And I like to think I went out on a high note, because few Superbowls have held a candle to XXXIV.  Most commentators focus on the final play of the game, in which Dyson caught McNair’s pass but was tackled on the 1 yard line, forever caught on instant replay holding the ball out toward the goal-line.  But the really incredible play was the one before it, in which McNair was flushed from the pocket and danced like a man with legs made of rubber before hurling the ball downfield even as he was being pulled to the turf.  (Dyson caught the pass near the 10 yard line, setting up the final play.)  McNair and the Titans lost the Superbowl, but I’ve always seen greatness as a fractal concept. . . sometimes it’s just a single moment that gets you there.  McNair had many such moments, but I’ve never seen anything like that last mad scramble, and I doubt we ever will again.  This NFL highlight tape has both plays on it; look and see for yourself.  And RIP Steve, you deserved far better than the hand you were dealt.

I’ll be in the Poetry Room, on the 9th floor.  No poetry, though.  Trust me, you don’t want to hear my poetry.

What you want, of course, is to buy BURNING SKIES.

(a) people were civil to each other

(b) no one sought to argue from authority: e.g., Pournelle was there when SDI was invented, how dare you question him, or I’m an expert in military history, so what I say should be taken as gospel, etc., etc.

(c) there was no chest-thumping from partisans during the blog discussion about how much Pournelle and his friends were owning me/kicking my ass/destroying me/taking me apart/taking me to the cleaners.

(d) people seem to be alert to this thing called nuance.

Conversation is here.

And I’m in a bit of a mood this morning, so will probably just delete any comment that falls into the above categories while Spartacus laughs like the maniac he is.  You said it already, guys, so save your breath.

Use your energy instead to buy BURNING SKIES at Amazon and other fine bookstores.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the Larry King retrospective last night, the power in the neighborhood of LA where I’m staying went out.  People were on the streets with flashlights trying to figure out how far the blackout extended.  It could have been the setting to one of Jackson’s videos, but fortunately no crazy thriller werewolves were spotted.  A quarter-century’s a long time, but it’s still strange how much a man can age across it.

And why not check out BURNING SKIES as well?

You can also put your pen into the service of AR, writing reviews/blog-entries, etc. . . . and you can even go into your local bookshop and persuade them to carry BURNING SKIES if through some incredible oversight they aren’t already.  Joining the AR street-team doesn’t require you to commit to any particular activity; it’s whatever you feel most comfortable with.

And what makes all this particularly exciting is that I’m now featuring banner-ad widgets, so you too can take the code for my new banner ads, and plaster them all over the World Wide Web!  You don’t even need to join the legions/street-teams to do so!

And of course you can always buy BURNING SKIES!

Jerry-  thanks for the comments.  I’m sorry (though not surprised) to hear you reiterate your judgment re the rigor of the science in my books, all the more so as this is based on a ten minute exchange we had in which you repeatedly interrupted me and rarely allowed me to finish an answer.  Same goes for your view on my knowledge of history.  But in the hopes that print will lend itself better to clarity than talk, here’s my take on the various issues we’ve been discussing.

Re SDI: we agree on much here.  But I think the daylight between us centers on the distinction between the system’s architects saw the projected capabilities/intentions of what they were building VS. what was being sold to the American public.  The American people weren’t told that SDI would still leave most of their cities a smoking wreck, otherwise there’s no way they would have supported it.  They were simply led to believe that ultimately an effective “missile shield” was possible.  This isn’t the first time that insiders have been aware of the nuances of something while the broader public was encouraged to subscribe to a more black and white view.  All the more so as it was important to amplify/oversell SDI’s capabilities to the Soviet Union as well, so as to keep the Red Bear scared and get him to the negotiating table at speed.  All of which seems like practical politics/diplomacy to me.  Note at no point in our conversation have I disagreed with you about the ultimate intention of those who initiated SDI, and yet here I am being told I’m misinformed and don’t know what I’m talking about.  I fear you may be misinterpreting–or may have misheard–my position.

