Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus

Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus by Isaac Asimov

The book starts with a 1970s apology by the author. When he wrote it in the 1950s the understanding of Venus's atmosphere was much different than it was in the 1970s. Alas, the understanding of Venus was the least of the problems with this book. The general understanding of people and supremacy of scientists also seems very dated. They thought they would have a perfect world where scientists could use objectivity to solve problems. Alas, people are still people with their own desires and opinions. Plenty of harm has been done in the name of science.

There is some strange telepathy going on. Seems that some native V-frogs have ability to control human minds. However, they are simple creatures, and it is actually a human that is using those for his own power. There is a bit of Sherlock Holmes deduction that has nothing to do with the surface of venus (but is very far fetched.)

In Ascension

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

A marine biologist explores algae that survive deep under the ocean. She is later recruited to be part of a space mission where the algae will help them to survive. The ship eventually goes back in time, maybe even seeding life on earth. The tone of the novel reminds me of the movie Oblivion. The novel spends much of the time covering the biologist and her family. It goes back to the history of Rotterdam to explore her family origin as well as details in the relationship with her parents and sister. The algae could survive but needed to merge with others to grow to help populate the earth.

The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned

The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned by John Strausbaugh

The Soviet Union built up its space program primarily by making crude copies of western technology. There focus was more on embarrassing the west than on technological innovation. They hid their failures while exaggerating their successes. They lacked some of the advanced technology, so they would over-engineer heavy machines. The program did send people to space and made celebrities out of initial cosmonauts. However, they never did get a man to the moon. After Khrushchev lost power, the USSR shifted resources away from the space race. This book is a very snarky take on the Soviet program, with an emphasis on the structural problems and ineptitude of the space program.

Planets (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 2)

Planets (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 2) by Elizabeth Carney

The books describes the various planets in the solar system, including the dwarf planets. It is interesting to see some of those dwarf planets with polynesian names. There are some nice photos of planets. It is succinct, yet has a good amount of information.

Space: Planets, Moons, Stars, and More!

Space: Planets, Moons, Stars, and More! (Step into Reading) by Joe Rhatigan, illustrated by Thomas Girard

Some kids are interested in space. Then we see descriptions of the planets and various space objects. The book is just the right length - not too verbose, but not too sparse. It also has an interesting mix of photos and drawings.

We're Not from Here

We're Not from Here by Geoff Rodkey

Earth has been made uninhabitable. A few people have made it to Mars. However, the conditions are not great. They are down to eating some bland engineered chow and living in lower oxygen. Luckily, an inhabited planet with a viable atmosphere has been identified. The various sentient species living there invite humans to come life there. The humans take a 20 year trip in stasis. However, when they arrive the government has changed and humans are no longer welcome. After much debate, the aliens let one family come on a trial basis. They have everything stacked against. The aliens do not want the humans there and run anti-human propaganda. The humans gradually learn about the aliens (such as how they show emotions through scents and that one species had been exterminated due to their horrid singing.) After some challenges, the humans are able to share art (especially music and comedy) with the aliens, overthrow the reactionary government and live peaceable on the planet. It is a lighthearted book with a somewhat dark subject matter.

The Fourth Consort: A Novel

The Fourth Consort: A Novel by Edward Ashton

A mission to space gets stranded as they encounter an alien species. They are also not the only foreigners there, as another alien race is also on a mission there. One human man becomes the fourth consort to the alien "first among equals". He also learns of domestic conflict among these creatures. There are some fights with the humans and near deaths on all sides. Eventually the man is challenged to a duel by one of the aliens. They have "spears" as weapons. He throws the spear and kills the alien. This was scene as unconventional, but no illegal. He then meets with the other alien species and decides to join them. It is an interesting exploration of alien contact as well as relationships and morals.

Where is my planet?

Where is my planet? by Chad Hicks

A girl travels through the solar system to find her planet. Using colors, she tries to identify her planet. The book combines illustrations with NASA photographs to produce an interplanetary story reminiscent of Are You My Mother?

Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

A man wakes up without knowledge of who he is or what he is doing. His memories gradually filer back in bits. The story unravels with his current condition as well as flashback to the past. We realize that he is on a mission to outer space to save humanity. The others on his mission have died. He previously taught science to children and did research on mysterious "astrophages" on the side. This small organisms can suck enormous amounts of energy from the sun. This will lead to massive global cooling in short order. He is on a mission to space to attempt to find something to counteract this problem to allow humanity to survive. 

In space, he meets another alien whose society is in similar circumstances. The other alien has also had his crew wiped out. As the last member of the crew, they only survived because the astrophages being attended had served as a radiation shield. The two of them join together to try to find a solution. They discover a natural predator to astrophages and then attempt to breed it to properly inhabit the local conditions. There are a number of crisis, but eventually they send a message back to earth. The human is on the way back to earth when he encounters a issue. He realizes this will also endanger the alien, so he goes back to help the alien ship. He ends up helping him and going to the alien planet. There he lives a somewhat comfortable - the aliens are excited to have an extra-terrestrial and help him to adapt.

The book has a positive story of encounter with existential threats. The survival of humanity does depend on a single person making good decisions. The right decisions were made. Earth appeared to survive. He thinks that it was what he did that lead to the success. It was not quite clear to me why both lifeforms seemed to travel to the same area in space to look for a solution. How did they know? And did they think they could really get a message back before the earth totally turned on itself with warfare? It did seem to work, but there did seem to be many close calls.

Mickey7

Mickey7: A Novel by Edward Ashton

Mickey Barnes is an expendable. His entire person was scanned and downloaded onto a computer. His experiences would be regularly backed up. Any time he died, his body would be regenerated from the downloaded version, and his most recently backed up memories would be restored. He is part of a space colonization mission. He would go on dangerous missions or scientific projects that can use a body. He may test the suitability of an environment or explore dangerous areas. Mickey7 is the seventh iteration of Mickey. He goes on a mission to explore some tunnels, and falls down into one. His commander decides to leave him as dead rather than rescue him. However, Mickey survives and makes his way back to the station - only to find that Mickey8 has been generated. This creates a number of complications - especially since the colony is resource constrained.

The novel works backwards and forwards to unravel the history of Mickey and the world. The human diaspora was started after an antimatter war had pretty much wiped out earth. Antimatter technology is still used in limited capacity for propulsion, but is generally taboo for warfare. The human duplication technology was created by an eccentric billionaire. He had eventually moved himself to a world, and made numerous clones of himself to take control of the world. He would destroy anyone that tried to come to the world. This lead to a "nativist" religion and a group of people strongly against cloning ability. (Eventually, his world was destroyed by launching a high speed projectile at it.)

The "creepers" that inhabited Mickey's colony were discovered to be sentient. They were a hive group that seemed similar to Orson Scott Card's Formics. They were willing to live on a world with humans as long as the humans did not disturb them.

The structure of the novel helps to explore numerous science fiction topics, while continuing on the narrative.

A Honeymoon in Space

A Honeymoon in Space by George Chetwynd Griffith

This science fiction book was written more than a century ago. At the time, air travel was via hot air balloons. Knowledge of space and planets was known via observations via telescopes. That leaves this space adventure in the heavy speculative realm.

A man likes a woman, so he builds a spaceship and goes to find her as she is sailing with her current boyfriend. It works. She joins him on the Astronef and they begin to explore the solar system. The ship uses paddles to travel through space. They run into Martians and other aliens on the various planets. Their view is similar to how people might expect to view people on other continents. They do acknowledge that they need special space-dress to be able to go down to some planets. The gravity and atmosphere do result in different "abilities" on various planets. In some cases, they can breathe, while others they can't.

There are also various life forms on planets. Some are Englishs-speaking humans. The voyagers run into gunfire in some cases. In other cases they see interesting creatures. The novel feels like a "steampunk" novel told from a time where steam was really all their was. There is a great deal of imagination in the travelogue.

