Category: Science Fiction

Science Fiction Spaceships

Linoge over at Walls of the City made a topic near and dear to my heart, a top 10 list of science fiction spaceships. I have some knowledge in the field of science fiction so I figure I might as well join in the fun (read steal his idea). As a ground rule I will not select any ships Linoge has and I will not select two ships from the same series (just to keep it interesting). So here a top 10 list of spaceships from yours truly:

  1. Shadow Vessel: Much like Linoge I chose a ship from Babylon 5 for my top one. Why? Because Babylon 5 is the best damned science fiction series that has even been on television. The Shadows are a race billions of years old. Being that old means two things; you’re cranky and you have kick ass technology. The ships used by the Shadows are large, black, spidery looking craft. Part of the thing I like about them most is their unique design. The other things I like about their ships are the fact they are heavily armed, heavily armored, and use a living being as a central processing unit because the Shadow are dicks like that. They also materialize out of nowhere and disappear into nothing making them a bitch to target and shoot.
  2. The Alliance battle cruiser Dauntless: I’ve mentioned The Lost Fleet series before. It’s hands down one of my favorite science fiction series. The series does a great job of bringing up the ideas of fighting large navel battles in space along with the tactics and technologies needed to do so. Dauntless is the ship the main character of the story spends a huge majority of his time on. There isn’t anything special or fancy about the ship except for the fact it’s carrying a key piece of cargo that can be used to win the war for the Alliance (the good guys). Dauntless is heavily armed while remaining maneuverable and has all the awesomeness of a futuristic star ship.
  3. The Lexx: What’s not to like about a giant living ship that can blow up planets as easily as you can blink your eyes? The Lexx’s sole reason for existing is to destroy planets, that’s it. Of course the ship is also incredibly stupid and takes any given orders in their most literal sense.
  4. USS Daedalus: The USS Daedalus was the second star ship built by humans in Stargate SG-1. The ship is a combination of human and Asgard technology. For those you who haven’t seen Stargate the Asgard are the generic “gray” alien but instead of being anal probing bastard they’re actually pretty decent folk. The Daedalus comes equipped with 32 railguns, a good load of missiles, and some naquadria enhanced nuclear warheads making it a virtual death machine. Late in the series the ship also gets equipped with Asgard kill-everything beams. Yes I like high firepower as you can tell and the Daedalus manages to have that and look awesome at the same time.
  5. Union Class Dropship: What’s more terrifying than a drop ship armed to the teeth? A drop ship armed to the teeth and transporting 12 BattleMechs. The Union class dropship is one of many dropships in the BattleTech universe, it just happens to be the most memorable for me. The only purpose of a dropship is to get your 50 foot tall heavily armed walking robots from an orbiting spaceship to the ground. The Union class does this while also managing to be a heavily artillery piece to boot. Death from above baby!
  6. GTF Hercules Mark II: In Decent Freespace 2 many of the ships from the first game got some upgrades. The Hercules Mark II was one of those and ends up being your primary workhorse throughout the game. Although not the most maneuverability craft in the Glactic Terran Fleet the Hercules was heavily armed and armored. Its heavy shields generally made up for it’s lack of quick movement. It works pretty well for sending those Shivan bastards back to their little part of space.
  7. SA-43 Endo/Exo Atmospheric “Hammerhead” Fighter: I too am one of the people on a relatively short list who have seen Space: Above and Beyond. The Hammerhead was the main fighter used by the humans to blast those Chiggers out of our sector of space. Hammerheads are maneuverable on their won as they have thrusters the can propel them in almost any direction but also mount their laser cannons on rotatable turrets. This makes flying one direction and shooting in another very practical. These maneuverable little bastards were great for the one season they graced our television screens.
  8. GDI Kodiak: In Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun the Kodiak served as your command and control ship. Although having no demonstrated armaments the Kodiak does have the ability to fly inside and outside of Earth’s atmosphere. The only real advantage it presents is the ability to rapidly get to a battle zone but it looks awesome while doing it. I guess the fact that you can use it to call down orbital ion cannon strikes does mean it has some form of offensive capabilities. It should also be noted that the Kodiak appears in the new Battlestar Galactica series as a refuge ship for a brief scene.
  9. VF-1 Valkyrie Veritech Fighter: One of the best ways to get a giant walking robot from one point to another is by putting it on a giant dropship. A more expedient way of getting said walking robot from one point to another is by having it transform into a jet and fly you there. The VF-1 Valkyrie was the first veritech, a class of craft capable of transforming from a walking robot to a fighter jet-like craft. The craft is powered by an internal reactor making it capable of flying both in atmosphere and out in space. The Valkyrie carries a machine gun as well as a bank of good old fashion missiles.
  10. Rama: Last but most certainly not least we have Rama. The first space craft designated Rama by the human race was a giant cylindrical craft that did a flyby of Earth. Although apparently dead the Rama craft was a self-contained world. The environment was built on the inside of the cylinder and used rotational gravity to keep creates from flying off into other sections of the ship. Rama was not a hostile craft and contained no weapons but was certainly interesting to read about as astronauts from Earth explored the inside of the massive beast.

