Solution Architect. Aeronautical Engineer. Fascinated by Astronomy & Space. Addicted to SciFi.
I first read Consider Phlebas from Iain M. Banks over 28 years ago when I was on an overland journey to the Munich beer festival in a camper van with some friends. This was my introduction to the world of The Culture and Banks’ visionary description of a highly liberal, extremely technically capable, but morally ambiguous galactic civilisation largely run by sentient machines.
I’m still on a Kindle buzz after reading Spook Street, Real Tigers and Slow Horses from Mick Herron’s Slough House series. Really enjoying these. Will take a break from these now and divert to sci-fi for a while.
Immediately after reading Real Tigers I used the power of Kindle to go straight onto the next book in the Slough House series from Mick Herron. A good page turner and I liked the characters.
I enjoyed Mick Herron’s book Slow Horses so have started to read more of the series on Kindle. Very enjoyable, good characters and it’s fun following the locations on Google street view.
I recently re-read this novel from Neal Stephenson on Kindle. I’d originally read this in the summer of 2016 as a holiday read alongside another Stephenson title called Anathem.
This is the 10th book in David Weber’s “Safehold” series. I’ve been reading these for many years. Although notionally a science fiction series, a lot of the focus is on the historic scientific progression that was required to advance humanity’s weapons technology used on land, sea, and in the air. In that regard, the series starts from a technical base of approximately the late dark ages or early Middle Ages and brings us to a technology level close to the end of the 19th century. Weber shows an incredible amount of historical and scientific knowledge – many of the scenarios and examples in the series could have been lifted from the American Civil War, WW1 and others. There is also a huge religious aspect to the series with schisms and intrigues similar to what happened in Europe in the middle-ages. I’m still enjoying the series and hopefully David Weber will wrap it up soon.
A page turner from Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis about a hypothetical near-peer conflict set in the year 2034 between the United States and China. When I spoke about the book with a work colleague, we both felt “2034” was in the same vein as the cold war / hot war thriller “Red Storm Rising” by Tom Clancy from the 1980’s and that is not a bad thing. Enjoyable and a bit scary.
Simon Jenkins has created an enjoyable history book describing the story of the people of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It runs from pre-Roman times up to the present day. I would have read some of this history when in school but was hazy on parts. The book is a good primer / revision of this history of this part of the world.
Victoria Woolf’s first novel is a Victorian-era romantic drama. I chose it for a read to try to broaden my horizons and get into some turn-of-the-century English literature.
Edward Ashton’s Mickey7 is an enjoyable Sci Fi story revolving around the topic of cloning.