January 2015

Jeri Ryan in 2012

3

On January 16, 1995 the TV show “Star Trek: Voyager” made its debut, set in the same period as the show “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, which at that time was still on the air.

I think “Star Trek: Voyager” has more flaws than merits and is the show that marked the decline of Star Trek. It lasted seven seasons but it failed to fulfill its potential. Instead of boldly going where no one had gone before, it’s the show that started going lazily where everyone had already gone before.

Robert Silverberg in 2013

2

Robert Silverberg was born on January 15, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. As a child he already read a lot and he was just a teenager when he started sending stories to science fiction magazines. He earned a BA in English literature from Columbia University in 1956. During his career he’s written an incredible amount of science fiction and occasionally fantasy stories. For some time he devoted himself mostly to other genres and historical articles.

0

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) asked the Obama administration an opinion about the case of Oracle vs. Google in the case which for years has seen the two giants in a lawsuit about the use of the Java language in Android. The dispute began in 2010 after Oracle bought Sun, the company that developed Java, and claimed that Google violates copyright and patents related to Java. This isn’t one of the many clashes between companies regarding software patents but a special case where the final decision may have a significant influence on the future of software development.

Demon by John Varley (Italian edition)

1

The novel “Demon” by John Varley was published for the first time in 1984. It’s the third novel in the trilogy of Gaea and is the sequel to “Wizard”.

In the years after leaving Gaea’s service, Cirocco Jones started organizing resistance against the dominator of the artificial habitat. Some of the species that inhabit it allied with Cirocco but must they also face new creatures because Gaea, who in the meantime created a new avatar that looks like Marilyn Monroe, has her plans.

On Earth, World War V started, a nuclear war that quickly caused the deaths of billions of people. Those events have their weight also in the clash between Cirocco Jones and Gaea. The day of reckoning is approaching and Robin returns to the habitat to be reunited with Cirocco. She brrings with her two children: Nova, which now is 19, and the newborn Adam, a very special child and a male, not accepted in Robin’s community of feminist extremist. Among the new Cirocco’s allies there’s also Conal, a descendant of one of the crew of Cirocco’s starship.