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Space and Beyond: The Frontier Theme in Science Fiction (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0313308462 |
Book Description
Although the exploration of space has long preoccupied authors and filmmakers, the development of an actual space program, discoveries about the true nature of space, and critical reconsiderations of America's frontier experiences have challenged and complicated conventional portrayals of humans in space. This volume reexamines the themes of space and the frontier in science fiction in light of recent scientific and literary developments. From this new perspective, we discern previously unnoticed commentaries from older authors, while newer writers either remain within a reassuring but obsolete tradition, venture into unexplored new realities, or abandon space to focus on other frontiers. The intriguing contributions to this volume include a previously unpublished interview with Arthur C. Clarke, the world's greatest living author of science fiction; examinations of "space opera" by veteran author Jack Williamson and scholar David Pringle; surveys of space in science fiction film, and writer and producer Michael Cassutt's account of his efforts to launch a film based on a Clifford D. Simak novel; and speculations about future developments from noted writers Gregory Benford, Jack Dann, James Gunn, and Howard V. Hendrix.
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Space and Beyond: The Frontier Theme in Science Fiction.(Review) (book review): An article from: Utopian Studies
Peter Ruppert
Manufacturer: Society for Utopian Studies
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ASIN: B0008I6J5Y
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Utopian Studies, published by Society for Utopian Studies on January 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1099 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Space and Beyond: The Frontier Theme in Science Fiction.(Review) (book review)
Author: Peter Ruppert
Publication:
Utopian Studies (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2001
Publisher: Society for Utopian Studies
Volume: 12
Issue: 1
Page: 278
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This is a book on sport fans and spectators which will appeal mostly to undergraduate and graduate students in psychology, sociology, sports marketing and HPER. It is a thorough introduction to social and behavioral science methods and applications as applied to sports fandom.
Book Description
The Abbot and the Sensational Squeeze is the sixth title in the celebrated series about the bridge-playing monks of St. Titus. Brilliantly funny and filled with instructive bridge deals.
Customer Reviews:
The Abbot goes on but the jokes get a little thin.......2001-06-02
This is the first book in this series to be credited solely to David Bird. Previously, the magazine articles written by Bird had been revised by the original author together with Terence Reese prior to book publication. After the death of the latter, David Bird continued to work alone. Of course, he was always the original author and it was never made clear exactly how great an input Reese had to the book revisions.
Like all of the other works in this series, this book follows the adventures of the fictional bridge playing monks of the order of St. Titus. Each chapter sees the monks in some bridge situation where they play a number of hands. The bidding is normally English Acol style but this is secondary to the play of the hands which is where the interesting bridge problems can be found.
While the earlier books all concentrated on the exploits of the monks in England, they also contained a number of chapters detailing the exploits of a missionary outpost in Africa. Political correctness having see off that scenario, the "away" section of the book has the Abbot, the leading character, playing as the guest expert on a bridge cruise, an interlude which is a lot less funny than the rest of the book.
If you are new to the monks of St.Titus, I would recommend that you first track down some of the earlier books. Especially the first two: "Miracles of Cardplay" and "Unholy Tricks" as they are funnier and fresher. However, if you are already a fan of these books, do not hesitate. Reese may be missing from the front cover and the wit may not be as sharp but you will still enjoy the contents.
Great mixture of humor and excellent bridge hands!.......2001-01-27
This is the sixth collection of Abbot stories and I have bought the whole lot! David Bird is the world's best writer, when it comes to humorous bridge fiction, and I read these Abbot books time and again. My favorite story in this particular book is when the monks of St Titus play against a team of nuns! Apart from the narrative being extremely funny, and the dialog too, the quality of the bridge hands is first-class. I can really recommend the book to everyone.
The Foibles of the Abbot Amuse.......1999-12-17
David Bird's latest volume of stories about the Bridge-addicted Abbot and his Franciscan order of St. Titus wins over the reader on two levels. First, and most important for any Bridge enthusiast, every story involves several puzzles to bend the mind and promote logical thinking. Second, the rich character development will amuse and delight all readers -- particularly enjoyable are the Abbot's reliable vanity and his ongoing vendetta against the young upstart, Brother Cameron. Cards being fickle, both get their comeuppance against one another in various episodes. So that Bridge does not seem like a vengeful contact sport, Bird wisely emphasizes the brothers' roles as teammates in tournament play to ameliorate some of the sassier moments. While there is a lot of humor and able writing here, I would not recommend this book to anyone who does not play Bridge on at least a casual basis, as they will be hard-pressed to grasp the relevance of the puzzles to the stories and the pleasures of this wonderful book will be lost on them.
