Which book to read after Game of Thrones episode 10 of the 2nd season?

Exclusively about the plot, the book that pictures the events after the 10th episode of the 2nd season would be A Storm of Swords, the third book of the series.

The issue is, if one reads the third book without reading the first two, one would be confused, specially regarding some characters of the books whose parts have been condensed or combined into different characters. The books have a lot more characters than the series.

So, the best would be to start reading from the first book. You would recognize the main scenes, and would understand what was going on in the minds of the characters, as well as getting to know some of the characters that didn't appear in the series.

star trek tng - Why are the Borg different in Voyager and TNG?

Essentially any differences that you see from the borg in the episode "i, Borg" stem from the fact that the borg on the enterprise is young, damaged, and most importantly cut off from the collective. The separation from the collective seems to affect each borg slightly differently as instead of relying on the hive mind, they are having to think for themselves, something they haven't done in a long time. the episode is also considering humanitarian rights of the borg, and whether giving the borg essentially a virus, which would infect all of the other borg, is acceptable in war or not. This is why the crew are interacting with the borg "Hugh" more so then usual. As to your final question about the looks and appearance, this is simply due to the time between shows, late 80s, to late 90s. Also for some in universe answer to this, it is somewhere between 5-10 years later, when voyager is encountering the borg, and at the borgs extreme rate of assimilation/ upgrading themselves its expected for them to look slightly different as newer and better tech becomes available to them.

lord of the rings - Who replaced Gandalf as the Grey Wizard?

As far as I know, there has never been any good explanation for why the colors of the wizards were chosen to be what they were. The most prevalent theory involves the Istari taking on the color of the Valar they were associated with, but if you read through the Silmarillion looking for evidence, the theory doesn't really hold up. One thing we do know is that the colors are not a ranking system; though Saruman was appointed the leader of the Istari, the other 4 were all considered equals.

Thus, the only color that seemed to have any significance was the color White -- Saruman's original color, which represented a blending of all other colors. This identified him as the head of the Istari order. Gandalf's Grey color, and Radagast's Brown color, were merely ways to distinguish them from each other. (Even that theory falls apart when you realize there were two Blue wizards.)

Thus, when Gandalf was "promoted" to White, it indicated two things:

• Saruman, the previous White Wizard, was no longer considered the head of the Istari order, or even a member of it, and


• Gandalf had taken his place.

No one would need to step in and take over Ganfalf's "position" as Grey Wizard because that color had no more or less importants than the Brown or Blue of the other Istari.

harry potter - Where did Hogwarts' building materials come from?

There could be protection put up around the place where they were building Hogwarts, just like protection around the woods of the Quidditch World Cup - which if Muggles come near the place they remember some appointments and turn away (Arthur Weasely says in book 4). They work for months to make these protections.

But the founders of Hogwarts were much more powerful than any wizard, for they have built a school for magic. They could easily have first created protection then build the castle.

This can also be seen, though it's small, how the trio (Harry, Ron and Hermione) protect their hiding place in Deathly Hallows - first create protection around the place, then erect the tent.

For materials they could have bought it, or just used emino curse over one block to repeat them.

story identification - Help in identifying a novel about a black US president

It's a short story by Miriam Allen deFord, "The 1980 President"; first published in Galaxy Magazine, October, 1964; reprinted in deFord's collection Elsewhere, Elsewhen, Elsehow and in the anthology American Government Through Science Fiction. Translated into Italian by Cesare Scaglia, it appeared in Urania N. 364 (with a cover date of 27 dicembre 1964) as "Le date maledette" ("The Cursed Dates").

The story is based on the odd fact that every U.S. President elected in a year divisible by 20, from William Henry Harrison (1840) to John F. Kennedy (1960), died in office, either by assassination (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy) or from natural causes (Harrison, Harding, Roosevelt). This historical oddity would have been in the news after the Kennedy assassination (November 1963) and presumably around the time deFord wrote her story, in which the "curse" is taken seriously. The presidential nominees are unaware of the curse until they are briefed by the mysterious Man in Brown:

What I want to say to you both, in the presence of each other, can be put in very few words. Whichever of you wins in November will probably die soon." [. . .] "Because of your age?--no, not because of that," he said, "though that was the real reason why both of you, though naturally you were both highly qualified otherwise, were nominated so easily on the first ballot--and also the reason that both of your vice-presidential candidates are such outstanding figures. [. . .] "Every twenty years, for 140 years now, the successful candidate for president of the United States has either been killed or has died of natural causes while in office. This is 1980."

