeah, that would have been much better than bothering with force-wedging matters into sci-fi.

So, why did I bother finishing?  First off, a recommendation from Andy Weir is hard to ignore.  Secondly, and this may have a lot to do with Weir's high regards for this book, the page-to-page writing really is top-notch.  Definitely a pleasurable read, in its own "look at my skilled wordsmithing" way.  However and returning to my previous themes, this is ultimately a hollow shell of a book.

Two out of Five Stars, but only for the writing that kept the story rolling and the skill required for keeping timelines sorted out.  Not recommended.  In fact, this one exposure is enough to put me off of Blake Crouch's books altogether.

ps: If you want a real sci-fi story about time travel that results in tragedy, timeline patches, and various resulting nosebleeds, just go watch the classic movie Primer.  It has a much better treatment of time travel, explores the same themes, and won't waste your time on beautiful, empty prose.  In fact, thinking back on it, Crouch just might have borrowed the whole time-shock-nosebleed thing from Primer.  That one is a little, well, too on the nose to be otherwise.

PHM Side-Note on Accidents

Following up on last week's review of Project Hail Mary, one of the things that struck me both while reading and watching were the parallels between PHM and the Manhattan Project.  Yes, both were multinational big-budget science and engineering projects carried out in a rush, but that explosion 

boom

put a punctuation mark on things.  And while in the story the explosion did add a dramatic element, it was also the catalyst behind the major plot twist about which the entire story revolves.  Moreover, the incident very much echoes two criticality accidents at Los Alamos that happened just as and just after WWII ended.

Reenactment with inert components.  Don't try this one at home, kids.

Maybe it's my background, but while reading PHM this parallel jumped out immediately and it gave the whole book – and later movie – a ring of authenticity.  In case you want to learn more on the Manhattan Project (and perhaps get the feel for the behind the scenes action in PHM), look no farther than Richard Rhodes' fine 1986 history The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

Yeah, just go read the book.  Both of 'em, I mean.  And see the movie.

Project Hail Mary: Just Go See It

TLDR: It's the adaptation of the book that I'd hoped to see.  Here are my 2021 thoughts on the book.

Today was the first time I've set foot in a movie theater since 2021 (well I at least tried, once, in 2023; see jaundiced thoughts here), and it was an hour and a half drive each way to get there.  Worth every minute of the trip.  Go see it in a good quality theater while it's still in its original run, then buy the blu-ray next Christmas.

So... 4.5 out of 5 stars?  Maybe 5, I'll have to see it a few more times before granting that high honor.  It's good though, so go see it in a theater while you can.  It looks great up on the big screen, plus we need to vote with our dollars when given something to bother voting for.  Lord knows, that's a rare enough occurrence these days.

Yeah, yeah, the puppet alien stuff is good, as good as all the critics are saying.  However, don't fall into the cutesy-alien sentimental trap here.  Look at the person behind the carapace, at the fully developed character.  It took competent writing, scriptwriting, puppeteering, and voice acting to let Rocky's personality show through.  Don't waste all that effort treating this as another cheap Spielberg ET exercise in emotional manipulation, because it isn't.  This is a reasonably complex character, and while the kids can get a thrill from seeing an articulated rock pile, adults can appreciate what's going on too.

Finally, it's a miracle this story made it through production hell.  In a spoilerific interview here (No, don't click if you haven't read or seen it!  Really, don't!), the scriptwriter reveals how he was gently pressured to take out one key plot twist.  If the studio execs had succeeded in so gutting the story, my review would have been reduced to 2 out of 5 stars: "Nice special effects, but it's a shame they threw away the book.  Don't bother."  But they didn't!  So go see the movie.

This is not to say that major parts weren't adapted for screen.  And that's OK.  Not every technical in-joke or plot complication can make it – or even translates – to film.  The main point though is, the core of the story is there, it is a good story that people who've read the book will recognize, and it was faithfully translated to screen.  Again, this is the adaptation of the book that I'd hoped to see.

A Look at the Science Behind 'Project Hail Mary'

By no coincidence at all, it's this week's topic at Big Picture Science podcast.  Go & download & listen.

I'd put in an image, but just click through and you'll get all the image I'd put here.

Really looking forward to this movie.

Looks Like Project Hail Mary is a Go

The Critical Drinker approves.  Youtube, 7 minutes.

Re-Reading Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary

As before, this sci-fi novel's going quickly.  Note that the movie hits theaters on March 30th.  Go read my 2021 review of the book, then get reading yourself.

Can't Wait Until Next Christmas...

... when this book comes out.  Here are a couple of teasers:

• A New Christmas Fable
• Joyous Noel!

Because this is how you get new scientists, engineers, and innovators.

Sci-Fi Rotten Egg? Maybe.

The upcoming movie The Astronaut – trailer clip here – looks like an adaptation of the rotten old sci-fi novel The Space Egg.  Here, read a synopsis and watch the clip, and decide for yourself.  I wonder if it is in fact an adaptation, or a re-invention of an old hack plot?

