Normal people leading normal lives... in space!
359777
I LOVE EVERYBODY ON THIS SPACESHIP!

Seriously, it's life for a diverse group of sentient beings on a working spaceship and found family and all the things I love.
1081115
Heee! A new space-faring romance from Eve Langlais. *high fives self enthusiastically*

So. Rafe is your average space pirate looking for his next score. Ha. Yeah, right. He's more like a perpetually horny frat boy who looks to be hiding a secret or two under his nipple-less skin. Sure, he's convinced that the only good woman can be found on her back, but he soon learns that earth girls aren't made to take things lying down. No, wait. Some things are better when lying down. AMIRITE?!?!

I know! I make myself laugh, too.

Anyway. Rafe and Emma. He's never met a woman who intrigues him like she does. She's determined to milk her outer space adventure for all its worth. Even when it lands her in hot water.

There's danger brewing in the stars for these two. Just you wait!

-Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal
3995080
How far will the world go to save humanity? Will the financial crisis make us go where we have never gone before? Beth Revis's Across the Universe explores just how far our world, in all its messes and disasters, is willing to go to ensure humanity has a second chance at life.

Godspeed is the ship designed to take humanity to the outer reaches of the universe. It will take 300 years for the ship to reach its destination- the new Earth. In order to ensure people with special abilities make it to the new planet, they are frozen cryogenically and another crew of people lives and survives on the ship. It is big enough to be like a speeding city in the sky, but over the course of centuries, a lot can go wrong. When Amy is woken up on the ship before she is supposed to be, her awakening becomes the catalyst that exposes everything wrong with life on the Godspeed.

Amy was awakened accidentally, or so Eldest and Elder and Doc thought. Eldest is the leader of the ship and Elder, 17 years old, is his replacement. Elder learns everything Eldest teaches him, but he knows there are things the old man is keeping from him. As Amy, a girl who remembers her time on Earth so many centuries ago, starts to question the strange, zombie like people that live on the ship. As she becomes the insight of discord, she finds herself on the wrong side of Eldest. But her questioning leads Elder to find out just what it is Eldest has kept from him. As more bodies are thawed from the cryogenic freeze, and a few are murdered, they all suspect Eldest. However, the problems with the ship and the people living on it go deeper than any of them could have imagined.

I know this book has been out for a while, but I just never picked it up until now, despite the recommendation from multiple trustworthy sources. There it sat on my "to be read" shelf, staring at me for months. I wanted to read it at a time when I could sit down and really plow through the story in one fell swoop. What I didn't expect was a gripping story I would finish in essentially one sitting! It was SO exciting and interesting. I could NOT put it down! The idea of being frozen for over 300 years and waking up to a whole new social dynamic is both terrifying and exciting! And the way Eldest and the Eldests that came before him twisted Earth's history to appease the masses and control them was masterful. They actually twisted Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address to illustrate Lincoln's support of separating the races to eliminate the racism (difference was the first cause of discord) and send anyone of African heritage back to the African Continent. Amy was the catalyst that blew the top off all their lies and deceit, and boy did it get ugly!

This is a great Science Fiction/Dystopia cross-over that gave the space junkies enough to sink their spaceship teeth into but still enough corruption to make the dystopia addicts happy. It was a great balance of the two and could interest any type of student. The language is fairly simple, and most of the scenes are scary, but pretty mild. There is one near rape scene that was scary, but not particularly graphic. I would suggest this series for a wide range of students, and the great news? The sequel is out in a couple of weeks! Yeah!
2480034
Let me first say, this is not a science textbook or a research paper. It is science for the rest of us, presented with a humorous twist in an easy to follow manner. This audiobook was my introduction to Mary Roach's work, so I can't compare it to her previous books.

This book does a great job of covering aspects of human space travel that are often intentionally or unintentionally swept under the carpet when you watch Science documentaries on the television. You see, putting humans in space is not just the pretty pictures we are shown. All the things we humans do at home on the earth, well, humans need to do in space too! And with the confines of space, these can be mission-killers if they are not properly addressed. You probably won't hear about astronauts getting potty-trained for zero gravity on the NASA channel, but Mary Roach boldly goes there and beyond!

One negative, especially if you are a Marsaholic, there isn't a lot about Mars. It's as if the book leaves it up to the reader/listener to make the deductive jump of how each issue raised would affect a mission to Mars. It is not that Mars is completely ignored, but considering the title, I was expecting more Mars-themed coverage. In other words, this book is more general-purpose human space travel and less Mars-specific. Also, a lot of interesting tidbits and factoids about past space missions are generously interspersed throughout the book.

The audiobook is narrated by Sandra Burr who does an excellent job of performing the book and bringing it to life so to speak.

The audiobook CD set includes nine CDs, with a total runtime of about 10 hours (rough estimate). The last CD is half-full. Each CD has many short tracks, making it easier to keep track of your progress by writing down the track number where you left of. This is a nice touch. It would be nice if they also included "digital copies", especially for people who travel a lot. It's a lot easier to put the remaining chapters on your mp3 player or smartphone than carry a box of CDs and a CD player while traveling (or eat up your laptop's remaining battery for CD playback).

Overall, this is a great read/listen, especially if you are interested in the human factors of long-term space travel and enjoy humor intermixed with your science.
3901816
I loved the story and ideas it brought forth. It didn't fall into so mom common, boring tropes but it did have some pretty mundane characters. It seems like we got a pretty average and lazy person on this greatest space mission ever.
2724004
A fun read for those interested in space travel.  The real life stories are great and the illustrations are a joy to look at.
4878162
In 2031, Christopher Burke and his crew of astronauts are the first people to set foot on Mars. They stayed there for two years to do research and conduct experiments. Everything had gone pretty well, save for Chris's mysterious disappearance of eighteen hours when he only had four hours of oxygen left. They were on their way home when they lost contact with Earth. When they crash land on Earth, the crew finds that every man, woman, child, and animal is gone. Were they abducted? Have they died? What happened here?