I won't spoil the story any more than I already have by telling you how the curse was foiled, but it was:

The new president (every American knows now which one it was, and how good a president the successful candidate became) had thus been elected [. . .] Both Robert John Woodruff and Lynn Bartholomew, as we know, are alive and usefully active today. But it had taken the Crisis of 1980 to induce the two major parties to nominate respectively a Negro foundation head and a Senator who happened to be a woman.

game of thrones - Why do the Tyrells come to King's Landing?

Well, the Tyrell army comes to King's Landing

along with Tywin's army to save the city from Stannis Baratheon in the Battle of the Blackwater, at the end of ACOK.

Presumably one of the reasons they decided to help is because

the Lannisters agreed to a wedding between Margaery Tyrell and Joffrey, making her queen of the realm. There may have been other guarantees made as well; or perhaps along with the wedding come other expectations of power, for example we know that Mace wants to become hand of the king.

So many Tyrells come to King's Landing in ASOS to attend this event. Some of them, such as Mace and Loras stick around to

assist in governing/ruling the realm (for example, taking up positions on the small council, in the Kingsguard, etc),

while others return to Highgarden afterwards.

Book identification about boy who gets computer zapped into head

My first impulse was Disney's The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, but that was a movie, of course (which was later remade). Somewhat unsurprisingly, I've found reference to a novelization. Could that be what you're looking for?

Here's a plot description from Wikipedia:

Dexter Reilly (Kurt Russell) and his friends attend small, private Medfield College, which cannot afford to buy a computer. The students persuade wealthy businessman A.J. Arno (Cesar Romero) to donate an old computer to the college. Arno is the secret head of a large illegal gambling ring, which used the computer for its operations.

While installing a replacement part during a thunderstorm, Reilly receives an electric shock and becomes a human computer. He now has superhuman mathematical talent, can read and remember the contents of an encyclopedia volume in a few minutes, and can speak a language fluently after reading one textbook. His new abilities make Reilly a worldwide celebrity, and Medfield's best chance to win a televised quiz tournament with a $100,000 prize.

And, for the ending:

Reilly single-handedly leads Medfield's team in victories against other colleges. During the tournament, a trigger word causes Reilly to unknowingly recite on television details of Arno's gambling ring. Arno's henchmen kidnap Reilly and plan to kill him, but his friends help him escape. During the escape Dexter suffers a concussion which, during the tournament final against rival Springfield State, gradually returns his mental abilities to normal; one of Reilly's friends, however, is able to answer the final question ("What is the geographic center of the contiguous United States?"). Medfield wins the $100,000 prize, and Arno is arrested.

story identification - Trying to find a space archeologist/explorer book I read once before, can't remember the name or author

I'm trying to find a book series of which I read one book that was right smack in the middle of the series... but it seems as if each book can stand alone really. unfortunately I have totally forgotten the name and author, I hope someone can help. Ok here goes:
Book is set in the distant future. It centers around an archeologist/scavanger who finds ancient crash sites. He or She? I'll say he for now, finds an artifact. A cup I believe with ancient writing on it. This leads him on a chase to find out where its from and it ends up being from one of the first space colony ships to leave earth or something like that. This prompts him to try to find the ship which was lost long ago.... He ends finding a planet that is following a rouge star that ripped apart the solar system the people of the ship were supposed to get to. The planet is populated by the descendants of colony ship, and they are completely unaware where they originally came from. I also remember that they lived on a ring around the world because one side of the ring was to hot and the other to cold.

Also remember there being one Alien species that was telepathic and had very sharp teeth. It was mentioned that when we met them our tech was similar in advancement they were better at some things and we were better at others...

My brother read another book in the series and told me it has to do with the hero going to a vacation planet where there are vampire stories and it ends up being that planet's government doing the kidnappings or something like that.

Well I hope you guys can help I'm at a total loss and its killing me. was such a great read!

star trek - Did Khan disapprove of Spock in an early draft of "Space Seed"?

