Solution Architect. Aeronautical Engineer. Fascinated by Astronomy & Space. Addicted to SciFi.
A re-read for me on Kindle. I have the original paperback up in my attic. I first read this brilliant book many years ago – probably around 1999 but in writing this note, when I searched WikiPedia, it was published way back in1988. The technical world and concepts Iain M. Banks came up with for the Culture (I previously read Consider Phlebas from the same series) still stand up really well today.
Another Kindle read of James S.A. Corey’s Expanse series. Book 3 follows on from Book 2: Caliban’s War. Still enjoying it. I definitely visualise the characters from the Expanse series from Amazon Prime when reading it. Will take a break and read the next one soon.
The second in the Expanse series from James S. A. Corey. (I previously read Leviathan Wakes in the same series). A good read. Shows again how good the Amazon Prime TV adaptation was.
A holiday read and my first time reading Sebastian Faulks. I was interested in the main premise of the book around genetic engineering and resurrecting extinct human species. I’m a regular science fiction reader and enjoy speculative explorations about “what if”. However, that needs to coincide with plausible characters who react in a reasonable way. I found some of the plot a bit far-fetched. This book didn’t do it for me.
I recently re-read Isaac Asimov’s seminal sci-fi epic Foundation after a very long time. Foundation and Empire is the next book in the series. I’m probably spoilt from reading the likes of Iain M. Banks, Stephen Baxter, and Alastair Reynolds so I found the foundation books a bit dry, a bit to serious. I miss the fun and invention of some of the more modern authors.
Great to get a book gift I really enjoyed from my fabulous eldest daughter. There are some interesting and innovative biological ideas in Alien Clay from Adrian Tchaikovsky (writer of Children of Time, Children of Ruin and Shards of Earth that I’ve previously read). A combination of sci-fi with a touch of horror. Will continue to read his stuff.
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 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.
Edward Ashton’s Mickey7 is an enjoyable Sci Fi story revolving around the topic of cloning.