I was there when the web was born. Plus Book Reviews, Promotions and more.
The Lampworks Lamplighter SF & Fantasy News & Reviews
It appears that your email client isn’t displaying the newsletter correctly. Please view the web version for the best experience.
In this issue
When the Web was Born
The news this week that Tim Berners-Lee sold an NFT of the source code to the first web server sent me searching through my archives. Yep, I have a copy of the source code only slightly later than the version that was just sold (unsigned, of course). You see, when I worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, a colleague came back from a visit to CERN with a copy of Tim’s web server on a tape. Soon it was running on the VM mainframe at SLAC that my team managed, the first web server outside of Europe. One of the first things it served was a connection to the Physics Preprints database, which has evolved into today’s well-known ArXive database of scientific articles (housed at Cornell where I work today).
Why do I have a preserved copy of that original web server? A few years after the Web’s first light, a patent troll surfaced who claimed to have a patent on the technique of searching a database from a web server. Virtually every web server in the world uses that technology, from shopping sites to reservations to libraries, so of course this ended up in court almost immediately. SLAC was drawn into the case because the real inventor of that technique was my friend and colleague George Crane, who had written the Preprints database search.
I spent a long day in a freezing machine room at IBM’s Almaden Research Lab pulling disk images off of backup tapes, on the only tape drives left in Silicon Valley that could still read that format of tape. The SLAC Archives came through for the case as well: they located sign-in sheets from the public seminar series where George had described the setup of our web server. The Troll’s name was listed as attending a presentation on the technique that he was claiming to patent. Between the tapes, the sign-in sheets, and the testimony of the early web pioneers, the court invalidated the patent claims. A threat to the free growth of the early web was averted.
Our Books
Sellenria: The Starship and the Citadel
Chuck Boeheim, Daniel Elswit
… this story bolstered my faith that someone can still write decent sci-fi.
Sellenria brings you back to a timeless quest on an alien world. Archaeologist Stenn Gremm was following the trail of an ancestor who had vanished hundreds of years ago. It lead to a world where legends came to life and ancient evils threatened everyone who lived there.
This book delighted on so many levels. It‘s smart, insightful, and wise. The many passages I highlighted are to remind myself how to be a better person.
Stenn came to realize that he had more strength than he knew, and that he still needed his friends to succeed.
This story contains all you expect from SciFi: alien creatures, epic battles, and strange worlds; but even more it‘s a story about the best in people, whether human or otherwise.
Join Stenn‘s trek to the Citadel in the desert and find out for yourself what it takes.
Do you have Kindle Unlimited? You can read it for free on Amazon!
Buy on amazon Bookshop.org
What We‘re Reading
Visit our archive of reviews and recommendations on the Books We Like page of our website. You‘ll find over one hundred recommendations in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Non Fiction.
Jack Four
Neal Asher
Jack Four is a clone who realizes within moments of waking that he has knowledge and skills that the other nineteen Jacks do not. Someone has created him as a weapon. But who? And what have they aimed him at?
Jack is sold to the King of the Prador, who is horribly mutated by the Spatterjay virus. He and his fellows are to be engineered into nightmare killing machines. He escapes into a world populated by a collection of the most lethal species in the galaxy. He must find a way to turn them against his enemies, just as soon as he figures out who is friend and who is foe.
Buy on Bookshop.org amazon
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
Becky Chambers
Three travelers from different walks of life (and different species) have checked in for a short stay at the Five-Hop OneStop Inn on Gora, a planet that has nothing to recommend it other than being on a crossroads to more interesting places. The innkeeper and her child make it a point of pride to offer something for every species that visits. Then a massive systems failure strands them on the planet for an unknown length of time.
Each traveler has urgent business elsewhere. Each has a history of decisions that has landed them at this crossroads, some with regrets. They come together in this backwater and tell each other their stories. But the force that unifies them comes from an unexpected direction.