A few years ago, an acquaintance had informed me that, in an early draft of "Space Seed", there was a scene in which Khan had expressed disapproval toward Spock's existence. He explained that Khan abhorred the fact that Spock is half human and half Vulcan, and hence "impure". According to my acquaintance, Khan openly expressed his displeasure of the fact that, while humans have developed great technologies that have opened up the galaxy for them, they have interbred with other species instead of maintaining pure bloodlines.

Some of these views may have been espoused in the dinner scene where Khan and Spock argue:

At the time that we spoke of this, my acquaintance did not have a copy of this draft or access to any source confirming its existence. I did already know that, in at least one early draft, Khan was supposed to be a Nordic general named "Ragnar Thorwald". However, I have not come across anything indicating Khan's specific disapproval toward Spock, apart from my acquaintance's assertion.

Is it true that Khan openly disapproved of Spock's dual ancestry in at least one draft of "Space Seed"? If so, why exactly was it removed prior to the final script?

Curiously, in the actual episode, Khan does not even ask about Spock's appearance or question whether he is human or an alien, and the term "Vulcan" is never uttered in the episode even though Khan has never encountered an alien before (see transcript). Khan might have read about Vulcans and other aliens in the various reading materials he absorbed while in Sickbay. However, it seems unnatural that the fact that Spock is not human fails to come up when he and Khan first meet at the dinner. Of course, such discussion could have happened off-screen. Still, it does seem that something has been excised from the script...

story identification - Animated show: mechs in space and anihilating shield-field-like weapon

I've watched it in 90' on some Cartoon Network or Fox Kids or something like that. There was a Space Fleet, with a mothership of course, and there was a team of people, of whom each piloted one mech (big, anthropoid robot) and done some heroing, exploring and fighting on some planets. I have vague memory of one mech being piloted by someone like Jubilee from the X-men cartoon, and another by someone like Captain Nick Fury from tv animated Spider Man (the white one) - but that is probably my memory leaking ;)

And there was one episode where some kind of super weapon was activated and it was orange field that grew from the generator ship and annihilated (or maybe just stopped) every ship in sight.

That is all I can remember :)

(I don't think it was Japanese - but that is only a hunch, and a very weak one)
Thanks for trying to remember and every guess ;)

story identification - Title/Author search: read late 70's, last human revived from stasis, intelligent forest

Looking for title and author. This is a novel I read back in high school. Ended on what appeared to be a cliff-hanging transition to a follow on novel. I wasn't crazy about the story, but did wonder how it turned out. Back before the Web it was difficult to keep track of not-very-famous authors !

Here's what I remember:
The main character is a male research physicist whose last experiment accidentally puts him (and the chair he sat on) into an apparently unrecoverable stasis - read indestructible statue. One night, 1000's of years later, a lightning strike revives him (lightning can do anything, eh?). Although he meets/befriends other intelligent beings, some very similar to human, he finds they are of species gene engineered/uplifted - possibly by the long lost human race. His new friends have been fighting a losing war against a nearly world spanning intelligent forest that wants to dominate the remaining planet surface and species it doesn't already control. Near the end of the book, the man communicates with the forest by direct contact and learns that it has memories that go back to the time of humans - before some wrathful alien race hunted them all down. It turns out the forest and many of its subservient species are also result of humanity's work. Since the man has joined the fight against the forest and has knowledge of long lost science (think herbicide), the forest sees him as a/the prime threat to it's plans.

I've looked high and low on the Web with every combination of likely search terms I can think of and have struck out. Hopefully a human brain out there can help me? Thanks!

lord of the rings - How long did it take to build Minas Tirith?

I'm going to answer your questions in reverse order.

