I have read, or listened to, books 2 through 4 but haven't reviewed them here.
They were all very good. Book 4 especially rang true with today's examination of colonialism and its terrible legacy.
But this is book 5. Back in the solar system, the crew of the Rocinante get some well-deserved shore leave.
The ship is in dry dock at Tycho station getting major repairs done. Meanwhile Alex, Amos and Naomi all leave to take care of personal matters.
But the world they live in keeps churning. Somehow everybody winds up in the middle of a solar system catastrophe and each plays a part in dealing with it.
I enjoyed this book very much. Best of all, after each book, I get to watch a season of the television series.
I've always found stories that break up a team frustrating. Because teams work best TOGETHER. However, this was a terrific opportunity for character development and to reset the ground rules.
What can I say? I'm all in with this series. Absolutely terrific stuff.
A mission to Mars goes badly. NASA is defunded. Corporations are nearly the only players left in space.
But what of science? What of exploration?
How can these higher pursuits be served when the profit motive is the only thing left in space?
It's an interesting story, especially for those voices who do not see the value of a government funded space agency.
I found this last story of the collection very thought provoking. The missions to Mars are terrific storytelling but the bigger questions of corporate priorities in space lingered in my mind.
There is room enough in outer space for all the players, if you ask me.
I've been a long-time fan of Bova's. I consider him the Clive Cussler of space. His writing, although much more nuanced are still firmly "pulpy." Bova's villains are often psychologically damaged, greedy or
mustache-twirlingly evil.
But there is a special place for Sam Gunn, who is a comical rogue that flitters in and out Bova's novels but more often lives in stand-alone short stories. He is an opportunist who is constantly seeking, and losing, his fortunes.
This story hinges on asteroid mining and the limitations placed upon the activity by the Outer Space Treaty. In order for an individual or a country to have a legal claim to the minerals of a body in space the claim must be made from the object itself. A "flag" must be planted.
That's a pretty onerous legal detail but it forces interested parties into space, where adventure awaits. When you think about it, it's a rather human clause. We have a long history of exploration and this method of flag planting has long been acknowledged as the correct way to go about things.
In this little gem, the plans of a nation are pitted against the motivations of an individual.
I will say, in this first sentence, the story did not work for me.
It was very well written, I loved the story about two workers on a routine run up and down a space elevator.
Things go wrong on the way up and one of the crew is trapped outside with an oncoming solar storm making things worse.
Man vs environment is a terrific plot construct but sadly there was just too much channeling of MacGyver for me to believe in the plausibility of it.
I think the author tried very hard to amp up the danger when he did not have to. Being stuck outside, in a hard vacuum, with a solar flare en route was plenty of peril for one person to deal with. Adding orbital mechanics to it was just a bit too much for me.
Everything else about the story was excellent, I loved the interaction with ground control and the worn-in routine of working on a space elevator.
Asteroid mining, automated and on a contract basis. This is the ultimate gig-economy job.
What if asteroids were mined remotely and brought back to Earth, splashed into the ocean, recovered, and the minerals extracted?
Great idea. But, since it’s for-profit companies that are
doing the mining, getting the asteroids ready and guided to Earth is a job best
contracted out.
This, of course, opens the process to non-standard methods
of operation.
This story reminded me of the recent demonstration of hacking into
driver-less cars. The author poses the question; what would happen if someone
hacked into the propulsion systems of an inbound asteroid and changed its
course?
Remember - the premise of the entire collection is: what if space exploration continued without NASA? When the private sector is involved profits are paramount to decision making.
Scientific studies are being done by one corporation in the upper atmosphere of Venus. However, the crew rotation is contracted out to another company. Something goes wrong during the docking procedures.
The decisions to be made are obvious to those people in the thick of the situation. But the suits back on Earth have other ideas.
This one is about contract and mineral rights negotiations from deep space.
The rules are pretty clear, a business cannot stake a claim on a body in space unless a human sets foot on it, physically. But the negotiations are difficult because the rights to the body actually go the human who’s feet are on said body. Corporations foot the bill getting a person out there but must negotiate a finder’s fee when the astronaut has proven that he or she has landed.
This can get tricky. To say more would be spoiling it.
Cynthia and her robot companion Harry are travelling between asteroids, in their mining ship, when they receive a distress call and are obligated to reply.
There is something off about the situation as it is being transmitted by the companion robot of the ship in question.
