(no subject)

It seems increasingly likely that the US has little or no case against David Hicks and is desperate to cover its national ass through any means necessary. Wholly innocent people have ended up in Guantanamo Bay by mistake. I have no idea whether Hicks has committed crimes... and I suspect the US has no idea either.

Free books etc - still available

ETA: Cynthia Lennon, A Twist of Lennon

Richard Adams, The Plague Dogs, Shardik
Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man
Henry James, The Bostonians
Vonda N. McIntyre, Fireflood and other stories
Larry Niven, Flight of the Horse
Carl Sagan, Contact
Margaret Weis (editor) New Amazons (fantasy anthology)

Hembeck 6
Fantasy and Science Fiction February 1974 (Asimov, Russ, etc)

Neutron Star

Before sending it off (tysolna, I still need your snail mail), I re-read three of my favourite Larry Niven stories from his anthology Neutron Star - the eponymous Hugo winner, At the Core, and perhaps my favourite Niven story, Grendel. I probably haven't read these since I was a teenager, when I was in love with Niven's "Known Space", its species and its physics and its gadgets. (More recently, I was similarly delighted by the physics of the galaxy in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep.) The stories are arguably reeeaaallly science essays, but they're written so crisply and wittily that it doesn't matter. (As a grownup used to squeaky-clean TV heroes, I'm also rather pleased by Beowulf Schaeffer's self-interest and slightly dodgy ethics. :-)

Five bits - some of which I still quote occasionally:

1. Bey! What'll I do?
2. "You would be interested in a high-paying job?" "I'd be fascinated by a high paying job."
3. Oho, said I to myself, said I. [years later I discovered this in turn quotes Gilbert and Sullivan.]
4. "My General Products hull just failed." "I beg your pardon?"
5. "I was thinking that the two of you are like a medium-sized beach ball standing next to a baseball bat."

ETA: I can't help but imagine David Tennant as the seven foot tall, skinny as a rake Schaeffer. :-)

(no subject)

I'm paraphrasing hugely here, but apparently a film's about to come out in which Jane Austen gets a shag, and the Austen fans dislike the way that makes her just like everybody else. Heh.