Neil Fein's Blog

Time for the Stars
by Robert A. Heinlein

It seems odd I haven't read this one until now. I started this because I needed a book to take on tour, and didn't feel like carrying the heavy hardback I'm in the middle of reading.

The Long Range Foundation funds unlikely ventures, one of which is space travel to distant stars. One issue with this is communication with ships light-years away, and they scramble a project to find telepairs - mostly identical twins - after the discovery that telepathy is instantaneous breaks quietly.

Tom and Pat are one of several identical twins who have to decide who goes to the stars and who stays. Time for the Stars is in many ways a typical Heinlein "juvenile" novel - stock Heinlein characters, with many of the Heinleinesque tropes, such as red hair, twins, and an obsession with the long view. But stock Heinlein stuff is almost always damn good stuff.

The author follows the element of human beings functioning as communication devices to a fascinating end: People have lives apart from the noble exploration of the stars, particularly the telepath left behind on Earth and has to interrupt work or a date or class to take a message. And messages that may seem vital to those on a starship may not be as important to a child being called to the table.

I think I still have four or five Heinlein juvies I haven't read yet...

Labels: books

My light is usually mounted on my trunk bag, but I'm going to mount it on my new rack. I'm in between racks at the moment, so I've done this as a temporary measure.

I'm back from the latest bike tour. There was some good, some bad. I finished the Crazyguy tour journal.

Festive cyclist in Philadelphia, the Art Museum in the background.

Light show at Macy's department store in Philadelphia, PA

a quickr pickr post

Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

I'm almost ready for this Saturday morning, that is, assuming neither myself or Neil have a rough time while riding because we haven't ridden all that much lately... assuming my bike doesn't explode (I had to replace a rim today, surprise!)... and so on. Oh, yeah, and assuming I don't get sick again (I'm mostly over my the cough I had last week).

That's enough whining. Here's the plan, the links are maps with cue sheets:

• Day 1: The Neils meet in Philadelphia, we ride around the city, see stuff, do stuff, crash in the hotel. (All the nights are hotels.) Maybe 20 miles for the day? Not sure. (Neil will be riding there from Kimberton to meet me, I'll take the train.)
  
• Day 2: Philly to Doylestown, 33 miles
  I have no idea what's to do in Doylestown, but I'm sure there'll be something interesting.
  Philly art museum to Doylestown
  
• Day 3, Doylestown to Bethlehem, 34 miles
  We'll be arriving in Pennsylvania's "Christmas City" on December 24th. I'm Jewish, but still looking forward to seeing the spectacle.
  Doylestown to Bethlehem
  
• Day 4: Bethlehem to Kimberton, ~50 miles
  
  • Part 1
    
  • Part 2
    
  • Part 3: Green Lane to Kimberton (Neil knows this part).

Last I checked, the weather looked decent, but we'll be prepared if it rains or snows.

Unless I get sick or have more mechanical problems or... naaaah. Never happen. What could possibly go wrong? Um, I never said that.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

Labels: games, googlegadgets

If this works, it'll be pretty cool. Enjoy.

Edit: It works in safari, not in Firefox. Any windows users get this to work?

Labels: games, googlegadgets

Interworld
by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves

This first collaboration between fantasy author Neil Gaiman and hard-SF writer Michael Reaves is a solid young-adult SF adventure. Interworld keeps the hard science-fiction and fantasy strictly on their own sides of the plate, situations tending to be one or the other, with very little desegregation. I'm hardly the target audience, but I can't help but find this to be somewhat of a compromise book.

Joey Harker is someone able to navigate alternate dimensions, not someone who has, as he's thought all his life, a deficient sense of direction. (As someone who shares that ...ahem, feature... I can sympathize.) One recruitment later (by an interdimensional paramilitary group) and Joey is on his first mission against a rival organization.

The gist is that Joey has to save the universe from folks who want to keep all the dimensions under their thumbs (or equivalent appendages). It was a fun read, but it honestly didn't work for me. Interworld kept striking me as predictable. The writing, however, is quite good, and the characters excellent. (Even the ones that are other-dimensional iterations of Joey.) I hope that this team writes another book; there's much potential here.

Labels: books

First ride of the season that's both in the snow and with the proper tires. I think I need new brake pads on the back, though.

I forgot how much fin the knobby tires are. I was hopping curbs and riding on the grass, because I could.

Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: bicycle