From: Mac Tonnies <macbot@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 22:35:26 -0800 (PST)
Fwd Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 08:37:55 -0500
Subject: MTVI*update - Jan 2002


MTVI*update

Jan. 2002

http://mactonnies.com

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Season's greetings from MTVI. The site continues to expand, with
the addition of several new books, a variety of links to sites
of "fringe" interest, and an updated introduction/biography.

Selected books for the new year are as follows...

Fiction:

MARS CROSSING Geoffrey Landis

Geoffrey Landis' deceptively breezy Martian odyssey just might
be the best "mission to Mars" novel ever written. Panoramic and
insightful, Landis' story of a crew of stranded astronauts
forced to circumnavigate an alien world is presented in short
chapters of one or two pages. Fortunately, the whole is much
more than the sum of its parts. Landis accomplishes a taut
adventure peopled by interesting characters. And the rigorous
portayal of Mars itself is top-notch; never has the stark
landscape of another world been rendered with such subtlety and
narrative savvy. As with the best of near-future science
fiction, "Mars Crossing" reads with a forbidding - and
exhilerating - sense of inevitability.

THE HANDMAID'S TALE Margaret Atwood

In "The Handmaid's Tale," Margaret Atwood chillingly conceives
an oppressive near-future every bit as frightening as Orwell's
"1984." An unflinching tale of gender politics, Atwood's
first-person novel tells the story of Offred, a "handmaiden"
whose role is to reproduce in an effort to counter widespread
sterility. "The Handmaid's Tale" is not so much a work of
speculative feminism as a document of humanity at its sordid,
desperate worst. Already a classic, Atwood's cautionary and
deeply moving novel proceeds with a malignant believability.

V. Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon's first novel is an unusual epic that plunges
deep into history, mythology and the more absurd frontiers of
the human psyche. In "V.," we meet the enigmatic and obsessive
Stencil, whose quest to find the mythical V. leads him on a
bizarre trans-temporal journey. Pynchon's narrative is full of
strangeness on many levels, but it's the author's elegant use of
language that makes tagging along on Stencil's quest worthwhile.
"V." is mercilessly weird and quite probably warrants rereading.
Intricate, disturbing, yet oddly hilarious.

RIBOFUNK Paul Di Filippo

Di Filippo's "Ribofunk" is a series of loosely connected stories
and vignettes depicting a future world where biotechnology has
become as ubiquitous as electonics are today. "Ribofunk"
addresses the plight of "splices" - genetically engineered
beings whose DNA is less than fifty-percent human - and their
uneasy coexistence with both humans and artificial
intelligences. While the narrative arc of the stories is
sometimes uneven, Di Filippo's wacky future society is inventive
and satisfyingly bizarre, with the book's most important moment
coming last. Readers awed by Rudy Rucker's playful, organic
approach to science fiction should find "Ribofunk" a worthwhile
side-trip.


A GOOD OLD-FASHIONED FUTURE

Sterling's short fiction is just as good as his novel-length
stories, as evidenced in "A Good Old-Fashioned Future," his
third (and best) collection to date. "Future" is more topical
and less scattered than "Crystal Express" and "Globalhead," with
a comic and chilling preoccupation with the day-after-tomorrow
(in "Sacred Cow," India is the sole superpower after the Western
world dies of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, more commonly
known as Mad Cow Disease). The last three stories, beginning
with "Deep Eddy," form a short interlinked quasi-novel that gets
progressively stranger. The last piece, in particular, achieves
the reckless, delusional perfection of vintage cyberpunk.

The most memorable story here is arguably "Big Jelly," a
feverish collaboration with Rudy Rucker that tackles wild
concepts and succeeds with hysterical results. "A Good
Old-Fashioned Future" belongs on the shelf alongside Sterling's
greats; it's fun to see what this guy will come up with next.

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Nonfiction:

THE HACKER CRACKDOWN Bruce Sterling

"The Hacker Crackdown," Sterling's only nonfiction effort to
date, is an engrossing and thorough look at the subcultures and
civil liberties issues spawned by computer crime. Written with a
novelist's eye, "The Hacker Crackdown" is consummately Sterling,
as informative as it is fun. This is an essential document of
the PC era.

APOCALYPSE PRETTY SOON Alex Heard

"Apocalypse Pretty Soon" is an extremely funny and informative
tour through "end-time America," with a smart focus on flying
saucer cults, religious fundamentalism, terrorist agendas and
cyberculture. Heard's first-person exploits and interviews make
for a wickedly hilarious experience. Multifaceted and witty,
Heard's document of a world in the throes of perceived
millennial destruction is one of the best studies of its kind.
Must-reading for students of the new millennium.

MIND CHILDREN Hans Moravec

Roboticist Hans Moravec's "Mind Children" is a seminal
transhumanist work describing the likely future of artificial
intelligence over the next few thousand years. Moravec's
scenarios are liberating, brilliant and quite plausible taken in
the context of today's unrushing advances in computer and
nano-technology. "Mind Children" also serves as a helpful look
back at the origins and methods of the computer industry; using
history as a guide, Moravec muses on the genesis of
human-intelligent machines, brain uploading (and downloading),
interstellar info-viruses and a dizzying variety of
postbiological ecologies. This is heady, potent stuff, and
must-reading for anyone who wants their boundaries challenged or
expanded.

Vallee's "Passport to Magonia" is a landmark study of the close
encounter experience by one of the most astute thinkers in the
field. Jacques Vallee compares modern UFO sightings to their
mythological counterparts, raising profound questions about the
nature of our apparent "visitors" and their role in our
psychosocial evolution. Like Jung, Vallee assesses the psychical
and psychological impacts of the UFO experience. For more rare
insight from Vallee, read "Dimensions," Confrontations" and
"Revelations."

BORDERLANDS OF SCIENCE Charles Sheffield

"Borderlands of Science" is an arresting guide to physics,
chemistry and biology written by a seasoned science fiction
writer. "Borderlands," while a fun factual adventure for readers
of any persuasion, is especially good reading for aspiring SF
writers. Sheffield's prose is brisk and conversational, and his
book successfully balances the seriousness of science with the
sheer fun it can be when translated to the medium of fiction.
"Borderlands" is a compulsively readable refresher course
comparable to the popular science works of Carl Sagan and Isaac
Asimov.

http://mactonnies.com/bookreviews.html

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Recommended site:

http://www.newfrontiersinscience.com

launched by Dr. Mark Carlotto, is an impeccable resource for
anyone interested in a scientific perspective on "forbidden"
subjects. The present issue is devoted to analysis of the April,
2001 photo of the Face on Mars.

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