www.msereno1970.com Male, 38, Married. Ivrea, Italy

Al Gore scrive in maniera eccellente, anche se la trattazione politica non è certo il mio forte. lo finirò con calma!
La lettura continua: a volte pesante e lento, ma illuminante!!

The adventures of Jamie Waterman, the half-Navaho astronaut, continue on Earth and Mars.
This time he deals with the psalm-singing zealots of the New Morality movement who are rapidly taking over American government after the effects of global warning seriously hit the US (and the rest of the world, as well) and its economy and who are willing to shut down the entire Mars Program that strongly conflicts with their beliefs.

In the meantime, outstanding discoveries are made on the surface of Mars…..

This is the latest of Ben Bova’s ‘Grand Tour’ of Solar System novels and the author refers to the plot and characters already built in his previous works with, to my opinion, a certain lack on imaginative strength.

The book is, anyway, worth reading even though Bova can write better novels.

A big mistakes about timeline is to be reported: somewhere in the books the story is reported to happen in the 2050s (and this is in accordance with the timeline of the whole Grand Tour Novels), elsewhere the author mistakenly refers to the 2090s. ... (continue)

This is another five-starred SF novel by Vernor Vinge, really a book deserving a deep reading.

Basic idea is the same of 'Fire upon the Sky': but in this case the novel develops 20 thousands years before, but still 8,000 years ahead from now: Human race has spread in hundreds of stars evolving in different cultures in various star systems where some of them have developed incredible technical capabilities, while other ones have gone back to a barbarian pre-industrial level after a ‘Fall’ period due to war or plagues and other ones are flourishing again, returning to advanced levels thanks (also) to eavesdropping and steal of technology…..

One of the more advanced cultures is the one of Qeng Ho, a trading, space-faring civilization that spans all over the 'Human space' (a tiny portion of the galaxy with a radius of about 400 light years) using their huge ramships traveling at a significant portion of the speed of light (FTL travels are not possible within the Human Space....) trading their know-how and hoping for even newest and richest deals with the cultures they encounter.

But this time they have met a bite too big to chew: the Emergents, a ruthless human civilization they face in orbit around Arachna….

Even though some ideas come from the SF universe developed by Poul Anderson (and the author indirectly recognizes it, acknowledging his memory at the beginning of the book), I consider this as one of the best SF books I ever read: the plot is as complex and even more riveting than ‘fire Upon the Sky’. ... (continue)

The book is in English so I'm going to give my comment in English....

The book deals with the idea of a manned flight to Mars. Convincing explanations on why, how and when reach the red planet are provided throughout the book. The final chapter deals with the fascinating idea of terraforming Mars in a far future. An insight on NASA money-wasting management is also provided.

A riveting reading for people interested in space exploration and in technical details about astronautic development.

P.S.
No Italian version is available, as far as I know.... ... (continue)

Non all'altezza di 2001