Any good book's?

[Smivs]

For something a bit different and hugely entertaining I would strongly recommend The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem.

[Diziet Sma]

I was poking around the local library yesterday, and for some reason decided to take a look under Heinlein. Lo and behold, a copy of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, which I haven't read in at least a couple of decades, and am thoroughly enjoying. Even more surprising was a Heinlein that I actually haven't read.. For Us, The Living. The idea of reading something the Master wrote in '38-39, but was only published posthumously, is quite exciting.. I'm saving it for when I finish Mistress.

[PhantorGorth]

I finished Hyperion by Dan Simmons recently. I very very good read. Particularly good if you are of a literary bent.

[Cody]

I finished Hyperion by Dan Simmons recently. I very very good read. Particularly good if you are of a literary bent.

Agreed... only three more volumes to read, PG.

[PhantorGorth]

Agreed... only three more volumes to read, PG.

Yep, looking forward to them.

[Colonel Wasabi]

I've seen Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Man mentioned above.... (I vividly remember reading Farenheit 451 when as a schoolboy - brilliant!)
...and I faintly remember my mum & dad watching the Martian Chronicles on TV when I used to sneak down and peep through the door late at night....

Question is - are the Martian Chronicles book(s) any good ?

Was in a Barnes & Noble yesterday and didn't find them so couldn't test drive them over a frothy coffee....and ended up walking out with a couple of Charles Stross books to try out instead - a recommendation from above backed up by a bloke I was working with.

[Fatleaf]

I would thoroughly recommend "Death from the Skies!" By Philip Plait. it is a very good read with just enough humour to give a bit of levity without being a comic and very good science to boot.

I actually learned something!

[SubV]

Forbidden Borders trilogy by Michael Gear.

Humanity is trapped in a "gravity well", the so-called Forbidden Borders and there is increasing conflict because of ever-decreasing space resources. Staffa Kar Therma a.k.a. the Lord Commander is a mercenary who leads an elite group of soldiers (the Companions) and aligns himself to the group that pays him the most. He is separated from his soldiers and falls in to the hands of a slave trader but escapes, and comes into contact with a quasi-religious group led by the magister (who in turn is advised by the MagComm). The magister (under the guidance of the MagComm) believes that the Lord Commander is the root of all evil and attempts to assassinate him. Meanwhile Staffa discovers that his son is alive and is the leader of a battalion of the emperor's forces. Staffa finally escapes from the magister and the MagComm, killing the former and partially destroying the latter. The partially destroyed MagComm's automated repair mechanisms kick in and the computer becomes self-aware.

Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem.

The main story concerns an expedition sent to a distant star in order to make contact with a civilization that may have been detected there. It is set more than a century after the prologue, when a starship is built in Titan's orbit. This future society is described as globally unified and peaceful with high regard for success. During starship preparations, the geyser region is cleared, and the frozen bodies are discovered. They are exhumed and taken aboard, to be awakened, if possible, during the voyage. However, only one of them can be revived (or more precisely, pieced together from the organs of several of them) with a high likelihood of success. The identity of the man is unclear - it has been narrowed to two men (whose last names begin with 'P'). It is never revealed whether he is in fact Pirx or Parvis (and he seems to have amnesia about it himself). In his new life, he adopts the name Tempe.

The explorer spaceship Eurydika (Eurydice) first travels to a black hole near the Beta Harpiae to perform maneuvers to minimize the effects of time dilation. Before closing on the event horizon, the Eurydice launches the Hermes, a smaller explorer ship, which continues on to Beta Harpiae.

Peace War and Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge.

The story takes place in 2048, 51 years after scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory develop "the ultimate weapon", a force field generating device they term a Bobbler. The bureaucracy running the Laboratory use it to enforce an end to conventional warfare (triggering a brief war in the process), calling themselves the Peace Authority. The Bobbler creates a perfectly spherical, impenetrable, and persistent shield around or through anything, and is used to contain nuclear weapons, people, and occasionally entire cities or governments, separating them from the rest of the world (and presumably killing everyone inside by eventual suffocation and lack of sunlight).

A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick.

Delmak-O is a mysterious and largely unexplored world. It seems to be inhabited by both real and artificial beings and enormous cube-shaped, gelatinous objects ("tenches") that duplicate items presented to them and give out advice, in anagrams reminiscent of the I Ching. In addition, various members of the group report sightings of a large "Building". As various calamities continue to befall each character, part of the group ventures out to find the mysterious structure. Each member of the group perceives the Building's entrance motto, and thus its purpose, differently.