The Silent Corner

By Dean Koontz

20.2

Just because it feels like they are out to get you, doesn’t mean they are not out to get you. Everywhere former FBI agent, Jane Hawk goes, there they are- or at least the fingerprints of their work. People are taking their own lives at an alarming rate. Happy people, people with no reason to, committing suicide. Ones like her own husband. When Jane starts asking why, the threats start, against her, her family and her son. Before it was something she couldn’t understand, now it’s personal. Jane will use every skill she has to track down those responsible and put a stop to their scheme. Because the more she discovers, the more it seems like those pulling the strings are looking for absolute power over everyone. -March’s meeting is on the 18th at the Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg and the book of the month is Semiosis by Sue Burke. -Cover art by Eric V. Hardenbrook -Dear Crabby – love, clean decks, and robots

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NEW RELEASES

March 2020

MARK ALDER - Devil’s Blade

ANNE BISHOP - The Queen’s Bargain

JAMES P. BLAYLOCK - The Gobblin’ Society

PATRICIA BRIGGS - Smoke Bitten

CASSANDRA CLARE - Chain of Gold

DANIEL A. COHEN - Coldmyth

MYKE COLE - Sixteenth Watch

DAVID DALGLISH - Ravencaller

KATHLEEN O’NEAL GEAR - Cries from the Lost Island

TERRY GOODKIND - Into Darkness

ALEX IRVINE - Anthropocene Rag

N.K. JEMISIN - The City We Became

JULIE KAGAWA - Night of the Dragon

ALMA KATSU - The Deep

NANCY KRESS - Sea Change

JEFFREY ALAN LOVE - The Mountain of Smoke

SARAH J. MAAS - House of Earth and Blood

PAUL McAULEY - War of the Maps

TIM POWERS - Forced Perspectives

JONATHAN STRAHAN, ED. - Made to Order: Robots and Revolutions

K.M. SZPARA - Docile

LAVIE TIDHAR - By Force Alone

LIZ WILLIAMS - Comet Weather

DEAR CRABBY

Dear Crabby, In the last few years, I've heard that the hot place to meet men is the grocery

store. I guess because you can get a lot of information about them by what's in their basket? I decided with Valentine's Day looking like another solo mission this year I'd try my luck. I was shocked to find that I did meet my perfect match there but, certainly not in the form I expected. I meet someone who is serious about their job, friendly, considerate, clean, and conscientious with big eyes and a positive attitude. The problem is it's a robot that goes around checking the store for floor hazards. The actual humans I met there were either being paid to be there and nice to me, taken, or honestly mostly just scary and rude. Do you think that the grocery store will eventually make it possible to buy these units for our own homes? I honestly had a more meaningful conversation with a beeping machine than with the last dozen humans I've encountered...and it's got to be a sight better than a pet since instead of making messes this one just warns you about them. I haven't had a roommate in 30 years I could get to do that much. The grocery aisle might be the only one I end up going down at this rate.

Venus is in retrograde

Dear Venus,

I feel ya. I'd rather pay extra to have strangers just drop my food at my door than deal with the populace of most places. While I agree the conversation is probably much better than most of the people you may have engaged in the last dozen tries but, that beeping would undoubtedly get on your nerves eventually. Also, I don't think they'll be for sale for home use any time that soon. Besides, if you're going to spend that kind of money you want more than a warning, right? Have some dignity and aim for someone who at least makes as solid an attempt to clean up as a 13-year-old. Personally, I think you should skip the heartache and just order extra ice cream and have it delivered directly to you. Maybe you'll have better luck with the delivery drivers?

Pass the spoon, Crabby

20 Years

This year is the 20th anniversary for a number of things, but what prompted this writing is the 20th anniversary of the Dresden Files. I am a fan of Jim Butcher's work in general and particularly the stories revolving around wizard Harry Dresden. If you happen to be unfamiliar with this particular story, Harry Dresden is Chicago's first (and only) wizard private investigator. The book series follows Harry's life and work, along with all of the people he meets along the way.

