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The Planet Girded Suns Our Forebears Firm Belief In Inhabited Exoplanets
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Book Synopsis The Planet-Girded Suns: Our Forebears' Firm Belief in Inhabited Exoplanets by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book The Planet-Girded Suns: Our Forebears' Firm Belief in Inhabited Exoplanets written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interest in exoplanets--the worlds of other stars--is not new. From the late 17th century until the end of the 19th, almost all educated people believed that the stars are suns surrounded by inhabited planets--a belief that was expressed not in science fiction, but in serious speculation, both scientific and religious, as well as in poetry. Only during the first half of the 20th century was it thought that life-bearing exoplanets are rare. This is not a science book--rather, it belongs to the category known as History of Ideas. First published by Atheneum in 1974, it tells the story of the rise, fall, and eventual renewal of widespread conviction that we are not alone in the universe. In this 2012 updated edition the chapters dealing with modern speculation have been revised to reflect the progress science has made during the past 40 years, including the actual detection of planets orbiting other stars. However, it is not intended to be more than a brief introduction to today's views; its focus is on little-known facts about those of the past. Why should we care what our forebears believed? Now, the question of ET life is a matter for investigation by science. Yet it's significant that most educated people of past centuries were convinced that other inhabited worlds exist, without any scientific evidence whatsoever. This historical fact reveals that human beings have an instinctive sense of kinship with the wider universe and a desire to see the realms that lie beyond this one small planet--and perhaps, eventually, to go there. Our ancestors conceived of such voyages only in a spiritual sense, as occurring after death. But we who have taken our first small steps into space are aware that our descendants may set foot on the worlds of other suns. Just as in the 17th century people were initially upset by the new knowledge that the stars are suns scattered in space rather than lights fixed to a nearby sphere, the growing awareness that Earth is not safely isolated from whatever lies beyond makes many of our contemporaries uneasy. Thus today's predominant feelings about spaceships are ambivalent. Nevertheless, if an impulse toward belief that we are not alone in the universe is indeed an innate characteristic of human beings, as the past spread of belief in inhabited exoplanets suggests, we can be sure that those who follow us will not turn back from becoming spacefarers.
Book Synopsis Planet-Girded Suns by : Engdahl Sylvia (author)
Download or read book Planet-Girded Suns written by Engdahl Sylvia (author) and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis From This Green Earth: Essays on Looking Outward by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book From This Green Earth: Essays on Looking Outward written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2024-05-03 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sylvia Engdahl became fascinated by the idea of space travel in 1946, and has believed since the early 1950s that expansion of our species to other worlds is vital to the preservation of Earth and the future survival of humankind. Many of the essays in this book express her conviction that we should not be discouraged by the public's reluctance to support space activity, since all past human progress has been brought about by visionaries who did not have the backing of their contemporaries. The shock of realizing during the moon landings that contact with the vast and perhaps peril-fraught universe is no longer mere fiction dampened the enthusiasm of the majority, but this was a natural reaction comparable seventeenth century people's resistance to the idea that Earth is not, as formerly thought, safely enclosed within crystal spheres that hold up the celestial bodies. It will pass, and we need have no doubt that generations who come after us will venture forth from this green Earth and find their way to the stars. The following essays are included. The Once and Future Dream (new) Thoughts on the 50th Anniversary of the First Moon Landing Breaking Out from Earth's Shell Why Does the History of Outlook Toward Space Matter? Confronting the Universe in the Twenty-First Century Space and Human Survival The Only Sensible Way to Deal with Climate Change Update on the Critical Stage: The Far Side of Evil’s Relevance Today Space Colonization, Faith, and Pascal’s Wager Why There Will Never Be an Interplanetary War Humankind's Future in the Cosmos
Book Synopsis Selected Essays on Enchantress from the Stars and More by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book Selected Essays on Enchantress from the Stars and More written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2024-05-22 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lead essay in this cellection by the author of Newbery honor book Enchantress from the Stars deals with issues that she wants readers of the novel to be aware of. Too often misinterpretations arise when the story is thought to be an allegory about relations between different cultures of our own world, when it is literally about possible relations between different "human" species of other worlds that have evolved for vastly different lengths of time. The two situations are not comparable, and assuming that they are leads some readers to think the book endorses a view of cultural relations that was rejected by anthropologists long ago. Though much in the story does apply to relationships between individual people of our world, as far as culture is concerned its aim is to counter the all-too-common science fiction view of extraterrestrial aliens either as hostile or as benevolent beings who will step in to solve Earth's problems. Whether or not there really are any aliens, how young people think of them affects how rhey feel about the future of humankind. The rest of the essays in this book are about the author's other Young Adult novels and about subjects relevant to them such as the importance of space exploration and the reality of psi powers. They have been selected from her collections Reflections on Enchantress from the Stars and Other Essays, the Future of Being Human and Other Essays, and From This Green Earth: Essays on Looking Outward, two of which are available only as ebooks. Because of their length these collections cannot be issued as paperbacks at reasonable prices, so this short sampler has been produced for the benefit of readers who have a strong preference for print books and/or audioboox. The following essays are included. Reflections on Enchantress from the Stars Perspective on the Future: The Quest of Space Age Young People Faith as the Focus of Children of the Star Update on the Critical Stage: The Far Side of Evil's Relevance Today A Response to Some Reactions to Journey Between Worlds Breaking Out from Earth's Shell The Role of Psi in Human Affairs The Roots of Disbelief in Human Mind Powers Transhumanism Is a Dead End The Worship of Medical Authority Why I Don‟t Read Much Science Fiction
Book Synopsis Defender of the Flame by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book Defender of the Flame written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starship pilot Terry Radnor is elated to be among those chosen to defend the secret colony Maclairn against enemies who pose a threat to the spread of paranormal human mind powers. He commits himself wholly to the goal of that world, not guessing how far his effort to protect it will take him from everything else he cares about--his promising career as a Fleet officer, contact with people who share his newly-discovered psi capability, his wife and unborn child. Torn away against his will after learning a secret too deep for its disclosure to be risked, he is forced into exile from all that has previously mattered to him, and must build a perilous new life far from Maclairn, grounded without hope of fulfilling his earlier pledge. Yet a mysterious and extraordinary destiny has been predicted for Terry, and against all odds fate puts him in place to confront the colony’s greatest peril.