Starship Comparison

Welcome to what may well be the geekiest topic of the week. Random Nuclear Strikes pointed out an awesome website that has size comparisons of starships from different science fiction series.

Is it sad that I recognize a majority of the ships on those pictures and have at least heard of, if not watched, some episodes of a majority of the series listed? Is it also sad that I know all the original models from Babylon 5 were lost and therefore the exact sizes of the various ships is left to estimates only?

Freedom(TM) by Daniel Suarez

I mentioned during my review of Daniel Suarez’s Daemon that I’d do a review of its sequel, Freedom(TM), when I finished it. Truth be told I finished reading it some time back and never got around to writing this review. Yes I’m lazy deal with it. But for your reading pleasure here is a review on Freedom(TM).

First the spoiler free part of the review. The book is fan-fucking-tastic. I can say with a straight face that the Daemon series is one of the best I’ve read. The combination of characters, technology, and story blend very well together. It’s obvious Mr. Suarez has a real understanding of both modern mature technology and technology still in the prototype phase. The other obvious thing is Mr. Suarez knows how to tell a good story. The book is paced well meaning you don’t have to worry about long sections of the book that really accomplish nothing (also known as filler or padding). Every chapter has a purpose and reveals something interesting and advances the story.

The main thing that attracts me to this series is the combination of real technology and a good story. Daniel Suarez is like combing the late Michael Crichton with computer scientist (Mr. Suarez is a database consultant after all) and other scientists. This series is a technothriller although using believable technology is a believable manner. There are no self-replicating nanobots or faster-than-light ships. What the universe of Daemon does have are fabricators that can created objects out of base raw materials, optical weapons that can blind opponents temporarily, and vehicles which can be remotely controlled via satellites.

The biggest component of any story (besides the story itself obviously) are the characters. Mr. Suarez gives us a variety of characters from your average guy with good intentions to a sociopath on a mission of revenge. All the characters in this book are meaningful (so you don’t have a cast of throw away characters you could give two shits about) and have a purpose (once again not sources of filler material). Each character has some complexity behind them and all the major characters’s lives advance with the story (no forgotten characters in other words).

Be forewarned that there is no recap in this book meaning you really do need to read Daemon first. Personally I always read series novels in order but if you’re not one to do that you’ll be very confused by Freedom(TM).

So that’s the spoiler-free portion of the review, the book is amazing. Now for the detailed review.

Do note story spoilers for both Daemon and Freedom(TM) will be present from here on out. Don’t bitch if you see story elements revealed.

Freedom(TM) picks up where Daemon left off. In Daemon a computer game programmer left behind a daemon process which began executing a series of functions based on news headlines is scraped from the Internet. Ultimately the goal of the Daemon was to find agents to assist in creating a new society in the wake of the currently collapsing one. The Daemon infected the networks of most of the major corporations and siphoned money from them for use by the Daemon’s agents. From there the actual plan executed.

