Silver age action-adventure conspiracy sci-fi on a desolate moon of Saturn
583788
Action adventure conspiracy sci-fi. On the hell hole of a frozen Saturn moon a decommissioned prison colony of miners extract a rare mineral essential for space flight. Disgruntled rebellious miners are willing to die rather than continue to be exploited by the Earth. An Earth official and his teenage son travel to the moon. While the leader of the colony struggles against resentment by engaging in diplomacy with the Earth official, the sons of these two men forge a friendship which ultimately puts the two elders in their place as stubborn mules. The ending has a happy-ever-after feel as the rebels' secret of escape is revealed only to be replaced by a legitimate exploration party. Vintage silver-age action-adventure sci-fi, easy to read, short (under 200 pages).
3375655
Mans ecological crimes have caught up with Earth. Rome flooded, drowning much of its population. Earthquakes, tsunami, and rising sea levels have devastated much of the rest of the world, and millions of people live in ruins or as refugees. But there is hope. Scientists and politicians from across the world have united to pursue a massive dream the terraforming and human settlement of Jupiters moon, Europa.
From across the world, twenty-four teens are drafted as prospective settlers. Six will be selected and the others left behind. Among those drafted are Leo, an Italian swimmer from the drowned city of Rome; Naomi, an American science genius whose motivation is to save her sick brother; and Beckett, nephew to the President of the US, and also a swimmer. To these twenty-four teens, the voyage to Europa is their last hope. Pressure to be selected to the final six is high high enough, perhaps to drive some to take risks and others to take steps to eliminate the competition. Naomi, however, is more torn. Unlike the others, she doesnt especially want to head to Europa. She wants to stay on Earth and work on Earths problems especially her brothers health issues, here at home. As she and Leo develop a relationship, Naomi is torn between her desire to stay with Leo and her need to help her brother. Leo, on the other hand, has no doubtshes going to Europa. Drowned Rome holds nothing but memories of his dead family for him. But can he go without Naomi? Becketts motivations are more mysterious. Why does he seem to resent his President/uncle when its clear that his selection to the program is based on nepotism rather than pure talent? It seems that theres something deeper going on.

Author Alexandra Monir creates an intriguing near-future world and a compelling challenge for her teens along with a romantic subplot that many readers will enjoy. The mystery of whether Naomis beloved space conspiracy website is right about the existence of intelligent life on Europa adds to the suspense. With the visual appeal of a futuristic space training center as the primary setting, it isn't a surprise that THE FINAL SIX has been optioned for Hollywood. Monirs prose is strong, making this a hard book to put down, and the characters will appeal to both teen and adult readers with their emotional investment in the future and the losses theyve suffered in the past.

I did have some problems with the story premise and with some of the characters. I liked the warning aspect as the consequences of our environmental actions leads to grave risk to Earth and the parallels between the exploration/exploitation of Europa regardless of any intelligent life there to the exploration and exploitation of the Americas by Europeans regardless of the native inhabitants.

On the other hand, while the plot line of a few chosen people being forced to flee a dying Earth is an established one in Science Fiction I found it unconvincing here. Would all of humanity really unite around the goal of saving humanity by terraforming Europa without at least some discussion of whether we shouldnt terraform Earth first? Clearly Europa can only be home to a few of Earths billions. Its hard to believe that many wouldnt argue that efforts should, instea, be put into putting Earth back to rights rather than abandoning the solar systems most Earthlike planet for a distant ice-covered moon regardless of the morality and risks of taking on possible intelligent life there. Then there is the problem of Beckett. I kept thinking that Monir was creating complexity in this young man for a reason that he would become something more than a stereotypical bully. Perhaps in a sequel, Beckett will become a protagonist and hero and well be able to understand more about his motivations. Here, however, those hints at character complexity seem tacked on, without really impacting the story or the characters.

