Flatland by A.Square The Book

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|        "O day and night, but this is wondrous strange"        |
|        ______           _______                         __    |
|      /       /     /|      /    /     /|      /|    /  /  \   |
|     /----   /     /__|    /    /     /__|    /  |  /  /   /   |
|    /       /___  /    |  /    /___  /    |  /    |/  /__ /    |
|                                                               |
| No Dimensions                                  One Dimension  |
|       .         A ROMANCE OF MANY DIMENSIONS       -----      |
|   POINTLAND                                      LINELAND     |
|                                                               |
| Two Dimensions                               Three Dimensions |
|      ___                                             __       |
|     |   |                                          /__/|      |
|     |___|                                          |__|/      |
|   FLATLAND                                       SPACELAND    |
|          "Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk!"          |
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mother of god

'The more we look at it, the more the universe appears to have
 been designed by a pure mathematician and looks less and less
 like a great machine and more and more like a great thought'
     Sir James Jeans

Tau Zero

'Thus Leonora Christine, seventh & yongest of her class. 
 Her outward simplicity was required by the nature of her
 mission & was as as a human skin; inside, she was very nearly
 as complex & subtle...

 Leonora Christine was nearing the third year of her
 journey, or the tenth as the stars counted time, when grief
 came upon her...'

The Queen of Air & Darkness (Anthology of same title)

'He played on a bone flute & she sang...
 His notes piped cold around her voice 

    'Cast a spell, weave it well
     of dust & dew & night & you.''

Macroscope

Foundation Series

'HARI SELDON - born in the 11,988th year of the Galactic Era:
 died 12,069. Undoubtedly his greatest contributions were in
 the field of psychohistory.
 Seldon found the field little more than a set of vague
 axioms; he left it a profound statistical science.
 Encyclopedia Galactica

 'In a month we celebrate our fiftieth anniversary ...
 & on that anniversary,' continued Fara, placidly, 'Hari
 Seldon's Vault will open. Have you ever considered what
 might be in the vault?'

 The lights went dim ... the cubicle was no longer empty.
 A figure occupied it - a figure in a wheel-chair!
 It said nothing for a few minutes, but it closed the book
 upon its lap & fingered it idly. And then it smiled, & the
 face seemed all alive. It said, 'I am Hari Seldon.' The
 voice was old & soft.'

NightFall (Anthology of same title)

'If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years,
 how would men believe & adore, & preserve for many
 generations the remembrance of the city of God?'
     Emerson

Robot Series

'The Three Laws of Robotics
 1 - A robot may not injure a human being, or, through
     inaction allow a human being to come to harm.
 2 - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings 
     except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
 3 - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such
     protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law
 Handbook of Robotics

 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.'

* The Handmaid's Tale *

'In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones.'
   Sufi proverb

Crystal World

* The Player of Games *

'This is the story of a man who went far away for a long
 time, just to play a game. The man is a game-player called
 'Gurgeh'. The story starts with a battle that is not a
 battle, and ends with a game that is not a game.   
   Me? I'll tell you about me later.
   This is how the story begins.'

A Case of Conscience

'The Planet Lithia (from Michelis, D., & Ruis-Sanches, R,:
 Lithia - a preliminary report, J.I.R. 4:225, 2050 abstract.)
 Lithis is the second planet of the solar type star Alpha
 Arietis which is located in the constellation Aries and is
 approximately 50 light-years from Sol.'

Cities in Flight

'Every end', Wagoner wrote on the wall of his cell on the last
 day, 'is a new beginning. Perhaps in a thousand years my
 Earthmen will come home again. Or in two thousand or four, if
 they still remember home then. They'll come back, yes; but I
 hope they won't stay. I pray they will not stay.'

The Long Tomorrow

'Two generations after the Destruction, rumors persisted about
 a secret desert hideaway where scientists worked with dangerous
 machines and where men plotted to revive the cities.
 Almost a continent away, Len Coulter heard whisperings that
 fired his imagination. Then one day he found a strange wooden box.'
     Cover:Ballantine Books (paperback ed)

The Illustrated Man

'The night was serene. I could hear the Illustrated Man's
 breathing in the moonlight. Crickets were stirring gently
 in the distant ravines..
 The first Illustration flickered & came to life.' 

I Sing the Body Electric (Anthology of same title) 

'O dear & wondrous electric dream...'

Darkover Series

 Beneath the blood red sun, beside their damaged spaceship,
 they survived, until the day the ghost wind blew. It swept
 their past before it & left a gift, the awakening in long
 dormant chromosomes of the psi powers that were to become
 the matrix sciences of Darkover.

