hokkyokusei
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- Apr 16, 2012
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I've enjoyed previous book threads, and as I just scored some books for my birthday, was wondering what everyone is reading these days. As for me...
Just finished:
Titan - Stephen Baxter
(Alternate universe, hard SF, very depressing, but quite gripping. Cassinsi-Huygens finds traces of life on Titan, NASA is on the wane after columbia crash [prophetic?!], manned trip to Titan is cobbled together, China emerges as a superpower, everybody dies. Sorry for the spoiler, but it's fairly predictable from very early on that it's not going to end well.)
Currently reading:
Project Orion - George Dyson
(Not quite as good as I'd hoped, a bit repetitive in parts, still interesting though - a fascinating concept, I'm surprised there isn't much SF based around this concept, only one novel as far as I am aware)
The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty-first Annual Collection - Edited by Gardner Dozois
(Best short stories of 2003. I buy this collection every year, there are always gems in it, and I thoroughly recommend it for real SF fans. For UK based people, this is the US edition, the UK edition has a lower number [we started later in the collection series], but has identical content!)
On the pile:
A man on the Moon - Andrew Chaikin
(The story of Apollo, this is highly recomended over on sci.space.history)
Korolev - James Harford
(Biography of the Soviets' "Chief Designer". Another recomendation from sci.space.history)
The Years of Salt and Rice - Kim Stanley Robinson (More alternate universe SF - this time medieval Europe is even more devastated by the Black Death, and western civilisation doesn't get going)
Still managing to resist "The Da Vinci Code". Seems popular (apparently the biggest selling hardbook book in the UK), but is it any good? It was ripped to shreds in a review on the radio this morning!
Just finished:
Titan - Stephen Baxter
(Alternate universe, hard SF, very depressing, but quite gripping. Cassinsi-Huygens finds traces of life on Titan, NASA is on the wane after columbia crash [prophetic?!], manned trip to Titan is cobbled together, China emerges as a superpower, everybody dies. Sorry for the spoiler, but it's fairly predictable from very early on that it's not going to end well.)
Currently reading:
Project Orion - George Dyson
(Not quite as good as I'd hoped, a bit repetitive in parts, still interesting though - a fascinating concept, I'm surprised there isn't much SF based around this concept, only one novel as far as I am aware)
The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty-first Annual Collection - Edited by Gardner Dozois
(Best short stories of 2003. I buy this collection every year, there are always gems in it, and I thoroughly recommend it for real SF fans. For UK based people, this is the US edition, the UK edition has a lower number [we started later in the collection series], but has identical content!)
On the pile:
A man on the Moon - Andrew Chaikin
(The story of Apollo, this is highly recomended over on sci.space.history)
Korolev - James Harford
(Biography of the Soviets' "Chief Designer". Another recomendation from sci.space.history)
The Years of Salt and Rice - Kim Stanley Robinson (More alternate universe SF - this time medieval Europe is even more devastated by the Black Death, and western civilisation doesn't get going)
Still managing to resist "The Da Vinci Code". Seems popular (apparently the biggest selling hardbook book in the UK), but is it any good? It was ripped to shreds in a review on the radio this morning!