Les Johnson (1)

Just as in the pre-1957 period people like Arthur C Clarke wrote books foretelling how robotic and human exploration of near-Earth and larger solar-system space might proceed, so now physicist Johnson has done the analogous thing for interstellar travel. His time scales for realization are of course very different -- not years and decades but centuries and millennia. Propulsion methods -- primarily rockets and light-sails -- are well covered, as is the design of starships. The chapter on probably-impossible ideas includes schemes for faster-than-light travel and suspended animation (mere hibernation would not eliminate aging) but, unaccountably I think, makes no mention of a space elevator as a great help in a voyage's initial launch stage.… (más)

Only a few chapters in to this book; pleasantly surprised at how sensitively the main character (a middle-aged woman) is written. She spends a little too much time thinking about the various male characters and whether they like her more than she likes them.

Based on other reviews of Taylor’s books this is less likely to be a “Mary Sue” but I’ve just read a section introducing a new character that may be a descendant of a Taylor stand-in in a previous book that was not well reviewed.

It’s too early to add a rating, but so far it’s a fairly solid 3 stars.

He could use a better editor; so far I’ve caught 2 typos. There’s a lot of techno-babble, but other sections read like classic Heinlein.

UPDATE: Finished the book. It’s competently written, but I caught at least one more typo (“Santa Clause”), so it appears his editor is that literary hack, Otto Korecht.

There’s a diagram on the first page that lays out various timelines, ship-time and relative to Earth-time. If you read it, you know what the big surprise reveal is at the end of the book.

Actually, I correctly predicted every major plot development all through the book; there’s foreshadowing, and there’s telegraphing, and then there’s broadband “now hear this ahhhhOOOOGaaaaah” spoilers in blink tags.

That said, I liked the characters but skimmed some of the technobabble (plus one tense sequence near the midpoint). It was a mercifully quick read.

There’s a lot of skulduggery for reasons that remain mysterious; the book finally gets more interesting at the 2/3 to 3/4 mark, but the Proximans turn out to be surprisingly boring.

There may be a series, but about the only thing that interests me is the archeological and mythological underpinnings to be investigated. I may not check out the next book(s).… (más)

Arthur C Clarke was fond of saying "The Future ain't what it used to be". I know what he means.

On LT Recommendation I had a look at Back to the Moon a new book of "hard" science fiction that feels like an old book.

In fact it reminds me of nothing so much as Clarke's A Fall of Moondust which was written a LONG time ago.

This is what Isaac Asimov use to call a "Solve the Equation" book. Set up a (science or engineering) problem, gather a crew, then show step by methodical step how to solve the problem -- with Science!

In this case a Chinese moon mission fails spectacularly and an American mission has to be quickly jury rigged into a search and rescue mission. The characters are fine but pretty shallow, but the story drives on from "Hurrah! We did it!" to "Oh No, Now What?" with energy and intelligence and solid if not fancy writiing.

If it isn't actually grand opera (or even Space Opera) its a fun read and i enjoyed it. Going to keep an eye on what these authors are up to.… (más)