I enjoyed the lived-in feel of the asteroid belt, sure there are folks about, making a living from the ores but the distances are incredible and it is a very lonely career.
I enjoyed how practical and yet human Cynthia’s relationship was with her robot companion. They are very much a team.
This was an excellent mystery with an undertone of danger that required careful navigation.
A terrific addition to the collection. I am very happy that I made the purchase.
When getting to orbit is an everyday occurrence that’s the future I want to inhabit.
In this story, airships are used to lift up to a floating transfer station in the mesosphere, the very top of the atmosphere, where one transfers to an orbital ascender to make the final push to space. This takes more time but eliminates rockets, a very interesting idea.
But that is not the focus of the story, in it a rich industrialist takes a bet with a fellow billionaire to race to a Near Earth Object and back within 80 days.
But there is an obstacle in the industrialist’s way.
What I liked about this story was how the characters were no different than people today. There is no empire and culture to learn, no alien influence and no time travel. It’s just people being people with their egos and conflicting aspirations. Only the technology has changed.
A private corporation, JoveCo, has a mining station orbiting Jupiter to extract hydrogen from the atmosphere of the gas giant.
Nina Galindo is dispatched to the station to help resolve a problem. There are native creatures alive in the upper atmosphere who seem to be trying to communicate with the humans. But there is something else, there is another signal buried under the repeating “GO AWAY” which is encrypted and far more complex.
I found the story rich in imagery, I felt like I was watching a movie instead of reading a book. And it’s not because it was so well described, it was just the opposite, the author gave just enough information to frame a scene and I was able to colour it all in.
The orbital station was a marvel and how the story relied on it’s structure to uncover the mystery was part of the fun of it.
I’m a fan of The Amazing Race and The Amazing Race Canada so this story spoke to me.
What this story did was take television, corporate sponsorships, consumerism and social networking forward into an unsettling place.
The Ultimate Race pitted seven teams, in small space ships, on a race from an orbiting casino, New Vegas, to Mars’ moon Phobos and back. But it was told from the point of view of a fan watching the show from home.
Honestly, the forward projection of media is not that outlandish, it feels very, very plausible.
I was a big fan of Ernest Cline’s previous book, Ready Player One which was turned into a Steven Spielberg movie. (I really should see that)
This book was a nice blend of console game history, pop culture and science fiction movies.
What if the rise in popularity of the First Contact SF trope was really a way to get the population of Earth ready for the reality of an alien invasion? What if all those video games were really training simulations to teach people how to engage the enemy without causing a panic?
I enjoyed this novel as an audio book narrated by Wil Wheaton who was simply terrific in it.
The story itself was rather predictable. However, the humour that was woven throughout and the gaming history was a perfect vehicle for it. I can easily imagine Spielberg making a movie of this one too. And that is because Cline writes vividly and cinematically which made the text disappear and the imagery pop into my imagination.
It’s a fun read so long as that is what you want - fun. Zach Lightman, who is the narrator and a high school senior, is obsessed with the passing of his father when he was an infant. He discovers a box of his dad's things in the attic and begins to read his old journals. In them, he discovers his father's theories about video games and what their functions really are.
Climate change is a big, big topic and most of what I've read has been all about the doom. But surely, as Peter Diamandis often says, "The world's biggest problems are the world's biggest business opportunities."
I am an optimist by nature and if there is a problem, I like to take the position of; "Okay, what can we do from now on to prevent or fix the problem?" It does the world no good to constantly claim that the sky is falling.
If there are better ways to do things how can we go about doing them?
Bill Nye holds no punches but also doesn't go about blaming or pointing fingers. We, as a society, went about our ways in what we believed at the time to be the most effective way to grow, progress and thrive. And we've done exactly that. But we were not looking at the whole picture.
As humans, we've always believed that the world was limitless because, when there were much fewer of us the planet could actually sustain us - to a point. We were doing things from the very start that put us on a path to where we are today. I'm talking about CO2 here.
The book tackles a multitude of problems and explains how it came about but more importantly how to move forward from here. Energy production, transportation of goods and people, food production, desalinating seawater and the importance of space as a resource are all explored here.
There is a wonderful portion in the book where Bill, I feel that it's okay to call him Bill, walks the reader through his house to show all of the ways he's making changes to reduce his personal carbon footprint. Can he do all of this because he has money? Of course. But it serves as an inspiration to try to make changes around your own home. Rain barrels are a fine example of a cheap way to conserve water and not spend a lot of money creating the system.