Freedom(TM) mostly reveals the ultimate plan of the Daemon which is to establish a self sustained society. When we pick up Freedom(TM) the world is in the wake of the greatest depression in history. There are no jobs to be had and money is quickly becoming as worthless as it’s true value (fiat money has no actual value). Mr. Sobol, the daemon’s creator, foresaw this and hence designed a mechanism to ensure long-term survivability of society.

This is accomplished by creating communities that have everything needed for all of the population in a 100 mile radius to survive and prosper. In essence a society which can exist without long supply chains or government (any question why I love this series so much). Each self-sustained area or holon consists of farms, schools, fabrication facilities (using 3D printers to construct anything needed), and a renewable power source. These holons are popping up in many areas during the time line of Freedom(TM). The purpose behind these self-sustaining holons is to, in essence, create a distributed society with no single points of failure. Any single holon can be destroyed without it causing troubles for any other holon thus making a durable and reliable society.

It can go without saying that the government and many major corporations (whom the Daemon is stealing funds from) don’t really like this idea. In Freedom(TM) the Daemon agent’s primary opponents is a mercenary private security company who thrives off of the current conditions. As you can expect the government is putting a ton of money into private security firms at this time. The military is stretched too thin and there is a lot of civil unrest.

At the disposal of the Daemon’s agents is very advanced technology. Not only do they have access to automated vehicles at this point but they also have small aerial craft that keep the skies clear, non-lethal sonic weapons, and MetalStorm style weaponry. As previously mentioned everything they need can be fabricated at most holons using 3D printers capable of using both metals and plastics as a base material. The Damon’s agents also have access to insurmountable amounts of information provided by a mesh network.

There are two main story arcs going on in Freedom(TM). The first I already mentioned which is current society’s conflict with the Daemon’s society. The second is the quest of Peter Sebeck. If you’ve read Daemon you know Mr. Sebeck. He’s brought back by the Daemon to fulfill a question, justify humanity’s freedom from the Daemon. The Daemon sends Sebeck and his partner around the country visiting several holons and discovering the daemon’s true purpose.

This is where I say go read the book. It’s honestly amazing. The story is unique and interesting. Likewise it’s well paced (I really hate books with long sections of nothing happening) which makes it a page turner throughout.

Daemon by Daniel Suarez

I mentioned a few days ago that I’ve been reading Daemon by Daniel Suarez (Once again not an affiliate link) and that I would write up a review of it after I finished. Well I finished it so here’s your review.

Although this is listed under the science fiction section Daemon is more of a techno-thriller. Think Michael Crichton in that Mr. Suarez takes a technology concept and expands it into a story. In Mr. Suarez’s case he actually takes multiple technologies and uses them in this book. Fortunately he also provides information on the technologies he brings up on his website.

Before even rolling into the story I want to bring up one of my favorite parts about this book. Mr. Suarez is a computer consultant writing a book involving computers. That means most of the stuff in the book are technically correct (although not highly detailed in any manner) or plausible. There are a lot of malicious hackers in this book and it’s refreshing to actually read a book where the hacks they are performing are believable and no centered around navigation through a 3-dimensional space where they have to align virtual cubes together to create a computer virus that can break firewalls through some kind of techno-magic.

But enough about that let’s get on with the story. I’ll try to do this without any major spoilers but it’s going to be bloody difficult. Daemon follows a series of different people who are all connected by the same thing, the death of Mathew Sobol. Mr. Sobol was one of the greatest computer game programmers in the world (think John Carmack of id Software only smarter) and was the man who brainstormed several of the most popular computer games of his time. Until his death he headed CyberStorm Entertainment which was the most famous computer gaming company out there due to the aforementioned titles. Well in his death he left behind a little present, a daemon.

As you can guess a rather broad type of characters are presented. One of CyberStorm’s other programmers is killed and the local police force are brought in to investigate. Likewise the story also involves a few identity thieves, new reporters, and even a man spending time in prison. It’s a nice assortment of characters and all of them are given enough time in the book to flesh them out. That time is well spent since given the wide assortment of characters they are all interesting and actually do provide something to the story.

