'West's California Codes: Penal Code 2000

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Essential for Law Enforcement.......2000-03-24

Obviously, no one working in Law Enforcement can be without this book.

West's California Codes: Penal Code 2000

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West's California Codes: Penal Code 2000
West
Manufacturer: West Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTQN7G

Book Description

Voyagers cross a living universe in a gripping new novel of the far future by GregBenford, multiple award-winning author of The Martian Race and Timescape. BEYONDINFINITYtakes a scientist's imagination to the uttermost ends of time. Set more than a billion years from now, the novel begins with a young woman who yearns to escape the rigid, timeless Earth she knows. So she flees, in the company of an intelligent beast wise beyond recognition. But there are mysterious forces afoot among the planets that she never foresaw. Alien agencies have learned to span parallel universes, ones that lie only a millimeter away but are invisible to any device known to man. Soon these beings confront the travelers and a struggle beyond imagining begins......

Customer Reviews:

Good outer-limits SF.......2007-06-12

This is one of Benford's better books - the surprises are connected logically enough, but not so tightly that they fail to surprise. There is some careful character development as well - I'm curious to hear whether female readers think it's plausible. One of the plot elements is a Zen-master neo-raccoon, who unveils more and more power as the book goes on - I got rather fond of his quirky viewpoint.

The start is a little slow, but stick with it (or skim) - this one's worth it.

gregory benford.......2007-01-31

folks if you like the hard stuff then benford is for you, with an imaginative mixture of theoretical physics and creative fiction, his books bound with possibilitys.

Round and round with no direction.......2006-07-31

This book, like many Benford offerings seems to mistake confusion for art. The story line is weak and development is weak. Benford is, I'm sure a brilliant physicist, and my recommendation is that he stay with his day job.

An Ur-human In Time.......2006-07-20

Beyond Infinity (2004) is a science fiction novel of the very far future. Based on Clarke's Against the Fall of Night, it was initially written as a novella, Beyond the Fall of Night, but has been greatly extended and modified for this version.

In this novel, Cley is an Ur-human, a form of Original and the oldest extant version of humanity (the Originals were reconstructed by the Supras during the rejuvenation of Earth). She grows up in her Meta Family knowing only her current MOM - Mother Of the Moment -- and imagining her father. She knows that her mother is probably someone living within the Meta, but her father left the Meta when she was three. Cley yearns for his return.

When she is old enough, Cley starts work at the Library of Life, where various species of Mankind catalog and rerecord the DNA and other data of Earth's history. She has a passionate attraction toward Kurani, a Supra who lives in the present as well as within the realm of abstraction. They are working together when agents of the Malign attack the Library and kill Kurani. They also try to kill Cley, but fail; her body slowly mends itself.

Seeker After Patterns, a highly modified and intelligent raccoon, finds her body and helps restore her to health. For some time they dwell in the forest, amidst ancient networks of life, while Cley recovers in body and mind. Then Rin, another Supra, discovers them and takes them back to the Library of Life.

Cley is told about the attack and learns something of the Malign and other human encounters with higher dimensions. While working outside one day, Cley and Seeker encounter Morphs, manifestations of higher dimensional beings within normal spacetime. They try to capture one, but are transported to the Tubeworld, a sort of bridge between the tri-dimensional world and higher dimensions. After attracting the attention of a higher dimensional being, they are returned to normal spacetime.

This novel starts slowly, lingering over Cley's childhood thoughts and behaviors, but abruptly speeds up with the attack of the Malign agents and the introduction of Seeker. After that, the pace increases to the point of giddiness, taking Cley offplanet and into the Solar System.

As can be expected from a working physicist, the author inserts various concepts from speculative physics into the plotline, everything from multiple dimensions to electromagnetic lifeforms. The novel terminates with a glimpse of the universe well beyond our ordinary viewpoint and leaves room for an even more exotic sequel.

Highly recommended for Benford fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of speculative physics and the far future.

-Arthur W. Jordin

A wonderfully written book.......2006-06-03

Really, the only problem this book has besides not being written for "Average Joe" is lack of character development. Many of the background characters recieve little to no description, and the main characters are sparsly described in places. It would seem that Benford concentrated on the locations and technology in the story more then the characters.

