A riveting book by two of the greatest Science Fiction writers
358629
A riveting book by two of the greatest Science Fiction writers.  It is hard to put down.  I read it every night until I could not keep my opened!
801148
The fact that the late Dr Robert Forward was a geniune physicist didn't prevent him writing a vivid, exciting science fiction novel. While still reading it, it moved to the top of my scifi list along with a few others.

While it seems that Forward's principal agenda was to teach us about neutron stars, I think his greatest gift in this book was to make the neutron star creatures seem real, and to make them recognizable by employing familiar biological and historical processes. Because their evolution is accelerated relative to ours, we get to watch many generations of the creatures. Their evolution enlightens us about our evolution.

In my opinion, this is one of scifi's greatest novels. It's too bad I discovered it shortly after Dr Forward's death. When he lived, he often made appearances at my favorite local bookstore which I never attended. Oh well. This book is all I need to know of him in order to admire him.
110399
With an exquisite blend of adventure, suspense, philosophy, and alien encounters, this futuristic novel is perfect for science fiction lovers of most reading levels.  Orson Scott Card is a wonderful author, and displays many creative ideas in his writing, adding just enough true science to make it believable.  The detailed plot and slightly different way of thinking are gripping, and most readers have trouble putting it down.  Surprisingly, the readers who enjoy this the least seem to be adults, especially teachers and guidance counselors.  Supposedly, this is because they have trouble thinking of children as mature thinkers, especially as young as those portrayed in this book.
562219
I was impressed with authors Leland Lydeckers Necrotic City Many times writers of science fiction put so much tech in it rolls readers eyes back trying to decipher the meaning, or they gloss over the details making the tech almost magical in their descriptions. You get none of that with Necrotic City. Set in a foreseeable future where your worth to the company sets your worth to the world, the book takes the reader on an exploration of what it means to be human.

I highly suggest this book.
3675352
One of the very best sci-fi works I have ever read.  Other reviewers have likened this author's writing with Heinlein, and I would say that this is a very apt comparison.  He is somewhat less flippant in style than Heinlein, but still very witty and twice as thought provoking.  His skill as a writer is superb, and of the two, I would have to say that I prefer Porretto.  Heinlein's genius shows through primarily through his characters' witticisms, while for Porretto it is in character development and plot -- a much more satisfying experience, in my opinion, and much more difficult to pull off as a writer.

Which Art In Hope is probably his best work if you ask me, though others seem more inclined to cleave to the Realm of Essences series.  All of them are well worth the read.  Which Art In Hope is a story of exiled humans forced to leave Earth and begin life on another planet, who then find themselves once again embroiled in conflict -- this time, with the planet itself.  The plot explores themes of liberty, human society, and religion, and left this reader asking himself what it really means to be free.

This book was on my mind long after I had finished reading it, and is one of those books one feels compelled to read over and over, with new meanings to find each time.

Highly recommend.
2767850
A great read from a prolific author who has changed our times.  I appreciated his historical overview of Science Fiction and Fantasy in the preface.  There are so many elements of good story telling in this book that I understand it is used in many university Writing classes.  The ending is especially strong and should not be missed.
4815790
A dedicated and gifted writer who has a great deal of technical knowledge that he presents in an exciting and thought-provoking manner. There were some very clever ideas and plot twists that kept me reading. As the author of my recently published "The Mars Experiment" and having done a great deal of research for my own book I can well appreciate the time and trouble that John Dreese took in the writing of this excellent science fiction story. I recommend it heartily. It's a great read!
802898
Arthur clarke is a master storyteller. He weaves a plot thats a little hard to guess and keeps the reader guessing as to whats coming. Its hard to predict the direction of the story to the point of wondering whether the author is meandering about. But that's by design. Its difficult to discuss anything in the book without giving something away. It is surely a 'should read' and the four stars is only against the author's own other works.
Arthur clarke continues to be my favourite science fiction writer. One last thing, this book reads like it was written a few years ago at best. It was written in the 1954!
2669881
Frederik Pohl has done a fantastic job of assembling this collection of material.  Himself one of the first 15 SFWA grand masters, Pohl's personal reflections on each of these authors are worth the purchase price by  themselves.
For each writer, Pohl has selected at least one seminal gem  from their body of work, and at least one neglected treasure, with  additional pieces that show the tremendous range each of these authors  was/is capable of.
Although most of Heinlein's fiction is still in print,  these days it can be hard to find the work of these other Grand Masters,  especially the older material.  That makes this volume especially  valuable.
For myself, Clifford Simak and Fritz Leiber are two of my  all-time favorite writers, and I am happy to see there work exposed to a  new generation of readers, especially in this context.  Both the Science  Fiction Writers of America and Frederik Pohl should be applauded for this  worthy tribute.
3587998
The alien characters come to the fore in this sequel to "Forging Zero." We get deeper into their origins, customs, feuds (fraternal and inter-species) with passion, humor and surprise.

I was not as breathless at the end as I was at the end of the first book, but I definitely want more.  The list of novels and stories at the end of the book promise many, many hours of intense thoughtful writing about a complex future in which Humans are not always the central actors.

