Moonseed

[Peter B]

Raven asked:

Ever read 'Moonseed'? Hopefully, that is *not* what is happening here, *shiver*

I replied:

Oh, please don't mention that book. I prefer to read Chaikin's A Man on the Moon, Lebedev's Diary of a Cosmonaut, O'Leary's The Making of an Ex-Astronaut and Tootell's All Four Engines Have Failed in their original forms.

Raven asked:

That was, um, certainly a reaction. Care to elaborate?

:-)

Sure. (I've started a new thread here because it isn't relevant to the OP in the other thread.)

Here are four random quotes from Moonseed:

He felt his chin strap rasp against a week-old beard. He’d promised his daughter, Tracy, that he wouldn’t shave until he got home. After all, in the picture books, the explorers always came home with beards.

‘Russian folk music. Tangos, foxtrots. Sentimental songs by Ruslanova, Shtokolov, Kobson. These songs evoke warm feelings in me, and banish disquieting thoughts.’

The jet accelerated suddenly, throwing him back into his seat. The T-38 was in the air in seconds, and then took off like a dart, tipping itself up and rising almost vertically. The needle nose shot through thin cloud, and when he looked back the ground was turning to a faint grey-green, interspersed with cloud shadows. Ahead, the sky was fading to a rich purple, and – if he read the dials right – they were already at forty-five thousand feet, higher than any commercial jet.

‘Mayday, mayday, mayday. Our position is forty miles west of Glasgow. We have lost all four engines. We’re descending and we’re out of level 370.’
   Prestwick here, have you got a problem?
   ‘We’ve lost all four engines.’
   Understand you have lost engine number four?

Now here are random quotes from the other four books:

Scott felt the chin strap of his communications carrier rasp against a week-old beard. He’d promised his children he wouldn’t shave until he got home. After all: explorers always come home with a beard.

I relax when I listen to the Russian folk music, tangos, fox-trots, or the sentimental songs by Ruslanova, Shtokolov, and Kobson. These songs awake warm feelings in me, and banish disquieting thoughts.

The plane took off like a dart. As soon as it became airborne it pitched at a very steep angle and rose nearly vertically, passing for an instant through puffball cumulus clouds, and quickly leaving the grazing land below as an imperceptible green interspersed with black cloud shadows, and within what seemed to be a few seconds, the sky turned into a deep purple. We were swiftly and smoothly at 45,000 feet, higher than any commercial jet flies.

‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Speedbird Nine. We have lost all four engines. Out of 370.’ Jakarta ACC replied, ‘Speedbird Nine, have you got a problem?’
   ... ‘Jakarta Control. Speedbird Nine. We have lost all four engines. Now out of 360...’ ‘Speedbird Nine. You have lost number four engine?’

As for the implications of this, I'll leave it to your imagination. Although, if you wish, you might like to read this review of the novel: http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R11NK3TJ7SX0UK/ref=cm_cr_pr_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B008CBD48Y (which wasn't by me), specifically the "other annoying Baxterisms" starting on line 4 of the review.

[bknight]

Moonseed, another disaster book/movie from fertile minds of science gone wrong.

[twik]

Peter B! All I can say about those is   

[bknight]

Peter B! All I can say about those is   

twik, quit hiding your feelings, tell us what you really think.

[raven]

As someone once said and many quoted, to steal from one source is plagiarism, but from ten is research.
Still, that is a bit excessive, yes.

[Dalhousie]

Don't see anything wrong with any of that, what's your point?

[Peter B]

Don't see anything wrong with any of that, what's your point?

Perhaps another review might provide some insight?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2N35WU22TM12B

[Dalhousie]

Don't see anything wrong with any of that, what's your point?

Perhaps another review might provide some insight?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2N35WU22TM12B

Fairly sure this is not plagarism in any legal sense.  Reads more like someone with an animus against Baxter.  With respect to Voyage using historical dialogue in a different context, that's all public record stuff, AFAIK, and adds to the realism.

Of course if you really think this is a problem, why down you contact the publishers?  They need to know.

[Dalhousie]

I have alerted Amazon to the possibility that the writer has slandered Baxter.

[onebigmonkey]

I've only recently finished 'Voyage', and while I enjoyed it I did have some misgivings. It did feel as though the author had basically gone through history, scribbled out 'Moon' and put 'Mars' in its place. Changing Aldrin for Muldoon seemed at times more a way of avoiding libel claims by Aldrin!

I'd also like to have seen more from the actual Mars mission itself.

Including this one I've now read three in a row where the book's ending leaves you wanting to know what happens next - which I suppose is a good thing.

A good read, but probably better if you aren't as steeped in Apollo's story as we are here.

[Dalhousie]

I've only recently finished 'Voyage', and while I enjoyed it I did have some misgivings. It did feel as though the author had basically gone through history, scribbled out 'Moon' and put 'Mars' in its place. Changing Aldrin for Muldoon seemed at times more a way of avoiding libel claims by Aldrin!

I'd also like to have seen more from the actual Mars mission itself.

Including this one I've now read three in a row where the book's ending leaves you wanting to know what happens next - which I suppose is a good thing.

A good read, but probably better if you aren't as steeped in Apollo's story as we are here.

I think it is probably the best Mars novel out there, and I am certainly reasonably well versed in Apollo.  I thought the echoes of actual events one of the strengths of alternative universe novel, and greatly added to the realism.

[Glom]

What was a T-38 doing near Glasgow?

[Peter B]

Don't see anything wrong with any of that, what's your point?

Perhaps another review might provide some insight?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2N35WU22TM12B

Fairly sure this is not plagarism in any legal sense.

Out of interest, then, what do you think qualifies as plagiarism? How much of a non-fiction book could a fiction author reasonably be able to use without it being labelled plagiarism?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plagiarism_incidents#Literature is a list of examples in literature. Of note is the case of Dan Brown "appropriating the architecture" of Baigent, Lee and Lincoln's "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail". Their law suit was dismissed on the perfectly reasonable basis that ideas can't be plagiarised. But the Kaavya Viswanathan case is more relevant:

Kaavya Viswanathan's first novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life is reported to contain plagiarized passages from at least five other novels.

Reads more like someone with an animus against Baxter.  With respect to Voyage using historical dialogue in a different context, that's all public record stuff, AFAIK, and adds to the realism.

Of course if you really think this is a problem, why down you contact the publishers?  They need to know.

I might consider it.

[Peter B]

What was a T-38 doing near Glasgow?

Not a T-38. The engine loss incident happens to a 747 flying through a volcanic ash cloud. The T-38 flight was at another stage of the novel and happened to another character in another location.

[Dalhousie]

Don't see anything wrong with any of that, what's your point?

Perhaps another review might provide some insight?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2N35WU22TM12B

Fairly sure this is not plagarism in any legal sense.

Out of interest, then, what do you think qualifies as plagiarism? How much of a non-fiction book could a fiction author reasonably be able to use without it being labelled plagiarism?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plagiarism_incidents#Literature is a list of examples in literature. Of note is the case of Dan Brown "appropriating the architecture" of Baigent, Lee and Lincoln's "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail". Their law suit was dismissed on the perfectly reasonable basis that ideas can't be plagiarised. But the Kaavya Viswanathan case is more relevant:

Kaavya Viswanathan's first novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life is reported to contain plagiarized passages from at least five other novels.

Reads more like someone with an animus against Baxter.  With respect to Voyage using historical dialogue in a different context, that's all public record stuff, AFAIK, and adds to the realism.

Of course if you really think this is a problem, why down you contact the publishers?  They need to know.

I might consider it.

Dont be surprised if they looked at it when they got the MS and decided it's not an issue.