The book is clear, concise and with a dash of humour along the way. This is the kind of book you'll refer to and lend to your friends.
This is a timely book to consider an Alberta economy beyond oil.
I know, saying things like that are blasphemy in a province so dedicated to an extraction economy. But, one of the things the author promotes is Canadian energy independence by stopping the export of our resources. This would mean constructing the Energy East pipeline, something Quebec blocked, instead of expanding the Keystone XL line.
East of Ottawa oil products are imported from the Middle East. This makes for a vulnerable situation if some kind of interruption in supply should happen.
All countries will ultimately protect their own citizens first, but Canada is unprepared to do so. It would be better to set the stage now instead of waiting for a crisis to force our hand.
It is astonishing to learn how little proven reserves remain of Alberta’s natural gas. I for one think of this when my furnace kicks in on a cold February morning.
This book is largely a big-picture, government-programs exploration on how to first, secure our current energy supply and then to transition off of carbon fuels to do our part in addressing climate change.
The last three chapters dig into a possible path for Canada. It points to many other books and groups who are doing a lot of thinking on the subject. Nothing will change overnight but it is important to explore the ways available to us.
Change is coming. Will it be a disaster or a new era for humanity?
I recently did a Google search to discover new science fiction graphic novels. Planets caught my attention - the story of a crew of astronauts who clear debris from low earth orbit. Yup, space garbage collectors.
The stories follow Hachimaki, a young brazen, prickly, driven and a somewhat lost young man, who dreams of greater things. Each chapter is it's own stand alone story but there is also a thread that runs through them all. A mission to Jupiter is announced and Hachi wants to win a spot on the crew.
His drive to become the best astronaut Japan has ever seen turns him into an obsessed person who is lucky he has people around him that understand him. Otherwise, he'd lose friends quickly.
Chapter 10 of the book is my favourite story. Hashi and Leo, his friend and co-pilot, crash on the surface of the moon. Hashi saves him from the wreck but after their ship explodes they must attempt to rescue themselves by walking 40km to the nearest shelter.
This is the kind of man-vs-environment story that grabs my attention and explores the real consequences of exploring space.
This is an English translation and at times the narrative is a bit clunky but that is to be expected. It also takes some getting used to reading back to front and right to left.
Binti is a young woman who decides to leave everything behind; her family, her home, her life and her planet, to attend Oomza University in a far off solar system.
Along the way she makes friends and discovers the hatred and violence of the Meduse, an alien race in conflict with her very university.
This is the kind of SF I generally don't go for, with aliens and magical super-powers. I like to read Mundane, Hard SF.
But there is something special about the fish out of water story; I always find myself hoping the best for our character.
Binti is a terrific character too. She is so strong and determined and yet she suffers the self-doubt we all do.
It is through this character that I was willing to put my biases aside and read on. I am glad that I did. It was a rewarding story and I have ordered the next installment in the series. I am looking forward to spending more time in Nnedi Okorafor's capable hands.
The story starts in a saloon, where a stranger walks in, and leaves something valuable with the owner of the establishment.
This is the kind of SF I love; high tech, set in the future but still populated by recognizable people.
The object stored in the saloon's safe was stolen and the person who stole it has made enemies all over Mars. Now he is dead and the object is gone.
In my mind's eye I could see all the dust, grit and roughness of life on Mars.
Flynn was able to create a giant backdrop in few pages. Once I was done reading the setting lived on in my head. The world he created was so rich, I felt as though I had read a novel.
One of my favorite space fantasies is to seek out one of the Voyager probes, polish the Golden Record, refuel the tanks and restock the RTGs and send it on it's way.
It's like archeology.
In this story, somebody beat humans to it! All of Voyager 1's systems mysteriously power up after going dark two years before.
Tyrille Smith goes out with her AI robot, IRIS, to investigate. I loved that robot, by the way. What a wonderful companion.
It's a mystery that turns into a sudden first contact event.
There is a new race to a distant planet. The Russians want to be first to land a person on it, for the prestige and glory of being first.
But it's a risky mission. Knowing that the Chinese and the Americans are committed to their own landings, they embark on a daring one-way trip. By making the ship smaller and lighter Russia can beat the other countries to Arcadia.
This was particularly relevant given the recent discussion of mounting a one-way trip to land people on Mars. Thankfully that idea has been canceled.
Still...
The Russian mission takes the idea of making the ship lighter one step further and that gives the story a sinister, dark twist.
