Re: BOOKS: Dropping the Attanasio meme

Christian Weisgerber (naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de)
17 Feb 1999 11:29:38 +0100

In article <1c585ac0.36c9e1a5@aol.com>, <Jfvirey@aol.com> wrote:

> I wonder if A.A.Attanasio has even been discussed in Extropian circles. I
> personally consider him the best science-fiction and fantasy writer ever, and
> many of his themes are typically extropian. [...]

Hmm, interesting. I've avoided Attanasio so far because I was under the impression that he(?) wrote simply fantasy pretending to be far-future novels, and I'm not big on non-technical speculative fiction. (Yes, it's kind of silly to judge an author before reading him, but OTOH you somehow need to make a choice on what to read.) I think I'll now give him a try.

> In the original Extropian fiction list, [...] the worst being *Inherit
> the Stars* and *The Great Explosion*.

BTW, _The Great Explosion_ has recently come into print again, I just ordered a copy. My understanding is that it's a (very funny) political book with strong anarchist/libertarian leanings. We'll see.

Now, _Inherit the Stars_ is a fine piece of hard SF and perhaps the most suspenseful book I've ever read, but I fail to see what's supposed to be of particular extropian interest about it. If we're talking Hogan, _Voyage From Yesteryear_ (just re-issued by Baen) as a Libertarian utopia would fit the bill better.

-- 
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                  naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de
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