This novel is actually five short stories, all interconnected to some extent. Orson Scott Card writes of a time in the near future after a few nuclear weapons fell on the United States and biological warfare eliminated most of what remained. Civilization has largely collapsed, anarchy rules in most places, personal survival is the name of the game. Card here writes in a very intense and personal way, he puts you directly into the minds of the major characters. The imagery he depicts is very graphic and rich in detail, with all five stories weaving together into a very fine plot, a post-apocalypse America well done. I won't give away any of the story here other than to state that as I read this book I found myself pulling for the people to succeed!

I would have easily given this novel five stars instead of four, four was given due to the fantasy that was used in the last story. When it comes to novels I do prefer 'hard' fiction, where ideas and events portrayed could actually take place in the real world, but don't let this stop you from reading this, as this criticism is minor in regards to the otherwise great novel this is, to be savored and enjoyed immensely. This is the first Orson Scott Card novel I have read and I was impressed by his talent.

This is great stuff, Zubrin is one cool dude and writes fiction with the best of them. The story entranced me and drew me in and I could not stop myself from reading. If you wonder how it may be like to explore and survive on the planet Mars in the first expedition (circa 2011) read this book, I bet when we finally reach Mars with a human crew it will be very much as depicted by Zubrin here in this novel.

The mission Zubrin describes here is beset with many technical hurdles, some may be from sabotage, and political intrigue exists as well. Mars is a beautiful planet in it's own unique way and Zubrin conveys with success that beauty and wonder to the reader. I thought the resourcefulness of the crew, consisting of five members, was amazing, and the trip to the bottom of the Valley Of The Mariners was very well done. Character development was superb, I loved Rebecca, the biologist. Their ordeal is realistically put forth by Zubrin, again it was a page turner for me. This novel portrays our future exploration of Mars in the grandest sense, a joy to read, expertly written, and should be read by all science fiction fans and others as well.

At the end of this novel resides a short appendix where Zubrin details the Mars Direct plan, interesting indeed. In fact, Zubrin believes spacefaring countries could send humans to Mars within a decade or so, if support developed, and we could become a two planet species. Dr. Zubrin is an astronautical engineer and has written two non-fiction space related books, Entering Space, and The Case For Mars, also well worth reading

In this near term science fiction novel, circa 2028, Geoffrey Landis gives us an exciting long distance trek across the surface of the planet Mars in a desperate attempt to save themselves after a major equipment malfunction puts them in deadly peril. Two previous Martian missions have both failed. This is an exciting adventure and kept me turning the pages. The plot and character development were excellent, with several flashbacks that brought out the backgrounds and personalities of the astronauts in meticulous detail without becoming monotonous. In some science fiction novels an author sometimes creates too many characters, but here Landis gets it just right. There are many chapters, all very short. Landis is a NASA engineer, so the technical aspects of this novel are superb, and as in all great science fiction the technology takes on a supporting role to the story and the lives of the people involved. This is a well written novel, earthy at times, not stodgy, a joy to read, a brilliant literary work. And you may even learn a little about the real planet Mars, after all, that is what science fiction is all about, a look at future possibilities in an entertaining way, and there is also a surprise ending.

This is a great book with many excellent colour and black and white photos of the Soviet space program, from it's infancy up to the Mir Space station. Korolev was the Soviet chief of spaceflight and master planner back in the 1960's when the Soviets were trying to beat us to the moon, he was truly a visionary man and a credit to the Russians. The volume here begins with a few pages of text and then continues with page after page of an amazing photo history of the Soviet space program, very well done. What I especially found interesting was the photographs of their giant Saturn 5 class N booster, designed to take cosmonauts to the lunar surface, it was an awesome moon-rocket, a shame really that it was not successful. Everything in Soviet manned space is covered here, there are even pictures and drawings of the never used manned lunar lander. This is a gem of a book, and very reasonably priced.

Peter Hoffmann is the editor and publisher of "The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter", and this book focuses on the myriad uses of fuel cells, in great detail. But other uses of hydrogen are covered to some extent also. Topics discussed are automotive, utility, food production, home heating, hydrogen production, and many others. Hoffman notes in this volume time and again that hydrogen is an energy carrier, like electricity, and not an energy source, so it must be produced via energy sources such as coal, wind, solar, and nuclear, among others. Hoffmann does a very good job in this area, and the generation of greenhouse gasses is a central theme of this book, basically how we can generate hydrogen with little or no carbon dioxide buildup. As you may know, the combustion of hydrogen with oxygen only produces water. Safety of hydrogen use is another area extensively covered. The book begins with Hoffmann giving a history of hydrogen use and research over the past 200 years or so, right up to the present time, politics having an effect on our energy future also, of course. Senator Tom Harkin gives readers a very good foreward to the book.