But back to the daemon. The little bugger was programmer to perform a large assortment of different tasks that it slowly executes throughout the book. In essence it reads online news articles and looks for key words that trigger it’s next event. For instance it was originally activated after reading Mr. Sobol’s obituary. I would like to expand on this but honestly the best part of the book is following the progress of what the daemon does and I really don’t want to spoil that part. Let’s just say the author does a good job of keeping it a mystery through the beginning of the book and when its purpose finally revealed the book gets very exciting.

I’ve mentioned before that one of the biggest things I look for in a book is pacing. I don’t like boring parts where nothing of consequence is happening. Daemon thankfully is well paced where each chapter advances the story. Nowhere in the book did I get bored and wish I could skip ahead. I do have to say though the ending is kind of abrupt but does make headway for its sequel Freedom (TM) (a review of which will be posted after I complete reading it).

I’m going to go into a little more detail here which may present itself as spoilers. If you don’t like to have any element of the story revealed stop reading here. I’ll try to keep the spoilers vague as to not reveal much about the story itself but you have been warned.

One of the concepts that begins to be explored in Daemon on the idea of a distributed society. What does that mean? Well it means it a society where there is no central authority and large centralized governments aren’t able to evolve fast enough to keep in pace with ever expanding technology. More or less it’s a libertarians dream come true. The book revolves around the ever expanding daemon. Due to its purpose the NSA, FBI, CIA, several private corporations, and even DARPA are brought in to investigate it. On the other hand various groups of geeks are working against the government entities’ purposes. As you can imagine the geeks use every technological trick in the book to accomplish their goals. They also do it in a decentralized manner which the government agencies find difficult to counteract. I don’t think I can expand on this any further without revealing key plot items though.

This is honestly a hard book to write much about because most of the good parts require revealing important story elements. The bottom line though is that it’s a damned good read. It’s interesting even for the non-geek although I wouldn’t hand this title to your grandmother as she’ll probably be in even more fear of computers. But if you have an interest in computers, a good story, and some ideas libertarians would love (although I’m in no way implying the author meant to include libertarian ideals, they just fit with what is happening in the book) grab this book.

Also for your big time geeks out there that will inevitably complain about the impossibility of the technology involved, shut up. It’s a work of fiction, read it as such.

Robert Buettner’s Orphan Series

I’ve been promising to do more posts on Godless Sodomite Fiction and thus far failed to deliver much. Well I’m going to help correct that slightly right here and right now. For those of you whom like military science fiction I present you with a great series written by Robert Buettner called the Orphan or Jason Wander series (Yeah it doesn’t really have a series title like The Lost Fleet or Vampire Earth series. Also note that the link isn’t a referral link.). For the purposes of this post I’m going to call it the Orphan series to make life easy on me.

Buettnet’s Orphan series consists of five books: Orphanage, Orphan’s Destiny, Orphan’s Journey, Orphan’s Alliance, and Orphan’s Triumph. The entire series follows the life of Jason Wander who starts as a new military recruit in book one and ends up retired at the end of the series.

I’m not going to go through each book, that’s up to you if you decide to read the series. But I do have to go through Orphanage to establish a groundwork upon which to write about the series. Although there are going to be slight spoilers they will consist of nothing more that can be obtained by reading the back of the book’s cover.

Anyways Orphanage is a tribute to Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. The stories are very similar and that’s by plan not a lack of originality. An alien species had parked its butt Ganymede and decided to start throwing really large rocks at Earth. The rocks are guided and the alien race has the ability to render our nuclear weapons inert. Needless to say Terra gets pummeled pretty hard. Enter Jason Wander, a kid with no real outlook on life. As is typical in a book an event happens that changes his life (Because that’s what makes a book interesting and worth reading). See Jason is a fuck up and keeps appearing before a specific judge. The judge gets sick of seeing Jason’s ugly face and finally gives him a choice, join the military or go to prison. Jason chooses the first option and enlists in the army.

Meanwhile the aliens keep hating on Earth. Eventually Jason’s family is killed leaving him an orphan (Clever huh? I bet you didn’t see that coming when you read the name of the series.). Shit happens and eventually he finds himself recruited for a mission that is heading to Ganymede to fuck the alien’s collective shit up. The mission consists only of soldiers who are war orphans and hence are felt to be the most pissed off and therefore qualified to kill alien scum.

That’s the premise of the first book. Needless to say Buettner’s tribute to Starship Troopers is beautifully executed and he adds enough of his own ideas and story elements to make Orphanage a great book that doesn’t feel too much like it’s idol. In the next four books the story comes into it’s own.

One of my pet peeves in books is poor pacing. I’m not a fan of boring parts in books and very often stop reading a story for quite some time because I hit a lull. Buettner shows an amazing skill for proper pacing. The end of each chapter leaves something interesting to be unlocked in the next one. I always found it hard to put these books down because the answer to something I was dying to know seemed to lay on the next few pages. When I obtained me answer an new puzzle would present itself and I found myself having to read more yet. Putting down these books and going to sleep required an act of extreme will.

Buettner also does an excellent job on character development. Too many series end up having characters stagnate in later volumes. The Orphan series seems to always manage to further embellish characters without making it appear over the top. Jason goes from being a worthless punk kid to a grown man capable of accomplish his work. Other characters are given equal amounts of attention as well. It’s rare for me to have strong memories of side characters but I can rattle off the names and general situations involving almost all of the major side characters in this series.

Of course being a science fiction godless sodomite fiction series there are plenty of gadgets and gizmos. The practicality of the advanced technology mentions written by Buettner impress me. The soldiers in the series wear powered armor called Eternads. The armors contain water purifiers, water storage systems, air conditioners, heaters, oxygen generators, and even a pad on one arm for wiping snot from your nose. All of these features of powered by a battery that recharges itself via the movements of the person wearing the Eternad. Because of the nature of the aliens being fought the guns later in the series fire flechette ammunition.

Being this is a military science fiction series geopolitical politics comes into play. Many events from Jason’s career are brought to light including those involving being a military “consultant” for other countries. This is more important of an event at the series progresses but I can’t really expand on it without giving away plot points and spoiling some of the series.

I really like Buettner’s portrayal of soldiers. He’s very Heinleinesqe in that he has a positive portrayal of the foot soldier. It’s a nice change in pace from many stories that portray soldiers as wanton killing machines with the IQ of a wild boar. I do appreciate this aspect of the series.

Anyways the series is a great way to spend some quality time reading. I urge you to take a look at the first book if you’re into science fiction of any kind.

How Did I Miss This

OK I’m going down the nerd fanboy road here. But the novel cover art for Vampire Earth: March in Country was revealed. Here it is:

Once again great cover art. Nothing like having a guy with a gun on the cover to let you know this novel doesn’t involved vampires that sparkle. Oh and here is the summary that’ll be on the back of the book:

Known for writing “in the vein of Well’s War of the Worlds”* E.E. Knight continues his national bestselling Vampire Earth novels featuring Major David Valentine. His army builds solid alliances in the name of freedom—but the opposition’s wrath is just as strong…

The race is on to claim the area between the Ohio River and Tennessee, emptied by war and disease after the human effort to establish a Kentucky Freehold failed. What’s left of the resistance is hiding out in the tangle of central Kentucky hills—leaving the powerful, well-organized Kurian vampires the opportunity to fill the void.

Major David Valentine knows a small group of fierce, freedom-loving allies who would be glad for a chance to settle the rich lands. But they’re over three hundred miles away, with hostile aliens, and vicious human slavers standing between. There’s only one way for them to cover the distance before the Kurians settle in: a desperate dash by hijacked rail, followed by a harrowing river journey.

Valentine unites friends old and new in the effort–but the Kurian Order won’t easily yield the blood-soaked Kentucky soil.

Anyways I can’t recommend the Vampire Earth series enough. It’s a great post-apocalyptic novel that puts a creative spin on the vampire lore. If that isn’t enough there is enough action to keep most people very satisfied. March in Country should be released in July.

