TNG: The Body Electric by David Mack Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[VDCNI]

Finished it, thought it was the weakest of the three. There's nothing bad about it as such but neither the main threat or the Fellowship plotline really engaged me. A shame after a strong first two books.

I'm sure others will like it but it wasn't for me.

[Ronald Held]

Mine just appeared, expect to start it by the weekend.

[bbailey861]

Still showing release for 26 Dec in Canada.

[Defcon]

rahullak wrote:

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Guess they wanted it released before the end of the world.

No, they had to release it now because it actually will trigger the end of the world. The Angel of Death's greatest feat.

[Relayer1]

King Daniel Into Darkness wrote:

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After Amazon UK cancelled three of my orders, I switched to www.bookdepository.co.uk. They haven't let me down yet.

Thanks - just ordered it from the 'Book Suppository'

Hope it arrives before Christmas...

[Deranged Nasat]

Relayer1 wrote:

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Thanks - just ordered it from the 'Book Suppository'

Hope it arrives before Christmas...

For what it's worth, I've also found them very reliable.

[JD]

I'm not ready to get it yet myself, but it is available for the Nook too.

[E-DUB]

At a B+N last night. Don't think I've ever seen a Trek book this early in the month.

[Emh]

Damn, you're lucky because my Barnes & Noble didn't have it.

[JarodRussell]

Could someone explain the title for an non native English speaking offworlder?

[Enterprise is Great]

JarodRussell wrote:

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Could someone explain the title for an non native English speaking offworlder?

It comes from a poem called "I Sing the Body Electric" by the 19th century American poet Walt Whitman. I've never read it so I don't know what it's about. But here's the text:

http://www.bartleby.com/142/19.html

[Markonian]

JarodRussell wrote:

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Could someone explain the title for an non native English speaking offworlder?

You mean, why it is not The Electic Body?

[Christopher]

Enterprise is Great wrote:

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It comes from a poem called "I Sing the Body Electric" by the 19th century American poet Walt Whitman. I've never read it so I don't know what it's about. But here's the text:

http://www.bartleby.com/142/19.html

Looking over the poem, it seems to be a celebration of the human body as being just as worthwhile and perfect as the soul. Apparently the first line/title wasn't added until 7 years after it was first published. "Electric" wasn't yet a word in common usage, and apparently Whitman was using it figuratively to mean "thrilling," I guess as in something you get a charge out of.

And the ordering "body electric" instead of "electric body" is a poetic trope called anastrophe, reversing the standard word order for emphasis. You see this elsewhere in poetry, as in "This is the forest primeval" or "Stone walls do not a prison make."

Ray Bradbury later used the line as the title of a story about a robotic surrogate grandmother, which was adapted into a Twilight Zone episode. So he was taking "body electric" more literally there, which I assume is the antecedent for Dave's use of it in a story about Data and other artificial intelligences.

[David Mack]

^ The title is an allusion to all those antecedents, and to one more — it was also a song title on the Rush album Grace Under Pressure. Also, the book's epigraph comes from Walt Whitman's poem.

[Stephen!]

A planet-sized Machine of terrifying power and unfathomable purpose hurls entire star systems into a supermassive black hole.

Unicron