For me there were echoes of Canterbury Tales in the setting and in the progression of the story. It’s both touching and heart warming. This is part of the Wayfarers series, though the series is loosely coupled enough that each can be read as a standalone tale. Start with this one, or start with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
Buy on Bookshop.org amazon
The 13th Witch
Mark Hayden
Conrad Clarke, ex-RAF, learns magic is real when he gets a text from Odin. Yes, that Odin, and yes, he’s learned how to text.
Bound to Odin’s service, Conrad sets out on a quest to find and rescue a missing witch. To do that, he must get past a mole the size of a truck to reach a dwarf who resides beneath the Bank of England, find the hidden tower within the Tower of London, and convince the Constable of the King’s Guard that he should join their secret police force.
Between the British slang and the RAF lingo, you may be tapping your kindle for Google searches more often than usual. There’s also a backstory that’s mentioned often that made me realize that there was an entire trilogy before this one. It’s a separate storyline, though, and it’s not important to read it first. Despite those factors, this series is addictive, fast-paced, and darkly funny. I’m already into the fourth book, which is where things really become opaque — he introduces cricket to the mix.
Buy on Bookshop.org amazon
The Twelve Dragons of Albion
Mark Hayden
Someone has stolen a dragon’s egg, which is pretty close to saying someone has stolen a thermonuclear device. Conrad has little magic of his own (he can dowse, and that’s about it), and his magical weapon has been impounded until he can get safety training. Still, he’s the best candidate for the job, along with his partner Vicky. They set off across the Welsh countryside to answer the question, “Who would steal a weapon that no one can control?”
Buy on Bookshop.org amazon
You may also enjoy…
Dark Elements – Emergence
Luke Davids
Detective Atticus Cornwall believed that his choices were always good. Standing up for what is right and against the wrong, no matter the consequence. But when a world elite gets murdered at the edge of the city, and the blame is placed on a man who was not even in the same state, Atticus must make hard decisions to right these wrongs.
Free via StoryOrigin
The Frost Eater
Carol Beth Anderson
Seventeen-year-old Princess Nora Abrios is lonely and bored. Though she’s a frost eater who creates magical ice, she’d give anything for a chance to really cut loose. When a commoner’s flying antics capture her attention, she seizes the opportunity to partner up and escape her dreary palace duties.
Buy via StoryOrigin
Dropnauts
J. Scott Coatsworth
Life after the Crash. Over a century after the end of the Earth, life goes on in Redemption, the sole remaining Lunar colony, and possibly the last outpost of humankind in the Solar System. But with an existential threat burrowing its way into the Moon’s core, humanity must recolonize the homeworld.
Buy via StoryOrigin
The Dragonfly
Georgina Makalani
Isla Tarle thought she had managed to disappear into relative obscurity. Now someone wants her dead. But why would anyone take out a hero so long after the battle was lost?
Buy via StoryOrigin
The Neighbor You Don't Know
Shane Shepherd
Just your typical exploration of an unknown planet. Or is it? Find out what surprises await!
Free via StoryOrigin
Doc Roberts And The Mindharp of Tombaku
Jay Toney
Doc Roberts is a privateer working for the Alliance military. With the Alliance, failure is not acceptable. Those who fail are sent to reeducation camps to have their minds wiped and reprogrammed with a submissive personality, then they are placed in a control collar, and sold at auction to the highest bidder. Leaders who fail are publicly executed by hanging.
Buy via StoryOrigin
Mixing Magic & Mayhem
Christine Schulz
Raiding a bakery to confiscate a magical spatula may not have been on Zulli’s to-do list for the day, but when she learns a notorious criminal, Ozcar Thorne, is using the powerful magic object to mix illegal drugs, and someone even more monstrous is coming after him to steal it, she gears up for a day off butt kicking and free cake.
Free via StoryOrigin
The Bloodaxe of Choctaw
David Munday
Can Orvan save his friends and his soul in the fires of the Choctaw War? An action-packed prequel to the Atlas Nations series.
Free via StoryOrigin