One area of great interest to me that was mentioned in this book is the possibility of using atomic hydrogen (this is hydrogen in it's disassociated state, not the molecular hydrogen) as rocket fuel, as Hoffmann says, a specific impulse of over 1000 seconds may be achieved, well above today's rocket engines, if it can be safely stabilized. I wish this topic was covered better than the brief sketch Hoffmann gave it.

The final chapter of the book attempts to extrapolate the future use of hydrogen. Various experts are quoted by Hoffmann as to what we may expect in the decades ahead with regards to hydrogen use. Hoffmann does himself say that the existing energy infrastructure may be difficult to replace due to the economic inertia of change, and many decades may be required, in the United States it's vast coal reserves may preclude widespread hydrogen use idefinitely. Overall, the volume is a good introduction to energy if sometimes a little short on the science. At the back of the book there are extensive notes with references to further reading for those desiring to do so.

I saw this book in an expensive little shop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee last August, and later bought it cheaper over the internet. After reading several negative reviews here, and knowing the quality of this volume, I can't understand why people would not love this book. Contrary to what two reviewers state here, it is not a small volume and the photographs are extremely well done. They range from a picturesque dock out over a body of water to sunrooms, bedrooms, libraries, old desks, etc, with associated text, and most here can be done by people with any decent and modest budget.

I just wish I had this book last year when we had a house built, but it is useful now anyway. It is a treasure worthy of more than five stars.

I loved this novel. Kathy Hepinstall does an excellent job of weaving minute details of the lives of two children, Alice, eleven years old, and brother Boone, 14 years old, into an exciting tale of suspense and danger. The story is told from the point of view of Alice who sees evil in Simon, who courts their divorced mother, from the time of first meeting him. Simon is a despicable creep, with a mysterious past and a seemingly strange agenda in the present time.

I found this novel fascinating and hard to put down, the more I read the more I wanted to read to find out what happens. The story is unpredictable and will leave you guessing wildly as to the turn of events. This is Kathy Hepinstall's second novel, she is definitely a writer to watch in the future.

I have been a space buff ever since I got my first telescope for Christmas, 1968, and got to use it on Christmas eve 1968 and looked at the crater filled moon as Apollo 8 orbited the moon, what magic, a time long gone. So I can relate to Wyn Wachhorst as he narrates this journey through our coming of age in the cosmos, from Kepler, Goddard, and others, to the present, always writing in symbolic and poetic style, neat to say the least.

I particularly loved the chapter "Abandon In Place", anyone well versed in space lore will instantly know what that term means, but in this chapter Wachhorst laments in great detail the lack of vision people in our society exhibit, and it's causes. Ask yourself this: how many people do you know, personally, that appreciate anything beyond normal everyday occurances, beyond the mundane, beyond the simple utility of everyday life and what is on television tonight, and if you are like me you will be able to think of perhaps one or two people only. This is a topic that Wachhorst discusses extensively and he writes that we need to have a sense of wonder, and the need to explore, and the craving for personal transcendence at the leading edge of evolution, in order to thrive as a species.

In this book you will read about the lives of several visionary people, and I think the tribute to Carl Sagan was the best anyone could ever write about another person. This volume is a jewel that is rarely encountered in the literary world, a joy to read.

Anyone who likes funny things and cats will love this book. It is full of little stories and one liners and cartoons about cats and what they do, all amusing. Everything is done in black and white. My daughter, 10 years old, also found this book full of laughs. The only problem I had with this volume is that the binding along the spine became separated, but I recommend it anyway.

This near term hard science fiction novel covers a lot of territory, the politics of science being one of them, Paul McAuley is a scientist so he illuminates some of the in-fighting that occasionally occurs in scientific research. I thought the story was very well executed, and characterization was superb. The plot concerns a microorganism that is spreading in the Pacific ocean and threatening the food chain, and may have part or all of it's origin on the planet Mars. Dr. Mariella Anders, a microbiologist, does her part to investigate, and is also sent to Mars for further investigations, with a greedy corporation seeking to monopolize the research. Mariella is also a free spirit, delighting in the pleasures of living, well done, and not another puritanical novel here! Paul McAuley throws in some dead accurate social commentary in this novel also, and you can even learn a bit about biology in addition. But beware, this is not a shoot-em-up space opera, it is very cerebral and may cause a reader to actually think, but it still has it's share of action and suspense, and the trek across the surface of Mars is a masterpiece.

I found this novel to be very readable, it drew me in as I read more and more each day to get to the end to see what happens, and it is not far-out as some science fiction is today that lose touch with reality. This novel has as it's centerpiece a great biological mystery that I found fascinating, wrote in an easy to read, flowing style.