Akallabeth answers your second question; Minas Tirith (which was originally named Minas Anor) was built at the feet of the pre-existing Mount Mindolluin (emphasis mine):

Isildur and Anárion were borne away southwards, and at the last they brought their ships up the Great River Anduin, that flows out of Rhovanion into the western sea in the Bay of Belfalas; and they established a realm in those lands that were after called Gondor, whereas the Northern Kingdom was named Arnor. Long before in the days of their power the mariners of Númenor had established a haven and strong places about the mouths of Anduin, in despite of Sauron in the Black Land that lay nigh upon the east. In the later days to this haven came only the Faithful of Númenor, and many therefore of the folk of the coastlands in that region were in whole or in part akin to the Elf-friends and the people of Elendil, and they welcomed his sons. The chief city of this southern realm was Osgiliath, through the midst of which the Great River flowed; and the Númenóreans built there a great bridge, upon which there were towers and houses of stone wonderful to behold, and tall ships came up out of the sea to the quays of the city. Other strong places they built also upon either hand: Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a shoulder of the Mountains of Shadow as a threat to Mordor; and to the westward Minas Anor, the Tower of the Setting Sun, at the feet of Mount Mindolluin, as a shield against the wild men of the dales.

^{The Silmarillion IV Akallabeth}

A 1977 drawing by Tolkien further hints that Minas Anor was build from scratch, using the existing geography principally as a foundation:

However this drawing is

1. Unfinished


2. Not exactly commensurate with the city as described in Return of the King

So you may want to take it with a grain of salt.

The above quote also suggests that it was built in the same year that Isildur and Anárion landed after escaping from the downfall of Númenor; according to Appendix B, that was S.A. 3320. The implication, then, is that the city was built in a single year.

However, even if that assumption is incorrect (and, in fairness, I have no reason to suspect it is), we know that construction cannot have taken more than nine years; in S.A. 3329, Sauron unsuccessfully attacked Minas Anor:

3329 Sauron attacks Gondor, takes Minas Ithil and burns the White Tree. Isildur escapes down Anduin and goes to Elendil in the North. Anárion defends Minas Anor and Osgiliath.

^{Return of the King Appendix B "The Tale of Years" (i) The Second Age}

However, note that the city wasn't built all in one go; there were two expansions recorded in Appendix B:

So, from a certain point of view, the Minas Tirith we're familiar with took 1912 years to be constructed, though that's probably not what the question was asking.

Short story or book about a space crew on a broken ship who were capturing alien animals for a zoo

I would like to know the title and author of a short story I read a long time ago.

"Collecting Team" aka "Catch 'em All Alive!" by Robert Silverberg.

It's about 3 men in space. They were sent to different planets to catch other organisms on different planets. Presumably to bring back to Earth and put in zoos.

Davison disappeared back into the storage hold, while Holdreth scribbled furiously in the logbook, writing down the co-ordinates of the planet below, its general description, and so forth. Aside from being a collecting team for the zoological department of the Bureau of Interstellar Affairs, we also double as a survey ship, and the planet down below was listed as unexplored on our charts.

The ship they are on breaks down.

I stood there thinking about nothing at all for a moment, then went inside myself to begin setting up the blastoff orbit.

I got as far as calculating the fuel expenditure when I noticed something. Feedwires were dangling crazily down from the control cabinet. Somebody had wrecked our drive mechanism, but thoroughly.

For a long moment, I stared stiffly at the sabotaged drive.

They notice that the animals on the planet, instead of running away, curiously walk up to them. The animals are too friendly and easy to capture.

He put the animal down--it didn't scamper away, just sat there smiling at us—and looked at me. He ran a hand through his fast-vanishing hair. "Listen, Gus, you've been gloomy all day. What's eating you?"

"I don't like this place," I said.

"Why? Just on general principles?"

"It's too easy, Clyde. Much too easy. These animals just flock around here waiting to be picked up."

They cannot fix the spaceship

That night, the three of us stood guard in the control-room together. The drive was smashed anyway. The wires were soldered in so many places by now that the control panel was a mass of shining alloy, and I knew that a few more such sabotagings and it would be impossible to patch it together any more—if it wasn't so already.

and after a few days, one of the men attempts suicide by slitting his wrists. His attempt fails.

I entered his cabin. He was sitting at his desk, shaking convulsively, staring at the two streams of blood that trickled in red spurts from his slashed wrists.

"Clyde!"

He made no protest as I dragged him toward the infirmary cabin and got tourniquets around his arms, cutting off the bleeding. He just stared dully ahead, sobbing.

They look outside on the planet and they find their homes that they had on earth.

The following morning I rose early and got my tool-kit. My head was clear, and I was trying to put the pieces together without much luck. I started toward the control cabin.

And stopped.

And looked out the viewport.

