by Kim Stanley Robinson
You can't beat The Second Law of Thermodynamics. ***************************************** Okay, it's really tempting to leave the above as the complete review but... KSR has been something of a hit-or-miss author in my experience but this isn't so much hitting the nail on the head as firing a s...
"Aurora" is the Sword & Laser book for May 2016. This is my first Kim Stanley Robinson novel and it focuses on the impact of interstellar space travel at sub-speed-of-light (10% of c), no 'hibernation' and several 'biomes' with a variety of life and agriculture to sustain life during the trip and to...
Possibly the best from Robinson in a very long time (though I skipped Shaman, for now.) This one surprised me halfway by going off in a totally different direction than expected, but the main themes are the same as always. Ecology, human physiology and psychology, sociology. I was looking for a a mo...
This book annoyed me. It started off with a scene that seemed odd for a story about a generation ship. Then it started to get a bit interesting for a chapter or two. Then it entered heavy handed exposition town and proceeded to go as far as listing stuff on the ship. I've got better things to do wit...
**Note: This is a reaction--a few ill-considered opinions not backed up by textual evidence-- rather than a review.** Hard scifi and I have a rocky relationship. No matter how many series I try, I never seem to find one that really genuinely clicks with me enough to actually pursue the series. Unfor...
After having listened to this book, I probably should relax my mostly non-fiction only rule. I would say this was probably the best book I've listened to all year.In the future when they decide to build a spaceship to travel across space to a faraway distant earth like planet for possible colonizati...
This book...let's just say I have a lengthy review to write at some point, but for now, I'll condense my mixed feelings as best I can. In some ways, this book was five stars all the way: it has a refreshingly strong engineering focus; in the first half, at least, it details the challenges of terra- ...
[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]I haven't read anything by Kim Stanley Robinson since 2003 or so, back when I read (and loved!) his Mars trilogy. So I was really excited and hopeful when it came to this one, and... unfortunately, it didn't work fo...