This isn't a book for your everyday reader. It takes a lot of work and time to understand the details of why things work like they do, especially because most of the technology used in the book is based on cutting edge theoretical physics. In spite of these shortcomings, this is a well written book, but not one that can be simply picked up and read. If you want to read this book, be prepared to set aside a substantial amount of time.

Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets beyond Our Sun

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Mind Expanding
reminds me of Bonestall's paintings
Different book than the title might suggest.
nice but flawed
Infinitely enjoyable....

Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets beyond Our Sun
Ray Villard , and Lynette R. Cook
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0520237102

Book Description

Merely a decade ago there were no known planets orbiting sunlike stars outside our own solar system. In the past ten years, however, fast-paced developments in astronomy have revealed over 140 extrasolar planets--with more discoveries surely on the way. Though it will be years before we have direct images of these far-flung worlds, this lavishly illustrated book gives us an idea of what they might look like. A fascinating exploration of the cosmos written for a wide audience, Infinite Worlds brings together Lynette Cook's internationally renowned astronomical artwork, the latest and most dramatic images from the world's top observatories, and up-to-the-minute scientific findings on subjects ranging from the big bang and stellar evolution to a possible universe filled with countless planets and life forms.
The newly discovered planets are boggling astronomers' minds with their bizarre characteristics, including an unimagined diversity of sizes and orbits. In Lynette Cook's scientifically based illustrations--many newly created for this book--we glimpse the landscapes and atmospheres that might adorn these planets. Ray Villard's text elegantly describes the state of astronomy today, imagines where it will take us in the coming years, ponders the chances of success for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and explores the survivability of life in an evolving and accelerating universe.

Customer Reviews:

Mind Expanding.......2007-02-10

The text and artwork in this volume are first class. The art is exceptionally beautiful and is only enhanced by the story. Together, they bring together what we know with what is likely and expands that to a universe of pure possibility. There's nothing dry about this marvelous work. Infinite Worlds is noteworthy accomplishment.

reminds me of Bonestall's paintings.......2006-11-05

The images are everything in this book. Not that the text is badly written. Far from it. But the text is clearly subordinate to letting you see the imagination of many talented artists, as they depict worlds in other planetary systems. Speculative, but based on solid science. And astronomers now have detected over 200 worlds. The book explains how from sometimes single pixels, information is teased out about a world. Impressive. We now have detected enough worlds that we can start talking of classifications and statistics across worlds.

What the book clearly leads up to is a desire for more, better images. Well, you will have to wait at least 10 years, as new telescopes are being constructed.

Science fiction readers might compare these paintings to those made decades ago by Chesley Bonestall. His were necessarily more imaginative. But both types can be very evocative.

Different book than the title might suggest........2006-05-17

The title of this book is "Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets beyond our Sun". However, only a fraction of the book actually deals with extrasolar planets. I purchased this book based on the assumption that it would be about extrasolar planets. Instead most of the book is based on theories of galaxy formations, birth and death of stars and planets, and theoretical extraterrestrial life. It also describes our Solar System in detail. The artwork is very good although other space artists I have seen on the internet have superior artistic ability than Cook. Overall, though, this is still an interesting book. But potential readers should know that this is not a book about extrasolar planets.

nice but flawed.......2005-09-21

excellent atrwork of the highest standard; would have been nice to have mentioned HD114762, the FIRST extrasolar planet discovered by the center for astrophysics in 1989.

Infinitely enjoyable...........2005-06-22

A very delightful book. The writing by Ray Villard was surprisingly different than most "astro books" by *not* sounding like a textbook. There are many interesting facts and tidbits that I had not heard before that made reading it quite interesting. Lyn's art of course made the book. There are dozens of her trademark-styled images, each illustrating what the writer is saying. I particularly liked Lyn's use of stratus layers in the landscapes. Five of the images must have taken ages to paint with all the layers in there (Greenhouse Earth on pg 49, HD 16141 b and Moon on pg 108, Planet in the Virgo Cluster on pg 190, Terrestrial Planet at 55 Cancri on pg 171, and Planet Near the Siamese Squid Nebula on pg 53). The Siamese Squid image is really eye-catching with it's pink and green layers and Planet at 55 Cancri is a gorgeous painting in brilliant reds and yellows of sunset. Lyn's attention to the way the waves of the lake curve and reflect the light is just amazing, as is the detailed way the shadows of the rocks fall on the water. This is my favorite image of the book. Another very effective painting is HD 177830 b and Moon on pg 117, a beautiful image of a habitable moon orbiting a Saturnian-like panet. Imagine the night view beings on this planet would have! In fact, I found almost every image in the book to be excellent and inspiring. All-in-all, Lyn's done a remarkable job in this book, definitely a "must add" to your astronomical art collection.

