Books tagged with: space exploration

Agustin de Rojas was a Cuban author of science fiction. Within that country he is thought of as a legend and has even been described as "Patron Saint of Cuban science fiction". Agustin wrote A Legend of the future back in 1985, following his award winning novel Espiral (Spiral). El año 200 (The Year...

City is set sometime in the future at a time when mankind's acheivements are immense with intelligent robots, genetic modifications, commonplace space travel and genetically uplifted animals. This technical progress comes at a cost, humanity itself has become tired and society has broken down into s...

Deception Well is a science fiction novel by Linda Nagata. In this, the third book from this new master, Linda Nagata takes us to the far future and away from earth - paradoxically the characters in this book aren't quite as strange as the characters in her first two books (The Bohr Maker and Tech-H...

Docking is Difficult , so is trying to escape a backwards planet who's only exports are methane and a type of plant that superficially resembles a pig in taste and a triffid in shape. Misha dreams of escaping the mud and mundane life to become an Elite pilot and live a life full of adventure. He als...

If you've ever read a Simon Spurrier novel, you will understand how his voice has an almost dirty quality to it. His novels have a raw edge that isn't quite horror but manages to lend some of the gritty reality that the finest horror posses. Nemorensis has that edge, an unusual style and very differ...

I first discovered Elite growing up in the Eighties. It was a simpler time and Elite made a huge impact, the freedom to travel to distant stars and meet or trade with Alien races was irresistable. Sadly even back then entertainment companies were already trying out crazy methods of protecting their...

Elite: Mostly Harmless is the second Elite: Dangerous tie-in novel reviewed here on SFBook. Catch up with that first review and a bit about Elite here: Elite: Lave Revolution . Written by Kate Russell, Elite: Mostly Harmless follows Commander Angel Rose who is forced into a life of crime. She is det...

A companion volume to the collection Stainless Steel Visions, this volume collects several of Harrison's best stories, such as Space Rats of the CCC; At Last, the True Story of Frankenstein; and Bill, the Gallactic Hero's Happy Holiday. Includes a hilarious new adventure of Bill, the Galactic Hero....

This is the first Ben Bova that I've read in a long time. Chet Kinsman will do just about anything to get into space, and luckily for him he gets to go to space with the space marines. He's not so lucky when he gets grounded after a "small" accident. He's lucky again when NASA lets him go to the moo...

Renewal is a stand alone novel set after the events of the Darwinian Extension series by by the science fiction author Hylton H Smith. Phoenix is a colossal space vessel, built in the Mars Docks by three races (The Axis, Symbiants and Sapients), it's the size of a city and is currently in it's 43rd...

Star Wars was a huge part of my childhood, the original was the first film I ever saw at the Cinema and for a period I watched the film (and the two proceeding) pretty much every day - at one point I could recite the whole script if you'd asked me to. Must have driven my poor mother to distraction....

This is a story collection that stays in your mind long after you’ve finished reading, John Grant’s selection of writings vary widely across subjects, but return to the theme of duplicity. In many of these stories, the fantasy or science fiction element remains minimal and acts in a constrained role...

The genuine autobiography of one of the bravest, most dashing and heroic starship captains to ever bodly-go into the depths of space. You may be pleased to know that this Kirk is the real one, not the imposter who has more recently been seen in the latest films. This Kirk doesn't get command of the...

The Fountains of Paradise was originally intended to be Arthur C Clarkes last novel and this is clearly reflected within both the backdrop - a fictional version of his home of Sri Lanka called Taprobane - and the narrative structure itself which feels very personal, much more so than any other of hi...

The Honour of the Knights is the first volume in the space opera series The Battle for the Solar System by Stephen Sweeney. The Honour of the Knights is quite an accomplished novel, a grand story on a fairly epic scale with some good dialog and well rounded, engaging characters. The author has a ver...

There is a particular category of book that exists only because of another, more famous work, hovering in its orbit like a small moon, and The Lost Worlds of 2001 is one of the most fascinating examples I know. It is not a novel, not quite a memoir, not really a making-of in the modern sense; it is...

The Sky Road is the fourth volume in the Fall Revolution Series by Ken Mcleod. Expectations are a funny thing. It has been nearly ten months since I read the first three books by MacLeod and loved them, and now I that I've read his fourth book I'm unsure as to the reason as to why I'm disappointed w...

After the Flare is the second book in the series which describes the a near future Nigerian Space program. Since a massive solar flare wiped out much of the worlds electronics, Nigeria find themselves in control of one of the last working spaceships and functional spaceport. Kwesi Bracket, formerly ...

An interstellar expedition, tracing an anomalous signal back to its origin. Three men on board a ship called the Fargo , all returning dead, two hundred years later, but with the cargo hold full of an unknown mineral that makes the fortune of the company that sent them into the unknown. Twenty-five...

Subgenres come and go and one that I have recently been enjoying is ‘Cosy Fantasy,’ what does that mean? Basically, fantasy with some of the trepidation taken out, a chance to get to know the characters and enjoy a fantasy setting in peace. Riley August’s The Last Gifts of the Universe opens my worl...

Starting a new book can always be daunting, but I have a special trepidation for short story collections. They can be vast, full of stories that are loosely linked. Trying to find themes and remember all the stories can feel impossible when considering a review. However, you sometimes get a more cur...