Michael Benson: Beyond Visions of the Interplanetary Probes
Pardon my buzz but it's been a long vacation, Pittsburgh to Boston to SF in less than ten days, and I've been waiting for almost two weeks to receive my copy of this book. All I have to say is go straight to page 222-223. If this book isn't on your coffee table this holiday season you'll be nominated for the Grinch awards. How could I possibly run a SciFi Library Website without plugging this book this is the sine qua non (or - Playboy) of outerspace images books. (sorry Mr. Benson but I'm a gen-xer gotta make the cultural ref.) When Michael's interview was aired on NPR, I listened, I took notes, I salivated, I became very excitied… here are some excerpts from my notes (haven't had time to go to the NPR website to see if the interview is archived there but I wouldn't be surprised if it were) .. page 260 of Beyond..shows an image of Saturn, the "Pina Farina of the Solar System" and its "Mathematical Perfection"...if I'm not mistaken M. Benson considers Europa "the single most fascinating [object in the solar system]. " A.C. Clarke describes it as developed by a bunch of "insane highway engineers". The Bottom Line is that this is the coolest coffee table book to have sitting around your flat, mansion, apartment, or in the words of Samuel R. Delany's The Star Pit "two glass panes with dirt between and little tunnels from cell to cell: when I was a kid I had an ant colony."...So go buy, or check this book out..but don't steal it (that would be a serious violation of U.S. Constitution Article One Section 8) (*****)

-- CitizenJones, ‘Where SciFi and Librarians Meet’ © 2003 Tired Viking Publications
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