Voyage to Mars: NASA's Search for Life Beyond Earth

Average customer rating:

A Behind the Scenes Book about Mars Exploration
Excellent look inside a science team...
In many ways, this book was not really about Mars!
Mars: A Personal Odyssey

Voyage to Mars: NASA's Search for Life Beyond Earth
Laurence Bergreen
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 157322166X
Release Date: 2000-10-05

Book Description

Throughout the ages, no planet has been the focus of more passionate dreaming than Mars. Perhaps the greatest proof of this widely held obsession is the extraordinary commitment of a group of NASA scientists-highly trained, brilliant men and women at the top of their fields, who have forgone high-paying prestigious jobs in private industry to devote their lives to the Red Planet. Not since The Right Stuff has there been such a diverse and charismatic group of space explorers, and Laurence Bergreen has been given unrestricted access to their work and their lives. In Voyage to Mars, he discovers who these visionaries are and what drives them to push the limits of science.

Voyage to Mars takes us beyond the last frontier in a new variation on the ancient theme of man striving against nature. It is an exciting, suspenseful, and dramatic narrative centered on a quest that is nothing less than transcendent: the meaning of life. As Bergreen has written, "To understand the Red Planet, even partially, is to understand something about the nature of the universe, to catch a glimpse of our distant past and our future, to extend perception to a scale much larger than ordinary human comprehension, to harness the imagination to the intellect, and the intellect to the stars."

Customer Reviews:

A Behind the Scenes Book about Mars Exploration.......2001-06-29

While Laurence Bergreen's book "Voyage to Mars" does contain some information about Mars space missions, robotic probes, and scientific study of Mars, it is primarily about the scientists, both men and women, who study Mars and design experiments for NASA robotic explorers and how they dedicated their lives to the study and exploration of this planet. Most of the book covers the people involved in Mars research since the Mars Observer failure in 1992.

This book follows the lives (personal and professional) of several NASA scientists who study Mars, whether they're off in some remote location studying geology that's similar to Mars or designing an experiment for a robotic exploration mission. The book includes the many battles that each one fights, whether is with NASA bureaucracy, their personal lives, with each other for experiments to be flown on an upcoming Mars spacecraft, or dealing with each other's conflicting theories on Martian geological history. One of the things that I gleaned from reading this book is that while each of the people maybe specialized in a given area, they all have a board background in planetary sciences and spacecraft design. Also, there seems to be a lot jealously between scientists, especially for those people who worked on the "Life on Mars" Rock. It was also nice to see that a good portion of the people that NASA employs are women.

Since I've known several of the people involved in Mars research who are described in this book for over a decade, I can definitely say that the stories presented are true and I found the personal descriptions of various individuals to be dead on as well as those of NASA facilities. The book could, however, benefit from some photos and illustrations instead of the detailed of various Martian geological features. It also would have been nice to some parts of the book devoted to the engineers who help make these missions possible, but that might be an inappropriate topic for this book.

Excellent look inside a science team..........2001-03-29

Bergreen's book is a very intimate look at how science really works. In successive chapters, he takes us inside four groups of men and women: the team of scientists that worked on the Martian meteorite ALH84001; the Mars Pathfinder/Sojourner team, the team in charge of the Mars Global Surveyor's laser altimeter, and finally, inside Dan Goldin's NASA. What we see is a far cry from the polished interviews on TV, or the neatly written articles in Nature or Science. The truth is that scientists rarely agree on anything other than very broad assumptions, and often not even on those. Instead, scientists, even those working together on the same project, can heatedly disagree with one another's assumptions or interpretations, making it difficult to agree on the best way data should be released to the public.