I routinely recommend this series to people who are not familiar with it. The author really doesn't need me promoting him at this point. The book series is headed into book 16, there is a role-playing game based in this world, there are graphic novels of the story, there are numerous short stories AND it has been turned into a television show. It's gone big. Mr. Butcher would likely be just fine without my support ~ but that brings me to my point.

There was a time when he was new at this. He was working conventions and writing and doing whatever he needed to keep this series alive. There weren't other books of his on the market, there weren't any television show plans, there was just an author and his work. An author that needed to get the word out there and create some interest in his stories.

As fans, it is our responsibility to find these authors and back them. When they're getting creative and making key chains or bookmarks or fridge magnets to keep their work in your mind is when they need fans. They need you to connect with them on social media, review their work on book review platforms and give them word of mouth. Most importantly they need people to buy their books! It's not easy to cut through all the noise out there and get somebody's attention. There are literally hundreds of works that vie for our attention every week. Dig in. Look for a new and exciting author. Find the kind of story you really love and push for that author to succeed. It takes time. Sometimes you'll read a clunker, sometimes you'll read something amazing and the author will just fade away. It's a rare and wonderful thing to have massive success ~ but it all starts with you finding a story that amazes and astounds you.

BY Eric V. Hardenbrook

You Should Be Watching …

RAGNAROK – (Netflix-Norway) {6 episodes} Two brothers and their mother return to the small Norwegian town, Edda, where they were born. Magne discovers radical changes are occurring to him that shift him from someone who was always considered to be slow and ungainly to a force to be reckoned with. He learns that their town is suffering from a number of ills that can be traced back to the family who owns most of the industry, the Jutuls. Why watch? The performances by David Stakston (Magne) and Jonas Strand Gravli (Laurits) are excellent, as well as the supporting cast. Each episode has at least one truly startling moment and they are well set up. The scenery and backdrops are fantastic. Yes, it is overdubbed and occasionally you’ll see it, but the action will overwhelm the annoyance. You really will find yourself cheering for Magne, there are also some great moments that are also sweet and endearing, but mostly you’ll stay for the what could possibly happen next and can Magne win? YEARS AND YEARS – (HBO-Britain) {6 Episodes} Follow Manchester family, the Lyons, for 11 turbulent years starting in November 2019. That’s right this is a show that is grounded in the present and about the future. Written by Doctor Who showrunner, Russell T. Davies, unflinchingly takes on the issues of today and then in Black Mirror fashion, extrapolates how changes will affect the lives of the Lyons in many surprising ways. With the focus on how technological and political alterations effect the world, Years and Years remains determinedly tied to the human aspect. Viewers will quickly recognize some of the ensemble cast. Despite it's peering into the darker possibilities, the show also has some very funny and also touching moments. The Lyons triumph and fail magnificently against the backdrop of the future. OMNISCIENT - (Netflix-Spain) {6 episodes} Tiny drones follow everyone and record everything in the city, so crime is almost non-existent. Nina is on her way to securing a full-time position at Omniscient monitoring as a programmer. When returning home, she discovers her father was shot in the back. But the police aren’t treating it as a crime. To them, if the monitoring system does not recognize the murder, it cannot have occurred, since the system is infallible. As she and her brother try to deal with this horrible change to their lives, Nina becomes convinced that the evidence exists to identify the killer and she can, at great risk, gain access to it. This is another dubbed show, but it’s a lot more subtle and again with the action here, you’re less likely to notice. There’s a lot going on here in 6 short episodes and its clever and sharp in delivery. Slightly technical and definitely dystopian, Omniscient doesn’t forget to deliver on the human aspects.

