n-sf: Nanotechnology in Science Fiction #15

ASN (anthony@lexis-nexis.com)
Wed, 04 Sep 1996 10:31:31 -0400

The Nanotechnology in Science Fiction Bibliography Issue #15, September 04, 1996
anthony@lexis-nexis.com
http://www.erinet.com/prass/nanowars/ninsf/n_in_sf.html

This is primarily a list of Science Fiction novels & short stories that are nanotech related. I have not read everything on this list.

Additions and corrections should be sent to <n-sf@lucifer.com>. Thanks to all who have contributed to this bibliography.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------Rating of nanotech content (not implying good/bad)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Four stars **** nanotech is the center of the story

Three stars  ***     nanotech is a major component of the story
Two stars     **     nanotech is a minor component of the story

Nanotech may be explicitly or implicitly stated, or be called by different names. People who have read one of the non-fiction books listed below should have a feel for the general definition of molecular nanotechnology.




1986 Engines of Creation K. Eric Drexler

1991 Unbounding the Future K. Eric Drexler, et al.

1992 Nanosystems - Molecular

      Machinery, Manufacturing,
      and Computation                   K. Eric Drexler

_Further_information_ can be obtained from the sci.nanotech homepage located at URL <http://nanotech.rutgers.edu/nanotech/> or Sean Morgan's page at <http://www.lucifer.com/~sean/Nano.html/>




and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not."

Isaac Asimov (1920-92)

Code (default is Novel)


 (C)    collection, anthology
 (N)    novella, novelette
 (M)    magazine, pulp
 (F)    fantasy
 (R)    reissue, reprint


(b) biotech pathway - organic molecules, "wet" environment.

(mm) molecular manufacturing - machine phase, "dry" environment,

indicates the work shows detailed portrayal of nanoengineering.

 (si)   Singularity
 (gg)   Gray Goo   
 (uf)   Utility Fog
 (cr)   Cryonics   

(h-yy) Hugo award winner - year
(n-yy) Nebula award winner - year

-----------------------------------------------------------------------Author Title Date,Code,Rating
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Anderson K. & Beason D. Assemblers of Infinity 1993 4

Anderson, Poul            Boat of a Million Years, The 1989        2.4
Anderson, Poul            Harvest of Stars             1993        3
Anderson, Poul            Stars are Also Fire, The     1994         
Banks, Iain M.            Feersum Endjinn              1994        3
*Banks, Iain M.           Excession                    1996
Barnes, John              Kaleidoscope Century         1995
Barnes, John              Mother of Storms             1994        2
Baxter, Stephen           Ring                         1994        2
Baxter, Stephen           Timelike Infinity            1993        2
Bear, Greg                Anvil of Stars               1992        3
Bear, Greg                Blood Music                  1985 (b)    3.5
Bear, Greg                Forge of God, The            1987        3
Bear, Greg                Heads                        1990        2
Bear, Greg                Moving Mars                  1993 (n94)  2
Bear, Greg                Queen of Angels              1990        3
Benford, Gregory          Furious Gulf                 1994        2
Benford, Gregory          Great Sky River              1987        2
Benford, Gregory          Sailing Bright Eternity      1995        2
Benford, Gregory          Tides of Light               1989        2 
Bishop, Michael           Secret Ascension, The        1987        2
Bisson, T.                Pirates of the Universe      1996        2
Bova, Ben                 Voyagers 3: Star Brothers    1990        3.5
Brenner, Mayer Alan       Spell of Apocalypse          1994 (F)    
Brin, David               Earth                        1990        2
Brunner, John             Maze of Stars, A             1991        3
Bull, Emma                Falcon                       1989        2
Calder, Richard           Dead Boys                    1995
Calder, Richard           Dead Girls                   1995
*Carter, Raphael          Fortunate Fall, The          1996
Carver, Jeffrey           From a Changeling Star       1988        2
Carver, Jeffrey           Down the Stream of Stars     1990        2
Clarke, Arthur C.         Hammer of God, The           1993        2
*DeChancie, John          Innerverse                   1996
Egan, Greg                Permutation City             1994        2
Egan, Greg                Quarantine                   1992        2.5
Elliott, Elton (Editor)   Nanodreams                   1995 (C)    4
Feeley, Gregory           Oxygen Barons, The           1990        3
Flynn, Michael            Nanotech Chronicles, The     1991 (C)    4
Frankowski, Leo           Copernick's Rebellion        1987 (b)    3.5
Gibson, William           Mona Lisa Overdrive          1988        1.9
Gibson, William           Virtual Light                1993        2
Goonan, Kathleen Ann      Bones of Time, The           1995        4
Goonan, Kathleen Ann      Queen City Jazz              1994        4
Harrison H. & Minsky M.   Turing Option, The           1992        2.5
Jennings, Phillip C.      Bug Life Chronicles          1989        3
Keith, William H.         Warstrider                   1993        3
Keith, William H.         Warstrider: Rebellion        1993        3
Keith, William H.         Warstrider: Jackers          1994        3
Kilian, Crawford          Gryphon                      1989        3
Kress, Nancy              Beggars and Choosers         1994        4
Kube-McDowell,Michael P.  Exile                        1992        2
McAuley, Paul J.          Fairyland                    1995        3.5
McAuley, Paul J.          Red Dust                     1994        
McCarthy, Wil             Murder in the Solid State    1996           
McDonald, Ian             Terminal Cafe                1994        3
Nagata, Linda             Bohr Maker, The              1995        4
Nagata, Linda             Tech Heaven                  1995 (cr)   4    
  