An example from the MGS laser altimeter team (specifically the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter or MOLA). This instrument shoots blasts of laser light from the orbiting spacecraft to the surface of Mars, and times their return to the sensor. By doing so, an incredibly accurate topographical relief map of Mars can be created. However, Mars has no absolute altitude marker like Earth (sea-level). Therefore, the scientists have to agree on an altitude reference against which all other measurements are compared. The specific reference chosen is critical because it will be used in all subsequent analyses of MOLA data. Any error could potentially be a spoiler for generations of future reserachers. Bergreen was there when they discussed whether they were ready to commit to an altitude reference and start releasing data (many team members argued "yes!") or whether more data and study were needed before the team published such critical information (other team members said "wait!").

Also typical was the conflict in choosing a landing site for the Mars Polar Lander. Scientists pour over the data from MGS and pick a site that is geologically interesting. Engineers pour over the MGS data and pick a site that is safe. The two goals are often at direct odds with one another. The engineers want stastical rock-counts so that they can ensure their craft won't topple over a boulder. Scientists argue that the sites chosen by the engineers will nullify all the science objectives of the mission. Such discussions can quickly become personal as emotions boil over and passionate beliefs give way to shouting contests.

Bergreen's book is in many ways reminiscent of Overbye's Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, only directed at Planetary scientists instead of cosmologists. This book will be of extreme interest to Marsophiles, but will also be enlightening to those who want an inside look at Dan Goldin's NASA, or at the process actually followed by scientists in the trenches. I recommend this book highly to these two groups as well as anyone else who hasn't updated their knowledge of Mars exploration since Viking.

In many ways, this book was not really about Mars!.......2001-03-07

Although on the surface this is a book about the recent robotic missions to Mars, the book is really an exploration of the culture of the project scientists at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Bergreen paints very full portraits of many key people involved in NASA, JPL, etc including the scientists, graduate students, industry representatives, etc. The book reminded me very much of Jim Watson's excellent account of his work to elucidate the structure of DNA, "The Race for the Double Helix" in that it showed the human side of science. Jim Garvin, Jim Head, Sean Solomon, and the other scientists in this book seek good and solid data, but also (understandably) seek publications in prestigious journals to advance their careers. They worry openly about funding and grant support. Jim Garvin has what sounds like a strained relationship with his wife, who does not really seem to understand her husband's passion and dedication. Some of the investigators don't like each other, and show this openly. These sorts of interludes were very interesting as many books about science and scientists are sterile and portray scientists as absent-minded-professor types who are not grounded in the real world (which is only very rarely the case).

The book is very readable and well written. My only complaint is that the book would have benefited from some illustrations. The images from the Mars Orbiter were discussed ad nauseum, but no representative images were between the covers of the book! Also, I would have liked to have seen a few photos of some of the hardware and researchers discussed.

Mars: A Personal Odyssey.......2000-12-19

Travelers often opine that the experience of a trip itself, the way stations and characters encountered, rather than the final destination, is the most exciting aspect of a journey. After reading Laurence Bergreen's latest offering, VOYAGE TO MARS: NASA'S SEARCH FOR LIFE BEYOND EARTH (hardcover edition), one may reasonably conclude that the peripatetic author is as fascinated with the personas and psyches of the various individuals he encounters along the way as he is with the ostensible subject of the book: Mars. Indeed, a glance at Bergreen's previous books, works covering the gamut from Al Capone to Louis Armstrong to Irving Berlin, shows that the author is a keen observer and no stranger to character studies; his most recent book is no exception.

