My Books

I just had to describe the book that I'm reading to my boss, I am actually re-reading it though. I don't know what has gotten into me this past year, I have been re-read a lot of my favorite books. I'm working on Alien Emergencies right now. Go ahead and scoff, but I am still proud of my affinity to science fiction, even though most circles that I seem to drift in and out of (I just realized that I am pretty profoundly disconnected from most social circles, but how does a stay-at-home Dad get out into the world?) on a daily basis look down their noses at sci-fi.

This book though, think: ER in space. The author James White was a pacifist, and deeply opposed to the thinking that a sci-fi story had to have the traditional roots of human good guy and alien bad guy equaling some epic battle. The stories that he wove (started as an interstellar hospital, very ET diverse population, and then graduated to the main character being assigned to an ambulance spaceship that was outfitted to respond to distress calls involving unknown ET's) tried, successfully I must say, to make the adversity be a disease, a situation, or a problem. Ranging from environmental contamination leaks (oxygen and chlorine atmospheres don't play well together), to his extremely well thought out ideas of extraterrestrial biology and possible ideas for alternative evolutionary paths (he surprisingly had no classical medical or technical training, but the jack-of-all trades couldn't tell). The collection of his books makes me stop and think about the vast stretches of space "up there" and how the odds are that intelligent life didn't only evolve here. It makes me glad that I'm here now, but also a little annoyed that I wasn't born 500 years from now. Damn it.

But I'll talk about my struggle with mortality and death at a later date. I'm a little too tired to get the cramped stomach and tight chest right now.