Snowtrooper action figure

I had the opportunity to meet a couple “online” friends this past weekend. I’ve talked to these guys for several years through various online games, instant messaging, Ventrilo/TeamSpeak, and e-mail. Meeting them was a very interesting and enjoyable experience. BrainAlien, a guy I’ve known online since 1999, gave me a Snowtrooper action figure. He knows I’m a huge Star Wars fan, so I really appreciate it. If I ever find my Luke Skywalker in X-Wing suit, I’ll have to have a little battle to relive some childhood moments.

Thanks BrainAlien!

I haven’t really messed with Twitter much, but figured I could at least post updates on where I’m at in my reading as I’m going along. I’ve added the new “Tweet” buttons so you can quickly tweet any interesting posts you see here. I also plan on posting here more often than I have been the past year. I want to try and get back into the groove of posting interesting stuff between reviews like I used to. There have been some amazing developments in AI, robotics, and nanotechnology that I really should have mentioned before.

I’m going to be tweeting all of my posts, but not sending all of my tweets back here. That would make my main site too messy. Want to see what I’m up to?

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Also, I haven’t yet replaced my StumbleUpon button since I went to this new theme. I’m looking into a plugin that has other social bookmarking features as well.

I’ve been dissatisfied with my current theme for a while now. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a fresh look? I haven’t really touched the site design since I re-launched the site about 2 years ago with the new blog format. Please bear with me while I tweak the site with “Suffusion” by Sayontan Sinha. I’m very impressed with it so far. There are so many easy to customize options. Let me know what you guys think!

I had so much going on the past month!

• Family came to visit from May 1st to May 10th for my college graduation
• I relocated to a new city for a new job May 17th
• Went to a wedding in Minnesota on May 24th
• I start my new job tomorrow, June 2nd

I’m really not sure how much free time I will have with this new job, but I will try to keep updating with interesting posts once a week. Also, I’ll do my best to stick with a book review every 2-3 weeks or so. Here is my list of upcoming books I hope to review soon:

1. Neuromancer by William Gibson
2. Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
3. Manta’s Gift by Timothy Zahn

I’ve also decided I’m going to go back and review short stories in Asimov’s Robot and Foundation Universe in the order of Johnny Pez’s Insanely Complete Fiction List that I have hosted here. I’m not sure when exactly I’ll start that project, but most likely I’ll post entries here and there as I complete them.

Please bear with me as I’m working on doing some final touches on a move to a new web host.

–edit–

Well, it looks like everything is up and operational!

I’ve been a bad reviewer lately. I usually try to write my reviews right after viewing or reading but I haven’t had as much time to write them lately. I’ve been playing World in Conflict quite a bit lately, which competes with my reviews here. I should actually do a review for that sometime, since I spend so much time playing it. It takes place in an alternate reality where the Soviets invade the US in 1990. For more information in the meantime just click the link above.

So, here are the things I have watched so far, but have yet to review:

1. Blade Runner – The Final Cut: (I’ve watched the movie, which was awesome, but I still have to work through the rest of the special features on the last disc)
2. I am Legend (2007) – I’ve actually watched this twice, once with my Father while on vacation, and again with my wife
3. Battlestar Galactica: Razor – Unrated Extended Edition

I’m also in the process of reading two books: Children of Dune by Frank Herbert, and The Age of Spiritual machines by Ray Kurzweil. The latter is not really science fiction, but I’m about half way through it and many of the ideas probably seemed like fiction back when it was published in 1999. Many of the predictions Kurzweil makes in the first half are fairly accurate, so I’m interested to see what he will say in the second half.

My next major milestone will be to read Chaos Theory, Asimov’s Foundations and Robots, and Herbert’s Dune: The Fractal Aesthetic of Epic Science Fiction.

That should keep me busy for a little while.

Almost three years ago I set out on a massive project to read all 36 of the books in the Robot and Foundation Universe. The main thing that prompted me to start this project was an eBay auction that had a specific book I was looking for (The End of Eternity, which is loosely connected to this project) and several other books which I’ve already read. I purchased about 16 books in a lot for about $35 total. After finding this deal I decided to try and purchase every book in the series, which I eventually accomplished.

After reading the first few books I discovered that I only remembered a few main facts about these books that I have read many years before. I guess I should state that I had already read 80% of the books in this series before, but in order of publish, not chronologically. I was amazed that a book I’ve read before could be so pleasing to read again, almost like it was a new experience. The main difference was that I knew the overall plot, and could focus on the vague details that made these books so attractive.

Partway through the beginning of my project, I realized how much work I was doing, and didn’t want to ever forget or lose this experience. I started taking detailed notes about the plot and themes in the novels. Eventually I decided to register this domain and dedicate my time to creating reviews to publish. The timeline that I was basing my reading off of was completed by Johnny Pez, which graciously gave me permission to update and host here on The Science Fiction Review.

I’ve tried my hardest to keep major spoilers out of my reviews, but have kept detailed notes on most of my readings so that I could return to them at a later time to discuss things that hopefully someone that has read these books could appreciate. I think that anyone would benefit from what I hope to write in the next few months, but it would be a shame to spoil the story for anyone.

I plan to do a multi-part series of entries that discuss the main parts of this series that drew me back in for a second time. I’ll also try to explain why I think that if anyone was to read the series just ONE time, it should be chronologically, rather than in order of publish. I think that if anyone would be able to make that recommendation, it should be me.

Comments are enabled – I’ve enabled user registration (it takes just 30 seconds), so please register if you have the time. WordPress usernames are case sensitive, so keep that in mind when creating accounts and logging in. I look forward to seeing comments, however you don’t need to create an account to post a comment.

Also, I think I’m pretty much done fiddling with the site layout. I’m probably going to play around with the logo a bit and add a few more things to the right sidebar. I’ve also registered with Technorati and Feedburner to distribute RSS feeds.

I have been unsatisfied with my site layout since I launched the domain back in 2006. It was rather simple, but having all of my reviews on one page is getting rather cumbersome. Rather than cut and paste my reviews into unique files I figured that moving to a blog format might be the best move. This will also give me the opportunity to post about things unrelated to what I am currently reading. I’m hoping I can organize things better this way and possibly go back and work on some short story reviews also.

I haven’t yet enabled user comments, but I will as soon as I finish minor tweaking to my template.

Well, it looks like I have reach the approximate half way point in my major project. I’ve just finished Aurora, and am looking forward to getting to books written by Asimov again soon. I am hoping that I will be finished by this time next year at the very latest. I don’t think it should be a problem since a lot of the older books by Asimov aren’t terribly long. I’m finding it interesting how many plot points I have forgotten over the years since I’ve read most of these books already. Hopefully this page will serve as a reference to other people as well as myself in the future.