Bergreen's tour, which starts on Surtsey, a volcanic island off the Icelandic coast, eventually ends on Mars. Throughout, he manages to weave an interesting narrative, replete with detailed personal observations of the scientists and engineers he encounters along the way, which is interspersed with some fairly decent Mars science written in layspeak. The author recounts the often-rancorous Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) team meetings and the clash of egos between scientists pushing their own competing theories and hypotheses about Mars. He encounters scientists in the nascent astrobiology community, some of who are veterans from the Viking mission to Mars of the mid-1970's, and who have bittersweet memories of the main finding from that mission, namely that Mars was a lifeless world. He smoothly segues into the modern view (based on more recent analyses) that the question of life on Mars, either extant or extinct, may not be a closed issue. The reader is caught up in the excitement and the glimpses into the inner sanctum, which is made all the more fascinating because the subject is the Red Planet. The reading is pleasurable (I read the entire book in two sittings) and insightful, but there are a few problems. As a scientist, I am trained to be alert to what is termed "observational bias", which, upon careful reading, appears to raise its head in the pages of the book. It is almost axiomatic that scientists, as well as science teams, tend to be very competitive. So it is not surprising that Bergreen appears to view the world primarily through the prism of the MOLA team. Indeed, he seems to accept their characterizations of others (especially competitors on the other MGS science teams); an interesting parallel to Stockholm syndrome. Additionally, given that Bergreen is really not a "participant" in the normal sense of the word, there are the inevitable factual errors (mostly minor) that are sprinkled throughout the book. Without wanting to appear as a nitpicker, I'll list a few that came to my attention:

Page 104: "...the same moment in 1993 when Mars Observer slipped behind Mars and never resumed contact with Earth." Fact: The failed Mars Observer spacecraft lost contact with Earth three days BEFORE Mars Orbit Insertion and Earth occultation.

Page 104: "For the first time in twenty-one years, a spacecraft [Mars Global Surveyor] was orbiting Mars." Fact: The author is apparently unaware of the Soviet Phobos 2 spacecraft, which successfully entered Mars orbit on January 29, 1989, although the spacecraft was lost in March of 1989 when controllers lost contact while it was approaching its primary target, Phobos, the larger of the two Martian moons.

Page 111: "...[Mars Observer] and finally launched in 1991." Fact: Mars Observer launched in 1992.

Page 114: "He's [Malin] a member of the MOLA team." Fact: Dr. Michael C. Malin is Principal Investigator for the Mars Orbiter Camera team and a Co-Investigator for the Thermal Emission Spectrometer team; he is not a member of the MOLA team, and would therefore normally not be expected to attend their meetings. This "factual error" by the author is less innocuous than it appears and perhaps was colored by observational bias accruing from his association with the MOLA team. Moreover, the misidentification is used to strengthen his claims that Malin is secretive, elusive, one who holds onto data, and one who does not respond to email, etc., which do not appear to be well-supported by the facts, although one can easily believe that the MOLA team encouraged this view. In fairness, though, it is possible that the author simply confused membership on the MOLA team with membership on the much larger and more inclusive MGS Project Science Group.

Page 138: "...and the Journal of Geophysics Review." Fact: After checking with the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) online database, I discovered that no such journal exists. It is likely that the author confused two separate journals, the Journal of Geophysical Research and Geophysical Research Letters, both of which are key publications for planetary scientists.

Page 205: "Stardust will swing around Mars..." Fact: The Stardust spacecraft did not and will not "swing around Mars." It does, however, travel beyond Mars' orbit, but never comes closer than several million kilometers to the Red Planet at any time during its baseline mission.

Page 216: "And a little camera will pop up..." Fact: The author, while apparently describing a portion of the mission profile for the two Deep Space 2 penetrators (part of the failed Mars Surveyor 98 mission), incorrectly describes their instrument packages. There was no camera aboard either of the impact probes; however, Bergreen may be referring to the Surface Stereo Imager, a camera system aboard the Mars Polar Lander.

Despite these errors (which might have been eliminated by more careful proofreading and better research), the book is a fascinating read and, given the relative lack of publicity on the subject, a good source of information on the current state of Mars exploration efforts. If for no other reason, though, I would recommend the book for its introduction to the reader of some of the key figures in Mars exploration, past and present, which gives a personality to the often obscure names that are only found in science journals.

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Voyage to the Planets and Beyond
Tim Haines , and Christopher Riley
Manufacturer: DK ADULT
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Join the crew as they chart the inhospitable landscapes of our neighboring planets and take a death-defying fly-by of the Sun to accelerate them towards the outer giant planets and the forbidding, frozen worlds of Pluto and Charon.

Voyage to the Planets and Beyond Sticker Book

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Voyage to the Planets and Beyond Sticker Book
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Voyage to the Planets and Beyond: 3-D Space Adventures (Voyhage to the Planets and Beyond)

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Voyage to the Planets and Beyond: Mission Report (Voyage to the Planets and Beyond)

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Voyage To the Planets and Beyond
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