Customer Reviews:
I found MSDN more useful than this book.......2003-08-16
Whenever I need help with STL, I open this book only to find that it has nothing useful on it. For those who have MSDN don't bother to buy this book.
Good for Beginners and Intermediate Users.......2002-08-30
As an advanced programmer, I must say that I'm disappointed that the level of information provided is not as deep and meticulous as I had hoped.
Additionally, both the index and the overall organization of the book leave much to be desired.
The book, however, is a valuable reference for beginning and intermediate programmers. It explains the STL (Standard Template Library) from the ground up, explaining when, where, and why you would use any particular aspect of the STL, how to use the STL, and sufficient examples to understand correct syntax. This book also contains a detailed section of applying the STL to real-life programming examples. Furthermore, the book also contains a comprehensive reference guide for quick and easy access to pertinent information about STL aspects you frequently use and modestly comprehend.
If you are a beginning or intermediate programmer, this book is worth adding to your collection.
Tutorial and Reference Worth Having.......2002-01-08
This volume is a much improved version of the original of the same title. An additional author has come aboard. The major improvements I noticed were in the examples. There are many more examples and many more STL features now have examples showing how you can use them.
The tutorial aspect of this book, which comprises the first part of the book, makes a strong case for not re-inventing the wheel, but rather using the containers, iterators and algorithms in the standard library. Practical examples come right from the start. This may take some getting used to by those who have never seen STL used before, however, the excitement is tonic.
Also, the approach, of showing STL use before getting into the theories of iterator-based access, has been adopted in several subsequent C++ texts by teachers of C++ and has been found pedagogically sound.
Don't overlook the precision and clarity of the (English) language discussion of the STL in the tutorial. It's worth reading every so often as a refresher.
And the value of the reference section, which is easy to navigate and has everything in it that most other books dealing with STL don't is great indeed.
On the whole, if you work in C++, this is a carefully put-together book that will have lasting value and continual use in your library.
Useful, but not Handy.......2001-11-25
John's reviews are interesting. While I agree with many of the points he makes, I disagree with some. And I found a few to be self-contradictory.
He says, for instance, that "This is a good solid book that will get you up to speed quickly on all the important ideas in STL, and many of its basic usage idioms", but then naievely claims that "there aren't any higher level ideas than those presented here". Does the book cover only basic concepts, or is it that if the book doesn't cover it, it is not knowledge?
The book is full of concrete examples. But my problem was that they were trivial. Reversing or sorting or finding characters within a string is great fun. But it doesn't help me understand who owns the memory within a container. Or how to directly and safely reference an element at an arbitrary position within a container outside of an iteration loop. A majority of the examples use trivial intrinsic datatypes for contained elements; how is using a struct or class different?
All of those issues are important aspects of using the library, and not something I think a busy reader should leave to "a little imagination". While most of the disputed facts are eventually available in the text, they're not easy to find. The organization of the book isn't quite intuitive enough to make it a thoughtful reference or a breezy tutorial.
And, in many cases, once found, they're not clear. John cited page 151 for an explanation of the differences between some of the collections. There, it says "With maps an multimaps, the data items are pairs of keys and data of some other type..." What's that mean? Two keys and data of some other type? Or a key and data of some other type? Does "pairs" mean "two", or an instance of the "pairs" utility class?
The book really is missing information. None of the examples do any error checking whatsoever, and the exceptions that the templates throw aren't described. (Maybe, like priority queues, error handling was formalized after the book went to press. It is showing its age, and there's now a 2nd edition. I haven't purchased it.)
It's ambitious to write a book that tries to serve as both a tutorial and the reference. (Me, I think it's just impossible.) This book does very well, but falls short of adequately completing either goal.
I think that there's a bias against this book because it doesn't fit well with the way these reviewers would have liked to learn the subject at hand. I know that's where I landed. While true masters do indeed make it look simple, making it look simple doesn't help learning. Otherwise, we could all watch Tiger Woods for a few Sundays before taking home a Buick and a six-figure check.
