Hard-core sci-fi reading...

Almost a week since my last post here, and it seems like only a few days. Why is it that the older you get the quicker time seems to pass? It's important to me to know the answer to this, as I want to slow it down as soon as possible... :-)

I spent the past week reading sci-fi novels, when I wasn't working on website stuff. Books read were:

"Future History", Jerry Pournelle
"King David's Spaceship", Jerry Pournelle
"Ringworld's Children", Larry Niven

All three were very good reads. If you've read and enjoyed the awesome "The Mote in God's Eye" and it's sequel "The Mote Around Murcheson's Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, then I recommend both "Future History" and "King David's Spaceship" as they take place in the same story universe as the two joint-effort books. In the case of the latter, it immediately precedes "The Mote in God's Eye".

If you're a fan of the classic "Ringworld" by Larry Niven, then it is well worthwhile reading the sequels "The Ringworld Engineers", "The Ringworld Throne" and "Ringworld's Children". A very impressive story arc, expanded upon even further in various other Niven books set in the Ringworld story universe. See "Neutron Star", "Protector", "A Gift From Earth", "World of Ptaavs" and "Tales of Known Space" for starters. Fantastic stuff!

I mention all of this because this is the kind of sci-fi I really like. It's often referred to as "Hard" sci-fi, as it deals with realism and not fantasy. Futures depicted in all the above-mentioned books are highly plausible because they are futures based upon the prediction of possible technological and social developments from our own time. It makes for interesting as well as entertaining reading anyway.