Who determines what roles exist, such as Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Defense, etc? Who determines what authority each role has? Which roles exert priority over others? How are individuals for each role chosen?

Here's some info about another author on my list. Jeff Long is rather underrated. He writes good stuff and has a certain style. The Wall was the fourth book I read by him. I bought it one evening, took it home, climbed into bed, and didn't stop reading it until about 3:00 AM when I finished it. The Reckoning follows a journalist accompanying a small team into the Cambodian Jungle. It was haunting and creepy. In fact, all his stuff is haunting and creepy. He used to be a Himalayan climber, and has spent a lot of time in the stranger parts of the World.

That's pretty much it. Until we learn how to stop being a cancer and instead be symbiotic, we're not on a good path.

I fear that some of the books in my list are not getting the attention they deserve. Consider Bernard Cornwell. He does an extraordinary amount of research and really puts you into the past. You can't go wrong with these if you like medieval battles, highway robbery, blood and mud, sieges, pillage, running out of rations, deserting the army, and in general, taking a tour of the Hundred Years War.

Of course, the above doesn't really apply to Gallows Thief. That's another story entirely. And a good one too.


It's on my list. Can't wait.

Is it a novel, or an anthology of short fiction?

Vance's Demon Princes (both volumes) and Planet of Adventure are in print as trade paperbacks (larger than a mass market paperback), and sometimes in new bookstores. Borders used to always have it, but sadly (and I mean very sadly), Borders is gone. Between Amazon, Alibris and Abebooks, finding most any Vance book should not be hard.

Also, I must say, Vance's Showboat World is also a particularly pleasurable book to read. Click the Abebooks link above to see Showboat World.

Here is pretty much all of Vance's stuff on Abebooks.

I am well aware of it and I followed it during its production. I wish I had it. What I do have is a box full of about 50 paperbacks by him (including all the obscure titles), plus a few limited edition Underwood Millers.

Anyway, hopefully some of the other visitors here will pick up on the conversation here and give Vance a try.

Jack Vance is on my big list above. About every three years, I reread Demon Princes and Planet of Adventure. He is unique and wonderful. No other way to put it.

I have that one too. I read perhaps the first chapter and got sidetracked. I should give it another go.

I actually have some of his books. What would be the first one to read?

Also, have you read any on my list?

I could put a star by each of the books listed above to indicate that the book is absolutely great, but then I'd be putting stars by pretty much every book. I only listed books that would be worthy of a star. Does this mean they're all absolutely perfect books? No. Some are in every sense and others might have a few minor shortcomings here and there, but they more than make up for it in the pleasure they provide in their reading.

Topics and themes with regard to the above books include:

- Cold war espionage
- WWII espionage
- Celtic mythology
- Human cultures spanning across the galaxy
- AI
- Ghosts and the paranormal
- Cryptography
- The Great Northwest Passage
- Medieval battles
- Vampires, Vlad the Impaler
- Detective work
- Climbing and spelunking
- Cloning
- Cambodia, post Vietnam War
- Time travel
- Newgate prison and British justice in the early 1800's
- 17th century witch hunts in the Colonies
- Alternative history
- The Third Reich
- Stalin
- The sophistication of Roman Empire culture
- Survival in a post apocalyptic world
- Genetic engineering
- Good and evil
- First contact
- Terraforming
- Resurrection
- The Bubonic Plague
- Serial killers

Let me add to what I said quoted above so you understand that it is not an insult, but a antecedent which leads to a consequent.

Bitcoins don't serve as a model of what happens in the real world because they are simple to understand. No matter the intelligence level of Bitcoin participants, they basically get it and so the process works.

Within the context of the biosphere which supports us, there are plenty of participants who do not understand the complexities of the processes within the biosphere which produce our natural capital. Unfortunately then there are plenty of participants who don't know when to stop, or what all the ramifications are.

Conclusion: Bitcoins do not serve as an applicable model of free markets.

I am someone trying to provide you with more information than you currently possess within the context of your decision making process that drives your belief system. Given more information, you will be forced to put your political ideologies to more rigorous tests.

Where do you want to start? The wolf/rancher conflict? Global fish haul? Climate change? Biodiversity? Edge effects? Honeybees? Sumatran rhino horns? Riparian zones? Whaling?

