From archive (archive) Subject: CYBERBOOKS by Ben Bova From: ecl@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (Evelyn C. Leeper) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Date: 9 Jan 90 16:37:49 GMT CYBERBOOKS by Ben Bova Tor, 1989, ISBN 0-812-50319-8, $4.50. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Ben Bova has been involved in the publishing industry as author and editor, and his wife is a literary agent. Therefore he should have a good idea of how the publishing industry works. And many other people have said that the representation in this book is accurate. For example, I know that what makes a best seller is the publisher deciding that it will be a best seller. A book that has a print run of 250,000 and a publicity tour will be a best seller; the same book with a print run of 2500 and no publicity will flop. But if all this is true my question is, "Why would Tor publish a book about how stupid the publishing industry is?" The story is set in 2015 (or so). A computer whiz has developed a "cyberbook"--an electronic book of the standard sort, consisting of a reader and wafers for each book. (Think of the wafers as small mini-disks.) He wants to sell it to a publisher so that books can be made and distributed incredibly cheaply, and in addition, no forests need die. (The question of what ecological damage occurs in the wafer-manufacturing process is avoided entirely.) In the process he (and the reader) learn "how the publishing industry really works." In addition to the publishing industry, Bova attacks New York, or more specifically, Manhattan. Much of this part seems to be inspired by Tom Wolfe's BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. Wolfe, for example, describes an outfit worn by one woman as having a hat that is so wide that it couldn't possibly stay on her head in even a slight breeze, so she can never take more than a couple of steps outside with it on. Of course, since one wouldn't dream of walking to a party, even a block away, and since a taxi would mean having to stand outside after the party while a taxi was hailed, people need to hire limousines for the evening to take them to and from parties only a block away. The fashions in Bova's Manhattan change every week rather than every month or year (well, things are speeding up these days), but just as in BONFIRE, everyone is always working on a different look to stay in step. And everyone has to live in Manhattan for appearances' sake, but can't afford it on one salary, so *everyone* is moonlighting. As a comic science fiction novel, this is excellent. As a serious commentary on the publishing industry today, well, maybe the answer to my question is that the publishing industry is so stupid that they WOULD publish a book about how stupid they are. On the other hand, maybe it's like the mud-eaters: I went to a Renaissance fair once in which there were people who were, I believe, wrestling pigs in mud. At some point, they offered to eat mud if the crowd would collectively pay $10. After they had collected the money, they ate some mud, and then said, "You think we're stupid for eating this mud for $10. But what about you?--you paid $10 to watch us!" Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 201-957-2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Feb 17 13:19:42 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!lunic!eru.mt.luth.se!enterpoop.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!nobody From: schmunk@spacsun.rice.edu (Robert Schmunk) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Ben Bova's TRIUMPH Message-ID: Date: 16 Feb 93 16:46:51 GMT Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Reply-To: schmunk@spacsun.rice.edu (Robert Schmunk) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.writtenrec.arts.sf.written Organization: Dept. of Space Physics, Rice University, Houston TX Lines: 76 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) TRIUMPH By Ben Bova A book review by R.B. Schmunk (Copyright 1993) TRIUMPH is a new World War II alternate history novel by Ben Bova, a well- known science fiction writer making his first venture into this sub-genre. It's an enjoyable novel, but you're best advised to wait for the paperback. As noted on the dustjacket, the basic premise of TRIUMPH is that as the European phase of WW2 draws to a close, Winston Churchill becomes concerned about the political boundaries of postwar Europe. Believing that the American decision to halt before reaching Berlin is a mistake, he orders that Josif Stalin be assassinated, using an item hidden inside the Sword of Stalingrad, an artifact presented to the Soviet Union to honor the defenders of that city. Hopefully, with the Soviet Union's leadership decapitated, its armies will stall and the Americans will change their minds. But there is a second premise to TRIUMPH -- that Franklin Roosevelt was enjoying much better health in April 1945, the result of kicking his cigarette habit two years earlier. Thus, the day of 12 April 1945 in TRIUMPH bears a reversal of what you and I learned in history class. Plot-wise, TRIUMPH is simple (some might say too simple). It begins on 1 April 