Anthony Stevens' Weblog » Space

The Avatar by Poul Anderson

anthonystevens — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:15:55 +0000

My previous post has a great piece of dialog from The Avatar, by Poul Anderson. But that is just barely scratching the surface of this fun book.

At first glance, this appears to be a light-hearted space opera that deals with first contact with an alien species and indeed, one may accept it at that. It does take the reader on a well-thought-out roller coaster ride that addresses xenophobia, socialism, technology and of course, what it means to be human.

I believe this 1978 paperback is out of print, but if you find one at a garage sale, library or bookstore, or Amazon, do yourself a great favor and grab it. Take the time to savor the writing as the like is seldom seen these days.

I give it my top rating and call it GREAT!

Many of my readers know that I used to be very active in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Poul Anderson, along with Marion Zimmer Bradley were among the founders of the SCA.

His device (coat of arms for the uninitiated) reflected his creativity as well as his sense of humor. It was a polaxe under a golden sunburst. Think about it.

Some interesting art

anthonystevens — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:11:48 +0000

Back in the 1970s, NASA commisioned some studies of space habitats. From this research we got Gerald O’Neal’s famous “Colonies in Space” book as well as engineering design studies from several major universities. In order to visualize some of the designs, they commisioned some artists to show what they might look like. Here are some of the better images:

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/70sArt/art.html

The Universe is Strange and Beautiful

anthonystevens — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:05:20 +0000

The Top Ten Weirdest Things in Space are discussed over on the Discovery website. I’m actually wondering what sort of hard science fiction tale could be wrapped around a hyperveloctiy star.

Death Star Over San Francisco!

anthonystevens — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:15:07 +0000

I am amazed at what can be done with computer graphics and some extra time on your hands. My hats are off to the folks that did the “Death Star Over San Francisco”.

Sexy Robot Commercial

anthonystevens — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:28:51 +0000

My thanks to my friend Conscious Object for this lovely video link.