Bitcoins are simple. There is a limit on their population. Period. Stupid people can understand that.

Production within the biosphere is not simple. Stupid people don't understand that. Period.

When you say the free market isn't unregulated and unconstrained, are you saying that free markets, by their very existence, in any and all forms are inherently regulated and constrained? Or are you saying the majority of free markets today are regulated and constrained?

Are you saying there is no such thing as an unregulated and unconstrained market?

Do you believe free markets should be regulated and constrained by overseeing authorities?

Final question - and the most important: Do you believe that a free market magically regulates and constrains itself by virtue of its existence such that natural capital will not be depleted?

As an aside, do you know what natural capital is? If you can, please explain your theories within the context of climate change, the drop in honeybee populations, edge effects, trophic cascades, the war between ranchers and wolves within the context of riparian zone destruction and clean water, biodiversity, and the limiting factors of the global fish haul in the past vs. now.

Consider me dense. Explain.

Explain.

Alastair Reynolds: science fiction space opera
- House of Suns
- The Prefect

Neal Stephenson: unclassifiable techno thriller
- Cryptonomicon

Dan Simmons: horror, historical fiction, thrillers, science fiction
- The Terror
- Summer of Night
- Carrion Comfort
- Hyperion
- The Fall of Hyperion

Jack Vance: unclassifiable space opera
- The Star King (Demon Princes, Vol. 1, Book 1)
- The Killing Machine (Demon Princes, Vol. 1, Book 2)
- The Palace of Love (Demon Princes, Vol. 1, Book 3)
- The Face (Demon Princes, Vol. 2, Book 4)
- The Book of Dreams (Demon Princes, Vol 2, Book 5)
- Planet of Adventure (Omnibus Edition)

Jeff Long: thrillers with a haunted feeling
- The Wall
- The Reckoning
- The Descent
- Year Zero

Bernard Cornwell: superb historical fiction
- The Archer's Tale (The Grail Quest, Book 1)
- Vagabond (The Grail Quest, Book 2)
- Heretic (The Grail Quest, Book 3)
- Agincourt
- Gallows Thief

Caleb Carr: historical thrillers
- The Alienist

Robert McCammon: historical thrillers and horror
- Speaks the Nightbird
- Usher's Passing

Robert Holdstock: contemporary haunted horror fantasy
- Mythago Wood

Robert Harris: historical and conteporary thrillers
- Fatherland
- Pompeii
- Enigma
- Archangel

Alan Furst: WWII espionage thrillers
- Night Soldiers

Elizabeth Kostova: historical thrillers
- The Historian

David Brin: science fiction
- Glory Season

James P. Blaylock: contemporary fantasy
- The Paper Grail

F. Paul Wilson: horror thrillers
- The Keep
- Sims
- Nighworld

Gordon R. Dickson: post apocalyptic
- Time Storm
- Wolf and Iron

Connie Willis: time travel
- Doomsday Book

Larry Niven: science fiction and post apocalyptic
- Ring World
- The Mote in God's Eye
- Lucifer's Hammer

Vernor Vinge: science fiction space opera
- A Fire Upon the Deep
- A Deepness in the Sky

Kim Stanley Robinson: hard science fiction
- Red Mars

Philip Jose Farmer: science fiction
- To Your Scattered Bodies Go

Orson Scott Card: science fiction
- Ender's Game

Nelson DeMille: thrillers
- The Charm School

Greg Iles: contemporary and WWII thrillers
- Spandeau Phonenix
- Black Cross
- Dead Sleep

Stephen King: horror
- Under the Dome
- The Stand

Dean Koontz: thrillers
- Intensity
- The Husband

What are you waiting for?

Unregulated and unconstrained free markets exploit the lowest hanging fruit. It's a guaranteed path to destruction of natural capital, which is ultimately the only thing we have. If you wish to disagree, then you're going to have to take some time to learn some fundamental truths about nature.

I was a participant in that thread. For the record, a movie is a stream of data which can be construed to be a very large number that, even if compressed, changed, and so on, is unlikely to exist anywhere else in our Solar System as something which exists for the purpose of viewing. Conclusion: it only exists because a group of people made it, and would not have existed otherwise, and thus, its creators deserve to not have it copied and distributed by others.