The Lost Fleet Series

You know it’s come to my attention that I have an entire science fiction category and I hardly use it. This most certainly was not my intention. I’ve been planning on doing more science fiction reviews and after the previous story about the religious zealots not like the genre I thought I’d start posting more science fiction content. I’m going to start with a brief introduction to a science fiction series know as The Lost Fleet.

The Lost Fleet is a series penned by John Hermy under the pen name Jack Campbell. Why he used a pen name I’m not sure since the series is incredibly good. The basic premise is this, it is far into the future (When else?). The human race has not only developed faster than light travel but we’ve colonize many worlds. Eventually human colonized space was controlled by two entities; the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds, or Syndics.

Of course if there are two super powers you know there has to be a war. That’s where this story takes place, a century into a war between the Alliance and the Syndics. The series follows the exploits of Captain John “Black Jack” Geary. At the beginning he is recovered by an Alliance fleet inside of Syndic territory. See life sucked pretty hard for Captain Geary, he was there at the first battle of the war. Unfortunately for him his ship was destroyed and he had to eject into a stasis pod where he sat for 100 years.

Anyways the fleet reaches the Syndicate home world where shit hits the fan and through circumstance out of his control Captain Geary becomes the head of the fleet. Being a captain who has held the rank for 100 years he’s the highest ranking officer in the fleet, fancy that.

The series, comprising of five books with another due this year, follows the fleet on their journey back to Alliance space. There are a few elements that really set this series apart from others though. First of all this is more of a naval fiction in space series. As I mentioned the series follows John Geary who becomes the fleet captain, which means a lot of logistics are used.

The biggest way to see that this is a naval fleet series is during the battles, which are masterfully done in my opinion. Everything is taken into consideration. The author details a navigation system where everything is measured relative a system’s sun. You either go towards the star, away from the star, or move up and down relative to the sun’s equator. All navigation on done with this mechanism and it’s a mechanism that makes sense (A opposed to made up sectors and quadrants that are never explained).

A lot of attention to detail is made for the fights. For instance the effects of relativity are a problem due to the speeds at which battles happen. Computers are required to fire ship based weapons during fleet confrontations because no human has the required reflexes. Fleet formations and their proper uses are also explained in detail.

It certainly shows that the author was a naval officer. A lot of people always ask why science fiction ships are controlled by the navy when they aren’t at sea. It’s not because they have nothing else to do, it’s because they understand how to manage large fleets of ships that are staffed by hundres of personel.

Anyways I’m getting side tracked here. The fleet has to deal with more than just combat. Unlike many science fiction series the fleet in question here doesn’t have infinite resources. They have limited fuel, ammunition, repair supplies, food, etc. Captain Geary spends a good amount of time on such logistics and their consequences.

The books are very well paced. I can say I plowed through the currently released five in no time at all and nowhere did I feel there was a lull in the books. Pacing is difficult in a series where everything isn’t based around action, and Mr. Hermy does an excellent job of it. He manages to deliver a great amount of detail without going overboard. The situations he places the fleet in are generally unique enough where you don’t feel you’re reading about the same problems over and over again. Any series that extends past three books usually ends up repeating itself, this is not the case though.

One criticism about this series is the opening of each book does a recap of the previous books. The author has stated he does this on purpose so a reader can pick up any book in the series and be able to get into the story. With that said I’d recommend starting from book one, Dauntless. Although each book does a recap such summaries can’t really give all the details by their nature.

This series is very well done and a refreshing break for the usual slew of science fiction space marine stories. It’s good to see not everything in the future revolves around space marines.

Oh My God, Science Fiction is the Devil

Rarely do I see a story that makes me simply throw up my hands and say “What the fuck?” out loud. But Random Nuclear Strikes pointed to just such a story. The story (I refuse to call it an article as that would imply some anchoring in reality) more or less explains how science fiction authors are the anti-Christs:

Science fiction takes the reader into a strange world without God. Oh, there might be “a god,” a “force,” but it is definitely not the God of the Bible, and the prominent names in this field are at

That’s the opening to the article and it only becomes a hit piece from there. For example:

Consider ROBERT HEINLEIN, called “the dean of science fiction writers.” He rejected the Bible and promoted “free sex.” His book “Stranger in a Strange Land” is considered “the unofficial bible of the hippie movement.” Heinlein was a nudist and practiced “polyamory.” He promoted agnosticism in his sci-fi books.