Overall, I enjoyed this story and seeing Naomi, in particular, attempt to deal with her emotional attachments to family and to Leo in the context of a looming space adventure.
67863
Second Contact by Mike Resnick has a fascinating premise:  A space captain on trial for murdering his own crewmen because he believed they were aliens.  After that's set up, the rest of the novel reads more like a contemporary political thriller than science fiction, as Becker, the officer assigned to defend the Captain, runs into dead ends with disappearing witnesses.  Pursuing every lead with the help of a computer whiz, Becker incurs the wrath of a conspiracy that seems to involve aliens, like something you'd see on the X-Files or The Invaders.  The computer technology described probably seemed futuristic when this was written, but seems ordinary now, though the story is still set about 50 years in the future from now.  The suspense kept the pages turning.  In the end everything is explained and mostly wrapped up.
334465
Collision Course is a captivating short (under 200 pages) novel by Robert Silverberg. According to Silverberg's introduction in the book, it was written in November 1958 and was first published in Amazing Stories, which at the time published short novels complete in one issue. In 1961, Ace Books published a paperback edition, which is the edition I have had on my book shelves for many years waiting to be read. In the year 2780 Earthlings had just developed a faster-than-light space vessel that had carried humans out of our solar system for the first time. The crew of that successful voyage of over ninety-eight hundred light-years discovered aliens for the first time. In addition, these aliens were colonizing planets, just as Earthlings planned to do. The Archonate, which consists of thirteen men who rule Earth and her network of dependent worlds, sends a team of envoys to negotiate a treaty defining which planets the Earth could colonize and which planets the aliens (Norglans) could colonize. Unfortunately, those negotiations do not go well for Earth, and it appears that a war between Earth and Norglan is inevitable. However, on their way back to Earth, the envoys discover that there is more to worry about then the unique and threatening Norglans. In addition, both the governments of Earth and Norglan are revealed to be unrighteous. However, each of the characters in the human team of negotiators and their flight crew are presented in a very personal and interesting way as they struggle with each other and with the aliens. I respected them, and even liked them. I was totally surprised by how much I liked this novel. I should have read it long ago, and I especially recommend it for any science fiction fan.
4877579
A science fiction novel from 1909, this was an action-packed companion on my daily train rides to and from work, a good example of the way imagination and scientific facts (as they were known then) were combined to produce a thrilling story.

The author, Garrett Putnam Serviss (1851-1929), was an American astronomer who produced more scientific publications than works of fiction. He promoted astronomy whereever and whenever he could, and so it is little wonder that he used his talent for explaining scientific facts to ordinary readers for this purpose.

A group of friends travel to Venus in a "car" (the author deliberately avoids calling it a ship) constructed by one of their number, a scientist with a brilliant mind, who - like the author himself - has always been explaining scientific and other complicated facts to his lesser gifted friends. The car runs on nuclear power, and their aim is Venus, because their guide is certain of the planet's habitability.

The description of the inside of the car must be a delight to any Steampunk aficionado out there: comfortable benches upholstered in leather, brass knobs and handles, metal buttons and grills in front of small mouth-shaped openings for the air conditioning, a store of food, tobacco and wine to keep the friends sustained during their voyage, and so on.

At that time, Venus was still thought to rotate in a way that it would always show the same hemisphere to the sun, making it a planet divided into one half of eternal darkness and one of eternal sunshine. That is what the friends find, and of course the inhabitants of the two sides differ accordingly.

They arrive on the dark side, and have some adventures there; but the larger and more adventurous part of the story takes place on the sun side, where they venture later. After having crossed crystal mountains and vast stormy oceans, they reach the land of a people of such a high degree of civilization that spoken language has almost completely been replaced by telepathy. Of course, the scientific leader of the group does not take long to learn that language, and makes many astonishing discoveries.

The adventure wouldn't be an adventure if there wasn't some element of danger, and so the friends soon find they have unwittingly made an enemy who does not rest until he has them nearly destroyed. During their flight, more creatures of the planet are encountered, some of them very terrible and dangerous.

Several times, without wanting it, the friends become responsible for the loss of life on both sides of the planet - a fact they deeply regret. They have not set out to conquer, but to investigate and to satisfy their scientific curiosity, but they bring death and bloodshed, even making their leader exclaim he wished he had never brought them on this voyage.

Eventually, though, the group manages to make their way back to Earth. The story ends on a "mysterious" note: while the others all more or less resume their former lives after about two years of absence, the leader and his car disappear after a little while, and are never heard of again.