Noon, Jeff                Pollen                       1995
Noon, Jeff                Vurt                         1993
Platt, Charles            Protektor                    1996
Preuss, Paul              Human Error                  1985 (b)    3.5
Quinn, Daniel             Ishmael                      1995 (R)
Robinson, Kim Stanley     Blue Mars                    1996 
Robinson, Kim Stanley     Green Mars                   1994 (h94)  2
Robinson, Kim Stanley     Red Mars                     1992 (n93)  2
Robinson, Spider/Jeanne   Starmind                     1995 
Ryman,Geoff               Child Garden, The            1990
Sawyer, Robert J.         Foreigner                    1994        2
*Sawyer, Robert J.        The Terminal Experiment      1995 (n95)  2.5
Smith, L. Neil            Venus Belt, The              1980        3
Steele, Allen             Labyrinth of Night           1992        3.5
Stephenson, Neal          Diamond Age, The             1995 (mm)   4
Stirling, S. M.           Drakon                       1996        2.5
*Sullivan, Tricia         Lethe                        1996
Swanwick, Michael         Stations of the Tide         1991 (n91)  2.7
Varley, John              Steel Beach                  1992        2.8
Vinge, Joan D.            Dreamfall                    1996
Vinge, Joan D.            Snow Queen, The              1980 (h81)  2.5
Vinge, Joan D.            Summer Queen, The            1991        2.5
Vinge, Vernor             Fire Upon the Deep, A        1992 (h93)  3
Vinge, Vernor             Marooned in Realtime         1986 (si)   2
Vinge, Vernor             Peace War, The               1984        2.2
Watson, Ian               Nanoware Time                1991
Williams, Walter Jon      Aristoi                      1992 (mm)   4
Wilson, Robert Charles    Bridge of Years, A           1991        2 
Wilson, Robert Charles    Harvest, The                 1993        3.2
Wolverton, Dave           On My Way To Paradise        1989
Young, Jim                Armed Memory                 1996
Zindell, David            Neverness                    1988        2