1945 and ends 29 days later (unsurprisingly, the novel was supposedly called APRIL 1945 while being written). Great events happen around important people. Little effort is spent on character development since the reader is presumably familiar with the historical figures who populate most of the pages. With one major exception, the fictional characters are "little people", such as soldiers in the 101st Airborne, inserted to give a grunt's-eye view of what might have been. The major exception is the assassin, and it's his identity which shows how Bova gets a little too cute with history, a trait endemic in the alternate history writing biz. Bova has created a fictional sibling to a major historical person, using the real person's future dreams as part of the motivation for the asssassin. Like I said, cute, but totally unnecessary; I would have found the assassin believeable without this. Nevertheless, despite the simple plot and the assassin's identity, the tale is interesting, and I particularly enjoyed the sections describing the American attack on Berlin and the final assault on Hitler's bunker. Before closing, I should mention a couple minor quibbles that I had with TRIUMPH. The first is the physical quality of the book. The exterior binding has a cheap appearance, highlighted by a muddy stamping of the title. Perhaps I got a bad copy, but I checked every copy in the bookstore before selecting the one I took. Of perhaps greater importance were some horrendous spelling errors in the text, mistakes which a computerized spelling checker would miss but a human should notice. For example, the substitution of "course" for "coarse" in reference to Stalin's voice on page 12. In conclusion, I can recommend TRIUMPH as a fairly good read, especially for those who enjoy alternate history. However, the $19 cover price for this slim hardback is pretty stiff (note that Harry Turtledove's recent GUNS OF THE SOUTH was twice as long for the same price). Those of you who are not big alternate history fans would be well advised to wait for the paperback edition, or to pester your local library to get a copy. %A Ben Bova %T TRIUMPH %I Tor %C New York City %D 1993 %G ISBN 0-312-85359-9 %O hardback, US$18.95 %P 253 pp. -- Robert B. Schmunk SPAC, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251-1892 USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us. --P.J. O'Rourke, PARLIAMENT OF WHORES From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Mar 2 10:58:56 1993 Xref: lysator.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:56 soc.history:3256 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,soc.history Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!uunet!enterpoop.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!nobody From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Subject: TRIUMPH by Ben Bova Message-ID: Followup-To: soc.history Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 19:48:04 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 60 [Cross-posted to soc.history; followups to there. --AW] TRIUMPH by Ben Bova A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper In an alternate history story, something happens that didn't happen in our world (or, conversely, something *doesn't* happen that *did* happen in our world). But while this is a necessary condition, it is not a sufficient one. An alternate history in which Fred Wilson (or even John Kennedy) takes his coffee with two sugars instead of one on May 17, 1962, is not going to be very interesting unless something noticeably different happens because of this. A corollary of this is that you have to SEE some result--an alternate history in which the usher knocks John Wilkes Booth's hand aside at the last moment needs to have something after that besides Lincoln saying, "Thank you, son. Now we can get on with rebuilding the country," or even, "How dare he! I'll show those Rebels--I'll order every town in Virginia burned to the ground!" This is all by way of background to my main objection to TRIUMPH by Ben Bova. It sets up an interesting situation--what if Stalin had died on April 12, 1945, instead of Roosevelt, and in the subsequent confusion the Americans pushed on to take Berlin instead of leaving it to the Soviets? The problem is, that's it. That's the whole book. It starts on April 1, 1945, with the activation of "Operation Broadsword," and ends on April 30, 1945. One assumes the politics of post-war Europe will be different but it is left as an exercise for the reader as to how. (One is further misled by the jacket blurbs comparing it to Len Deighton's SS-GB and Robert Harris's FATHERLAND. First of all, in both of those Germany WINS, and second, they take place after the change-point, the former by one year and the latter by twenty.) We do get to hear Churchill talk about how Europe would have been had the Soviets taken Berlin. Of course, he gets it wrong, which may be Bova's way of saying that no one can predict the future even though we have to make decisions as if we could. Another flaw arises from Bova's apparent need to tie all this into space exploration. Bova makes Yuri Gagarin's older brother Grigori