A beautiful adventure into the perils of space travel.
922047
Fantastic book. Very unique writing that added some nice perspectives. Intense and aw-inspiring,and utterly realistic.
3619336
Once again Hugh Howey takes us on an epic journey through space and the meaning of life and death. I am not a sci fi lover but I will continue to read anything by Mr. Howey.
1660313
A very rousing tale of space adventuring, I found it hard to put down. Very literally a good vs evil situation, with some question to what is really good or evil. Quite liked the premise of far future human/angel hybrids going to see what is at the edge of the universe. However an exploratory mission turns horribly wrong sending the mission into great peril against a seemingly invincible enemy. Some familiar elements are here, the plucky crew refusing to die or surrender no matter the odds, colorful aliens, Interpersonal conflicts and sudden sexual encounters. Many close calls and white knuckle escapes.. Space battles and ground battles with beam weapons and laser swords. Exotic worlds and mysterious lifeforms. But there were enough elements that were different to intrigue me. I haven't read the original Dark Space series, I'm sure I would have had some deeper insight into backstories, but I never felt I was missing out. I was highly entertained by this story. My first exposure to Jasper T Scotts work but it won't be my last.
4344495
A collision in space, between ships of two different species, changes the future as they know it. A vessel full of Earth colonist, with their own agenda and private crew, must take on a group of Koltins with their own cultural differences.

In a plot like a rollercoaster Mr. Thomasma takes us on an exciting and detailed ride. We experience the questions of theology and government as seen through the eyes of a wonderful diversity of well written characters.

This is not a fast read. It is a book full of detail, theories and moral questions. It is a very rewarding read. I look forward to more of Mr. Thomasma's musings.
2551109
When a deal goes badly, smuggler Angel Torrence returns to Earth only to collect the money due her.  Instead of the clean get a way she hopes for, her just paid off ship explodes before her very eyes.  The ship she hijacks to escape turns out to be possessed by a computer that thinks it's alive.  Nicoli Romanof doesn't want to rely on the child pilot that in several daring moves launched his ship.  However in the middle of a top secret mission to bring down the Harvestors, he must rely on "Michaels" (the name Angel gives Nicoli), to aide him in regaining his body from  the Harvestors - a species that kidnaps people and sells the bodies on the black market.  When the recovery mission fails to go as expected, the pair are forced to work together as they fight for their very survival.  Angel must return to her own past and face her worst fears while Nicoli must discover that while women can be feminine, not every woman wishes to be protected from experiencing life.
A very fast paced space adventure, TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN is the ultimate game of cat and mouse.  Facing both known and unknown enemies Nicoli and Angel really can only trust each other.  The worlds created are something right out of the movies and the tension between characters will leave you wondering 'who is the bad guy?' until the surprising conclusion!  I loved the humor woven into some of the scenes as well.  This was such a different story and so refreshing.  I would highly recommend this book as an excellent space adventure with a heroine with more guts than brawn and a hero larger than life.
2134367
Humankind has a millenium and more to prepare for Terra's destruction. As scientists learn how to send seedships out to the stars, each generation does that job in better ways. The ship that reaches the world called Thalassa arrives fairly early in the great drive for species survival - early enough to establish contact with Terra, and then lose it two centuries later due to a natural disaster. So when the last starship to leave Terra arrives at Thalassa, a necessary stop on its way to a much farther destination, the few crew members not sleeping the journey away do not know what they will find. The small but thriving Human society there provides both a pleasant surprise, and help in obtaining what the Magellan needs to resume its journey. Some crew members like Thalassa and its people so much that they want the ship to stop there permanently. Hospitable as they are, though, the Thalassans really cannot offer the starship's huge sleeping population a new home because their world is mostly covered by ocean. They do not have enough land to sustain more people.