The characters are very realistic. At first, all you see of them is this disciplined, business-like faade. As they get deeper into the empty world and they run into obstacle after obstacle, you see the real people underneath. My favorite character is Trisha. She's a strong and disciplined woman, who was a Marine before she was an astronaut. Underneath her tough exterior, she has a painful disease that she works through every day and she is deeply in love. I liked to see the deconstruction of the layers the crew built up. I was impressed that they managed to keep so much from each other while still being in close quarters. Also, the relationship of a group of people that are so close knit is interesting to read.

Offworld is a great science fiction adventure. The plot twists and turns in ways that you would never expect. It's a mystery, an adventure, science fiction, and an action movie all rolled into one. The plot moved forward from page one and didn't stop. The narrative was exciting and fluid to read. The only criticism I have is when some answers are given to the problems at hand, it gets a little weird; it was harder to suspend my disbelief. Overall, I would say this is a great read.
4639603
It may not be in my lifetime, but I would bet that some people living today will see a manned mission to Mars.  Susan Lendroth embraces that dream, and shares it with today's toddler set in Hey-Ho, to Mars We'll Go! A Space-Age Version of "The Farmer in the Dell."  Combining portions of sing-songy rhyming lines with more in-depth content, Lendroth speaks to a couple different sets of kids at once, on a couple different levels.

For example, she writes:

  Can you catch my sock?

  Can you catch my sock?

  Hey-ho, to Mars we'll go--

  Can you catch my sock?

The accompanying illustrations show the astronauts floating around the cabin, and the text describes life in zero-gravity, where everything not secured "will drift like dandelion fluff."  Incidentally, the pages are printed in a variety of orientations, giving the full effect of not knowing which way is up!

Bob Kolar's illustrations are certainly on the little-kid level, yet he manages to include details that make the book believable, anticipating some of the actual equipment and requirements of a Mars mission.

Lendroth and Kolar make a great team.  Your toddler to elementary-age child will be enthused and inspired by Hey-Ho, to Mars We'll Go.  Maybe someone reading this book today will be on that first mission to Mars.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
4610982
this story was a good blend of science and fantasy. The description of what it's like to be on the ISS was terrific!
2697804
Light adventure. Explores organization of mind. Managing ecosystem in low gravity. Propulsion using sun in new way.  Sex relationships stretching vows.
3590914
The author shares his vision of both humankind space travel between worlds and first contact with other than earth humans in the not to distant future. His technology is a step between today and faster than light travel as presented by other writers. Very good!
3233642
What an inspiring story! The title, How to Make a Spaceship, is a bit deceiving. To some readers, it might suggest a highly technical read. In reality, there is enough technical detail to satisfy a pilot or engineer, but it is extraordinarily approachable. Its a story about perseverance, grit, intelligence, innovation, technology, risk taking, and private enterprise. Its about long odds, and refusing to give in when everyone tells you it cant be done.  Its extremely well written. The author somehow penetrates the minds of the men and women who defied all odds to accomplish a task that no one had ever done before, including the wealthiest and most powerful governments on the planet. This book will inspire the next generation to follow their dreams, defy the odds, and do the "impossible."
4565347
Fraggin aardvarks, what a good read!!  Are we earthlings actually alone in the universe?  Or, are there actual adventures, civilizations and dangers, as laid out in this trilogy? The Alien Hunters series will take you deep into space with an odd mix of friends to do what they do best!
409151
Easily one of the best space travel sci-fi novels I've read. In spite of being such a huge tome, it was so fast paced and full of action that it begged to be read in a single reading! It demonstrates how ordinary new recruits and trainees can assume the mantle of high leadership and ride crisis after crisis by applying their latent skills and critical thinking while trusting each other to do their best.
4935967
You are learning about the various parameters of spaceflight. Especially, You learn space war tactics. I wonder if I need it though... The storytelling keeps You interested to the end. Good reading to people who think like engineers or to people who are interested in engineers...
3130615
I purchased this book for my husband Tim Gagnon. What follows is his review.

In 2003 I was a Young Astronaut program Chapter Leader at an elementary school in Merritt Island. Each year we held a ceremony honoring those lost in space exploration. The last tragedy was 17 years prior and these students weren't alive in 1986. On January 31, 2003 Astronaut Brian Duffy came to speak to the students. He said in part, the astronauts and cosmonauts you honor today died doing what they loved. They would all want exploration to continue. There are ten people in space right now doing just that and seven will land here at KSC tomorrow. They didnt.

Bringing Columbia Home tells the heartbreaking story of the loss of Columbia and her crew and the heartwarming story of the thousands of people who came together to recover them and their ship. Many of my friends work at KSC and helped in the recovery and reconstruction. I was able to join them on a Saturday morning to tour the reconstruction hangar. It was as if I was attending a wake of a loved one. Seeing the amount of debris collected made very clear the work of the searchers in a Texas and Louisiana.
Now with the release of this book, the world will come to understand as well. Bringing Columbia Home is a must read. Thank you Mike Leinbach and Jonathon Ward for bringing this story to light.
2623702
Not your typical sci-fi story; stays close to home (all of the action occurs on a moon of Jupiter) and the characters are all human.  A very diverse group of humans (in terms of cultures, religions, etc.) and the author was extremely respectful of all our differences!  The personalities were distinct, well-written, and you cared about their predicaments.  There was action and suspense, but really this was more about people, and how they cope with prolonged stressful situations.  I enjoyed it tremendously, and you can't go wrong for the price.