On those solar powered satellites: I understand that belief in a comprehensive, cheap SPS solution is an integral part of your world-view, and I hope you’re right that it’s a workable one.  It’s just that in my fiction. . . you aren’t.  For what it’s worth, this skeptical stance re the environmental side-effects of SPS is by no means an integral foundation-item for the Autumn Rain universe, and this is one area where being cut off Thursday night probably got in the way of clarity.  The Autumn Rain world is one that’s trying to turn the corner, and the question it faces is whether bootstrapping the off-Earth economy can occur before environmental decline becomes irreversible.  Even if SPS works, we will still, I think, face this task.

Re global warming:  yes, I subscribe to the current mainstream position that global warming is a serious problem, and that human industrial factors are contributing to it.   As you say, that position *may* be incorrect.

Re the state of hard science fiction:  My understanding is that hard science fiction involves a rigorous attempt to ground the narrative in science and scientific speculation.  But if we’re going to narrow that definition to science approved by particular authors/scientists, then yes, I would agree, hard science fiction is in rapid decline, and that’s probably a good thing too.  Personally, I think the genre is in much better shape than you might think vis-a-vis the issue of scientific rigor, all the more so with regards to the social sciences, where the level of realism used to veer toward the laughable.  Indeed, I think science-fiction has historically subscribed to way too many illusions regarding how politics really works, but I guess that’s an issue for another time.  Maybe over a beer some day.

I already gave Jerry a copy of BURNING SKIES, but the rest of you are going to have to buy your own.

My talk yesterday at the LA Science Fiction Fantasy Society regarding BURNING SKIES triggered the ire of Jerry Pournelle, who became nearly apopoletic with rage that I was unable to articulate exactly how many degrees warmer the Earth of AUTUMN RAIN is than now. Things sped downhill from there.  I’ve got a couple notes in the timeline of how much said temperature has gone up by specific years, but Jerry wanted the exact figures . . . and I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t have spreadsheets on the ocean salinity factor, and had neglected to draw up the precise ratio of atmospheric composition to describe the peasoup of the early 22nd century. This led to the question of whether I was a Real Science Fiction Writer, or just one of those imposters you keep hearing about. We had a particularly vigorous dispute on my doubts about whether solar power satellites would be the panacea that he thinks they’d be.

All of which was good fun.  But Jerry was a big teddy bear compared to his partner in all of this, Karen Anderson, who happens to be Poul Anderson’s widow (and Greg Bear’s mother-in-law—ye gods Greg, talk about karmic burden).  She was about as angry as anyone I’ve ever seen, interrupting me repeatedly, and ultimately stalking out of the room halfway through snarling that the world of Autumn Rain was obviously “magic not science.” It just wasn’t the same without her, but Jerry and I managed to cope nonetheless, getting into a no-holds barred debate on whether Reagan’s SDI could have been used as a first strike weapon.  Jerry seemed less incensed by that point, but maybe it’s because I was getting used to how loud he yells.

Anyway, everyone else at the club seemed pretty chill, and watched the conversation unfold with interest. And I gave Jerry a signed copy of BURNING SKIES afterward (”to a living legend”), so it was all good.  They really do have a clubhouse there, btw, right in the middle of North Hollywood—one reason they’re the oldest running science fiction society on the planet.  This was meeting #3749, and I can only imagine what’s gone down at the other 3748. The stories those walls could tell….

Anyway, I need to go find some coffee.

And you need to go buy BURNING SKIES.

On other fronts, I saw The Hangover at the Arclight last night. All I can say is (a) you LA-ers sure know how to build a movie theater, and (b) believe the hype.  From one angle, Hangover is the dumbest movie ever made, but from where I was sitting last night, it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen:  a comedy juggernaut that is crushing everything in its path.  And with good reason.

Meanwhile, BURNING SKIES continues to await you!

And why not check out BURNING SKIES on Amazon?