Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Reading Recommendation


For my fellow geeks, in light of the untimely demise of Sir Arthur C. Clarke at the tragically young age of just 90, I'm going to recommend another hard science fiction author to you to help fill the void left by his passing.

Go snag a copy of "Spin State" by Chris Moriarty.



"Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com

In her debut novel, the terrific thriller Spin State, Chris Moriarty melds cutting-edge science with post-cyberpunk fiction and neo-noir suspense to create a complex, believable future inhabited by one of the most intriguing characters in modern science fiction.

Major Catherine Li is a veteran United Nations Peacekeeper in a future of world-nations. Humanity has spread across interstellar space by "jumping": teleportation enabled by quantum physics and a bizarre crystal found only on Compson's World. The jumps destroy memory, so jumpers back up their memories on computer. Despite this precaution, frequent jumpers still lose some memories, a fact that poses a far greater problem for Catherine Li than it does for other Peacekeepers. For Li has a dangerous, potentially deadly secret: she's an illegal clone.

When a UN mission goes awry, Li finds herself shipped on solo duty to Compson's World--her home world, to which she'd vowed never to return. Her mission initially seems simple: to determine if the death of brilliant physicist Hannah Sharifi was a crystal-mining accident or cold-blooded murder. Like Li, Sharifi is a clone--in fact, she's Li's genetic twin. Li swiftly finds herself enmeshed in the intertangled politics of the UN, the multiplanetary corporations, the miners, and the human-created Artificial Intelligences, who have enigmatic agendas of their own. --Cynthia Ward
"

Not only is the story itself KICK ASS, but Moriarty includes a 5 page "Further Reading" bibliography that covers topics like "Quantum Physics Generally" (14 citations), "Quantum Information Theory [EPR, Quantum Cryptography and Quantim Computing]" (33 citations), and "Spinfoam, Wormholes, Time, and Other Strange Beasts..." (17 citations).

Bitch knows science!!

And, she's HAWT!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll put it on my list. I like the description, a lot.

Tony said...

Awesome picks!!!

I had an inclination you liked the guys work but your knowledge of his collection is impressive.