----------------------------------------------------------------------- Honorable Mention (predates modern nanotech concepts)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1941 ...... Microcosmic God ............... Theodore Sturgeon 1942 ...... Waldo ......................... Robert A. Heinlein 1952 ...... Surface Tension ............... James Blish 1954 ...... Autofac ....................... Philip K. Dick 1966 ...... The Mechanic .................. Hal Clement
1970 ...... Dancer at the End of Time ..... Michael Moorcock 1978 ...... Sight of Proteus .............. Charles Sheffield
                            magazines, collections, etc, amidst other 
                            non-nano related works.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Burns, Stephen L. Down Under Crater Billy (M) Analog, January 1995 Rating 3 Di Filippo, Paul Any Major Dude (C) New Worlds Anthology #1 Rating ? Di Filippo, Paul Up the Lazy River (M) Science Fiction Age, September 1993 Rating 4 Feeley, Gregory Mind's Place, The (C) Full Spectrum 4, 1993 Rating 2.9 Johnson, Todd Legacy (C) Bolos Book 2, 1994 Rating 3 Kress, Nancy Margin of Error (C) The Years Best Science Fiction #12, 1995 Rating ? Niven, Larry Procrustes (C) Crashlander, 1994 Rating 3.5 Stiegler, Marc The Gentle Seduction (C) in collection of same name, 1990 Rating 4 Sterling, Bruce The Shores of Bohemia (C) Globalhead, 1992 Rating 4 Swanwick, Michael Griffin's Egg (C) The Years Best Science Fiction #10, 1993 Rating 2.5 Tonnies, Mac Alchemist's Planet (C) Illumined Black, 1995 Rating 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------- NanoWars, Illustrated Science Fiction by Anthony S. Napier
http://www.erinet.com/prass/nanowars/nw.html (ftp now available, including at SIMTEL and SIMTEL MIRRORS)
NanoWars Chapter 1: Breakthrough                       
1994        

Rating 4
"The year is 2020, and mankind's advancement of technology continues. In fact, it has reached the ignition point!"
NanoWars Chapter 2: Propagation                        
1995        

Rating 4
"Machine fights machine. Do men even matter?"

Nanothinc is in the process of setting up a NanoWars page at... http://nanothinc.com/NanoWorld/NanoFun/NanoWars/NanoWars.html



-----------------------------------------------------------------------Milestone Comics
Hardware Rating 2
Milestone Comics          
Xombi (now discontinued)                                
Rating 2
Valiant Comics            
Bloodshot                                
Rating 3

*Doom Patrol
no other info at this time




Hsieh, Paul
Axioms
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~diana/objectivism/hsieh/axioms.html Rating 2.2

Napier, Anthony S.
Dead Reckoning http://www.erinet.com/prass/nanowars/story/story2.html Rating 4 (mm,gg)

Napier, Anthony S.
The Quiet Revolution http://www.erinet.com/prass/nanowars/story/story1.html Rating 4

Porter, Mitchell
Outward Bound
http://desire.apana.org.au/~qix/suncorp.html Rating ?

Vader, Paul
Post-industrial revolution http://www.mcs.net/~pv/web/stories/postind.html Rating 4 (mm,gg)

Van Oflen, Jeff
Notes from the G.O.D. http://erie.csis.gvsu.edu/~vanoflej/NanoTech/TheBook.html Rating 4 (uf)



-----------------------------------------------------------------------Deep Red
1994 MCA/Universal, 85 minutes.
Michael Biehn, Joanna Pacula, John DeLancie. Science fiction: A young girl whose blood conveys immortality, due to an encounter with extraterrestrials, is hunted by a ruthless scientist...
Rating: 4

Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991 139 minutes.
Although the "n" word is not used, general consensus is that nanotechnology is the only realistic way the T-1000 could be implemented. James Cameron should take note of this when doing T3. Rating: 2.5

VIRTUOSITY
1995 Paramount Pictures, 97 minutes.
Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington
With (silicon-based) nano, VR takes a physical form. Rating: 3.5



-----------------------------------------------------------------------Babylon 5
1993 Pilot Movie "The Gathering"
Briefly mentioned at the end of the pilot.