Book Synopsis Reflections on Enchantress from the Stars and Other Essays by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book Reflections on Enchantress from the Stars and Other Essays written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2019-10-31 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here are the author's collected essays about her Newbery Honor book Enchantress from the Stars and other Young Adult and adult science fiction novels, plus two autobiographical essays. Her comments on Enchantress deal with issues she would like all its readers to be aware of. This is one of three books of essays that replace Reflections on the Future: Collected Essays, which has grown too long and covers too many topics. Most of the essays included appeared there, so if you already have that book you don't need this one. The other two replacement books, including a number of new essays, are focused on space and on the human mind.
Book Synopsis The Doors of the Universe by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book The Doors of the Universe written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 1981 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With genetic engineering promising salvation for the people on their hostile planet, the Scholar Noren finds he faces more problems than overcoming the taboo on genetic research.
Book Synopsis Journey Between Worlds by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book Journey Between Worlds written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2006-03-01 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melinda Ashley has a plan for her life, and a trip to Mars isn't part of it. When she receives a spaceliner ticket as a high school graduation gift from her dad, she is dismayed, but reluctantly agrees to go with him--in part because she's infuriated by her fiance's high-handed declaration that she can't. Her outlook begins to change when she meets Alex Preston, a second-generation Martian colonist who is going home after college on Earth. Alex believes settling Mars is important. He's looking forward to the role he expects to play in the colony's future. Melinda finds this hard to understand, yet she is more and more drawn to him and, while on Mars, to his family. Torn between what she has always wanted and upsetting new feelings, she wonders if she can ever again be content. It takes tragedy and a terrifying experience on the Martian moon Phobos to make her aware of what really matters to her.
Book Synopsis The Far Side of Evil by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book The Far Side of Evil written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2003-03-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On completion of her training as an agent of the interstellar federation's Anthropological Service, Elana is sent to a world whose people may soon destroy their civilization. Since not enough is understood about the situation to justify any interference with their evolution, the Service has no power to act; its agents must go as helpless observers, posing as natives, in the hope of gaining knowledge that may help to save other worlds. This passive role proves intolerable to the young, inexperienced agent assigned to the same city as Elana, a city under totalitarian rule. After falling in love with a local girl who has become Elana's closest friend, he identifies too completely with the natives and unwittingly endangers the entire world by a well-meant but ill-advised attempt to intervene. Forced to assume responsibility for undoing the damage, Elana finds that only she—at great cost—can prevent an immediate war of annihilation. Although this novel has the same heroine as the author's Newbery Honor book Enchantress from the Stars, it is not a sequel but a completely separate—and very different—story not intended for readers below high school age, which is also enjoyed by adults. The two books are in no way dependent on each other and can be read in either order.
Book Synopsis The Future of Being Human and Other Essays by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book The Future of Being Human and Other Essays written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What will humans be like in the future? According to science fiction author Sylvia Engdahl, they will be no different from what they're like now. There will be many innovations in technology and ways of daily life, but people are people, wherever and whenever they happen to live, and that's not going to change. In this book Engdahl departs from the theme of space colonization on which her past essays (available in her book From This Green Earth) have focused, and discusses such topics as artificial intelligence, "paranormal" psi powers, healthcare policy, and the coming loss of personal privacy. Her controversial views on these subjects will inspire thought about what the future is likely to bring.
Book Synopsis Stewards of the Flame by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book Stewards of the Flame written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2009-08-24 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When starship captain Jesse Sanders is detained by a dictatorial medical regime on the colony planet Undine, he is plunged into a life involving ordeals and joys unlike anything he has ever imagined.