Not the best.......2001-11-25
This was one of the earlier STL books, and even with its Second Edition, it hasn't caught up much. On its own, it would deserve 3 or 4 stars, but it's expensive and there are better ones out there for your money. I think even the publisher must agree, as this book's #1 competator is also an Addison Wesley book, _The C++ Standard Library : A Tutorial and Reference_.
The real problem is that this book only does the STL, not the other parts of the standard library like strings and iostreams. The typical C++ programmer looking to become more modern is going to want to know all the new stuff, not just this little slice of it. If you're already familiar with the standard library and want a book on only STL, you can consider this a 4-star rating. The book is okay for what it does, but I don't see why anyone would want it, as you're going to have to buy a second book if you get this one.
Customer Reviews:
A "must have" book for C++ programmers.......2006-09-05
This will become a "must have" book for C++ programmers. It is both easy to understand and authoritative at the same time. It will be useful for a long, long time, first as a learning tool and then as a reference.
Implementations of TR1 are now available from Boost (free) and Dinkumware (reasonably priced), so these library components are something that a C++ programmer can start using right away. Most or all of them will also be part of the next standard, so they are sure to become ever more widely used.
I like the fact the book is hard-cover, since it is likely to get a lot of use. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I still think a book like this is the easiest way to study something new, and really learn about it.
I already posted one review, but Amazon seems to have lost it. I'm surprised there haven't been more reviews posted - the book deserves more.
many improvements and exercises.......2006-08-25
There are many, perhaps too many, books on C++. But Becker breaks new ground. He presents what is coming down the road towards the current C++ programmer. The existing C++ standard library is good but limited. The widespread use of C++ led to recognition of useful classes that should be in this library but are not. After some years of dilly dallying, Technical Report 1 was produced. Work started in 2001. Six years!
This book explains the classes in TR1. While it is not guaranteed that all of TR1 will make it into the next official standard library, most certainly will. The only real question is when that revision will be released. Given the way C++ changes so slowly, don't hold your breath.
In the interim, you can make good professional use of your time by studying TR1 via this book. It's not a simple rendition of the classes. Becker devotes considerable space to explaining the usages of the new classes. Giving you the gist of what they are about. Just as importantly, each chapter has a set of exercises involving its classes. Tackling these is probably the best way to gain experience.
Of the new classes, what interests you most will vary with the reader. Personally, I was most impressed with the Numerics. Huge improvements in dealing with floats and overflows (NaNs). And for physicists or engineers, there are specialised functions that will save some coding. Laguerre polynomials, Legendre functions, gamma functions, Bessel functions and Hermite polynomials, amongst others. A far richer set than what you currently get in the standard library.
Amazon.com
Programming with the C++ Standard Library can certainly be difficult, but Nicolai Josuttis's The C++ Standard Library provides one of the best available guides to using the built-in features of C++ effectively.
The C++ Standard Library provides plenty of default functionality in the form of the Standard Template Library (STL) for containers (like vectors and linked lists), as well as generic algorithms (which allow you to sort, search, and manipulate elements inside containers). The best thing about The C++ Standard Library is that it gives the reader a concise guide to working with these basic containers (from lists to sets and maps, with everything in between). Each container type is explained along with short code excerpts. Moreover, in a reference section, the author explores the connections between each container type, showing how they share similar methods. (Learn just a few methods and you can pretty much work with them all.)
In addition to STL, this book excels at providing a readable introduction to the generic algorithms (which can be used to sort, search, and otherwise manipulate STL containers). Other books either fold this material in with the explanation of containers or make it seem like an esoteric topic. The fact is, generic algorithms work with all the STL types, and by separating these algorithms out like this the reader can learn the rich array of algorithms available in today's standard C++. While this book concentrates on STL and algorithms, readers will still find great coverage on Standard Library string classes and streams (including a fine section on internationalization and locales).