What the Thalassans don't know is that they are not alone on the planet they have claimed and made into their home. Deep underneath the oceans, another kind of intelligence is on its slow evolutionary way toward sentience. They also do not know the full history of the planet where both the Magellan's crew and their own ancestors were born. How much of that history to give them - in the form of records carried in the ship's library - creates a daunting dilemma for philosopher and Magellan crew member Moses Kaldor. Do the Thalassans, especially Mirissa Leonidas whose family has kept the planet's archives for generations and whose curiosity knows no bounds, deserve the whole truth? Or is protecting them from at least some of that truth his highest duty?

Although I disagree wholeheartedly with at least one of Arthur C. Clarke's most cherished beliefs, which this novel showcases, I thoroughly enjoyed its classic science fiction "feel" as well as its world building and characters. I grew up on this kind of writing. Somehow I missed this one at the time it was published, and reading it now has been a great pleasure. A bit dated? Yes. But for me that didn't matter at all.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 EPPIE science fiction winner "Regs"
286393
A satisfying and smart sci-fi drama, with a good mix of human intrigue and space flight with the added spice of alien contact.
2583994
Robert Sullivan is a great story writer as he takes the reader on a creative adventure in space. A very enjoyable book for any science fiction reader.
1822783
An amazing adrenaline laced adventure! Space opera how it was meant to be.....a great story with a deeoee message. Highly recommend!
3949651
This was an action packed exciting stress filled adventure that made me think about our "real" astronauts and many of the same challenges they must face!  Really, really good film.
2344783
This is one of the best adventures into the future of incredibly advanced technology in the hands of humanity and how it will change us as a people and how we splinter into several different societies. It's part epic space adventure with various factions drawing closer to war, the clever machinations of The Gentleman Thief and the high weirdness tech is going to create. They're such good books, that I reread them both times when the other two books in the trilogy came out. Yeap, it's a trilogy and the writing never falters or fails to amaze.
2010628
The Aonise people must abandon their sun. In spaceships, they flee solar explosion and the enemy Zefron. The Aonise king, Kedro, leads the people amid deep class divisions and conspiracies against the royal family.

After the excitement of the planet-wide evacuation, is much learning about the characters and interconnections between them. As other reviewers have mentioned, keeping track of the names is challenging, at first. There is a character list at the end. The action is well paced and leads to important conflicts and resolutions. This story reminds me of Battlestar Galactica. There is a setup of a complex world, and the space fleet is fleeing to a distant destination. There are clearly many adventures ahead for these characters. I would recommend this tale for middle grade and up.
2251599
Brilliant exploration of human resilience and orbital habitation in the face of impending doom. Engineers will appreciate the attention to detail and diligence with which Stephenson approaches the numerous challenges faced by the varied cast as they struggle with the harsh realities of space.

The book is divided into two acts, and although the first is masterfully written as a nerdy thriller, the second feels somewhat forced, tacked on in a starry-eyed attempt to flesh out the author's grandiose, space-opera futurology. Devoid of the rigorous internal consistency and dimensioned characters of the first act, it leaves a strange but not entirely unpleasant aftertaste.
2396902
A fascinating read for the science-fiction buff happily suffering from a debilitating touch of the romantic notion.

In The Fox's Honor, Mr. Alford transports an unbending code of chivalry and honor to a futuristic world light years displaced in time and distance from the Avalon in which such Arthurian ethics were born.

The romantic will not be disappointed in the love story between Sir Devon Rathenberg, alias "The Fox," and Lady Tamar Falkeep, the woman who has stolen The Fox's heart. Denied any chance of a future due to social station and propriety, Sir Devon and Lady Tamar must conceal their love. But when, in a twisted turn of events, The Lady thwarts Sir Devon's planned death, a new course deciding the fate of the Human Galactic Empire is demanded--a course that will take them and their noble houses into collision with the tyrannical faux Emperor Perod.

Neither will the sci-fi buff be disappointed with Mr. Alford's detailed account of escaping the constraints of physical space via null space transportation, meticulous attention to the demands of orbital dynamics, and descriptions of the astro-/aeronautical nuances of intergalactic spacecraft. Those Star Trek afficiandos owning a copy of Hayne's USS Enterprise: Owner's Workshop Manual will demand a similar work from Mr. Alford. I take that back; they won't need one. Mr. Alford, a test pilot himself, renders treatment only an aeronautical engineer's mother could love to the technical aspects of space travel and the vehicles that conquer it.