Book Synopsis Children of the Star: The Complete Trilogy by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book Children of the Star: The Complete Trilogy written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2012-06-15 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An omnibus edition containing the complete trilogy This Star Shall Abide (known in the UK as Heritage of the Star), Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains, and The Doors of the Universe. Noren can see that his world is not as it should be--it is wrong that only the Scholars, and their representatives the Technicians, can use metal tools and Machines. It's wrong that only those few have access to the impenetrable City, which he has always longed to enter. Above all, it is wrong for the Scholars to have sole power over the distribution of knowledge. Unable to believe in the Prophecy that promises these restrictions will someday end, he declares it to be a fraud and defies the High Lew under which they are enforced. His family and the girl to whom he is betrothed reject him. Yet he cannot turn back from the path that leads him to the mysterious fate awaiting heretics. But the more he learns of the grim truth about his people's deprivations, the less possible it seems that their world can be changed. And once he discovers what really happened in their past, he becomes convinced that it is up to him to restore their rightful heritage. To do so, however, will mean giving up all else that matters to him, for it will demand more drastic steps than anyone has imagined.
Book Synopsis Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2010 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children of the Star trilogy, Book Two. Once Noren gained admission to the City where technology was hidden, he thought he had discovered how to make metal and Machines available to everyone and end the rule of the Scholars. But he soon learned it was not as simple as he had believed. Was it right to let people go on believing in the promises of a Prophecy that might not come true after all?
Book Synopsis This Star Shall Abide aka Heritage of the Star by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book This Star Shall Abide aka Heritage of the Star written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (This book is known in the UK as Heritage of the Star) Noren can see that his world is not as it should be--it is wrong that only the Scholars, and their representatives the Technicians, can use metal tools and Machines. It's wrong that only those few have access to the impenetrable City, which he has always longed to enter. Above all, it is wrong for the Scholars to have sole power over the distribution of knowledge. Unable to believe in the Prophecy that promises these restrictions will someday end, he declares it to be a fraud and defies the High Lew under which they are enforced. His family and the girl to whom he is betrothed reject him. Yet he cannot turn back from the path that leads him to the mysterious fate awaiting heretics. This classic science fiction novel is enjoyed by readers age 12 and up as well as by teens and adults who go on to read the other two books in the Children of the Star trilogy. Originally published in hardcover by Atheneum in the US and by Gollancz in the UK under the title Heritage of the Star, it was the winner of a Christopher Award given for "affirmation of the highest values of the human spirit."
Book Synopsis Herald of the Flame by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book Herald of the Flame written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Sylvia Engdahl. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As captain of his own starship Estel, Terry Steward, born Terry Radnor, is committed to spreading acceptance of psi powers and other advanced mind capabilities throughout the colonies of humankind. Barred from contact with his beloved planet Maclairn, he now journeys from world to world, heralding the hopeful future about which he alone knows the full truth. But the opponents of mind-powers are gaining strength, and on Earth the persecution of people who develop such abilities is increasing. Soon targeted by bounty hunters, Terry risks everything that matters to him in a desperate attempt to defeat Maclairn's enemies, not guessing that if he lives long enough, he is destined for an even greater role in human history than he has played as a defender of its cause.
Book Synopsis Enchantress from the Stars by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book Enchantress from the Stars written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-04-10 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rediscover this beloved Newbery Honor-winning classic, Featuring a brand-new cover and a foreword by Lois Lowry! Elana, a member of an interstellar civilization on a mission to a medieval planet, becomes the key to a dangerous plan to turn back an invasion. How can she help the Andrecians, who still believe in magic and superstition, without revealing her own alien powers? At the same time, Georyn, the son of an Andrecian woodcutter, knows only that there is a dragon in the enchanted forest, and he must defeat it. He sees Elana as the Enchantress from the Stars who has come to test him, to prove he is worthy. One of the few science fiction books to win a Newbery Honor, this novel continues to enthrall readers of all ages. Critical acclaim for Enchantress from the Stars: A Newbery Honor Book A Junior Library Guild selection An ALA Notable pick Winner of the Phoenix Award Finalist for the Book Sense Book of the Year Award
Book Synopsis This Star Shall Abide by : Sylvia Engdahl
Download or read book This Star Shall Abide written by Sylvia Engdahl and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-29 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noren knew that his world was not as it should be--it was wrong that only the Scholars, and their representatives the Technicians, could use metal tools and Machines. It was wrong that only they had access to the mysterious City, which he had always longed to enter. Above all, it was wrong for the Scholars to have sole power over the distribution of knowledge. The High Law imposed these restrictions and many others, though the Prophecy promised that someday knowledge and Machines would be available to everyone. Noren was a heretic. He defied the High Law and had no faith in the Prophecy's fulfillment. But was defiance enough, or could some way be found to make it come true? This classic science fiction novel is enjoyed by readers age 12 and up as well as by older teens and adults who go on to read the other two books in the Children of the Star trilogy. Originally published in hardcover by Atheneum in the US and by Gollancz in the UK under the title Heritage of the Star, it was the winner of a Christopher Award given for "affirmation of the highest values of the human spirit.".