I like the way the author describes the landscapes, buildings and inhabitants of Venus, and how he never makes out that humans are superior to anything and anyone, but can learn from others, if they are open-minded.
1740230
SM has written  SyFy novel of a warrior who was deemed for death and rebirth. He becomes an alleged enemy of Earth. He is not. He is trapped on a planet at the end of the Wormhole. A war begins between four different races. This is an excellent read for the genre..... ER
4802485
A fast paced old school space adventure, fun but with thoughtful turns of events that surprise your expectations. Clearly the authorhas thought out many details of how his setting works, but then pared down to only those that are really necessary to advance his story. The focus is on the action and the insights into the characters and not a showcase for a setting that sees action and characters as an afterthought, like more than a few SF stories I've run across lately. The hero is an ordinary guy who ends up doing extraordinary things, not easy to pull off in any genre, and to my mind especially difficult in SF, but Mollison makes it work. The princess is worthy of the title but as plausible as the ordinary hero. A fun and fast read, but still thoughtful enough to have you thinking about it days afterward. Defintely worth adding to you shelf of books, physical or digital. Looking forward to more from Mollison, and perhaps more books in the same setting. I'm not sure a sequel to this would work but the setting looks to me to have room for more stories. Thanks for an excellent story Mr. Mollison!
2940979
The central focus of Neil Blomkamp's "Elysium" - the idea of a gated and walled habitat exclusively for the elite - is a fairly common theme in science fiction; and particularly reminiscent of George A. Romero's "Land of the Dead," to name just one film.  But it's Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" that casts the archetype of an elite city in the sky; Laputa (The Whore) serves as the ultimate policing mechanism of those below by functioning as a giant cloud cover that can move from place to place to block out the sun and ruin the crops of anyone who disobeys its edicts.  Though the satellite city of Elysium is too far removed to physically affect anything on earth, it nevertheless manages to control almost every aspect of earthly existence.  It employs an army of robots to police earth; uses whatever terrestrial manpower it needs for its commercial enterprises; and, most egregiously, denies a health care system almost akin to immortality to the people of earth.

There are elements of Paul Verheuven's "Robocop" - even of Star Trek's "The Borg" - as Max (Matt Damon) allows himself to be hard-wired with some of the robotic parts the company he works for manufactures.  This he does to try and save his own life, after being exposed to a lethal dose of radiation; as well as the life of his childhood sweetheart's daughter.  His robotic exo-skeleton, besides giving him the strength to carry out his mission even as the radiation is slowly killing him, assists him when he comes up against Kruger (Sharlto Copley), a psychopath employed as an undercover agent working for Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) on earth.  Kruger discovers a way to make Elysium his private kingdom by retrieving all the data Max had extracted from an industrialist via a mind patch - all of which has been set in motion by Secretary Delacourt's obsession with maintaining Elysium's absolute security.

The movie starts off slow, with numerous flashbacks to Max's childhood, and builds to its climax as Max slowly evolves from a man simply trying to survive in an almost impossible world to a rebel determined to change the scope of that world.  Max's first encounter with Kruger sets in motion a chain of non-stop action which takes them both from earth to Elysium, leading to Max's final encounter with a robotic clad Kruger. The action, as noted, is virtually non-stop once it finally begins; the effects, as expected, are superior; the writing, direction and acting are excellent for this kind of story.

A number of reviewers see a political agenda where there is only the inevitable conflict between "haves" and "have-nots."  And, incredibly, some reviewers even see "Elysium" as some kind of endorsement of "Obamacare" - as if the idea of providing health care to everyone sprang full-blown from the mind of one politician.  Beyond that rather simplistic view, it absolutely boggles the mind to think there are those who would resent making health care available to everyone; it may be an impossibility but it's certainly not an evil plot.  Imagining you can insulate yourself from the rest of the world and hoard your health care ceased being even remotely possible in the Middle Ages when the Plague found its way to Europe and wiped out a third of the population.  Being exposed to other cultures is the price of commerce, whether it's on Elysium or in the real world.  Exploiting resources and human labor inevitably invites unexpected and unwanted consequences against which there is, as "Elysium" demonstrates, no defense.
384766
This futuristic science fiction e-book novel is exciting, suspenseful, and sometimes humorous. The characters are interesting and finely drawn. Retired secret service agent Heath, a human, tries to buy a seat on a space transport and discovers that someone has bought all of the seats. Cassie, an attractive human female, who is much younger than Heath, who is standing in behind him in the ticket line, offers him her extra ticket. Heath want to visit the planet to which the transport is traveling to find out what happened to the vanished peaceful Tobrii race. They disappeared without a trace. The waiting room is filled with diverse beings from many planets. One race, for example, is comprised of people with two personalities that sometimes argue with each other. Another race is made up of people with no hearts. Each being must consciously move its blood about its body. This race is unable to sleep, for if it became unconscious it would be unable to move its blood about and would die. Entering the spaceship, Heath discovers that there are only seven passengers on board and two crewmembers. Why did someone want the ship to carry so few passengers?

 The tourists examine the Tobrii ruins. Some Tobrii articles are found. They hear a scream and find that the spaceship pilot has been disintegrated to dust. Now they are stranded until a new tourist ship arrives, but, in the interval, more of the nine people are disintegrated.