Childhood's End

The Nine Billion Names of God (Anthology of same name)

'This is a slightly unusual request,' said Dr. Wagner, with
 what he hoped was commendable restraint. 'As far as I know,
 it's the first time anyone's been asked to supply a Tibetan
 monastery with an Automatic Sequence Computer.''

Rendezvous with Rama

'Long ago, the astronomers had exhausted Greek & Roman
 mythology; now they were working through the Hindu
 pantheon. And so 31/439 was christened Rama.'

The Fountains of Paradise

'From Paradise to Taprobane is forty leagues;
 there may be heard the sound of the Fountain of Paradise'
 Traditional : reported by Friar Marignolli (AD 1335)

* Ender Series *

'We have walked awhile on that road with Ender Wiggin.
 He showed us things we might not otherwise have seen.'
 Plikt speaking Ender's death - Children of the Mind

* The Wiz Series *
'Virtual machines?' asked Moira.
'That's like a computer that isn't there,' Jerry said helpfully.

The Einstein Intersection

'In the second story of the old teahouse across the park
 I sat in a corner away from the stove & tried to wrestle
 my characters towards their endings. Soon I shall start
 again. Endings to be useful must be inconclusive.' 
 Authors Journal/Istanful March 1966

Magician

'Is he truly a dragon, sir?'
'Betimes he thinks he is, boy. Fantus is a firedrake, cousin
 to the dragon, though of smaller stature.' The creature opened
 one eye &  fastened it on the magician. 'But of equal heart.'
 Kulgan quickly added, and the drake closed his eye again.'

When H.A.R.L.I.E was one

 Human Analog Replication Lethetic Intelligence Engine
 HARLIE : It is a question of your perception. If I am
          just a machine, then all we are doing here is
          looking for a malfunction in a program.

Neuromancer

'A year here & he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading
 nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he'd taken &
 the corners he'd cut in Night City, & still he'd see the
 matrix in his sleep, bright lattices of logic unfolding
 across that colorless void...'

Worlds Trilogy

 You can't know space unless you were born there. You can
 get used to it, maybe. You can't love the surface of a
 planet if you were born in space. Not even Earth. Too big
 & crowded & nothing between you & the sky. Things drop in
 straight lines.

Methusulah's Children

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Dune

 Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife -- chopping
 off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now, it's complete
 because it's ended here.'
- from 'Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib' by Princess Urulan

The Black Cloud

 Queens' College, 19 August, 2020

 My dear Blythe,

 I trust you will forgive an old man for chuckling
 occasionally to himself over some of your speculations
 concerning the Black Cloud. As it happened, I was so
 placed during the crisis that I learned of the real
 nature of the cloud...

A for Andromeda

 A new radio-telescope picks up from the constellation of
 Andromeda, two hundred light-years away, a complex series
 of signals which prove to be a program for a giant computer.

Brave New World

Nine Hundred Grandmothers (Anthology of same title)

'Some of the Proavitoi say that they do not die, Nokoma.
 Is this true?'
'How is not be true? If they die, they not be here to say
 they do not die. Oh, I joke, I joke. No, we do not die. It
 is a foolish alien custom which we see no reason to imitate.'

The Left Hand of Darkness

'I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught
 as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the
 imagination.'

The Word for World is Forest

Drinking Saphire Wine

'The weather is always perfect at Four BEE, but now & then
 the Jang manage to sabotage something, & we get a groshing
 howling sandstorm come sweeping in past the barrier beams
 to cheer us all up'

People Series

'It has been Seen. Already our Home has been altered so far
 that the failova & the flamen can't come to blossom. As we
 accepted the fact that there were no failova & flahmen this
 year, so we must accept the fact that there will be no more
 Home for us.'

Solaris

'A SENTIENT OCEAN, whose vast mind and enigmatic personality
 was to try and trouble those humans who contacted it, sometimes
 to the point of suicide...'
       cover of the Berkeley paperback ed

Trinrose Series
    'Out of Death was I Born - Unto Zeor, Forever!'
                Kly Farris  Sectuib in Zeor
 Zeor is not a place or a person. Zeor is the striving for
 perfection, the dedication to excellence, the realization
 of mankinds fullest potential - Sim & Gen united.'