By all means acquire and read this book. It is a worthy permanent member to a good science fiction collection.
3839847
Robert Heinlein is one of the legends of science fiction for a simple reason:  he was a masterful storyteller.  There have been finer prose stylists, and a few sf writers have crafted novels of greater power than Heinlein's, but rare are the authors who have so consistently grabbed a reader and commanded rapt attention from the first scene to the last, in novel after novel.  Double Star isn't one of Heinlein's best novels, but it was good enough to win a Hugo, Heinlein's first.

Spaceman Dak Broadbent hires Lornzo Smythe to impersonate a man.  Although Lorenzo is a talented actor (just ask him!), he is more of a con artist than an accomplished thespian.  Before Dak can explain the role, Dak and Lorenzo are fleeing, having killed a Martian and a human during a shootout.  The individual Lorenzo is to impersonate turns out to an important politician -- important to Earth's relationship with Mars and to the Expansionist Party's future.  As you would expect in politics, betrayal motivated by unrealized ambition threatens exposure of Dak's scheme.  Can Lorenzo get away with it?  That's the question that drives the plot and captivates the reader.

If we're confident today that there are no Martians on Mars, it's still fun to imagine the future as Heinlein saw it:  a colonized moon and outer planets, space yachts, the strange customs of Martians and Venusians, and all the other trappings of 1950s science fiction that Heinlein helped create.  It is a future that his characters, who are living in it, naturally take for granted -- unlike some current, ego-driven sf authors who can't resist bogging down their narratives with detailed descriptions of the technological advances they envision.

Heinlein, of course, loved to pontificate, and Lorenzo's crash course in politics gave Heinlein a chance to opine on a variety of topics, from philosophy to moral instruction, from economics to political equality.  Not surprisingly, the freedom-heavy political model that Lorenzo adopts mirrors Heinlein's own:  free trade, free travel, a minimalist approach to lawmaking, the primacy of the individual (balanced by the individual's understanding that functioning communities require self-sacrifice).  Yet Heinlein's gift was his ability to put story first.  His characters pontificate because, in the context of the story, it's the natural thing for them to do.  Their opinions never get in the way of the story; in fact, they often advance it.  Heinlein always managed to convey heavy opinions with a light touch, a technique that few authors have managed with such skill.

Politics, Lorenzo learns, is a game often suited to dirty players, but what if an election is based on a hoax?  Yes, I know, conspiracy theorists and party hacks are always claiming elections are based on hoaxes, making Double Star a novel that will always be timely.  But is it a great novel?  Double Star is an entertaining send-up of politics, making the point in stark terms that great politicians are great actors, that the difference between performance and reality is often blurred to obscurity, but the novel lacks the depth of Heinlein's best work.  The ending is a little too obvious, a little too easy.  Even second-tier Heinlein, though, is a better read than most authors can manage.  Double Star is an unpadded novel written in a breezy, fast-moving style.  More than a half century after it was written, it is a novel that both sf fans and readers of political fiction can continue to enjoy.
3762115
I have just spent my Sunday reading Time Future and Time Past. Suffice to say, as soon as I finished the first, I went straight onto the second.  Both books are unputdownable.  The writing style is sufficiently skilled so that you don't notice what she's up to.  I was thoroughly sucked in at the outset, and spat out at the end!
Basically Time Future is set on a space station in the near future, narrated by an extremely sympathetic character. The story is set around a series of mysteries, the unravelling of which progress the plot, and lead to more rivetting questions. McAurthur offers us a great plot, great characterisation (of main and minor characters), well thought out aliens, technology, and speculative ideas - both scientific and socio/political.
Some people turn up from 100 years in the past, just after alien intervention, so there is a nice juxtaposition of the views of the contemporary narrator and the time travellors, who come from a time in our near future. This is further juxtaposed with the view of the reader of 2002 so in reading it we re-experience our own views of our place in the world, and contemporary issues such as poverty, the environment, refugees, and political instability and State responsibility. It is all so delightfully and subtly done that the experience is part of the pleasure of these books, not an impediment.
This is superior stuff. I wish she'd hurry up and write another one. Those who like early Heinlein, Bujold, Julian May, Nancy Kress and the like will love this.
787790
A fascinating story bordering on science fiction, but not quite.  The author does a great job of intertwining two stories in totally different time periods.  I would highly recommend the good both for its writing style and the story it tells.
4089485
There's no question that Isaac Asimov is one of the great sci-fi writers of all time.  Published in 1951, Pebble in the Sky, Asimov's first novel, reminds us of his greatness and iconic influence on the genre, and makes me want to revisit his other, more famous books.

The story opens with Joseph Schwartz, a twentieth century everyman, suddenly transported thousands of years into the future due to an accident at a nearby nuclear laboratory.  In the future in which he finds himself, Earth is a "pebble in the sky," an insignificant backwater in the Galactic Empire.  Now the political and cultural centers of the Empire are light years away and the Earth is a radioactive, post-nuclear wasteland, with only isolated inhabitable portions.  The catch is that the Earth is actually the cradle of humanity, but no one really knows that.