For the beginning or intermediate C++ programmer, The C++ Standard Library can be a real timesaver. It arranges and explains the complexities of the C++ Standard Library and STL in a manageable format that's great as a reference and as an approach to programming. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: history of C++ and the Standard Library, template basics, Big-O Notation, the std namespace, standard exceptions, allocators, standard library utilities, pairs and auto_ptr, numeric limits, the Standard Template Library (STL) basics, containers, iterators, algorithms, vectors, lists, deques, strings, sets, multisets, bitsets, maps, multimaps, stacks, queues, iterator adapters, function objects, element requirements, value and reference semantics, complex numbers, valarrays, stream classes, stream manipulators and formatting, file I/O, internationalization, and locales.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-07-26
An excellent book. The only comment that I have that has not been covered is that you should know c++ templates to use this book... theres a problem with that, most if not all template books require you to know STL. You will have to read both in conjunction if you do not all ready know templates.
Once you get past that little pit fall though, this book is invaluable to any c++ programmer.
C++ Programmers: Don't try to live without this book.......2007-07-05
This is far and away one of the best written programming and reference books I have purchased in 20+ yrs of programming.
It gives a perspective on state-of-the-art C++ style, language constructs, and technique that only a choice few people in the industry can offer. The book has all of the meticulous attention to detail and design formalities that one could expect of the finest academic.
Bravo, Mr. Josuttis, and THANK YOU!
Its title says it all.......2007-05-03
It is a tutorial and a complete reference at the same time. I already knew very well STL when I have read this book but reading this book has been very enjoyable because I really appreciated its format. The tutorial and reference part are not clearly separated in 2. I hate books where you never read the reference part because it is as fun to read than reading a phone book.
Of course, the first part is strictly tutorial where it introduce STL, its basic principles and a quick overview of all the services provided by the library to the reader. Then lengthy chapters follow to cover containers and algorithms. This is where the book shines. It covers one by one each container and each algorithm and to support their description, a small sample program follows.
Before this book, there were some algorithms that I could not figure out exactly what was their purpose or how to use them correctly just from their description in the STL man pages. By reading the samples source code of this book, I had many 'AhAh' moments where finally I could understand some algorithms less frequently used. For all there reasons, I am very happy with my decision to get hold of this book.
Stop searching, this is the one you want.......2007-03-29
Yes it's long, but I have found this book faster to make use of than shorter books on the topic of the Standard Template library (STL). This is the book you want.
Read Ch 2, scan Ch 3. Ch 4 can wait, page through, don't read Ch 5. Read Ch 6 and just note how iterators can be used in Ch 7. And you are done. This can be done in under 3 hours. Then use the rest of the book just as a reference as needed and you will be an STL user eventual expert.
After using STL, you will never go back -- it transforms C++ into a useful language rather than a memory management sink hole. Oh, then you will want to go on to the new proposed, but not yet accepted (as of March 2007) standard library extensions. For that, see "The C++ Standard Library Extensions" by Pete Becker The C++ Standard Library Extensions: A Tutorial and Reference
What do the extensions (sometimes known as "Boost" library) add that's missing in STL? Well, Hash functions (how could these have been left out?), tuples rather than just pairs. Pairs in STL allow you to treat items as a unit -- very useful for database and pattern recognition/association for example. Tuples extend this to lists of items. Pointers with reference counting -- Speed up your code by easily avoiding needless copying and have the memory auto delete when all references to it go away. Doesn't solve the problem of "fatal embraces" where references point to each other, but it helps a lot.
What's still missing? By now, decision trees are just so mature and useful that they ought to be built in along with statistical boosting, k-means and agglomerative clustering, K-D trees for nearest neighbor association. That is IMHO, data ought not only allow methods to be attached, but clustering and basic machine learning/prediction should just be built in and standard by now. The above routines are mature and a basis of much more advanced routines.
As a public service: It's a very decent up-to-date book on STL.......2007-02-20
But it's not the best. The best STL book I've seen is the old STL book by Mark Nelson, C++ Programmer's Guide to the Standard Template Library -- despite its being a bit out of date (it's based on the original HP implementation). I own both books and what I've learned over the years of using them is that when I need a readable explanation of the relevant header file, Josuttis is fine: up to date and reference-like, but whenever I need to really understand what's going on there, I go to Nelson; no book is on par with it as far as intelligent and in-depth discussion of the STL design, usage, and useful sample code. I could live w/o Josuttis just fine, but w/o Nelson I'd be lost an awful lot. I know this is an unusual review :-), but I thought I'd share.
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