Stalin's private secretary. But Evegeny Riabchikov's RUSSIANS IN SPACE gives a detailed description of Gagarin's family and he had no older brother Grigori, nor did his parents die in the collectivization as Bova describes. Yes, in an alternate history there are fictionalizations, but to make such a major character a fictional relative of a real person when that isn't the main thrust of the novel seems a violation of Occam's Razor if nothing else. (You can postulate a fictional relative if that is your "what if?" but not just as a side note.) In short, it's an interesting premise but Bova doesn't take it anywhere. For inveterate alternate history fans only. %T Triumph %A Ben Bova %C New York %D January 1993 %I Tor %O hardback, US$18.95 %G Tor, ISBN 0-312-85359-9, 1993, $18.95. %P 253pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgzy.att.com From rec.arts.sf.written Tue Nov 16 12:55:20 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: Bova and Austin: To Save the Sun Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 06:06:13 GMT Lines: 27 Another novel to avoid. "To Save the Sun", by Ben Bova and A.J. Austin, isn't actively bad, just uninspired. The cover blurbs are all lies. The one that comes closest to delivering the flavor of the novel is "Bova and Austin have cleverly wrapped a seminar on applied astrophysics and engineering in a series of plots and subplots that will keep you guessing." The intended flavor, anyhow. The seminar is mercifully short and restricted to handwaving, the plots and subplots *do* make a series, but they're not very good and they don't keep you guessing. Nor do they have any but the vaguest relation to the core theme. The book ends with an Analogish paen to Science which -- not that I disagree with it -- doesn't really follow from the rest of the novel. The writing, as I said, is not bad, just mechanical and unimaginative. (The milieu appears to be that of Dickson's "Call Him Lord", though the only acknowledgement of this is a thank you to Gordy, for "kindness and generosity", which I assume to be directed to Gordon Dickson.) ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com "The death of God left the angels in a strange position." --Internal documentation, programmer unknown From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 2 13:44:08 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Humphrey Aaron V) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Prograde Reviews--Ben Bova:Triumph Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <94Feb28.184931-0700.139041@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca> Date: 01 Mar 94 13:38:46 GMT Lines: 58 Ben Bova:Triumph I've always been a bit uncertain about alternate history and how it fits into SF as a whole. What gives me the biggest problem is that the plot style is often totally different--they tend to be more similar to historical fiction than SF. Ben Bova's _Triumph_ is one of those. It is, essentially, a World War II historical, with a few minor differences. The first is something I wouldn't have noticed, but history isn't my strongest point--Frankin Roosevelt doesn't die in April 1945. That's fairly minor, but I suppose important in keeping Truman out of things. The second, on which the whole book revolves, is that Winston Churchill, when he gifted Stalin with the bejewelled Sword of Stalingrad(which did happen in this reality), concealed two grams of plutonium in the lead-shielded handle. The intent is to relay this information to a traitor on Stalin's staff, and thus assassinate him in a relatively untraceable way. This could have been interesting--but Bova limits the timeframe of the book to April 1945. With their leadership in disarray, the Russians don't occupy Berlin as they did in reality, and one presumes that this will mean no East Germany, and maybe even no Communist Eastern Europe. But Bova doesn't go on long enough to let us know. The only mildly interesting element was the focus on Grigori Gagarin, brother of Yuri, first man in space, personal secretary to Stalin, and(no real surprise)the chosen assassin. His inner conflict is the best part of the book. This may just be my pet peeve. But an alternate history which makes a small change and examines it in detail is less to my taste than one that makes a big honkin' change and makes broad generalizations. Thus Philip Jose Farmer's _Two Hawks From Earth_, which features a world where the American continent never existed, and the Amerinds thus went to Europe instead, I retain a passing fondness for; Walter Jon Williams's "No Spot of Ground", where Edgar Allan Poe fights in the Civil War, did nothing for me at all. And _Triumph_ didn't either. Maybe it would do better to be put in "Fiction" next to the Tom Clancys. His fans might get a kick out of it. If nothing else, it's shorter. %A Bova, Ben %T Triumph %I Tor %C New York %D January 1993 %G ISBN 0-312-85359-9 %P 253 pp. %O Hardcover -- --Alfvaen(Editor of Communique) Current Album--Tori Amos:Under The Pink Current Read--Karen Ripley:The Persistence of Memory "Hold on to yourself--this is gonna hurt like hell." --Sarah McLachlan From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Apr 6 17:43:15 1994 Path: lysator-ifm-isy.liu.se!lysator.liu.se!news.kth.se!aun.uninett.no!