I went back and awoke Holdreth and Davison. "Take a look out the port," I said hoarsely.

They looked. They gaped.

"It looks just like my house," Holdreth said. "My house on Earth."

The men realize that they were captured by aliens and that they were meant to live on this "alien zoo."

"Forget the giraffes. They tried to warn us, but it's too late. They're intelligent beings, but they're prisoners just like us. I'm talking about the ones who run this place. The super-aliens who made us sabotage our own ship and not even know we're doing it, who stand someplace up there and gape at us. The ones who dredged together this motley assortment of beasts from all over the galaxy. Now we've been collected too. This whole damned place is just a zoo—a zoo for aliens so far ahead of us we don't dare dream what they're like."

a song of ice and fire - Game of Thrones: ex Queen Regent (season 4/Storm of Swords spoilers)

tl;dr: Cersei's position as regent ended when Joffrey turned 16, but exactly when that happened in the show isn't clear. It certainly had nothing to do with Joffrey getting married.

---

In the novels, Cersei is still Queen Regent at this point in the story. Joffrey won't be considered an adult until he is 16, and in the novels he's only 14 when he gets married

and dies, at which point she is Tommen's regent.

In the show, the question is a lot more complex. Most of the underage characters in the show are several years older than their book counterparts (largely because of Danaerys being only 12 when she marries Drogo and gets pregnant). Thus, by this point in the show, Joffrey should already be 16, which means, he shouldn't have a regent, he is King in his own right. I'm not exactly sure of the time scales in the show, but it possible that Cersei had no right to name herself regent in the first place.

Out of universe, I'd have to chalk this up to a continuity goof on the writer's part, stemming from their age advancement of Joffrey. In universe, there's no real explanation for Cersei's title, or why Oberyn thinks she "lost" it, in any official capacity.

However, I can make a guess, based on the political maneuvering at King's Landing, that something like this is happening:

• Cersei desperately wants to be Queen, so when her husband dies, she takes the opportunity to name herself regent for Joffrey, deserved or otherwise. Given her connections both inside and outside King's Landing, no one argues with her.


• Joffrey's behavior clearly indicates that he's not mentally mature enough to be King, regardless of his physical age, so when Cersei, and later Tywin, act on his behalf as Queen Regent and Hand to undo some of Joffrey's screw ups, people just listen to them.


• Now, however, there is another powerful woman in Joffrey's life -- Margaery -- whom he is starting to listen to more than his mother. This diminishes Cersei's control over Joffrey, which was probably never official to begin with.


• As soon as Margaery marries Joffrey, she becomes Queen, and gains some official authority. This, plus Joffrey's obvious support for her, basically pushes Cersei into the background.


• Oberyn was basically making a dig at Cersei, letter her know that he understands the dynamics going on in the King's court, and how much power she is losing there.

star trek - How exactly did the prisoners escape the Jem'hadar prisoner camp?

DS9 "By Inferno's Light":

MARTOK: He wired the message and the transmission coordinates directly
into the system circuitry. That way all he had to do was connect the
transmitter to the power grid and let it run.

WORF: Could the coordinates and the message be changed?

GARAK: You're planning to contact the runabout.

WORF: We could activate the transporter and beam ourselves onto the
ship.

BASHIR: And run like hell.

And then a bit later in the episode:

GARAK: Doctor, would you keep the noise down? I'm trying to work in
here.

BASHIR [OC]: Garak, how many translator circuits have you got left?

[Barracks]

GARAK [OC]: Three.

BASHIR: Well, work fast, because pretty soon we're going to be up to
our necks in Jem'Hadar.

Next scene:

KAT'IKA: I yield. I cannot defeat this Klingon. All I can do is kill
him, and that no longer holds my interest.

DEYOS: Shoot them both.

[Crawlspace]

GARAK: Got it.

[Internment centre]

(Just as Ikat'ika is killed, our heroes are beamed out.)

I loved the episode but was really confused by this aspect of it.

I don't understand how they escaped. They do not have communicators on. I assume there's gotta be some kind of shielding around the prison. There's a runabout floating in space close enough to transport that's unattended. Garek is being asked to send a coded message of some sort to the runabout to transport more people out then transported down, without communicators attached to them, in different areas.

