N = NIVEN, Larry - Author, A-Z Blog Challenge 2016

Imagine a Ringworld**, where gravity and perspective vary from the more common sphere shaped planet. Larry Niven is the creator of such a world.

Larry Niven, Science Fiction Author, photo - PD-GNU

N = Niven, Larry, Author
Theme = Authors, AtoZ


Laurence van Cott Niven, born April 30, 1938, is now known as Larry Niven, an American science fiction writer. He writes hard science fiction using big science concepts and theoretical physics. His best known work is Ringworld (1970) for which he received numerous awards. These included the Hugo and the Nebula Awards and the Science Fiction Writers of America recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.

Niven has authored many award-winning science fiction short stories and novels, beginning in 1964. He has also written scripts for three science fiction television series, and for DC Comics character, Green Lantern. 

Many of Niven's stories comprise the Tales of Known Space - and take place in his Known Space universe, where humanity shares the several habitable star systems with over a dozen alien species. Ringworld is part of the Known Space series.

Then, there's Niven's Law:There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it. Niven has added to the first law a list of Niven's Laws, which he says describes 'how the Universe works' as far as he can tell.

***

**RINGWORLD

What is a Ringworld? "A band of material, roughly a million miles wide and of the same diameter as Earth's orbit, rotating around a star." Niven was trying to envision a more efficient version of a Dyson Sphere. His most famous contribution to the SF genre comes from his novel Ringworld. It's an interesting concept. . .a dizzying one.

***

Have you heard of or ever read science fiction author Larry Niven? If you don't like science fiction that much, what genre do you prefer?

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and I'll respond.  Thanks for dropping by!

***


A to Z Challenge - 2016

It's April again and time for the 2016 Blogging from A to Z challenge  This is my 4th year participating in the challenge! (Previous A to Z  posts at the top of my blog page tabs are: Art A-Z, French Faves, Paris, Etc. 

Thanks to originator Lee (Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out), and the co-hosts and co-host teams who make the challenge run smoothly. See the list of participants, and other important information at the A to Z Blog site.  The basic idea is to blog every day in April except Sundays (26 days). On April 1st, you begin with the letter A, April 2 is the letter B, and so on. Posts can be random or use a theme.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 - Badge

***

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Niven Wiki on Larry Niven


Image of Larry Niven  (top of post)
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.

***

G = GABALDON, Diana, Author, A-Z Blog Challenge 2016

Step inside the Stones, if you dare. . .and if you survive, time will have changed by two hundred years. . .

From Diana Gabaldon's mind comes stories of Scottish Highlanders in Scotland, France, and in the young United States where many of the Highlanders were exiled. This was the time preceding the American War for Independence. 

Diana Gabaldon at Book Signing 2007, PD-GNU*

G = Diana Gabaldon, Author
Theme = Authors AtoZ 

Have you heard these names before? Outlander, James (Jamie) and Claire Fraser, Lord John Grey, the Fiery Cross, Roger Mac,  - they come from Diana Gabaldon's novels. If you haven't yet given her novels a try, you should. The 1800s were very different times when compared to the mid 1940s. That was when Claire visited the stones. She knew about the circle of stones and who danced there, but she didn't know that the stones were full of power at the right time of the year and day. 

Diana J. Gabaldon, born January 11, 1952 is an American author, known for the Outlander series of novels. It's known as Cross Stitch in the UK. Her father was of Mexican ancestry, and her mother was of English descent. Gabaldon has earned three degrees - one marine biology, one zoology, and one behavioural ecology. She worked for ASU and Walt Disney at one time.

Her books merge multiple genres with elements of historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure and science fiction/fantasy. 

Book Titles for Outlander Series

-Outlander (1991)
-Dragonfly in Amber (1992)
-Voyager (1993)
-Drums of Autumn 
-The Fiery Cross (2001) 
-A Breath of Snow and Ashes (2005)
-An Echo in the Bone (2009)
-Written in My Own Heart's Blood (2014)


.
A television adaptation of the Outlander series premiered on Starz in the US on August 9, 2014. I'm currently reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes.

***
Are you a fan of Gabaldon? Do you like the premise of time travel via stone portals (as in Outlander)?

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and I'll respond. Thanks for dropping by!

