I am recently back from Balticon 48. Geoffrey Landis was there to receive the 2014 Heinlein Award, given for 'outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space." As the convention was winding down, at a kaffeeklatsch, Dr. Landis fielded questions which were mostly science rather than SF- fair enough; not only has he won a Nebula, two Hugos, a Locus, and two Rhysling Awards for his poetry, but he's also a NASA scientist, an electrical engineer, a PhD in solid state physics, holds eight patents, and has published over 300 scientific and technical papers. He's worked on Mars missions (prompting Joe Haldeman to remark in the introduction to this book that Landis is the only SF writer to have actually been to Mars), solar energy, solar sail propulsion, and is currently working on technology to allow a vehicle to land, survive, and perform experiments on Venus.

Geoffrey Landis is the kind of hero Heinlein would admire: a scientist and an engineer, at home in theory and practice, widely read and expert in many fields, and also a poet and philosopher. Someone wrote of RAH that 'he wore imagination as his private suit of clothes.' That's true of Geoffrey Landis as well; the clothes in this case are overalls, working clothes, as he spins stories of hard science fiction that are based on a no-nonsense view of what science is. His stories, no matter how imaginative (and Ecopiesis, for instance, is very imaginative), are steeped in plausibility. When Dr. Landis gives you an explosion, you can be sure that the blast could have, would have, occurred that way.

Of the stories, the first, "A Walk in the Sun", is my favorite; it has the warm glow of a Heinlein juvenile. I had the sense that RAH was looking over my shoulder and nodding approval. Winter Fire was also excellent, and you'd do well to read the Afterward for a glimpse into the mind of a working writer of hard science fiction. There are 16 stories here, and I guarantee you'll find something to your liking. ( )

One of the more satisfying science fiction anthologies I've read. ( )

Pointed-to by Gilster's _Centauri Dreams_, an anthology of 16 fine SF short stories by NASA physicist Landis.