Why am I passionate about this?

As a surgeon and scientist who has had a lifelong interest in science and science fiction, I can’t help being fascinated by “what if” questions, especially as regards the impact of inventions on human society and the world. As an optimist, I tend to enjoy exploring inventions that benefit mankind much more than those that bring on an apocalypse.


I wrote

Quicker

By Laurence E Dahners,

Book cover of Quicker

What is my book about?

What if a girl was born with a nerve mutation that made her faster and smarter than normal humans? What…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of A Fire Upon the Deep

Laurence E Dahners Why did I love this book?

This fascinating book asks “what if” someday we were to meet aliens who form group minds of three to eight individuals whose minds are connected into a collective intelligence by ultrasonic data transfer? With too few individuals such group minds wouldn’t be very smart. Minds with too many individuals would tend to be troubled by internal conflicts. 

When two group minds get too close to one another, the ultrasonic messaging from one confuses the other’s group mind. 

There are many other “what ifs” explored, including the idea that technology and brains work better in some areas of the galaxy, a possible explanation for why aliens don’t visit us—because Earth’s in a “slow” zone.

In all, it’s a story filled with interesting things to think and wonder about.

By Vernor Vinge,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked A Fire Upon the Deep as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fleeing a menace of galactic proportions, a spaceship crashes on an unfamiliar world, leaving the survivors - a pair of children - to the not-so-tender mercies of a medieval, lupine race. Responding to the ship's distress signal, a rescue mission races against time to retrieve the children.


Book cover of The Peace War

Laurence E Dahners Why did I love this book?

This riveting tale asks “what if” a future technology allows the “bobbling” of spherical volumes of invincible space within which time is stopped. In a misguided effort to stop a war, the Peace Authority bobbles military groups and war-making machinery all around the world with unexpected consequences. 

But, for me, the stars of the show are the bobbles themselves, especially when they unexpectedly start popping, releasing people, war machines, and exploding bombs that have been in stasis for decades. 

By Vernor Vinge,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Peace War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First in a quintessential hard-science fiction adventure, Hugo Award-winning author Vernor Vinge's The Peace War follows a scientist determined to put an end to the militarization of his greatest invention--and of the government behind it.

The Peace Authority conquered the world with a weapon that never should have been a weapon--the "bobble," a spherical force-field impenetrable by any force known to mankind. Encasing governmental installations and military bases in bobbles, the Authority becomes virtually omnipotent.

But they've never caught Paul Hoehler, the maverick who invented the technology, and who has been working quietly for decades to develop a way to…


Book cover of One Second After

Laurence E Dahners Why did I love this book?

“What if” someone attacked the United States with nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapons? Such weapons don’t cause a lot of destruction or radiation but the pulse fries electronic devices, especially small and delicate ones. What would happen? Hint, modern cars would stop working. This story leaves you pondering how greatly our society and ourselves depend on delicate electronics….

By William R. Forstchen,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked One Second After as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A post-apocalyptic thriller of the after effects in the United States after a terrifying terrorist attack using electromagnetic pulse weapons.

New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

Months before…


Book cover of Far Seer

Laurence E Dahners Why did I love this book?

This book asks “what if,” on another world dinosaurs evolved intelligence. What if they were discovering the same things about the universe that humans such as Galileo and Copernicus discovered here on Earth? How would their path of discovery be influenced by their biological differences and the fact that their world orbits a gas giant?

By Robert J. Sawyer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Far Seer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sixty-five million years ago, aliens transplanted Earth's dinosaurs to another world. Now, intelligent saurians -- the Quintaglios -- have emerged. Afsan, the Quintaglio counterpart of Galileo, must convince his people of the truth about their place in the universe before astronomical forces rip the dinosaurs' new home apart.

ROBERT J. SAWYER has won the Hugo, Nebula, John W. Campbell Memorial, Seiun, and Aurora Awards, all for best science fiction novel of the year. His novels include Hominids, Rollback, Wake, and FlashForward (basis for the TV series).


Book cover of The Last Policeman

Laurence E Dahners Why did I love this book?

A science fiction mystery that asks “what if” we knew the apocalypse was coming—in this case because for six months before the impact we knew an asteroid was going to hit the Earth. You might expect—and you’d probably be right—that society would fall apart when everyone expects to die. You might hope that farmers might stay in their fields to feed us in our last days. But, what if one of the few people who stay on the job is a policeman trying to solve a murder?

By Ben H. Winters,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Last Policeman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In THE LAST POLICEMAN, Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Ben H. Winters, offers readers something they've never seen before: A police procedural set on the brink of an apocalypse. What's the point in solving murders when we're going to die soon, anyway? Hank Palace, a homicide detective in Concord, New Hampshire, asks this question every day. Most people have stopped doing whatever it is they did before the asteroid 2011L47J hovered into view. Stopped selling real estate; stopped working at hospitals; stopped slinging hash or driving cabs or trading high-yield securities. A lot of folks spend…


Explore my book 😀

Quicker

By Laurence E Dahners,

Book cover of Quicker

What is my book about?

What if a girl was born with a nerve mutation that made her faster and smarter than normal humans? What if she turned out to be an extraordinarily dangerous, yet decent, kind, generous, and creative, human being?

What if her ability to understand the math underpinning quantum mechanics let her improve our world with inventions that change almost everything?

You might also like...

Black Crow Cabin

By Peggy Webb,

Book cover of Black Crow Cabin

Peggy Webb Author Of Without a Trace

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Bookworm Pianist Master Gardener Gigi to 4 grands Lover of porches and hot tea

Peggy's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

A small town in the grips of evil... a single mom with nowhere to turn... and a madman who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

He is the Collector, and he's taking prized possessions, pets, and children, keeping what he wants, and burying his rejects in shallow graves. When he comes after Rachel Logan, an ordinary schoolteacher living on a ranch with her grandmother and her two children, she has no weapon except her wits.

But how can she stop a monster who outdoes Hannibal Lecter in cunning and depravity?

Black Crow Cabin

By Peggy Webb,

What is this book about?

A small town in the grips of evil... a single mom with nowhere to turn... and a madman who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

He is the Collector, and he's taking prized possessions, pets, and children, keeping what he wants, and burying his rejects in shallow graves. When he comes after Rachel Logan, an ordinary schoolteacher living on a ranch with her grandmother and her two children, she has no weapon except her wits.

But how can she stop a monster who outdoes Hannibal Lecter in cunning and depravity?


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Interested in technology, North Carolina, and extraterrestrial life?

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North Carolina 133 books