Best Space Books and Sci-Fi: A Space.com Reading List

CrazyNeutrino said:

Best Space Books and Sci-Fi: A Space.com Reading List

“Black Holes and Time Warps” – didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.
“Cosmos” – I preferred the TV series.
“Hyperspace” – didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.

“Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void” Yes. Can thoroughly recommend it. Mary Roach’s speciality is scatalogical biology, combine that with space travel and you have a winner.

“The Martian Chronicles” – Avoid it if you can.
“Ender’s Game” – Well written, but it’s not science. Was pleasantly surprised by sequel “Enders Shadow”.
“Dune” – Excellent, not to be missed. Avoid all the sequels.
“Hyperion” – A collection of short stories – genre is horror – well written but gave me nightmares for years.
“Gateway” – Not sure I ever read the original. I accidentally read one of the sequels twice, and didn’t think much of it.

mollwollfumble said:

CrazyNeutrino said:

Best Space Books and Sci-Fi: A Space.com Reading List

“Black Holes and Time Warps” – didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.
“Cosmos” – I preferred the TV series.
“Hyperspace” – didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.

“Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void” Yes. Can thoroughly recommend it. Mary Roach’s speciality is scatalogical biology, combine that with space travel and you have a winner.

“The Martian Chronicles” – Avoid it if you can.
“Ender’s Game” – Well written, but it’s not science. Was pleasantly surprised by sequel “Enders Shadow”.
“Dune” – Excellent, not to be missed. Avoid all the sequels.
“Hyperion” – A collection of short stories – genre is horror – well written but gave me nightmares for years.
“Gateway” – Not sure I ever read the original. I accidentally read one of the sequels twice, and didn’t think much of it.

I read Dune and a few of the sequels quite a long time ago and I’d recommend Dune.

A few good ones that they have (subjectively) missed out on.

“Use of weapons”, by Iain Banks. One of the best books I’ve ever read.
“Consider Phlebas, again by Banks.

“The Prefect”, by Alastair Reynolds.

“Fate is the Hunter”, by Ernest Gann. Non sci-fi, an autobiography but again one of the best books I’ve ever read.

More later if I think of them.

mollwollfumble said:

CrazyNeutrino said:

Best Space Books and Sci-Fi: A Space.com Reading List

“Black Holes and Time Warps” – didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.
“Cosmos” – I preferred the TV series.
“Hyperspace” – didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.

“Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void” Yes. Can thoroughly recommend it. Mary Roach’s speciality is scatalogical biology, combine that with space travel and you have a winner.

“The Martian Chronicles” – Avoid it if you can.
“Ender’s Game” – Well written, but it’s not science. Was pleasantly surprised by sequel “Enders Shadow”.
“Dune” – Excellent, not to be missed. Avoid all the sequels.
“Hyperion” – A collection of short stories – genre is horror – well written but gave me nightmares for years.
“Gateway” – Not sure I ever read the original. I accidentally read one of the sequels twice, and didn’t think much of it.

and decided to never read any of the sequels because no sequel could ever be as good as the original

dune to my mind is a dream the author had one night – it would be hard to come up with those thoughts in any “logical” way

it was written in 1965 so he might have come up with the idea if he was taking drugs

Spiny Norman said:

A few good ones that they have (subjectively) missed out on.

“Use of weapons”, by Iain Banks. One of the best books I’ve ever read.
“Consider Phlebas, again by Banks.

“The Prefect”, by Alastair Reynolds.

“Fate is the Hunter”, by Ernest Gann. Non sci-fi, an autobiography but again one of the best books I’ve ever read.

More later if I think of them.

Went looking for those. Could only get “the state of the art” by banks. Turns out only to be a collection of short stories. Not so good.

May be able to get “fate is the hunter” later.

Did get “aurora”, which was on the original linked list.

Gaff’s unicorn from Blade Runner
http://www.bladerunnerunicorn.com/_bladerunnerunicorn.com.html

Blade Runner Unicorn Origami steps 1-10.mov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXGvvbwygLc

mollwollfumble said:

“Ender’s Game” – Well written, but it’s not science. Was pleasantly surprised by sequel “Enders Shadow”

“Enders Game” is one of the great sci-fi novels. The sequels are actually the equally great “Speaker For The Dead” and the less great “Xenocide” and “Children of the Mind”. “Enders Shadow” and other “Ender” novels are better considered as adjuncts to the Enderverse than sequels to the original novel, and none of them hold a candle to the first two.

One novel I will always shill for in threads like this is M. John Harrison’s “Light”. It is incredible… Almost incomprehensible on first read but increasingly deep with subsequent reads.

There are only four sci-fi novels that I’m happy to read over and over again, every couple of years,and they lose nothing on rereading.

“Galactic patrol” by ee(doc)Smith
“Catspaw” by Joan de Vinge
“The man who never missed” by Steve Perry
“Come hunt an earthman” by Philip e high

I also really enjoy
“Voorloper” Andre Norton
“Sassenak” Anne mcaffrey & Elizabeth moon
“Glasshouse” Charles stross
“After doomsday” paol Anderson
“The moon is a harsh mistress” Robert Heinlein
“Mercycle” piers Anthony
Hhgttg Douglas Adams
“The far frontier” William rottsler
“A tapestry of time” (fantasy) Richard Cowper

Among biographies, I like
“For the love of enzymes” kornberg
“Subtle is the lord … Einstein” pais

For space, number one has to be
SMAD

SciFi is still very much to the individual. To a lesser degree, the same applies to non-fiction.

‘A Man on the Moon’ is a fantastic book and my number 1 choice for anyone interested in the Apollo programme.

Once interested in Apollo a ‘must read’ I would recommend is ‘How Apollo Flew to the Moon’ (either edition).

I don’t recommend ‘The Right Stuff’ until you know more about the space programme; it offers some very skewed and wrongly biased opinions.

I love so much of RAH but his later works were a little too freaky for me.

Pretty much anything by Asimov is fantastic but the Robot, Galactic Empire and Foundation series are again a ‘must read’.

I also like James P Hogan with ‘Endgame Enigma’ and ‘The Proteus Operation’.

The Verner Vinge ‘Peace War’ series is also good reading.