Fantasist's Scroll

Hey, I always like free!

I’ve had a PalmIIIc for years and years. Originally, I got it with the idea that I could use it to play games and read books, too. The problem was that there just weren’t a lot of books available in a Palm readable format. Problem solved: ManyBooks.net. Not only do they have literally thousands of books in multiple formats, including several for the Palm, but they’re all free!
Well, they do ask for donations, but it’s not absolutely required. I’ve just started to explore their titles, but they seem to have quite a few classics, so it’s worth checking out. Besides, it’s Friday, what else are you going to do?

(This entry also appeared last week on my other blog, Diary of a Network Geek.)

Wow, there’s been a lot of space-travel news lately.

And, that’s a good thing, I think. It means people are talking about it and doing things about it. Yesterday, I posted a story about India’s moonshot and last week I mentioned a couple of things about the X-Prize and SpaceShip One. Well, now I’ve read about Bigelow Aerospace and their work on inflatable space modules. The article is over at Spaceflight Now and is worth the read. One of the things that is mentioned is that Robert T. Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, says that he’s planning to announce a new $50-million space launch contest called America’s Space Prize. That’s five times the size of the current X-Prize.
What I think is cool about all this is that it’s about private industry working on getting into space. It’s something we really need to do. We’re slowly choking this planet and pushing her resources to the limit, so we need to find more room to expand. And, before everyone starts sending me nasty e-mail, that will also teach us conservation and better resource management. How? A space mission has to use its very limit resources extremely carefully or everyone dies. The improvements in technology will spill over into the private, non-space, sector, just as they’ve done since the first launch.
Also mentioned on the same page as the article is a book that looks quite good: Moonrush: Improving Life On Earth With The Moon’s Resources. It certainly seems like an appropriate topic based on all these news stories. All you budding science-fiction writers better bone up on this stuff!

Okay, now here’s a couple that I’m looking forward to getting…

The first two are game books: Serpent Kingdoms, which is a D&D supplement about reptilian races and D20 Future, which is, well, a D20 supplement for futuristic gaming. I’m looking forward to that second one, in particular, for all the cool Star Frontiers information that they’ve included. Star Frontiers was a great little science-fiction game that TSR put out back in the 80’s. It was smart, slick space-opera and it was really, really fun. So, back a couple of weeks ago when I read that Wizards of the Coast was putting all that info into the new D20 game, was really excited. Too bad that it isn’t due out until September! Luckily, Serpent Kingdoms is due out later this month.
So is my third reading list book, Iron Council, which is the third book set in the world of New Crobuzon. A very different and innovative fantasy series by an acclaimed author. It’s really a very interesting world filled with magical creatures, but not any elves! (Hooray!) This one seems to be set back in the city of New Crobuzon itself and promises to be a good one. (Okay, who am I kidding? I’m a drooling fanboy who would worship almost anything China Miéville would put out. There, are you happy?)

So, it looks like I’ll have more reading to do!

Okay, so if you’ve been wondering what’s up…

I’ve been busy! Lots of stuff going on at my day job, er “jobs”, including some talk about outsourcing. Luckily, part of why I’ve been so busy has been a job interview. Not much time for writing, but at least I’ve been reading. I have a couple of reviews to do up and I’m working my way through Describing Morphosyntax : A Guide for Field Linguists. I can see why this was reccomended by several conlang folks. Basically, it takes you through building a descriptive grammar step by step. It rocks!
More soon, I promise…

Online and free!

The Science Fiction Channel has a free fiction archive on their website. It has both “classics” and original ficition. You might recognize some of the authors, but I imagine that many will be new. At least, they were new to me. Of course, I’m reccomending it because I think the fiction is good, but I would expect that from SciFi.com.
The editor is Ellen Datlow who is an award winning writer and editor. She’s also a master (mistress?) of the short-story. And, of course, there are submission guidelines. So, if you’re feeling brave, you can submit your work.

Enjoy!

Now, this is a service!

Ever wanted to look something up in the Bible? How about the Koran? Or the Analects? Or, really, just about any other religious text you could imagine? Well, they’re gathered all in one place on the internet, for free:
Sacred Texts Online.

They’re all there and you can download them, too! It’s well worth a look.

The first movable type Bible available for free.

Gutenberg is widely aknowledged as the first Westerner to use movable type, an achievement that changed our world. His biggest seller was the world’s best selling book, the Holy Bible. Now, thanks to Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas in Austin, the Gutenberg Bible is available on-line.
It’s worth a look, even if you’re not Christian, just for the historical significance.

I just finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night.

A friend who also recently finished this fifth installment of the Harry Potter series said that he thought this was a “darker” novell than the other four. After thinking about it, I had to admit that it was. In fact, the books have been getting progressively darker as time goes on. Which, really, is to be expected. Things have to get more and more dire for Harry and his friends all the way through the last book when he will, no doubt, kill Lord Voldemort.
Otherwise, though, the book was good. The characters are, as they have always been, quite engaging and J.K. Rowling manages to get us quickly interested in what’s going to happen to them next. This year at Hogwarts, we see Harry dating, dealing with family, and find out why he has to stay with the Dursleys every Summer. We also see Harry grow up a little bit, though it’s mainly teen angst and growing pains.
If you’ve been watching the news stories, you know that someone dies in this book. I won’t spoil it and say who, but it is someone significant. And, I correctly predicted who it was early on. I guess I’ve finally figured out Rowling’s writing style enough to make it a little predictable, but the book was no less enjoyable for all that.

Also, I’ve started reading Aliens and Linguists: Language Study and Science Fiction by Walter Earl Meyers. It’s out of print, so I was really lucky to find a copy, but it’s well worth the hunt. I haven’t gotten very far into it, but it’s about linguistics and language used in sience-fiction and fantasy. Very cool.