[continued from previous message]   
      
   that now sits on a browser tab beside Photoshop and investment   
   news, and that very normality steals some of the genre's old shock   
   and wonder. If the future is already "here" in the form of tools   
   that talk back, automate creativity, and reshape industries in   
   real time, it makes sense that many readers go looking   
   elsewhere--toward fantasy, surrealism, or softer space opera--not   
   because they've stopped liking science, but because they still   
   want the one thing hard SF used to reliably provide: distance."   
      
   The above response was not edited or corrected in any way. I rest   
   my case. [-dls]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)   
      
   This is more a "get ready to add to your reading list" column.   
      
   Works entering into the public domain in 2026 include Dashiell   
   Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON as a complete novel, Olaf Stapledon's   
   novel LAST AND FIRST MEN, the first English translation of Franz   
   Kafka's THE CASTLE, Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple novel THE   
   MURDER AT THE VICARAGE, and THE MYSTERIOUS MR. QUIN, as well as   
   works by several other mystery writers.   
      
   Plays include THE GREEN PASTURES by Marc Connelly. YA books   
   include the original editions of the first four Nancy Drew mystery   
   stories by house author Carolyn Keene: THE SECRET OF THE OLD   
   CLOCK, THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE, THE BUNGALOW MYSTERY, and THE MYSTERY   
   AT LILAC INN. Non-fiction includes THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE by   
   James Jeans.   
      
   Films include JUST IMAGINE, an early science fiction musical   
   directed by David Butler.   
      
   One suspects that these books will appear in Project Gutenberg   
   soon (for some loose definition of "soon").   
      
   A more complete list can be found at   
      
      
   [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
                                        Evelyn C. Leeper   
                                        evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com   
      
      
              God grant me the company of those who seek the   
              truth, and God deliver me from those who have   
              found it.   
                                              --Isaac Newton   
                                         [whose birthday was yesterday]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)