Question What are you reading?

[Andy44]

Just finished The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.

This is a great counterweight to Heinlein's Starship Troopers, as it's about a war with aliens and involves many Heinleinian elements, such as powered armor suits and an elite infantry force.

But Haldeman wrote this book just after returning from service in Vietnam, where he was wounded in action. His take on war is definitely colored by his experience.

The story is about a man who is drafted in the 1990s (future for 1974) to fight aliens that nobody has ever seen personally. All that is known is that a UN spaceship exploring another star system was destroyed by them. Due to relativistic effects, the man serves less than ten years in service, but the Earth ages centuries. Every time he meets somebody from "home" he realizes how much he no longer fits into society. The service is brutal, and the chances of surviving are less than 30%. The army owns you, and there is no recognizable home to go back to when you get out. Very post-Vietnam indeed.

It's a great story, a real page-turner, and I burned through it in a few days. I read the last quarter of it this afternoon. Highly recommend.

---------- Post added at 09:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:45 PM ----------

BTW, check out my blog for my running list of must-have SF books.

 

[ex-orbinaut]

Hey! Another Bucky fan!....

Sorry for the very late acknowledgement to your post, cljohnston! "Bucky" IS good reading. I tried to locate that book for ages...

Who liked the film "300"? Here's the first account ever written about it...

http://www.parstimes.com/history/herodotus/persian_wars/

Surprisingly easy to read, enthralling, source history translation. Histories of Medes, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Scythians (who sound like the "Hell's Angels" of their day!), Babylonians, and more, from who was probably the world's first pro-journalist, Herodotus. All 9 of his books are here.

Orbinauts would find his "escapades" in science (eg. his theories on the Sun) particularly hilarious.

 

[SilvaHeed]

I've just finished a wonderful book I'd received for my Birthday called "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. It's an unusually written book about a little girl living with foster parents in Germany during the war. It's unusual in the fact a lot of it's narrated by Death himself! I've never had a book to choke me up so much at the end. I'm glad I finished it alone or I would have received some strange looks!

I've also finished my latest non-fiction read, "The Ancestor's Tale" by Richard Dawkins. I've read some books on evolution, but this one was enjoyable in the fact it worked backwards through evolution from Man to the earliest life. It helped explain that evolution wasn't working toward any particular goal and that there was no "inevitability" in evolution giving rise to Us. More a case of "how did we get to Us" rather than "how do we get to Us", an important difference.

Both books are heartily recommended. :speakcool:

 

[Ark]

Just worked my way through Stephen Baxter's "Voyage" again. I've got an Orson Scott Card book and a Brian Keene book outstanding, probably start on one of those tonight.

 

[Brycesv1]

im on the 11th book in the wheel of time series

 

[tblaxland]

im on the 11th book in the wheel of time series

Hopefully we will not have to wait too long for the next book in that series.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I just started "The Sharp End" by David Drake, as far as I know it is the last of the "Hammer's Slammers" books left for me to read.
I've recently finished "the Devil's Eye" by Jack McDevitt. And if you like goofy horror try "Breathers" it's a zombie book, told from a zombie perspective. It's got some funny lines in it.

 

[Andy44]

I have one of those Zombie Survival Guide books. Pretty funny. But seriously, it's an important book. They're coming some day soon, I can feel it.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

I'm just about done with all my astronaut autobiographies, plus I recently ordered and read a manual about the Hubble Space Telescope, and a book about the many different ways mankind could land on and sustain a base on the Moon & Mars using the Constellation program.

So now I need a new book.

I'm going to order Astronaut Jerry Linenger's autobiography, "Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir". Linenger flew a 6 month Mir mission, where he conducted EVA's and experiments. He was also on board Mir during the famous fire. So I'm hoping it will be a good read (it should be for the price)!
[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Off-Planet-Surviving-Perilous-Station/dp/007137230X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1238366776&sr=1-3"]Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir: Jerry M. Linenger: Amazon.co.uk: Books[/ame]


Also I will order Astronaut Story Musgrave's new book, "Nasa Northrop T-38: Photographic Art from An Astronaut Pilot". The book is simply photography of the T-38 by Musgrave, but some of the shot's look amazing!
[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nasa-Northrop-T-38-Photographic-Astronaut/dp/0975187325/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242209644&sr=8-6"]Nasa Northrop T-38: Photographic Art from An Astronaut Pilot: Anne Lenehan: Amazon.co.uk: Books[/ame]


I'm also considering ordering "Columbia: Final Voyage".
[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Columbia-Final-Voyage-Philip-Chien/dp/0387271481/ref=pd_sim_b_1"]Columbia: Final Voyage: Philip Chien: Amazon.co.uk: Books[/ame]

However, I might save this until another time - I'm running out of funds here!!!