With so many good and classic sci-fi stories out there just waiting for adaptation, why bother with this junk?  Ah well, decide for yourself.  Looks pretty rank to me though.

ps: On a better note, looking around for mentions of The Space Egg on the web lead me to the site Stranger Than SF, which of course has a scathing and spoilerific review of that particular book here.  StrangerThanSF seems to be a passion project of a voracious SF reader, and there's a lot there spread around in good, bad, ugly, and indifferent.  Worth your time to poke around.

An Interesting Little Collection of Heinlein Short Stories

Last Friday over at viewfromtheporch, Tam posted a sexy pic of Sally Rand's 1938 Packard along with a link to a collection of Heinlein's short stories which has some peripheral connection to said car.  I clicked through and discovered – for the deep bargain price of $0.99 – eleven stories I'd already read and four that I hadn't!  Specifically, these are:

• Let There Be Light, about the invention of the Douglas-Martin sunscreens that figure so prominently in RAH's Future History series.  Glad to finally read it, but I can see why he omitted it from various short story collections throughout his later life.  Being his second story published, it's just not all that good.
• The Year of the Jackpot, another stinkeroo, as Heinlein termed his early fumbling works.  Still, it has some interesting ideas about what would happen if a mathematician devised a way to predict the future.  SHGT anyone?
• Project Nightmare, an early Cold War thriller about a hastily concocted team of psychics staving off nuclear blackmail – if they can just keep from falling asleep.
• Sky Lift, in which a pair of pilots give their all to deliver vital medical supplies – to Pluto.

I can vouch for the remainder of the stories.  Because they're better than the four listed, they've shown up in various other collections, most of which are on my living room shelf.  Click through to the above link and click through to Amazon for the complete list, or to buy, in which case Tam gets her affiliate cut.

Now about the publisher and illustrations, I'm not so sure.  Most of the stories seem to be from the late 30's to about 1950, so maybe the copyright has timed out?  Don't ask me, I'm not a lawyer.  The publisher and copyright are both from Ukraine, which is slightly suspect.  The illustrations are few, probably machine-generated, and don't really add much.  Maybe those are a copyright fig leaf?  Again, not a lawyer.  Will Heinlein or his spouse miss out on any royalty payments because of these (possible) shenanigans?  Pfft, they've been dead 37 and 23 years respectively, so that's not a concern.  I like to think that they'd just be glad to see some early works getting a little more airplay.  Let the dead sleep and the living read.  Onward.

Overall and despite those concerns, I'm glad to have finally read these, especially Let There Be Light.  The Douglas-Martin sunscreens are in so many of Heinlein's Future History stories that not having read this always felt like a big hole in my literary knowledge.  Turns out it wasn't, but for $0.99 the itch has been scratched.

Life is Short and Time is Tight. Read the Abstracts.

Over at Books, Bikes, & Boomsticks Tam writes on the problems associated with reading a summary.  Here, it's short, go read the whole thing: Soulless Drones

<insert schmaltzy interlude music here>

OK, we're all back.  For great art, sure, I'll agree that one has to read / listen / watch the entire piece as presented.  However, if you just want to get caught up on the n movies you missed in the Avengers movie series over the past m summers so that you can go to an afternoon matinee and enjoy it with friends – without having to spend a week of catch-up in front of the tube – nah, go ahead and skip to the Wikipedia plot summaries.  You won't have missed much anyway.  Long-series TV shows that start off promising but take a dip in the second year?  Sure, skip ahead with the summaries and see if the third year picks up to determine if it's worth your time to work through the series.  That politics-tainted speculative fiction (i.e., really bad near-future sci-fi) potboiler that everyone's talking about?  Definitely.  You'll want to know a little about what Cousin Hal or Aunt Margaret are going on about at the next family gathering, but you probably don't want to take that 500 page slog.  Again, when it comes to real art don't take any shortcuts, but when it comes to lesser works, go for the bottom line and get on with life.

Taking this a step further, who doesn't cull through the titles, then skim through the half-dozen abstracts, then really read only one or two papers each month in their favorite journals?  There just isn't time enough to keep up in a field any other way.  

Unexpected Good News: A Movie of Weir's "Project Hail Mary"

The trailer just dropped today, with a release date of 3/20/26.  link here  You go watch now.

My review of the book (from 2021; has it really been that long?) here.

Yeah, I'm pretty stoked.

Spaceballs 2?!?!

A definite maybe for 2027.  Mel Brooks has been known to tell jokes and pull pranks before, but this is looking pretty solid.  Teaser trailer here (with a cameo by Brooks himself), and a mention on Wikipedia here.

I give it an 80-20 chance of happening.  But wouldn't it be great to have a reason to go to a movie theater again?

Given the Current State of Star Wars

... the old joke about "May the fourth be with you" is replaced this year by: