The first post of the new year:
This could have been broken down into 3 posts but I did not get around to posting them.
In an attempt to further ensconce myself in the nerd hall of fame, I got a Tron poster. (No one got it for me for Christmas.) Noelle had a coupon for a frame at Michael's, so the poster will be safety preserved for future generations. In my enthusiasm for the poster, I watched the 20th anniversary edition (digitally remastered). It is amazing how good it looked, even more so if you take into consideration that it was released in '82. (Nerd moment: Just think how ridiculous Star Wars Episode I is going to look 20+ years after it was released; heck, it looks bad now.) The crazy and awesome thing is that they are going to make a sequel to Tron: TR2N. It's set to be release in 2011, 1 year short of Tron's 30 year anniversary...that's crazy!
Along with the Tron poster, I got By Schism Rent Asunder, which is the sequel to Off Armageddon Reef. David Webber is more known for his Honor Harrington series. The Honor Harrington books are the ones you see people reading on planes with the really cheesy covers. I have read the first 3, and they are better than the covers make them look, but there are 20 books in all, and I can see a pattern already in the first 3. Most of Webber's books have nautical themes, whether it be space navy battles or standard seafaring. I read the first book last year on one of my trips to Seattle. The main storyline is set in the world of Safehold ,which holds the remnants of human society. Safehold has been permanently restricted to a Medieval level of technology to avoid destruction from an alien race. The main hero/heroin is a cyborg (named Merlin) who was hidden in the mountains (for 800 years) by a sect of the original settlers. They wanted to advance human technology so that if the aliens find them, they will be able to defend themselves. The author does a wonderful job of endearing you, the reader, to the main characters. The one aspect that I like is the altering of technology. Merlin's task is to slowly transform the society into one that can defend itself if the aliens return. He does all this tweaking of the ships, cannons, and guns. I always wonder how an engineer could alter our existence if he were to go back and have a conversation with the Royal Society in England in the 1600s. I finished all of the first book while I was on the trip to Seatle, and I finished the second one in under a week. The one bad thing is that By Schism Rent Asunder and the 3rd book By Heresies Distressed are basically 1 book and were split up because it was going to be too big. So the ending of By Schism was not as clean as Off Armageddon Reef, and I have to wait until June for the Hardcover of By Heresies Distressed.
As a side note, the second and third book's titles in the series are from the hymn The Church's One Foundation.