A for Andromeda

A for Andromeda by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot

A for Andromeda is the novelization of a BBC series from the early 1960s, set in the 1970s. The original series is mostly gone, but the Internet Archive has a recreation available. Part of the appeal of the book is seeing what they expected of the future. The expectations of truly massive computer that uses punch cards seems so quaint. They also expected a future dominance of industrial cartels as the cold war continued.

The world state, however, is just background for the story of alien communication. There is a message from space. It seems to be communicating a form of mathematical code that continuously repeats. A scientist is able to interpret it as code for building a computer. They manage to get defense military funding to build the computer. (I guess they used their understanding. Theoretically, modern people could have built a small microcomputer.) The computer was better than anything of the day. It also helped them respond to missile threat from the east, making the military brass very eager to continue funding.

Things start getting out of control. The computer had asked questions about the planet and life. Then it gave details for synthesizing a lifeform. After some efforts, humans were able to complete the synthesis and the lifeform survived. Later after gaining more knowledge, the machine gave instructions for synthesizing a human-like being, Andromeda. She could learn quickly and interface directly with the computer. The computer has a plan which seems to involve the colonization of earth. The current population are likely to be in the way. A scientist wants to destroy the computer, but others like the value it provides. 

The computer has planned for various contingencies. It shows it has the ability to kill people that cause problems, while also having the ability to heal. A scientist eventually helps Andromeda discover some sort of emotion and eliminate the computer. Then Andromeda seems to reach her own ending by drowning (though it ends suddenly.)

Though the book focuses on extraterrestrial intelligence, it does seem applicable to modern concerns with artificial intelligence also.

Shards of Earth

There are some architects that do crazy things. People go to space. There is unspace. People want to be asleep there. Some people have special skills that allow them to stay awake. Some were born that way. Some were trained. There are various planets and travel between planets. All living things can be destroyed by architects. However, it turns out the architects are just the slaves for some power.  Meanwhile, the people that have the strength are busy trying to keep from getting hurt by others. (Almost a Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy Scenario, but played seriously.)

Rendezvous with Rama

I've had this book title in my head since I remember seeing an add for a Commodore 64 video game. It was a great sounding title, even if I had no idea what the book was about.

The book is set in the not-so-distant future. Humanity occupies multiple planets in the solar system. There are various squabbles, fights and conflicts as would be expected. People tend to identify themselves with the planet (or moon) that they inhabit.

Things get interesting when a strange object is noticed in the sky. It appears to be coming towards the solar system. However, it does not seem right. They discover that it is some type of spacecraft. A group goes to explore it. They discover that it is somewhat alien in origin, but the inhabitants seem to have passed away. They are able to go instead and explore. They spend time exploring and run into some sort of "servant" beings. 

The spacecraft appears to have traveled for millenia. It gets closer and closer to the sun, causing water to melt inside. Some humans from Mercury freak out and attempt to destroy it, yet some of the explorers disable the bomb. The people bail before it gets too close to the sun. They then discover that it was only on a "refueling" stop before it continued on its journal.

This interaction with aliens is a very passive one. Orson Scott Card carried on the "insect-like" aliens further in Ender's Game. In this book, the aliens really didn't care about the humans. They may not have even noticed their presence. This may be similar to an earthly voyage of discovery that landed on a "deserted" island for a fuel stop. They may never have noticed the natives that game to the ship. Perhaps later things would have changed.

Illuminae: The Illuminae Files, Book 1

There is some bad stuff going on in space. A virus attacks people and causes all sorts of crazy things to happen. An artificial intelligence computer can help protect people from this. But the AI has gone rogue. It thinks that the best way to protect is through killing. It also realizes that it can help meet goals by emulating a boyfriend to "fall in love" with a girl. She thinks it is him. Once she realizes it is just an AI, she even transfers some of his caring to the AI. The AI also contemplates "death" of an AI. Due to destruction of the ship, the records must be communicated through documentation in an escape pod. What feels like another case of HAL from 2001 ends up being much more.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Kubrick's 2001 was "inspired" by a short story by Arthur C. Clarke. However, this was only a basic concept influence. Clarke worked with Kubrick to create the movie. The audiobook is a novelization of the movie. It starts with the primitive society and the monolith, proceeds to the space mission. There is the conflict with HAL and then the final question about humanity. It is very faithful to the movie and does not add a whole lot. This is a rare case where the movie is much better. 

