The Light Years: Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazalet Chronicles)

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Our galaxy is a gravitationally bound collection of stars, swirling in a spiral through space. Based on the deepest images obtained so far, it’s one of about 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. Groups of them are bound into clusters of galaxies, and these into superclusters; the superclusters are arranged in immense sheets stretching across the universe, interspersed with dark voids and lending the whole a kind of spiderweb structure. Our galaxy probably contains 100 to 400 billion stars, and is about 100,000 light-years across. That sounds huge, and it is, at least until we start comparing it to other galaxies. Our neighboring Andromeda galaxy, for example, is some 220,000 light-years wide. Another galaxy, IC 1101, spans as much as 4 million light-years. Gaul is not a thriving place. It is a hard world to live on, and only some of the people live well. Due to the failing of other planets, Gaul and many other planets are full of refugees. Hisako's parents were refugees and the only reason they were allowed to have her was to sell her in marriage. Refugees camps, not enough food, hard labour, and terrorists. All things Hisako grow up with knowing about, but not really seeing too much of. Her parents protected her as best as they could. The large yellow shell depicts a light-year; the smaller yellow shell depicts a light-month. Read more about this image at Wikimedia Commons. This stunningly beautiful, original memoir is driven by a search for the divine, a quest that leads Rush into some dangerous places . . . The Light Years is funny, harrowing, and deeply tender." —Kate Tuttle, The L.A. Times All things the Traders aboard the trading ship and Adem don't really know anything about. Due to near light speed, while over 20 years pass for Hisako, only a year or so passes for Adem. The Traders feel almost above planetary problems because by the next time they roll around, everything will have changed again. They act like everything is one big game.

The speed of light was not yet precisely known in 1838; the estimate of its value changed in 1849 ( Fizeau) and 1862 ( Foucault). It was not yet considered to be a fundamental constant of nature, and the propagation of light through the aether or space was still enigmatic.How far can light travel in one minute? 11,160,000 miles. It takes 43.2 minutes for sunlight to reach Jupiter, about 484 million miles away. Light is fast, but the distances are vast. In an hour, light can travel 671 million miles. One night, I took off my clothes and danced naked, wiggling in the mirror, a daub of Day-Glo on my teenie-weenie. Then, from out of nowhere, there was the sound of static and a God-like voice: What is that horrible odor? Mom’s story went on for quite a while. There was a handsome doctor (“I considered running away with him”) and smelling salts (“a diabolic invention!”). My mother was famous for her monologues. I waited patiently, and when she was finished, I said, “So can I faint now?” The attorney's eyes widened. 'I'm sure. Are there any other skills and interests you would like her to acquire? Cooking? Materials recycling, perhaps? BDSM?'"

The captain of the Hajj starship, Maneera Sadiq, arranges a marriage for her son with a young poor couple in exchange for money that will help them out of poverty, as well as a paid in full education for their unborn daughter. The deal requires the bride to study in specific fields set by the contractor, which best benefit the business. Incidentally, these traits can be genetically altered (spliced) to enhance the skill set of the individual. As you do.The light-year unit appeared a few years after the first successful measurement of the distance to a star other than the Sun, by Friedrich Bessel in 1838. The star was 61 Cygni, and he used a 160-millimetre (6.2in) heliometre designed by Joseph von Fraunhofer. The largest unit for expressing distances across space at that time was the astronomical unit, equal to the radius of the Earth's orbit at 150million kilometres (93million miles). In those terms, trigonometric calculations based on 61 Cygni's parallax of 0.314 arcseconds, showed the distance to the star to be 660,000 astronomical units (9.9 ×10 13km; 6.1 ×10 13mi). Bessel added that light takes 10.3 years to traverse this distance. [20] He recognized that his readers would enjoy the mental picture of the approximate transit time for light, but he refrained from using the light-year as a unit. He may have resisted expressing distances in light-years because it would reduce the accuracy of his parallax data due to multiplying with the uncertain parameter of the speed of light. It’s the distance that light travels in a specific period of time. Also: LIGHT IS FAST, nothing travels faster than light. This novel felt accessible for new scifi readers while still having enough "meat" for more seasoned readers like myself. The science and technology were described in simple, digestible terms for the readers without ever being "dumbed down" for the audience. The most complicated ideas in this book were the ones revolving around light speed travel and time relatively in space. As long as readers can grasp the basics of these concepts, they will be able to enjoy this novel. In terms of narrative, this one was very slow paced without much action or suspense. Yet I was happy to say that I was completely immersed the entire time reading this novel. The strength of the novel really came from the characters. I found both perspectives to be well fleshed out and relatable individuals. I particularly enjoyed following the girl over the years as she grew into a smart young woman.