by Andy Weir 'I think my job is to solve the Petrova problem . . . . in a small lab, wearing a bedsheet toga, with no idea who I am, and no help other than a mindless computer and two mummified roommates.' In Project Hail Mary, Dr Ryland Grace is a thirty-something high school …
Category: Space Travel
One Planet – One Human Race
Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking ‘When we see the earth from space, we see ourselves as a whole …. with a compelling message; one planet, one human race.’ Stephen Hawking’s final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, makes a few optimistic predictions. It also hands out some chilling warnings. …
Artemis
Artemis by Andy Weir A Review 'Dude, I don't know where you're getting info about girls but you're WRONG. Girls like boys who are nice and make us laugh. We DON'T like boys who get in fights and we don't like boys who are stupid. Trust me on this. I'm a girl.' The problem with …
The Dispossessed
by Ursula Le Guin A Review 'Kimoe stared at him, shocked out of politeness. "But the loss of -- of everything feminine -- of delicacy -- and the loss of masculine self-respect -- You can't pretend, surely, in your work, that women are your equals? In physics, in mathematics, in the intellect? You can't pretend …
The Martian
by Andy Weir I had avoided buying this book for so long. I saw the film and enjoyed it so much, and that made me wary. So many wonderful novels are turned into dreadful films. Great movies from mediocre novels are not so common - but it happens often enough! So, as I said, I …
History of the Future
The Foundation Novels by Isaac Asimov 'There were nearly twenty-five million inhabited planets in the Galaxy then, and not one but owed allegiance to the Empire ... It was the last half-century in which that could be said.' Isaac Asimov is one of my all-time favourite writers. Not only can he spin a great yarn …
The Snakes of Horus
A Short Story by Andrew Greenfield Lockhart [I originally wrote this for a session at my writers' group.] ‘We’re safe for now. They can’t get in.’ I risked a glance at Jude out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t, I daren’t allow my attention to be diverted from the window. She was statuesque, …
Going Boldly
Asimov and the Foundations of Fantasy Seventy years have passed since Isaac Asimov penned the first of his Foundation stories. Tens of thousands of years in the future, humanity has colonised far beyond the Solar System and established a galaxy-wide empire, dependant for trade and communications on faster-than-light travel. One single planet, Terminus, is beginning …
Odyssey
Reflections on the Space Race I have been following with interest the space "mission" of British astronaut Tim Peake. Yesterday, he became the first Brit to do a space walk. That, and an article in last week's Sunday Times, reminded me that more than half a century has passed since we humans first sent one …
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