 What is happening, how is it happening, and why? Also, what happened in the past to the Tobrii, how, and why? Is there a relationship between the current and the past events? If yes, why is it happening now; tourists have visited the planet for decades without any adverse incident? The answers to these questions are unusual and unexpected.
2948290
A team of scientists has gone to Titan, Saturn's largest moon,  to study alien structures that were abandoned thousands of years ago. Nobody can figure out what the function of them is, except that they are machines, and that they are still operational after millenia. Dr. Sydney Lee has a gut feeling that the purpose of the machines is not beneficial to humanity. In fact, he believes that the makers, known only as "The Others" have left them running in order to harm Earth. He is afraid that the aliens could come back, that they are our enemies. Feeling isolated and paranoid because nobody will believe him, at the beginning of the book he is just barely stopped from committing suicide.
Fast forward to a year later. Instead of waiting for The Others to return, the authorities on Earth have decided to send out fact finding missions to habitable star systems. Out of 40,000 candidates, only 80 will be selected to go on the missions, some of which will take years,decades even,  to fufill. After Lee checks out of a mental hospital, he is one of the few selected to go to Sirius. Going along with him is Marlene Ettinger, his former lover from the Titan mission. Although he had cut her out of his life, they are still in love, whether they want to be or not. Further complicating things is Dan O'Bannon, her current lover, who is helpless to do anything about her fixation on Lee. O'Bannon is being sent to Jupiter to look for signs of The Others.
As on a Darkling Plain had great characters. The love triangle was well done. They weren't the usual stupid sci-fi characters, which are usually the result of bad writing. The long journeys to find alien races reminded me of Haldeman's The Forever War, which actually came out about four years after this book. The only complaints I have is the implausibility of some of the alien life forms in the book. It also kinda puttered out at the end. Anti-climax. Well, it was a good book, withstanding those things.
2985979
Suspenseful, intriguing and action-packed. It has all the elements that great SF or adventure movies are made of. The harsh settings are ideal - the moon and Antarctica - for an extreme mystery, yet the book doesn't stray too far from the true nature of science. Both main characters have experienced trauma in their lives that affect their behaviour. Eventually they are able to shed the bad experiences of the past. I was pulled in from the beginning and held until a very surprising ending. Looking forward to the movie.
600975
Out Of The Silent Planet is a science fiction space adventure written in 1938, the first book of three by Lewis collectively known as the Space Trilogy. It's about a philologist (or linquist) named Ransom traveling on foot when he coincidentally meets up with an old school mate, Devine, and a brilliant scientist, Weston, who shanghai him aboard their spaceship on a long journey to another planet in the Solar system. You'll guess which planet, if you know a bit of astronomy, before it's revealed. On that planet Weston and Devine are about to hand Ransom over to some natives (aliens called Sorn) when he escapes and makes his way from the hostile plateau climate they landed in to a more habitable zone in a deep canyon where he lives among another race of aliens, the Hrossa. He discovers there is a third intelligent race on the planet and that all three groups are ruled by a spiritual leader known as Oarsa. As he seeks out this Oarsa, his captors are closing in on him.

Throughout the narrative there is much preaching about the immorality of the prospect of the human race arrogantly conquering the universe, as though the author were answering such a proposition by some other author or scientist like, perhaps, H.G. Wells.

Since it was written in the 1930s I'll compare "Out of The Silent Planet" to other sci-fi novels of that time. First, some might call it science fantasy or some other branch of literature; I won't argue with that, but can compare it only to what I've read, and for that period it's mainly sci-fi by such authors as Edward E. Smith, Jack Williamson, and A. Merritt. To give you an idea where I'm coming from, my favorite author is Robert Heinlein, who wrote "Starship Troopers" and "Space Cadet."

Smith's "The Skylark Of Space" was probably the first novel that could be called a precursor to such modern space adventures as "Star Trek" and "Star Wars," in which the heros and villain travel in interstellar spacecraft. It was written in 1911 but first published in the late 1920s. "Out Of The Silent Planet" is scientifically less believable, especially in the description of the spaceship, and less logical, but somewhat more stylish and readable than Smith's work, which, while groundbreaking, imaginative, and scientifically thought out, suffered from technically perfect but colorless style. On the other hand, Out Of The Silent Planet is not as stylish, atmoshperic, or entertaining to read as A. Merritt's novels such as "The Moon Pool," though they are even less accurate or logical. Incidentally, Jack Williamson's "Legion Of Space" novels, written a bit later than Smith's first work, are even more directly akin to "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" (Jack Williamson is, by the way, still living and still writing science fiction as of this posting). Though the first Buck Rogers novel, "Armageddon 2419 A.D." appeared in the same issue of Amazing Stories as "The Skylark of Space," it wasn't about space travel at all, just a Rip Van Winkle story.