Gargoyles (Disney Animated Series)
"Walkabout" aired (U.S.) 02/07/96
nanomachines, goo, ai

Journey to Mars
1996 [made for TV movie?]
On Monday, March 25th, CBS ran a prime time movie of the week titled "Journey to Mars." ...this had to be one of the top 10 worst movies of all time. To compound the matter, it had a nanotechnology theme: "Nanotech devices implanted in the landing module pilot/commander -- designed to systematically destroy neurons and synapses in the cortex, thereby impairing the pilot's memory and ability to land." Very clever -- HA! Rat poison would have been a lot easier and undeniably more cost effective. - pwg@nanothinc.com

Outer Limits, The
"The New Breed" aired (U.S.) 07/09/95
Richard Thomas, Peter Outerbridge, Tammy Isbell A scientist who's trying to find a way to repair damaged cells develops robots of microscopic size - with which a lab assistant secretly injects himself in hopes of curing his cancer.

Star Trek
The STTNG "nanite" episode "Evolution" aired (U.S.) 09/23/89 Brief mention in various other STTNG episodes. Same for DS9, Voyager, etc... Mostly used as background filler.

X-Files, The
"War of the Coprophages" aired (U.S.) 01/05/96 Extraterrestrial nanotechnology cocroaches anyone?



-----------------------------------------------------------------------Cybergeneration RPG board game
SimEarth Commercial Software, PC, MAC
Outpost           Commercial Software, PC 
NetBots           Networked X11 game available on the net               
              


----------------------------------------------------------------------- Rumored to be coming soon...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------NanoWars III

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Relevant Internet Resources...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Internet/WWW Access of this List
The N-SF Home Page
http://www.erinet.com/prass/nanowars/ninsf/n_in_sf.html

A form of this list is also maintained at nanothinc.com http://nanothinc.com/NanoWorld/scifi/tnscifi.html

Forsight Update comments on "NanoTek"
http://nanotech.rutgers.edu/nanotech/papers/update8.html#TechnologyFiction

Internet Movie Database
http://us.imdb.com/ (please note url change)

Book Catalog with one million titles
http://www.amazon.com/

Rebuttal to Scientific American April 1996 Nanotech Story and continuing debate...
http://www.foresight.org/SciAmOverview.html

HarperCollins Voyager Science Fiction Site http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/voyager




Nanotechnology in Science Fiction (N-SF)

This is a forum to discuss any work of fiction that has portrayed nanotechnology in some way. N-SF is an unmoderated list. The hypertext archive of the mailing list can be found on the world wide web at <http://maxwell.lucifer.com/n-sf/archive/>.

This bibliography (you are reading) can be used as a starting point for discussion. "Engines of Creation" by K. Eric Drexler will be used as the baseline definition of molecular nanotechnology (MNT).

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If you are interested in submitting reviews to Nanothinc, you may send them to <tess@nanothinc.com>. It would be cool if you CC'ed the N-SF mailing list <n-sf@lucifer.com> as well. Thanks.


[Foreign language entries are OK *if* you send me the text to be included _verbatim_. An English translation of the title would be nice. Note that this list is represented in standard 7-bit (128 character) ASCII. -ASN]
++  Danish                                ++
============================================

"Den perfekte verden" (The perfect world) "Udkig" (Outlook) no. 3, 1985
Arne Herlov Petersen

"N{ste kasse til Singapore" (Next box to Singapore) "Udkig" no. 4, 1988
Arne Herlov Petersen

"Haabet er groent" (Hope is green)
collection, 1991
Arne Herlov Petersen



++ Lem, Stanislaw 1921-, Polish writer. ++

Can someone please clarify which of his books have been translated into English, and, if the subject matter is plain biology, micro machine or "nano a la Drexler". One book that has been mentioned is Peace on Earth, English version C1994.