Schwartz arrives in the 9th century of the Galactic Era at a crucial moment.  The leaders of earth are plotting revenge on the rest of the empire, and it's up to Schwartz, an Earth scientist, and an archeologist from another planet to thwart the plot.  Pebble in the Sky has all the characters and elements necessary for pulp sci-fi: the everyman hero, the hand-wringing megalomaniac with the plot to take over the galaxy (you can almost hear the evil laugh), the almost believable technological advances, the brilliant scientist who is taken advantage of by the evil plotters, his beautiful daughter/assistant, and the famous outsider who sets aside his prejudice and takes the side of the underdogs.

This is a fun, fast-moving story with lots of coincidences to tie the people and events together.  But more than that, it reveals Asimov's prophetic insights in culture, technology, and history.  Some of his insights are dead on, like the readers they use instead of books.  However, they put spools into the readers; Asimov didn't anticipate the memory capacity of today's devices.  As prolific as he was, we could fit everything he ever wrote on an ipod.

I particularly liked the portrayal of discrimination against Earthmen.  Earth was isolated and looked down upon by the rest of the galaxy as filthy and detestable.  I imagine the same kinds of attitudes as the English held toward some of their colonies, or as whites toward blacks.  Writing in the early 1950s, before the civil rights movement took hold, I wonder if Asimov's message was noted; it must have been at least a little controversial in some circles.

This is truly a classic.  Sci-fi lovers shouldn't miss it.
1096741
The author presents a grand overview, and interlink, with learned conjecture of the best ilk, of the lives of four great men of science.

This book follows the unbelievably intertwined lives, for almost sixty years, of a number of the brightest and best pursuers of knowledge in the United Kingdom, and, perhaps, most of the world.  Charles Babbage, John Herschel, William Whewell and Richard Jones were drawn together while attending college.  They were, typically for their era, somewhat a group of young college "hell-raisers."  That would be, excluding, the fact that these four students and scientists, and their friends and associates, had among them about half of the brain power of the entire planet, at the time.

Among them, they developed the first computer, and the first "software", mapped  the stars of the southern hemisphere, created the very word "scientist", created a new and towering method of conducting science and helped invert modern photography.  A stunning array of other innovations dropped around the world almost as casual afterthought to their primary concerns.

The only thing that was bothersome was that their enemies, real or imagined, had most of the other half.

The list of their goals and achievements, their contribution to science (including coining the word "scientist"), their struggles, their failures, their private and public lives makes a fascinating "read."

Laura Snyder, the author, is a Fulbright scholar, past president of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, and, associate professor of philosophy at St. John's University  She has woven a marvelous narrative that reads, very technically, but, yet, like an adventure story.

We follow the main protagonists and the people that they encounter on their journey, from Davies Gilbert to Ada Lovelace.  From Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Benjamin Disaeli to Fakers and the Queen (Victoria).  And a stunning cast of hundreds of the great minds of many centuries.

I enjoyed this ride (or read) and I heartily recommend this book to all with an interest in science and/or the history of the Victorian Era in Great Britain.  Immersion in this work is near the same as actually being present in the time and space described.

I could only wish that someone of this author's stature would write a book about Paris and La Belle Epoque!

<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Philosophical-Breakfast-Club-Four-Remarkable-Friends-Who-Transformed-Science-and-Changed-the-World/dp/0767930495/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World</a>
4769080
I could not put this book down.  Without a doubt, this is one the greatest books I have ever read.  It combines science fiction, fantasy, action, suspense, and a little bit of psychology into a great package.  Crichton does an unbelievable job with this book.
Basically, a weird type of ship is found on the bottom of the floor.  Is it an alien ship?  Is it human?  Who knows?  What secrets does it possess?  Oh, it has quite a bit of excitement though.  I could not give away anything else without giving away the plot, and I wouldn't dare.
I started this book on a Sunday afternoon, and finished it on a Sunday night.  I skipped laundry, I skipped dinner - heck, I even skipped the Simpsons.  The only flaw I could find in this book was that it was too good, and I couldn't put it away.
I've never seen the movie, nor would I want to, because no movie could do this book justice.  I highly recommend skipping the movie and go straight to the book.  In fact, I'm going to stop the review so you can order the book now.
2488
Never having read PD James before, all I can say is that this book is an absolute masterpiece. James' writing is concise . Her characters and the world she creates are reasonable and, unfortunately, plausible, a trait that is rarely present in fiction, let alone science fiction. The characters are never above being human and are sympathetic even when they are opposed to each other because they act according to the situations that are presented to them.

While they are different, there are some similarities between the book and the movie. Each address many modern-day problems, such as immigration, increasingly totalitarian states, health crisis, and even assisted suicide. Both the book and the movie are very relevant, another important trait in fiction. Each can stand alone.

Although it doesn't touch very many typical science fiction themes, this book is one of the top science fiction novels of all time, if not one of the best of any genre.