Category Archives: Book Notes

Martin Rees: ON THE FUTURE: Prospects for Humanity (2018)

Posted on Tuesday 29 October 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Martin Rees is a British astronomer and astrophysicist who looks rather like Richard Gere (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Rees); he holds or has held all sorts of high positions in British science and academia. He’s published several books, of which the half dozen … Continue reading →

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Tyson, LETTERS FROM AN ASTROPHYSICIST

Posted on Monday 21 October 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a new book by Neil deGrasse Tyson, just published a couple weeks ago. It’s blurbed as a ‘companion’ to his previous book, ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY; post about that one here. This is a collection of 101 … Continue reading →

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Asimov, I, ROBOT

Posted on Friday 16 August 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

(The photo shows a 1969-era Science Fiction Book Club edition of a Doubleday hardcover, with the jacket copy claiming the book is “Long out of print and in great demand”; a 1984 mass market paperback from Del Rey; and the … Continue reading →

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Asimov, THE CURRENTS OF SPACE

Posted on Tuesday 6 August 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

[draft] The third of Asimov’s “Galactic Empire” novels, first published in 1952, opens with a fish out of water situation a bit like that in PEBBLE IN THE SKY. But first there is a prolog as the book opens with … Continue reading →

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Asimov, THE STARS, LIKE DUST

Posted on Thursday 1 August 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This second of Asimov’s three “Galactic Empire” novels is the least interesting of the three, despite the poetic (and gratuitous) title. It’s entirely about circumstance, with no specific science fictional content at all. Presumably this is an example of Asimov … Continue reading →

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Asimov: PEBBLE IN THE SKY

Posted on Friday 26 July 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Isaac Asimov began publishing stories in magazines in 1939, but his first book wasn’t released until 1950, and that first book was his first proper novel, PEBBLE IN THE SKY. By 1950 however he had published in the magazines all … Continue reading →

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Asimov, Six Lucky Starr novels

Posted on Wednesday 10 July 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

In the 1950s Isaac Asimov wrote six short science fiction novels for the ‘juvenile’ market, what today we would call ‘young adult.’ These were: DAVID STARR, SPACE RANGER (1952) LUCKY STARR AND THE PIRATES OF THE ASTEROIDS (1953) LUCKY STARR … Continue reading →

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Dawkins, THE SELFISH GENE

Posted on Sunday 16 June 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Opening paragraph, of a chapter called “Why are people?” Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence. If superior creatures from space ever visit earth, the first question they … Continue reading →

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Miller, A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ

Posted on Saturday 15 June 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This 1959 novel is one of the most popular and celebrated science fiction novels of all time. It’s set in the years following an atomic war, it portrays religion in a relatively favorable way (in contrast to the skeptical or … Continue reading →

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Oliver, THE WINDS OF TIME

Posted on Saturday 1 June 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This science fiction novel, from 1957, is by an author known for anthropologically informed works; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Oliver. (The edition I read, the only edition I have, is a 1975 Avon Equinox trade paperback, one of its “SF Rediscovery” series that ran … Continue reading →

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