chandler wrote mysteries. i'm just recommending him on great writing, not for sci-fi.

No, I haven't... but I'll get the CD.

My favorite book by Ken MacLeod so far is 'Learning the World'

A four hundred year journey through space is about to end for the teeming inhabitants of a large ship-world. The air is thick with expectation as they enter the system that is to become their new home, the probes reporting nothing more advanced than bacteria and algae among the clustered planets. But the original data was wrong, and direct scans of the planet reveal a whole alien civilization. Maybe the aliens have just arrived. Maybe evolution has been incredibly rapid during their long journey ... Neither of these explanations seem plausible. It seems likely that the probe data has been falsified from the beginning. Advice is years distant, help is decades away. They're on their own and they'll have to decide a plan of action fast as the rest of humanity is just as vulnerable and not much further away.

Two reviews: www.strangehorizons.com/review...t.shtml


Excerpt from 'Learning the World' by Ken MacLeod
kenmacleod.blogspot.com/

It was turning into a big day for flash meditation. Much more of this and she might attain flash enlightenment.
"You realize what you've done?" she demanded. "Do you have the faintest conception of the harm this will cause?"
Constantine nodded. "The disruption will be immense. It'll destroy the entire slave economy."
"But they're not slaves!" Synchronic said. "If they had been, I could see why we might want to interfere. But you've taken what are by your own admission mute brutes, and given them language. Deep grammar. Self-awareness. Human consciousness, You've made them slaves."
"Yes," said the Oldest Man. "Slaves that will try to free themselves."
Synchronic had already shown him the breakout she had witnessed. She flashed him a pointer to the file.
"Like that?" she said. "When these poor creatures become aware of what they are and what has been done to them, they will suffer terribly. They will flee, they will fight-kill their owners-"
Constantine agreed again. "That may all happen," he said. "The owners have it coming."
Synchronic just stared at him. "How can you say that? How can you be so destructive?"
"We didn't do this to be destructive," said Constantine. "We did it to reduce suffering, and to increase intelligence."
"The suffering of brutes? When did that become urgent?"
The last time I visited you," said Constantine, "you were showing the kids the meat and milk machine. Why don't we just raise and slaughter cattle?"
"Hah!" said Synchronic. "Convenience."



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While Star Wars has not been thought to be too cerebral, some of the authors filling in the gaps are pretty good, they just get a bad rep for working on "cheesy" stuff.

Ah, well then...enjoy!!