GASP! A science fiction author uses his books to explore new ideas outside of those generally accepted. Oh wait that’s EXACTLY what science fiction is about. The dip shit author of this story seems to lack the concept of fiction. That’s an important word. Fiction implies a story not based on truth. Don’t imply I’m claiming Christianity is truth here, I don’t talk religion on my site for a reason (Theology does not a good argument make). But I mean truth in the sense of the author’s point of view.

I read and watch a ton of science fiction. I love the genre because it can create a credible setting and explore new topics. I’ll use an example everybody pretty much has some knowledge in (Although I’m not really a fan of the series) Star Trek. In this series everybody lives in a utopia where everything is provided to for them. The people only work because they want to and are not required to in order to survive. It’s pretty much the communist ideal. Of course in the series they also have infinite resources but that’s getting off topic. The bottom line is the series came out during the Cold War where such ideas were not well thought of. Thankfully when you package an idea up in the world of science fiction there are enough laser, faster than light travel, and aliens to distract the zealots enough where they don’t see the actual ideas being explored.

The author need to pull his head out of his ass and realize that he can’t bitch because the stories don’t agree with his reality. The stories don’t involve reality at all. They involve ideas about how society would or could be if certain criteria were met.

Of course the author also decides to do a hit against one of my favorite late authors:

Consider ARTHUR CLARKE, author of many sci-fi works, including 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke, who was probably a homosexual, promoted evolutionary pantheism. He told a Sri Lankan newspaper, “I don’t believe in God or an afterlife” (“Life Beyond 2001: Exclusive Interview with Arthur C. Clarke,” The Island, Dec. 20, 2000). In the instructions he left for his funeral in March 2008 he said, “Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral.”

Oh my God Arthur C. Clarke was an atheist? Oh wait never mind everybody already knew that. The man was a scientist and is often the case only believed in what he could observe and measure. But there isn’t a single time I can remember where Sir Arthur (He was almost knighted and only failed to be because his health was too poor for the journey to England, the title doesn’t mean shit to me but alas it’ll probably annoy the story’s author so I’m using it) made an active campaign against religion. He didn’t believe in it and was fine with that. The author on the the other hand appears to have so little to do that he actively attacks those who disagree with him.

What Sir Arthur did was advance human society. You know that fancy geosynchronous orbit? It’s also called the Clarke orbit for a reason, Sir Arthur did the calculations and “discovered it.” He was also one of the pioneers of the idea to use orbiting satellites for communication purposes. He also fleshed out the idea and possibility of a space elevator to move objects from a planet’s surface to orbit with much less hassle than rockets. Sure he might not have believe in any form of deity but he did contribute to the advancement of the human race. Has the author done that? Didn’t think so.

And you just have to love the jab that Sir Arthur was “probably a homosexual.” What the Hell does that have to do with anything? Oh yeah, sorry, religious zealots find a person’s sexual preference a measure of that person’s worth. My bad.

Remember my previous mentioning of Star Trek:

Consider GENE RODDENBERRY, creator of Star Trek. He was an agnostic and humanist who envisioned a world in which “everyone is an atheist and better for it” (Brannon Braga, “Every Religion Has a Mythology,” International Atheist Conference, June 24, 2006).

I just wanted to drop that one because I mentioned his series earlier. I’ve already stated why the author is a moron and don’t need to reiterate here.

Anyways these religious zealots are, how to put this nicely, fucking morons. And when I say that I’m also including atheists and agnostics. Zealotry is bad in general but when that zealotry involves attacks against people (Be if physical or verbal) it crosses the line.

Christianity has the saying of, “Judge not unless ye be judged.” And of course there is the whole concept of turning a blind eye on those whom attack you. Maybe the author should study his own religion and follow the pacifist nature of his savior. I was raised Catholic and I’m pretty sure the right to judge another was reserved for God alone.