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!EU.net!uknet!pipex!bnr.co.uk!corpgate!news.utdallas.edu!rdxsunhost.aud.alcatel.com!aur.alcatel.com!news From: U58563@uicvm.uic.edu () Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Ben Bova's 'Mars' Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: Wed, 30 Mar 1994 01:27:58 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago, ADN Computer Center Lines: 43 Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <94085.220603U58563@uicvm.uic.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: aursag.aur.alcatel.com Ben Bova's 'Mars' is a novel about an alien race. Namely, the cardboard and contradictory characters he portrays. His main character is a Navajo whose description is about what one would expect from someone who talked to someone once who read 'Nightwing' and 'The Manitou' (pulp horror stories which give much more detailed Native American themes). His novel is filled with implausibilities such as a Hungarian woman who hides her hatred of Russians for three years, then brings along a picture of her grandfather being taken away by Russians and waves it around whenever she can cause trouble. For no apparent reason. Then tearfully forgives them at the end with little more cause. As far as science is concerned, hard science fans: put away your slide rules. Aside from the turn-around time for radio signals (25 minutes), the time to reach Mars (one year) and the length of stay (8 weeks) he gives few technical details. Descriptions are vague and contradictory. A major element of the story revolves around the fact that the food is 'reconstituted' and contains no nutrients, making separate vitamin supplements necessary. Yet the main character complains that he is forced to suffer Italian food constantly, intended for the person he has replaced. Suggesting that the food was shipped from Earth containing no vitamins? Another annoying flaw concerned his claim that the moons of Mars could be used as a source of hydrogen and oxygen, and therefore could be refueling stops for ships. Just how or why these elements would be present on captured asteroids, or where the energy to separate all that fuel was supposed to come from, is unspecified. Still another flaw comes when it is claimed that the astronauts 'have no facilities for encryption' as they work with their laptop computers! Yet at the same time the conversations are treated as private, as though 1,000 amateur radio buffs wouldn't be hanging on every word sent from Mars. Aesthetically, I have little appreciation for the tightly controlled, high security situation presented in this book. What is more, it is sufficiently inconsistent and illogical that I have a strong feeling it is used more to cover for things Bova is unable or unwilling to write, than as an actual story device. I recommend that others simply add "Ben Bova" to their killfiles. %A Ben Bova %T Mars %I Bantam Books %C New York %D July 1992 %G ISBN 0-553-56241-X %P 549 pp %O paperback, $5.99 US, $6.99 Canada World Peace Forever! Nuclear War NOW! Finger for PGP:Michael.Serfas@uic.edu From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Jun 8 23:09:08 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ROBERTS@decus.ca (Rob Slade) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: "Future Crime" by Bova Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 8 Jun 1994 19:16:33 GMT Organization: The Internet Lines: 34 Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <01HD9E85YATE9S3TLK-rasfr@ARC.AB.CA> NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu "Future Crime", Bova, 1990, 0-812-53241-4, U$4.95/C$5.95 I figured that a book of short stories with this kind of title would *have* to have one on malware, or data security, or forensic computing, right? Well, maybe. The final story in the book, "Escape," does deal with some aspects of data security in an "escape-proof" prison run by a computer. It's actually pretty good, with some social engineering, a little (very little) hacking, some backup systems, some spoofing of identification systems. The final plan boils down to pulling the plug on the computer: a crude hack, perhaps, but effective. For the rest, well, it's surprising to see a book of stories by a supposed "hard" science fiction author which has so little to do with actual science, or technology. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKFUTCRM.RVW 940321 %A Bova, Ben %T Future Crime %I Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. %C New York %D 1990 %G ISBN 0-812-53241-4 %O paperback, US$4.95 ============== Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | My infected haiku Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | Jerusalem has added Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca | more Jerusalem User p1@CyberStore.ca | Security Canada V7K 2G6 | - virus haiku Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!news.tele.fi!uunet!