Crystal Singer series

Pern Series

Shell Series

Talent Series

Generation Warriors

Dreamsnake

'In a world devastated by nuclear holocaust, Snake is a
 healer. Rare & valuable is the dreamsnake - a creature
 with the power to induce benign dreams, to smooth the
 path between life & death.
    cover of Pan Science Fiction Ed   

* A Canticle for Leibowitz *

 When the Atomic Rain had stopped, came the simplification.
 All knowlledge was destroyed - only Leibowitz managed to
 save some of the books. And the monks of the order of
 Leibowitz inherited the sacred relics - spent their lives
 copying, engraving, interpreting, trying to save the wisdom
 of the ancients from the destruction threatened by a barbaric
 & medieval world.

Known Space Series

'Everything starts as someone's daydream'
    N Space

Dream Park Recommended by Anthony Thyssen

One never knew what might be prowling on the fifth floor
of the R & D Building.

The Mote in God's Eye

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's
eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Mathew 7:3

1984

              Big Brother is watching you.
 The Ministery of Truth, which concerned itself with news,
 entertainment, education and the fine arts. The Ministery
 of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of
 Love, which maintained law & order. & the Ministry of Plenty,
 which was responsible for economic affairs.

Rite of Passage

'There are three major holidays here in the Ship. 
 On August 14, we celebrate the launching of the Ship - last August
 it was one hundred &  sixty-four years ago. Then between December
 30 & January 1, we celebrate Year End. March 9th is something
 different. That's the day the Earth was destroyed.'

Body of Glass

 Not a pixie or wizard in sight but beware of things that go
 bump in the night.
 Recommended by David Syber of Syber's Books

Stardance

'She was the world's greatest dancer - but she could
 never dance on Earth. And so, in the emptiness of space,
 the Stardance was born.' 
    cover Futura Quantum Ed

Extra(ordinary) People

The Adolescence of P1

P-1  CUR ALLOC      20193.....5804M   AR   CALL GREGORY ...
  He slowly typed
rodtsasdt llllllreport*
  The wait light went out, the system light came on. It
  stayed on for some five seconds, then:
P-1   CUR ALLOC     20195.....5805M   HELLO GREGORY

Other Days, Other Eyes

Mindswap

'Gentleman from Mars, age 43, quiet, studious, cultured,
 wishes to exchange bodies with  similarly inclined
 Earth gentleman; 
 August 1 - September 1.
 References exchanged. Brokers. Protected'

Nightwings

'For Harlan,
 to remind him of open windows, the currents in the Delaware
 river, quarters with two heads, & other pitfalls.'
     Dedication

Way Station

 No. 406301 to station 18327. Traveler at 16097.38.
 Native Thuban VI. No baggage. No. 3 liquid tank. Solution 27.
 Depart for station 12892 at 16439.16. Confirm.

Lensman Series

'Doc" Smith defines space opera.  Heros are larger than life.
 Villians are blacker than space, and Weapons are humongously
 powerful.  And the writing, frankly, sucked.  In all fairness,
 the best of "Doc" Smith is fairly good. And if you are willing
 to overlook the prose, you get the straight "sense of wonder"
 stuff, 180 proof.'
 JWenn. ESAE@XEROX.COM

More than Human

'Homo gestalt, the last step in man's evolution.'

10,000 Lightyears from Home (Anthology)
'The [aliens] had been in our system exactly thirteen hours,
 during which the united brains of Earth had demonstrated
 all the initiative of a shocked opossum.'

Steel Beach & The Ophiuchi Hotline

 The Invaders came in 2050...They did not kill anyone outright.
 They said they came on behalf of the intelligent species of
 Earth - dolphins & whales. The humans resisted, but their
 weapons refused to operate. The Invaders quietly destroyed
 every evidence of technology, then peacefully departed

A Fire Upon The Deep

'The structures on the surface were gone from normal view,
 pulverized into regolith across a span of aeons. The treasure
 was far underground, beneath a network of passages, in a room
 filled with black. Information at the quantum density, undamaged.
 Maybe five billion years had passed since the archive was lost
 to the nets.

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

Just a story of the cataclysm, 
of the clones that will continue a sterile species, 
& 'Roderer Crystal' is just champagne :-)

The Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of Illuminati

'Robert Anton Wilson writes wierd stuff.  Best known as the
 co-author of the "Illuminatus" trilogy, he's written several
 other books on the same themes of paranoia, conspiracy and
 search for alternate awareness. Don't worry if you find it
 confusing, it's designed that way.
 JWenn. ESAE@XEROX.COM

Lord of Light

* Clan of the Cave Bear *

* The Mists of Avalon *

Breakfast of Champions

Gifts of Unknown Things