Old news about science fiction and fantasy, and about SciFan.com itself.
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
J.R.R. Tolkien, enemy of progress
"LOTR clearly reflected this era. Only, in contrast to the real world, Tolkien's portrayal of "good" resisting a darkly threatening "evil" offered something sadly lacking in the real struggles against Nazi or Communist tyrannies -- a role for individual champions. His elves and hobbits and uber-human warriors performed the same role that Lancelot and Merlin and Odysseus did in older fables, and that superheroes still do in comic books. Through doughty Frodo, noble Aragorn and the ethereal Galadriel, he proclaimed the paramount importance -- above nations and civilizations -- of the indomitable Romantic hero."
David Brin's take on Lord of the Rings. There's a related discussion thread at Slashdot.
5:02 AM (link)
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
Search Engine Updates
We updated the way our search engine works to meet the following goals:
faster loading time
long result lists easier to read
more relevant results
fewer queries without result (when in reality we have relevant information to provide)
Let me know how that works out for you. When we don't find results for your exact query, we try to extrapolate what you might be looking for, but I can't guarantee this will always work as expected!
We also added the ability to order more easily from Amazon.com right from our title pages (example.) These new orange Amazon buttons let you directly add products to your Amazon shopping cart and even use their 1-click order option. You can even add a product to your cart, then order more products from SciFan links in the same way. All your books will be added in your Amazon.com cart, when you're done you can complete your Amazon order.
Remember we rely on your orders going through our links to support the maintenance and growth of SciFan. If you like what we do, think about supporting us!
10:04 AM (link)
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