Getting Perspective

One of the reasons I like reading science fiction, especially good science fiction, is the sense of far-reaching perspective it frequently gives me. It's crazy easy to get caught up in the here and now, but what about the distant then? What is the goal of the human race? Will we destroy ourselves before we reach it, and if so how will the destruction actually happen? Will I ever get to drive a freakin' hovercar?

Today I finished reading Old Twentieth by Joe Haldeman. Stephen King's dust jacket blurb: "If there was a Fort Know for the science fiction writers who really matter, we'd have to lock Haldeman up there." Personally, I don't know about that, but I do know that Old Twentieth's a very interesting book that juggles a lot in less than 260 pgs.
  • Humanity has achieved immortality, though the early days of the discovery of immortality led to a devestating war and the release of Lot 92, some sort of supervirus that killed most of the Earth's population in the mid-21st century.
  • Among the sweet inventions of the distant future is a total immersion virtual reality time machine that allows you to return to the 20th century and experience what is was to live and die in the last full century where this was possible without actually dying.
  • The novel takes place (when not zipping through exotic moments in time such as the 1920's, Vietnam, WWII, and the fall of the Berlin Wall) on a starship just begining a 1,000 year journey simply to explore an alien world similair to Earth. Actually, there are five ships and you can shuttle back and fourth between them and there differing enviroements (Mediterrean, Nordic spring, Amazon rainforest, San Fransico in the early summertime, and all-purpose ship without much gravity). Variety is the spice of life, so if you get tired of one locale move to another!
  • The time machine, which intereacts with each visitor on a deep neurological level, becomes self-aware....
I won't say anymore about the book so as not to give anything away, but you out to check it out sometime if you'd a little perspective, my peeps. 'Tis the season for free reading.

6 comments:

Kelly Coyle said...

I needed a Christmas book. You got me onto the House of Leaves.

Voix said...

Sounds brilliant. I'll have to check it out.

David Oppegaard said...

Yeah, it's not as heavy duty in depth awesome as House of Leaves, but it's a good thinkin' book. I'd be interested to hear other reports on it. I wonder if it should have been longer, but then I don't know why exactly I wonder that....

David Oppegaard said...

Sorry, a typo in this post. King didn't say "Fort Know", he said "Fort Knox". Although it's wierd that my typo makes cheeky blurb sense, isn't it? Maybe my true gift is for writing cheeky blurbs. "Read this book, Dickhead!"

Kelly Coyle said...

"Blurbsense" is a nice word.

"Don't worry about it. It only needs to make blurbsense."

"I'm sorry. These poems only make blurbsense to me."

Something dirty said...

Oh, thank God. I was thinking I should Google Ft. Know sometime, because it seemed like something I should have known.

I wouldn't mind spending some time in the Nordic Spring ship right now.

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