***

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 - Badge

****
References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Gabaldon Wiki on Diana Gabaldon

IMAGE: Diana Gabaldon, PD-GNU
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License. // This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

***

A = ASIMOV, Isaac - Authors, A to Z Blog Challenge 2016

THE A TO Z BLOG CHALLENGE BEGINS. . .

A science fiction writer who envisioned the future possibilities for mankind with humanoid robots and galactic empires. He wrote of the spacers who explored and settled the habitable planets in a future time. He created the Three Laws of Robotics. 

Dr. Isaac Asimov, 1965, *PD

A = Asimov, Isaac, Author and Professor
Theme: Authors, AtoZ

This theme will highlight various authors that have made an impact on writing or inspired other works, whether by style or subject matter. Hope you find a few authors you know and discover a few new ones as the challenge theme continues throughout April.

***

Isaac Asimov, January 2, 1920 - April 6, 1992, was a prolific American author and a professor of Biochemistry at Boston University.  He is known for his science fiction novels, his popular science books, and for creating some new words. The Oxford English Dictionary credits his science fiction for introducing positronic, psychohistory, and robotics. 

Asimov was born in Russia and was brought to New York by his father when he was three years old. His first short story was published when he was 18, and his next work, Nightfall, appeared three years later. In 1964, the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) voted Nightfall as the best short science fiction story of all time. 

Along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov was considered one of the 'Big Three' of science fiction writers in his lifetime. He wrote 'hard' science fiction, the most famous being the Foundation Series.  He also wrote the Galactic Empire series (set in an earlier time of the same fictional universe as the Foundation series) and the Robot series, from which I, Robot, the movie was developed.

In 1942, Asimov published the first of his Foundation stories.  These were later collected in the Foundation trilogy: Foundation-1951, Foundation and Empire-1952, and Second Foundation-1953. These novels tell of the collapse and rebirth of an interstellar empire in the future. His positronic robot stories (many collected to form I, Robot) were first published in 1950. Later, in Foundation's Edge, Asimov linked this distant future with the Robot and Spacer stories, creating a unified future history for his epic tale.  

Asimov also wrote a lot of nonfiction. He authored books on general science, physics, astronomy, mathematics, history, chemistry and William Shakespeare's writing.  He was a member and vice president of MENSA International, although he thought many were arrogant about their IQs. 

Telegraph news photo, c. 1992

Asimov sported mutton-chop whiskers later in life, wore cowboy boots and an old-style western tie called a bolo. He was eccentric and resigned to being so. He liked to say his success was due to 'a lucky break in the genetic sweepstakes'. Indeed.

In 1977, Asimov suffered a heart attack and had triple bypass surgery in December of 1983. When he died in New York City on April 6, 1992, the causes were reported as heart and kidney failure. A larger than life man had reached the end.

***

Have you heard of Isaac Asimov or his Foundation series, or the Robot series of books?  Do you read or write science fiction?

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here, and I'll respond! Thanks for dropping by. Let me know if you're part of the challenge, so I can be sure to visit your blog.

***

A to Z Challenge - 2016

It's April again and time for the 2016 Blogging from A to Z challenge  This is my 4th year participating in the challenge! (Previous A to Z  posts at the top of my blog page tabs are: Art A-Z, French Faves, Paris, Etc. 

Thanks to originator Lee (Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out), and the co-hosts and co-host teams who make the challenge run smoothly. See the list of participants, and other important information at the A to Z Blog site.  The basic idea is to blog every day in April except Sundays (26 days). On April 1st, you begin with the letter A, April 2 is the letter B, and so on. Posts can be random or use a theme.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 - Badge

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-z-challenge-sign-up-list-2016.html A to Z Blog List

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov Isaac Asimov Wiki

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/10383953/Isaac-Asimov.html Telegraph article 

***
MENSA = the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world

*** IMAGE:  Dr. Isaac Asimov portrait, 1965, *PD

This work is from the New York World-Telegram and Sun collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work.
This photograph is a work for hire created prior to 1968 by a staff photographer at New York World-Telegram & Sun. It is part of a collection donated to the Library of Congress and per the instrument of gift it is in the public domain.

***