 

[bujin]

University Physics - Young & Freedman

Ok, I know it's a few months late, but oooh, which edition? Brings back memories, that one... :lol:

I never got around to finishing The Ancestors Tale (Dawkins). Got to near the end (or the beginning, depending on which way you look at it), but too many other things kept cropping up.

I've just finished "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry Coyne, and I'm onto "Unweaving The Rainbow" by Richard Dawkins, with "Climbing Mount Improbable" (also Dawkins) waiting its turn patiently on my bookshelf.

I'm also reading WPF Unleashed (Adam Nathan), Sams Teach Yourself WPF (Rob Eisenberg & Christopher Bennage), and various other books on WPF, Visual Basic, Visual C# and LINQ.

 

[Andy44]

I recently read some short stories by Franz Kafka: The Stoker and The Metamorphosis. Pretty odd stuff, and very thoughtful.

I'm currently reading an anthology of H.P. Lovecraft stories dealing with dreams and nightmares. I've never read Lovecraft before; but I heard it was the best horror and the cover art (by John Jude Palencar, google him) is very attractive (read: horrifying). So far, it is pretty creepy. The forward says that Lovecraft was, in addition to being a good writer and almost insane, a racist. So far in the first few stories, he has put down Eskimos (not PC) and Appalacian hill folk (PC).

 

[Linguofreak]

in addition to being a good writer and almost insane,

Almost?

Even from the little I know of Lovecraft, there is no "almost".

 

[Star Voyager]

I am currently reading "3001: The Final Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke (yes, I have seen the movies and read the books). Very interesting to read about someone other than Dave Bowman after 1000 years...Also, I have been reading various astronaut bios and autobios, along with Alexei Leonov's. But the best book I have read so far is "Back to the Moon" by Homer Hickham. It's about a guy who "technically" steals and modifies Space Shuttle Columbia to go to the Moon. That would make a great addon, come to think of it...

Speaking of alternate space history, do any of you have any recommendations?

 

[destinos]

Just finished Solaris by S. Lem. It gets wrapped up in philosophy at times, which is fine with me but I didn't find the problems it posed all that troubling or interesting. I had no real trouble with the idea that these phantoms or copies or whatever you want to call them, are human minds imprinted with partial memories of someone who once lived on earth, but are not themselves the same person. Has anyone else read it?

 

[Kveldulf]

Just finished EVE: The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzalez, which is the first novel in the EVE: Online universe. Good storyline, but it gets a little confusing at times (the story hops between several settings, and tends to make the jump rather abruptly), some of the characters get written off a little easily, and the ending is... well I dont get it.

Now that I'm done with it, I'm probably gonna pick back up Njal's Saga, and try and find where I left off.

 

[Andy44]

Working my way through Phillip K. Dick anthologu of short stories. I swear half the sci fi movies I've seen are adapted from Dick's stories. Shame he didn't live to collect all the royalties.

 

[computerex]

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad...Amazing book.

 

[Arrowstar]

Just finished Skywalking: An Astronaut's Memoir by Tom Jones. Fantastic book, I loved the commentary. Highly recommended to anyone who wants an insider look at the astronaut corp of the 1990s.

 

[Andy44]

Just finished Skywalking: An Astronaut's Memoir by Tom Jones. Fantastic book, I loved the commentary. Highly recommended to anyone who wants an insider look at the astronaut corp of the 1990s.

I read that book right after I read Mullane's book, and I found Jones to be a bit pale compared to Mullane's colorfulness. Where Mullane had no problem calling out names and telling it the way he saw it, Jones seemed to be holding back to keep the peace, never mentioning any of the problems with the astronaut office Mullane wrote about.

But it was a good read, nonetheless, for the story about the 90s and the beginnings of the ISS.

 

[Arrowstar]

Andy: You have a title for that book handy? I'll go look it up.