What kind of message did Garek send to affect that kind of transport? How did a runabout sit close enough to the prison to be in transporter range, but not be detected? How did they flee Dominion space in a runabout without getting chased down after the transport?

star wars - How many systems are there in the Galaxy far far away?

3.2 billion habitable star systems

According to Wookieepedia:

Factoring in the output of heat and light needed for an advanced civilization to form, there were 7.1 billion truly habitable stars within the Galaxy, and about 3.2 billion habitable star systems. However, it was estimated that about one billion of those systems were actually populated.

game of thrones - Who is the Lord of Storm's End?

Beware, spoilers...

In the books (as of A Dance of Dragons):

Stannis Baratheon is still alive. He would be succeeded by Shireen Baratheon.

In the show (as of Season 6 Episode 4):
Tommen would have the strongest claim to Storm's End by two different means.

1) As the 'heir' of Robert Baratheon. This would be problematic (If widely known and proven) since he is a bastard born of incest rather than Robert's true born son.

2) As the king.

The entire, legitimate house Baratheon has been wiped out and bastards (such as Gendry) cannot inherit.

In this case the lands and holdings would pass to the crown to be kept or handed out at will.

doctor who - Is Peter Tyler's Death a Fixed Point in the Timeline?

In Father's Day Rose asks the Doctor to take her to when her Father died, so he won't have to die alone. After her Father is hit by a car, Rose is overwhelmed and can't go comfort her Father. Rose pleads and the Doctor takes her back, and they see the first set of the two of them watching her Father. The Doctor tells her, "It's a very bad idea having the two sets of us being here at the same time."

When the car is heading toward her Father, Rose, on impulse, runs out into the street, in front of the earlier versions of her and the Doctor and saves her Father. As she does this, the earlier Rose and Doctor vanish. They don't vanish when they see her, but when she prevents her Father's death.

Then, later when they're all trapped in the church, the car that hit her Father keeps appearing out of nowhere, driving along the road, and disappearing. This is the road near where they're hiding, not the one where he should have died. The car continually appearing and disappearing is like a break in causality, as if it's the start of everything happening at once, like we see in The Wedding of River Song.

Time is only set right with the death of Rose's Father, not with the resolution of the paradox of the earlier Rose and the Doctor disappearing or Rose and the Doctor having been in the same place twice. Much of the situation seems to revolve around Rose's father being alive and not dead, rather than she and the Doctor being in the same place at the same time twice.

Is her Father's death a fixed point in time that, when changed, upsets time?

harry potter - Why didn't Dumbledore bewitch the door of Fluffy in Philosophers stone?

There could be many reasons to that. The one I think is that JKR wasn't sure if bewitching the door by Dumbledore himself will help the story line much. Moreover, if you think about it, eventually 3 first years kids managed to break all the enchantments and barriers created by wizards much wiser and experts in their fields :)

Secondly, I believe as the story progressed in the following books, JKR created new ideas of the wizard world that were meant to clarify the mysteries of the earlier books..like Sirius Knife to open the Alohomora Charmed doors - as mentioned above or the wagons from Hogsmeade station that were running on their own for 4 years suddenly started running by Thestrals in books 5. It is highly unlikely that in all the students of Hogwarts, nobody had seen a death of someone and nobody mentioned this to friends and nobody realized it that Thestrals were running the wagons!

As far as we know and Dumbledore himself said it too..things like these spread like wild fire in Hogwarts. So it is highly unlikely that students were, and so was Harry, unaware of the Thestrals situation.

I believe it was the story line and considering it was the first book of the series, things like these do happen.

doctor who - Why did Daleks invade Earth after stealing it?

The Earth is a well known hub of anti-Dalek activity. Note that their primary targets seem to be facilities and locations that have shown an ability to defend the Earth against alien assaults in previous serials:

• Unit HQ


• The Valiant


• Torchwood


• New York (HQ of the United Nations)


• London (the site of the Torchwood anti-Sycorax weapon seen in "The Christmas Invasion")

---

They expend a considerable amount of time looking for the Doctor

DAVROS : I mean, is there news of him?

SUPREME DALEK : Negative! No reports of Time Lord. We are beyond the Doctor's reach!

---

They also need to "harvest" a considerable number of humans (including Jackie, Mickey and Rose) to test their destructo-ray on.