Personally, of these I've mentioned, I prefer Smith's novels, which evoke a strong feeling of wonder and awe just from the serious treatment of the subject matter, in spite of what some may call dry style. For a little scary, atmoshperic escapism, A. Merritt's best. "Out Of The Silent Planet" is halfway between in two different ways, and I didn't find the mix very effective. Some passages seemed drawn out and pointless, the framing devices dated, and the device of the hero being kidnapped to end up in space a bit gimmicky by todays standards, even trite when it was written, but on the whole it was worth reading just to satisfy my curiousity; I don't feel the need to read the sequels now.
2325564
The first part of this novel is a throwback to the science fiction stories of the '50s to the early '70s. Big government versus the private sector science research/engineer developer of technology. The various characters are in situations where they, their backgrounds, their foibles are depicted via their reactions to events.  Because the tale takes place in the 21st century, the divergence with current events begins to show in little ways until you're invested in the lives of the characters.  Lots of politics infuse the story, at the government level  -- both international and federal -- and in the office/work place, and then you stir in conspiracy theories.
Human beings react to momentous events in different ways. Some good, some bad, most interesting.  I found the human factors realistic, although some of the characters seemed to be almost characterizations in their weaknesses.
Without divulging too much of the plot, a discovery is made around the Jovian moon Europa, and the world wants to get there.  The book really becomes most interesting when we finally board the ship heading to Europa. Unfortunately, the end of this book comes before we reach Europa, leaving us anxiously awaiting -- everything!  Pending: new revelations, new discoveries, and the future of mankind.
I received this book as an ARC for this honest review.
1861656
Really fun scifi space opera novel. It has all the good plot points a  secret company (dux) finds out about an alien  artifact on Pluto. It only comes to  light  many years later when  an ethical hacker finds the data and publishs it for anyone to see.  A space flight to  titan  a moon of  Saturn is redirected  to Pluto.  The original data on the station was discovered in an Army far seer psychic  program.

It has the varied group becoming a crew, rescuing two others from an exploding asteroid station. Hidden double  agents, romance and the geek beomes a hero because of his knowledge not  his physical strength. There even is some budding romance!
819755
This is a series of collected and historically woven stories featured by Howard Falcon, an astronaut that becomes a cyborg after an accident in the 21st century. The whole book is about Falcon's engagement with humanity and with a growing, expanding and threatening robot "race". It's a nice book for anyone that likes Clarke's (and now Baxter's) tradition of hard core sci-fi.

Throughout the book, Falcon gets to visit civilization outposts in asteroids, Saturn, Earth and Mercury. However, the core of the story is about Jupiter, where Falcon discovered intelligent life earlier in his own life. Many mysteries abound in this planet, which are somehow explored by the end of the book. Not the best, 5 stars sci-fi, but a solid work that deserves 4 stars
397599
It is the twenty-second century, and while humans have not yet reached for the stars, they have established viable colonies on the Moon and Mars and are expanding their presence throughout the Solar System.  Recognizing that a catastrophic astroid strkie on Earth is statistically likely, mankind begins to plan a response to save the planet.  When the apocalyptic astroid is discovered, Captain Singh and his crew head out to meet it, in the hopes of giving it enough of a push to miss the Earth.

With lots of emphasis on scientific details, and an interesting overview of the social and political structures of a multi-global society, this is science-fiction of a classic style.  While Clarke does try to provide some character development for Captain Singh, this story is idea and plot driven, rather than character oriented.  But for fans of hard science-fiction who like to contemplate "big" ideas, this book is packed with them.
1046996
This is only the second Hogan book that I have read.  The first, "Cradle of Saturn", dealt with somewhat bizarre scientific theories.  In this book, he again espouses alternate science theories as the basis of his story.
However, The science fiction is ancillary to the story.  Hogan wrote a story of intrigue and suspense.  The Hyadeans did not have be aliens for the book to work because the plot doesn't hinge on the alien issue.  Rather, the book focuses on development of the action caused by conflict in cultures.
The story reminds me a lot of a Robert Ludlum plot.  Cade is the reluctant hero who experiences a life changing paradigm shift. He is thrown into a world of conflict that he refused to beleive existed.  Hogan stresses his development, not the alien presence, to create his plotline. The characterization is well thought out and developed.  However, the ending is somewhat predictable and contrived.
All in all, it's an enjoyable and easy read.