Hola Listees, Thanks very kindly for the meteorite fictional book ideas many of you kindly sent in response to my post the other day.
I thought I would post a summary in case anyone else was looking for gift ideas for friends family or loved ones. First, I'll tell you the book I decided to get for a special person (just received today!!!), followed by a list of other books (for which I owe thanks to everyone who helped me out on and off list): Winner: STARDUST, (Spanish Title: Lluvia de Estrellas = Meteor Shower-) by Neil Gaiman This is a romantic fantasy about the faeries and struck ones in the nicest sense. While it seems like it is written for children, the naughty author has the meteorite curse after her painful atmospheric entry, and there is a bit of steamy sex to whet some folks appetites... Two cultures somewhere in the English countryside are divided by a wall every day except one in 9 years. An adventurous young man with an interesting birthright is with the prettiest girl in the nondescript human village inside the stone wall. Victoria owns his heart, but, she doesn't care much for Tristran. They gaze into the sky when witnessing the ground shaking and thunder accompanying a shooting star. It begins as a small light, but quickly outshines the Moon and brilliantly falls somewhere on the other side of the wall, where there are enchanted meadows, trees and their inhabitants. The young man Tristran is so blinded by love that he somehow becomes obsessed with the labor to recover the fallen star and bring it to her to win her heart and live happily ever after. Only, he has lots of competition hunting on the other side of the wall ... where meteorites have more voluptuous properties than a few quartzy chondrules. Tristran learns that recovering a shooting star is very arduous task which forces one to meet and deal with all sorts of challenging characters during the quest. Finally he learns that the fallen star is nothing his imagination contemplated, but that the knowledge he has accumulated in his quest for it has changed his life and taught him more about himself than he dreamed were possible to know. The tale is fairly short in medium print, and I've skimmed it enough to highly recommend it to the Romantics, hopeless, and hopeful. Runner ups, THE ICE LIMIT (Mas Alla del Hielo) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child Popular novel, A rich meteorite collector decides to pillage Chile by hiring a crew to recover the world's biggest meteorite discovered in difficult conditions off Chile and deals with logistics, politics and suspense. Darren doesn't recommend the author's based on a newer book of theirs, Tyrannosaurus Canyon, and there are some factual problems though somewhat entertaining according to Chris, but the book manages some decent suspense. DECEPTION POINT (La Conspiracion) Dan Brown Popular novel, A huge meteorite is discovered under the Arctic and NASA is in chaos due to overall failure and beaurocracy which have characterized its devolution. This meteorite is thought to be a strategic asset to the nation (USA), and apparently holds secrets to develop and unlock great power. The race is on to recover it and the government is secretive, greedy, and falling all over itself.! LA PIEL DEL CIELO (The Skin of the Sky) by Elena Poniatowska Mexican literary work, a talented Mexican man is fascinated by astronomy and would have a promising future if he could only learn how to overcome the inequality, corruption and beaurocracy in his country. "A novel, which like the telescope, brings us closer to the challenges furthest from our reach: the stars and love. METEORITE SPOON (La Cuchara de Meteorito) Childrens book available mainly from England. The kids' parents are fighting all the time and the kids get a magic spoon coated with mneteorite to dig a hole each time they can't bear it and bury their problems in the hole. Then they escape a disaster by going into the hole and emerging to the other side into a fantasy world. THE HAMMER OF GOD (El Martillo de Dios) by Arthur C. Clarke An amateur astronomer in the year 2110 chances upon an asteroid on a collision course with earth. The asteroid, named Kali, gives little time to avoid complete annihilation of humans on Earth and the technically ok novel in the hands of master sci-fi writer Clarke is better than most, but now a less novel theme. Space Guard is discussed in parts of this book when it was still the domain of science fiction writers. LUCIFER'S HAMMER (El Martillo de Lucifer) by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle An early chaotic and interesting book about a comet's impending impact with Earth discovered by a wealthy amateur astronomer. First NASA scientists discount the possibility of a collision, but then, the crazies get hold of the idea that it is the end. The irony is that the NASA estimates provd wrong and then the comet does fragment and demolish most of the coastal cities on Earth. The spoiled astronomer who discovered it gets part of the storyline contrasting his sheltered prior existance with the tenacity he has for survival among the tsunamis and ensuing chaos. If anyone can give me a hand with the Spanish edition of "The Ice Limit", Spanish language edition, i.e., "MASS ALLA DEL HIELO", I'd appreciate that. Thanks for the other fine book recommendations, if they weren't listed it is because they are out of print, difficult to find and I am hoping to get a reasonably priced used copy. I hope this is helpful with Christmas at our footstep... Happy Thanksgiving, Doug ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