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ecl@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper) Subject: FUTURE QUARTET by Bova, Pohl, Pournelle, and Sheffield Message-ID: <9502071606.ZM18745@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: The Internet Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 22:51:51 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 78 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:725 rec.arts.books.reviews:294 FUTURE QUARTET by Ben Bova, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, and Charles Sheffield AvoNova, ISBN 0-380-71886-3, 1995, 294pp, US$5.50 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper Well, since the directive given to the authors here was for each to write a "speculative essay" and a story set in 2042, one very pessimistic, one very optimistic, and two in between, it's not surprising that what resulted was pretty didactic and preachy. After all, that's basically what was asked for. It is certainly possible to write stories set in the future that are entertaining first and give the reader a message almost as a side effect--but that was not the path taken here. Bova leads off with "2042: A Cautiously Pessimistic View," supposedly a speech given by the Chairman of the World Council in 2042, and follows with "Thy Kingdom Come" (which has the Chairman as a character). The story has speeches almost at the level of the essay/speech itself, and I was somewhat irked that all the main characters found their common heritage (rather conveniently for the plot, I might add) in the Lord's Prayer. Yes, it's possible, but given that the Chairman is Vietnamese with a Chinese name, it seems contrived (in my opinion). Frederik Pohl's essay, "A Visit to Belindia," is as much a story as his official story, "What Dreams Remain," but again, both spend a lot of time in lectures and speeches by various characters. Pohl says he was chosen to give the most pessimistic future, but even here there much have been a lower limit, as he doesn't postulate any massive nuclear, chemical, or biological wars. And just as Bova MAKES his future "cautiously pessimistic" with his particular story ending, so does Pohl make his pessimistic. The worlds the two of them draw could be swapped, or become optimistic, without much change to the stories, so in that sense they aren't drawing their society to order--they're meeting their goal only in how they end their story. Charles Sheffield's "Report on Planet Earth" would lead the reader to believe his future was to be the most optimistic one, yet his "Price of Civilization" is not what I would call a positively portrayed future, but rather a fascist one of superior and inferior classes, secretly enforced anti-miscegenation policies, and so on. Whether Sheffield realized what a negative picture he was painting is not clear, since superficially his characters seem to be the best off of those in any of the four scenarios. And finally there is Jerry Pournelle's "Democracy in America in 2042" and "Higher Education." This is the "cautiously optimistic" scenario, but it reads like a lot of other science fiction: rookies being trained in the dangerous job of asteroid mining. And true to what one friend predicted, it has a character who explains it all to the young newcomers. This book might work as a catalyst for discussions about the future in a high school classroom, but even there one can find better stories to trigger discussion. These are merely preachy, and not at all satisfying. %A Bova, Ben %A Pohl, Frederik %A Pournelle, Jerry %A Sheffield, Charles %T Future Quartet %I AvoNova %C New York %D February 1995 %G ISBN 0-380-71886-3 %P 294pp %O paperback, US$5.50 [1994] -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "No one is ever fanatically devoted to something they have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They *know* it is. Whenever someone is fanatically devoted to a set of beliefs or dogmas or goals, it is only because those beliefs or goals are in doubt." --Robert M. Pirsig Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!masternews.telia.net!news-nyc.telia.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!199.0.154.208!news2.ais.net!jamie!ais.net!tor-nx1.netcom.ca!HME1-2.newsfeed.sprint.ca!hme1-2.newscontent.sprint.ca!not-for-mail From: rslade@sprint.ca (Rob Slade, doting grandpa of Ryan and Trevor) Newsgroups: misc.books.technical,alt.books.reviews,alt.books,alt.books.technical,rec.arts.sf.misc Subject: REVIEW: "Death Dream", Ben Bova Date: 16 Jul 1998 16:50:10 GMT Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security Lines: 59 Message-ID: <900607810.84197@michelob> NNTP-Posting-Host: hme1-2.news.sprint.ca Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.9 (Released Version) (x86 32bit) Cache-Post-Path: michelob!unknown@spc-isp-van-uas-26-27.sprint.ca Xref: news.ifm.liu.se misc.books.technical:14729 alt.books.reviews:47119 alt.books:14744 alt.books.technical:15405 rec.arts.sf.misc:23918 BKDTHDRM.RVW 980519 "Death Dream", Ben Bova, 1994, 0-553-57256-3, U$5.99/C$7.99 %A Ben Bova %C 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036 %D 1994 %G 0-553-57256-3 %I Bantam Books/Doubleday/Dell %O U$5.99/C$7.99 800-323-9872 http://www.bdd.com webmaster@bdd.com %P 560 p. %T "Death Dream" Viruses, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality are the mainstays of the thriller world, where it touches on technology at all. This book uses, and abuses, VR. I am willing to accept high resolution imagery, and short latency times. I am willing to accept that vision, sound, and minor physical sensations can have an impact out of all proportion to reality. (Wanna know how Disney forces you into your seat when you take off on a rocket? The base of the seat sinks. You really feel like you are rising. Maybe more like an elevator than a rocket, but you really seem to move.) I am less willing to accept that this makes a simulation so indistinguishable from reality that you have to ask your wife for a password. I have a hard time accepting the undefined but non-intrusive means of generating specific physical sensations. Not only is this well beyond the technology that we have available now, but even with physical probes the ability to stimulate a particular tactile response (or any other, really) is very much a hit and miss affair. (To be strictly fair, the book does allow that this requires some brain mapping, and does not transfer accurately from person to person.) (Oh, and by the way, someone who is aphasic from a stroke probably would be paralysed on the right side of the body. I have both professional and personal reasons for knowing this.) I am much less willing to accept that a team of technicians, looking for faults in equipment, cannot recognize a transmitter of some sort where none should be. I am little short of astounded that a primarily visual simulation system has no external monitors. However, I am willing to forgive all of this, given the extremely important point that is central to this book. Presentation of information, in our age, has become more important than content. Control of information shapes, and may cripple, leaders and governments. The hand that holds the clicker may well rule the world. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKDTHDRM.RVW 980519 -- ====================== rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@sprint.ca slade@freenet.victoria.bc.ca virus, book info at http://www.freenet.victoria.bc.ca/techrev/rms.html Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses, 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER) From: "Rob Slade, doting grandpa of Ryan and Trevor" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Death Dream by Ben Bova Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 20 Jul 1998 16:49:26 -0400 Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Lines: 49 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!grendel.df.lth.se!news.ind.mh.se!news.solace.mh.se!news.xinit.se!newsfeed5.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!newsfeed.ecrc.net!newsfeed.nacamar.de!news-hh.maz.net!ai-lab!news.media.mit.edu!not-for-mail Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2045 Death Dream by Ben Bova Review Copyright 1998 Robert M. Slade Viruses, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality are the mainstays of the thriller world, where it touches on technology at all. This book uses, and abuses, VR. I am willing to accept high resolution imagery, and short latency times. I am willing to accept that vision, sound, and minor physical sensations can have an impact out of all proportion to reality. Wanna know how Disney forces you into your seat when you take off on a rocket? The base of the seat sinks. You really feel like you are rising. Maybe more like an elevator than a rocket, but you really seem to move. I am less willing to accept that this makes a simulation so indistinguishable from reality that you have to ask your wife for a password. I have a hard time accepting the undefined but non-intrusive means of generating specific physical sensations. Not only is this well beyond the technology that we have available now, but even with physical probes the ability to stimulate a particular tactile response (or any other, really) is very much a hit and miss affair. To be strictly fair, the book does allow that this requires some brain mapping, and does not transfer accurately from person to person. Oh, and by the way, someone who is aphasic from a stroke probably would be paralysed on the right side of the body. I have both professional and personal reasons for knowing this. I am much less willing to accept that a team of technicians, looking for faults in equipment, cannot recognize a transmitter of some sort where none should be. I am little short of astounded that a primarily visual simulation system has no external monitors. However, I am willing to forgive all of this, given the extremely important point that is central to this book. Presentation of information, in our age, has become more important than content. Control of information shapes, and may cripple, leaders and governments. The hand that holds the clicker may well rule the world. %A Ben Bova %C 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036 %D 1994 %G 0-553-57256-3 %I Bantam Books/Doubleday/Dell %O U$5.99/C$7.99 800-323-9872 http://www.bdd.com webmaster@bdd.com %P 560 p. %T "Death Dream"