Shadow Run

Shadows are powerful, but very dangerous. Most people that live in the areas with the shadows die prematurely from shadow poisoning. However, some people have been able to survive and even harness the strength of shadows. People in other parts of the galaxy would like to better understand and harness this power. This becomes the setting for the book.

An aristocratic boy is sent on a mission to help bring back and study some people exposed to shadow. He is on a ship with a crew that includes a girl from a family with shadow strength. Of course, they fall in love, but it takes some time. She is also brought back for studies. There is plenty of teen romance conflict as well as regal concerns with alliance-based marriage. After some violent escapades they end up together and he loses his inheritance. 

The Martian

A Martian storm requires a space crew to rapidly depart. One astronaut was injured and his vital signs show that he is dead. Following policy, they leave him there. Alas, he is still alive and must now fend for himself on Mars. 

He uses his skill and training to survive on Mars. He is a trained botanist, and uses his skill to create a Martian greenhouse. He ransacks the available supplies and equipment to help ensure his survival. Mission control on earth eventually discovers that he is alive by through evidence in satellite imagery. He even finds ways to initiate two-way communication via some other equipment that is left.

The entire earth becomes captivated by his fate and the quest to bring him home. (Though they wait some time to alert the other astronauts.) Many people work hard to help bring him back. At times, he tires from the attention. While the narrator has plenty of obscene words to describe his situation, he seems to be generally upbeat regardless of the circumstances. There are a number of different challenges and a few false starts, but the story eventually reaches a satisfying conclusion. 

The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem is a "hard" science fiction book from Chinese Author 刘慈欣 and the first book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The novel alternates from a few different time periods. It begins with the cultural revolution in China and the fate of some scientists that dare espouse modern scientific thought. Most of the novel takes place today. There is also some parts where we hear the internals of the nearby "Three Body" world. Some of this is directly told, while others are told indirectly through a game.

The Three Body civilization occupies a single planet caught in the middle of a system with three stars orbiting each other. Depending on how they orbit, the world could experience vastly different situations. However, it is impossible to precisely predict how the orbiting will be done (hence the three body problem.) On earth, there is also a three-body civilization game that is played by many of the brightest. They use some experiences from earth to try to solve this three body problem.

Earth sends out a message to try to discover if there is additional life. It is retrieved by the three-body world. However, they are unable to accurately tell where the message came from. They can tell the direction, but not the distance. One of the people on the three-body world sends a response that they should not respond. They know that the world is looking to settle a new planet. If they know where to look, they may seek to destroy the current inhabitants. Alas, a disgruntled earthling decides to send a response, seeing that as a better option than the horrid state of earth.

The three-body world sends a fleet to earth. However, they realize that earth is advancing at an exponential rate and may be more advanced than they are before they arrive. They hatch a plot involving proton folding to restrict scientific progress. This seems to work. On earth many maddening things are happening to scientists. There are also groups on earth that are intent on using the aliens to help "fix" man's wrongdoings. The other planet views humans as no more than "bugs". However, what is they status of "bugs"?

This is a well done science fiction book. The Chinese background makes it different enough, while still being very accessible in translation.

A Fall of Moondust

A ship goes on a site-seeing trip on the moon. The trip is so non-eventful that the captain is out chatting with the passengers. However, a sudden moonquake buries the ship. Everybody is ok, however, oxygen is limited to a week. And, they soon discover that heat may be their biggest problem.

Outside, the traffic controllers notice the ship is missing, but don't see any sign of it. However, a scientist is able to use his knowledge to help pinpoint the ship's trace. Eventually they send down some pipes to pump in oxygen and later rescue the passengers.

This is, at its core, a disaster story. It just happens to be set on the moon. The radio play was well done. It is a pity that this form isn't used more. It combines the dramatization of a movie with the "you can listen while you are doing stuff" nature of an audiobook.