Scott Westerfeld says that he set out to write the space opera that he would have liked, and he came up with one that a lot of us like. In this tale he weaves together an espionage story, political intrigue, romance, future history, the ethics and ramifications of artificial intelligence, the ethics and ramifications of immortality, a commando raid, and one of science fiction’s more elaborate and high-tech ship-to-ship battles. And this empire is ruled by heroes who have passed on to their reward, both literally and figuratively, as the emperor has the power to grant immortality to those who obey him, but only if they agree to die in the process. Originally written as one novel to be called Succession, the publisher decided to split the story into two books: The Risen Empire, and The Killing of Worlds. (They’re not sequels, but one story in two volumes.)

Transcendent Man: A Conversation About the Future was broadcasted on Wednesday August 3rd in 500+ movie theaters across the country. The speakers panel included physicist Michio Kaku, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, inventor Dean Kamen and others. It was a live discussion of the Transcendent Man documentary by Barry Ptolemy with the subject of it - futurist Ray Kurzweil present. Discussion explored Ray Kurzweil's idea that in next twenty years exponential growth in nanotechnology, genetic engineering and robotics will lead to merging between man and machines that is called Technological Singularity. Our library has the following several books by Kurzweil that explain his ideas and the movie Transcendent Man.

• The Age of Intelligent Machines
• The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
• The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Have you ever wondered what science fiction would be like if it was written by a lawyer? Okay, me neither. But the answer turns out to be, “pretty good.” John C. Wright’s Golden Age trilogy feels like a hero’s epic from classical mythology, and has elements of adventure, intrigue, and philosophy. Wright has carefully constructed a highly detailed and interesting future society in which artificial intelligence mediates all aspects of life, and then he delves into the ethics and ramifications of a human society which lives in symbiosis with artificial servitors who are wiser and smarter than the people are, and where the dividing line between human and machine is obscure, and unimportant. Follow Wright’s protagonist as he crusades across this fascinating world, falling from grace and fighting his way back to triumph. The volumes of the trilogy are:

• The Golden Age
• The Phoenix Exultant
• The Golden Transcendence