The Observation Deck

A return of everyone's favourite section ... where we stick in all the news shorts.

China Syndrome

Shards from a massive meteorite over 5,000 years old were unearthed last week in China (the Shaanxi province county of Huangling), and has been interpreted as lending credence to one of China's oldest legends - kind of an Atlantis and King Arthur tale combined. China's Yellow Emperor legend.

The Yellow Emperor, Huangdi, was the land's enigmatic first emperor and perished during a cataclysmic shattering of China around the years 2597 to 2697 B.C.

The Yellow Emperor tales credit this Plato-like semi-mythical figure with having an advanced school of medicine that was able to heal most diseaseses of the time, the discovery of how to weave silk from silkworms, writing, using gun powder to power rotating weapons of great destructive power, and massive engines powered by the breath of a dragon (presumably steam).

Huangdi and the rule of learning & peace he brought to China ended when he was aged 110 and was carried off from a mountain near his capital city to heaven by nine dragons as the land died around him; the epicentre of the celestial destruction visited on China being the Huangling region.

China's state media agency said that geologists estimate the the uncovered meteorite samples dates back over five thousand years. Exactly the same time the heavens were meant to be destroying China's first civilization.

In a Close Encounters-like moment, as news of the discovery spread, 50,000 modern-day Chinese flocked to Huangdi's ancient mausoleum (erected by the Han dynasty to honor the great teacher) to pay their respects to the Yellow Emperor.

Into Orbit again.

Our chum Tom over at Future Orbits is keen to invite all you Nest readers to sample the current issue of his PDF-based short fiction magazine, Future Orbits.

Said April/May issue features science fiction short stories by Linda J. Dunn, Gene Stewart, Brian Plante, Timons Esaias, James Van Pelt, and Michael J. Jasper, as well as a commentary about the different kinds of futures by Greg Beatty.

Not to mention some very nice cover art by Maurizio Manzieri.

You can click on the following link to download the free PDF version of Future Orbits Lite (the sample edition of Future Orbits).

http://www.futureorbits.com/FOv2n2Lite.pdf

Future Orbits Lite features excerpts from all six short stories in this issue and the commentary, plus background information on the contributors.

You can receive the full edition of the current issue in Adobe Acrobat PDF, Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, and/or Rocket eBook formats, by surfing over to www.futureorbits.com

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OTHER CONTENT - May 2002

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The Gold(in) Standard It's not every author who can boast they co-authored a science fiction novel with E.E. Doc Smith. Stephen Goldin slips into the author's hot seat for an interview. (AUTHOR INTERVIEW) Art for SF's Sake John Jarrold, the SF editor behind this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated SF novel - Pashazade by Jon Courtney Grimwood - issues a plea of tolerance for creative art on book jacket covers. (COMMENT) Muster the Goombahs SF author Harlan Ellison has a quiet word about Isaac Asimov's death and an egregious misreading of history. (COMMENT) Acquisition (Trek) With the Enterprise crew incapacitated and a Ferengi raiding party aboard, it falls to Trip, Archer, and T'Pol to save the ship. More Trek reviews from the master. (TV REVIEWS) Drawing the Jedi May's crop of book reviews hits the streets - including all those juicy DK Star Wars art books dropping out of hyperspace just in time for the Clone Wars movie. (BOOK REVIEWS) Jack's Back Had he ever left? Writer Jack L Chalker is one of the few novelists who can switch from fantasy to science fiction with consummate ease. Read about his life and times here. (AUTHOR INTERVIEWS) The Observation Deck Includes the scientific community's latest evidence on the Chinese 'Atlantis' - not to mention an interesting offer from the desk of Future Orbits magazine. (COMMENT) Hugo, Hugo, as long as you USA-go The Hugo Award nominees get trotted out for 2002. Truly global, as long as your definition of the world starts at the West Coast and ends at the East Coast. (AWARDS) Moving with the Times An American Physicist believes he has discovered how to visit the past, driven on by a terrible personal tragedy. (WEIRD SCIENCE) Bitten by a Scorpion Conan the Barbarian (in virtually all but name) clobbers again in another sword and sorcery adventure, but this time he is played by The Rock and called Mathayus, the Scorpion King. (FILM REVIEWS) Vampire Blood and Egyptian Assassins Rod weighs in with some neck-biting action from the cult movie Blade II, and tops it off with a trip to see the Scorpion King too. (FILM REVIEWS)

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