ArsGeek

Book Review: You Call This the Future? by Nick Sagan

The new book by Nick Sagan (son of Carl Sagan), You Call This the Future?: The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi Imagined and Science Promised, is characterized by explanations of some of the fascinating technologies envisioned in classic science fiction along with explorations of the progress modern science has made towards achieving those visions. Classic science fiction references appear side-by-side with summaries of state of the art scientific research.

Continue reading...

Book Review: The Way Toys Work

Did you know that the inventor of the erector set won an Olympic gold medal in the pole vault in 1908?  Or that the Slinky was named by thumbing through a dictionary looking for a word that sounded like the motion of a toy?  Or that (despite popular belief), Furbies do not listen for new words to add to their vocabularies (and therefore should never have been banned from government property)?  Neither did I, until I read The Way Toys Work:The Science Behind the Magic 8 Ball, Etch A Sketch, Boomerang, and More.

Continue reading...

Beadle the Bard Becomes not so rare – can be yours.

Beadle the Bard, J.K. Rowling's once extremely limited edition is going to hit Amazon.com come December.  It will be available in a Not so really rare but still costs a hundred bucks edition, and the my 10 year old is going to bug the hell out of me $7.59 edition.

Continue reading...

Just a reminder: Tor giving away free ebooks and wallpapers

You’ve got until July 27th to head on over to Tor.com and grab a bunch of free stuff they’re offering.  Free ebooks in a variety of formats and free wallpapers in many sizes. Don’t miss out on these excellent titles and authors. Technorati Tags: scifi, free, deals, fantasy, science fiction, tor books, books

Continue reading...

Tor.com launches, with a great new short story

The new Tor website launched today - they are the publishers of one of my favorite new authors, John Scalzi. Mr. Scalzi penned the great novel, Old Man's War and several sequels, all of which are a fun read. John has a way with dialog, and weaves a wonderful story. I highly recommend his work.

Continue reading...

Review: Day by Day Armageddon

It’s the new year, you’re a Navy pilot and you decide that keeping a journal would be a good idea.  Little did you know that in the ensuing weeks and months, the world as you knew it would be going to Hell. That’s the premise behind Day by Day Armageddon by J. L. Bourne.  The [...]

Continue reading...