AVAILABLE NOW

Sciency Stuff The same thing that makes us wash our hands repeatedly could be

powering some of our devices in the future—bacteria. These little organisms sometimes grow nano-wires, tiny protein filaments, which can then transfer electrons from one point to another. The bacterium Geobacter actually moves electrons from organic molecules to metal-based ones. Some even transfer electrons from one bacterium to another. All of this transferring causes current, even if it is a small one. So how do we scale this up? By creating a film of the nanowires and exposing them to moist air. After absorbing the humidity, the film begins moving electrons through the nano-wires creating current. Take about 17 of these films and you suddenly have 10 volts of electricity. To keep moving towards truly useable amounts of electricity, scientists discovered that sandwiching the nanowires between two gold sheets and once again introducing humidity created more current. The moisture on top of the film diffusing through it creates an opportunity for the water to dissociate into ions of hydrogen and oxygen. This causes a charge to build up near the top and the difference between the top and the bottom is the impetus powering the flow of electrons through the wires. Most experiments indicate that 45% moisture is the optimal, but the cells would work even in moisture poor areas like a desert. Experimenters are looking for new ways to create the nanowires for their cells since the ones from Geobacter bacterium are not always consistent in make up. Instead, scientists are now manufacturing their own wires by genetically modifying a bacterium we’re all a little too familiar with—E. coli. Other researchers are also investigating the very peptides used in the nanowires to remove the process from the bacterium completely. Take this one step further, we are a moist environment. You could have hydrostatic cells either on your skin or even within you. Imagine a pacemaker whose battery doesn’t have to be replaced because your insides are actually powering it. This would also work with any prosthetics that might require power as well. While this all sounds well and good, there’s a few things that are stopping us from going wild with moist bacteria batteries. We’re really not exactly sure why the whole process works. The researchers behind the cells are getting results, but once you get past that, nobody is really sure where the electrons that are moving and creating the current are actually coming from. So, while this has perhaps a little more of a solid footing than the reactionless microwave drive, a reliable hydrostatic cell is going to require a great deal more research, but all of the evidence so far indicates it is definitely worth the time.

AVAILABLE NOW

Tillyer’s News of the High Frontier February 2020

Apparently, astronauts on the ISS have a hankering for a hunk of cheese. When you can look down and see your home below you, but can’t enjoy the comforts of it, it is understandable that you might just want something more than easy cheese. Up until now, the only option has been “shelf stable cheddar cheese spread”. But getting cheese from Earth to orbit has its own set of problems. First, you have to get it fresh, because the trip to orbit takes about a day, and then you have to find a way to keep it that way. Since some fruit was already going along for the ride, packers of the Northrup and Grumman Cygnus NG-13 cargo craft found a way to bump their perishables down the list so they could be stowed about later than everything else. That give the supply people time to run out to a local supermarket and acquire some Fontina, Parmesan and Wisconsin Cheddar for the good folks in orbit. Now cheese isn’t the only thing that went up this time, there was plenty of scientific equipment as well. One of these items was the first scanning electron microscope to be sent into orbit. The idea is to give the space station personnel the opportunity to perform analyses in real time instead of having to wait for reports from Earth. If we are planning to go back to the Moon having something that can determine the composition of samples in orbit makes a great deal of sense. The unmanned cargo craft brought up 7500 pounds of supplies. As a final note, the expedition 62 crew also received some candy in addition to the cheese. -The race is on to put satellites into orbit and bring the internet everywhere. SpaceX has 242 satellites in orbit and OneWeb and Amazon are chomping at the bit to add more in an attempt to gain a piece of the giant pie overhead. SpaceX is even said to have plans to send up as many as 42,000 over the next ten years. There is however something missing from the process—laws and standards for cybersecurity for the satellites. There’s a tremendous amount of dependence on GPS and a hacker could wreak chaos by altering its data or simply shutting it down. Let’s not forget the fact that satellites with maneuvering gets can rapidly become kinetic missiles if they are deorbited. Smaller satellites, like the cubesats, are often built with easily accessible materials allowing hackers the opportunity to study them before attacking. Companies owning the satellites also can farm out the communications and operations to other specialized organizations who have less security. Satellites are typically controlled from the ground and these centers represent another area where hackers can gain access. Think it can’t happen? It already has. In 1998 the ROSAT X-Ray satellite was taken over and turned so that its solar panels focused on the Sun destroying its battery. 1999 saw UK SkyNet satellites taken over and in 2008 and 2018 concerted attacks by Chinese hackers went after NASA defense satellites. Obviously, there need to be some changes made, but keeping an eye on expenditure instead of security seems to be the trend.

AVAILABLE NOW

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