This year’s Booker Prize winner is (gasp!) a science fiction novel! How fabulous. M. John Harrison won for The End of Everything. I haven’t read it, but now I want to.
The End of Everything can be read as a thriller, a mystery, a satire, a dystopia, a road novel, a work of realism; whatever the reader is looking for can be found here, albeit told at a slant and with a twist. The book offers something for everyone!
And here’s a piece by one of the judges on reading the contenders, and the strange and wondrous experience of swimming through this uniquely human sea.
The before times have come and gone, and we seem to be moving towards something new, but do not yet know what. In the meantime, people will continue to write novels that will console and enchant, challenge and provoke. My year of reading has shown what a gift that can be.
Perhaps you remember the “Dear Aliens” contest? Maybe you even submitted a story to be shared with our alien visitors?
Mr Man and I have had a lot going on over the past few months so I did not get a story together, but I’m glad that many of you did. And now, the winners have been announced!
Recently, Neil deGrasse Tyson visited Stephen Colbert to talk about aliens and his new book Take Me To Your Leader: Perspectives On Your First Alien Encounter. He discussed aliens, why you probably shouldn’t shake hands, and how they might mirror what they see of humanity.
It made me think of the story I wrote on that topic, and how I hope that humanity does more good than not. I’ve re-posted before but I like the story, so here it is again. Click through for the full piece.
A fledgling space-travelling civilization similar to ours may be out there somewhere in the Milky Way. Maybe they have their own fledgling SETI program, complete with radiotelescope arrays scanning the sky for the telltale signs of another technological civilization.
If there is, and if they do, from how far away could they detect our technosignatures? New research is asking that question.
Answer? Very far away!
Better check my work for typos again, because you never know who might see this! 😉
I need to add the stories I’ve posted here to my Fiction page. I tend to post many of the shorter stories here and it’s easy to forget a piece or three.
I stumbled on this one the other day, from March 15, 2023.
As a follow-up to yesterday’s discussion of animal crossings as one way we can be kind to the other creatures with which we share this world, I decided to resurface a post from last year:
Posting Elaine Midcoh‘s story recently brought another audio story to mind. Do you enjoy free fiction, aliens with bad attitudes, and unexpected moments of redemption? Then you might enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Originally published as “Heaven’s Lot” in Not One of Us, it was also produced in audio by the fabulous folks at Cast of Wonders.
Author: J.R. Johnson Narrator: M.K. Hobson (transcript included for those who prefer text; story starts at 1:51)
By late afternoon the day was hot, hot and hot, my feet burning up through flimsy red canvas shoes. My skin too, even with its built-in mocha café au lait sunscreen, out all day with no protection but a nondescript outfit topped with my stifling jean jacket. I kept that between me and prying eyes, always.
After decades of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, humanity finally picked up a message from outer space today. Three of Earth’s top radio astronomy observatories detected the signal coming from somewhere near Mars. Its content has yet to be decoded.
Okay, okay, the message is not actually from aliens. Humans arranged for it to be transmitted to simulate receiving a signal from extraterrestrials. Consider it a dress rehearsal — a chance for us all to see how we’d respond if aliens really did transmit a message to Earth.
For more background on the project and the coded message, head to A Sign in Space.
Also, who knew that SETI has an artist in residence (and are we sure she isn’t an alien?)
If you, like me, watched the Mars landing and thought, “So cool. But something is definitely up with that parachute,” you were not wrong!
Image via the Parachute Up-Look Camera A on Feb. 23, 2021 (Sol 2). NASA/JPL-Caltech
The striking red and white pattern was too distinctive to be meaningless.
I initially speculated that the design was meant to help engineers better understand the forces at work as the lander fell through the atmosphere, but nope. With more thought I might have made some progress, but I put the question aside and focused on other things (like the first audio recording from the Red Planet).
Depending on the shape and location of the red-and-white color patterns circling around the parachute’s center, the segments represent different numbers which can be translated through binary code.
Check out the key below, showing the code in four concentric patterns. It reads: Dare Mighty Things. That’s the Perseverance team motto and is also on the wall at the Jet Propulsion Lab. JPL gets another shout-out in the outer ring, which lists the Lab’s lat/long coordinates on Earth. (That’s going to be awfully confusing for any aliens who find it on Mars:)
Speaking of extraterrestrials, now seems like a grand time to plug my favorite new Syfy show, Resident Alien.
An alien crash lands on Earth and must pass himself off as small-town human doctor Harry Vanderspeigle. Arriving with a secret mission to kill all humans, Harry starts off living a simple life…but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world.
It stars the fabulous Wash, I mean Alan Tudyk, plus a cast of other terrific, talented and quirky actors, and is a thing of beauty. The premiere was frakking hilarious.
It’s on my mind because it plays on Wednesday nights, but if you missed it, full episodes are available online for the next year or so.
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