The Fox's Honor is Book Two in "The Chronicles of the Dragon and The Fox." It's prequel is The End of Honor, and it's followed by A Season of Honor. I didn't need the prequel to enjoy The Fox's Honor. I am, however, driven to purchase the sequel. I suspect you will be, too.
4477167
A small group of explorers have just returned to Earth after a several year trip to an earthlike planet of Alpha Centauri. They find, to their dismay, that they, literally, can't live on Earth at all. Anyone who has been away for at least 3 full years contracts a murderous disease called Earth Allergy Syndrome, or EAS. Also, relativity has reared its head; the toddler daughter of one of the explorers is now a middle-aged grandmother. The explorers are forced to return to Alpha Centauri, to what is now called Genser's World (after one of their group who succumbed to EAS).

Back on Genser's World, the colonists find the de-evolved descendants of another spacefaring race, and their empathic symbionts. Think of the symbionts as flying creatures the size of a hawk, with the face of a cat, and they love to be petted and scratched. They form bonds with humans almost instantly, a bond that becomes impossible to break. The colonists also come into contact with two cyborg intelligences, and a computer intelligence which is about to evolve into something that could easily wipe out the humans.

Suddenly, all contact with Earth is lost. By this time, the intelligences have modified the colonist's ship so that a trip of several years duration back to Earth has been reduced to several weeks. A group of colonists returns to Earth, and finds a scene of total devastation. Just before "The End," an asteroid was hollowed out and turned into a colony ship. It was launched toward Genser's World, with over 500 people on board. Their intention is to turn Genser's World into a fascist utopia.

This is a first-rate planetary colonization story with lots of science. Engineers and scientists will enjoy this book; so will everyone else who likes good, interesting writing.
3362818
This is an interesting story about a space rescue 700-800 years in the future involving two groups with roots to Earth in their distant past. The Meridiens, a group of travelers in suspended animation for 72 years, are taken in tow by a space tug and moved to a friendly area developed by the Terrans. About 80% of the Meridiens did not survive the time in the stasis chambers. The survivors, a technologically advanced group. barter technology for materials and manufacturing space to repair their space vehicle so that they can return to their homeland. What they have to do, and how they do it, makes an intriguing story. THE SILVER SHIPS is the first in a four part (at present)adventure centered around Alex Racine, the space tug captain and Renee Guirnon, the leader of the Meridien group. Going to be interesting to see how this relationship plays out.
2597037
I wanted to be an astronaut as a child, did you not? Such a beautiful idea that of floating in the outer space, seeing the stars closer, having a look at the blueness of the Earth and even visiting other planets. Right?

However,  we do not think about the real challenges that astronauts face in space when we have whimsical dreams. After all, the Space has been part of our collective space/time-travel and 20th-21st centuries ultra frontier. Space travel has been romantically and stylishly portrayed in science-fiction movies and novels, but most of them do not show the nitty gritty reality of what space travel is, has been, or will be. And here comes Roach's book to our rescue, to enlighten us with a scientifically rigorous yet funny book, hilarious at times.

How and what do astronauts eat? How they wash themselves? How do they urinate and defecate? Do they have or can have sex? How do they interact with each other in such confined environment? Does the inner ship smells? How do our bodies react to zero gravity and high radiation levels in space? Which were the challenges and secrets of the first historical space trips in USA and Russia? This, and much more, is answered by cheery Mary, who does not leave a question unanswered by using first-hand archival material and personal interviews with astronauts and space engineers from NASA, and the Russian and European Space agencies, and some bits coming from her own experiences at these agencies.

This is an amazingly entertaining book, very easy to read, unpretentious and so very informative and rigorous. After reading it, you will not feel sorry for not being an astronaut, but you will bow to those men and women who go out there to expand our earthly rounded frontiers.