I just love these Soviet space illustrations from Flight into Cosmic Space, circa 1949 (and hey, they were posted on my birthday, so happy belated to me!) Above is a space station (or a cosmic-sized ring, your choice), and below is said station with a rocket launching away from it. Check out the post at Dreams of Space for more images!

This review sums it up pretty well:

“By the time you’re finished assembling paper models of spacecraft from the book’s meticulously die-cut blueprints, you’ll be intimately familiar with many of the details of 20 different iconic spacecraft, as well as the broad arc of space exploration history and the basic principles of spaceflight. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s certainly a blast.” ~SeedMagazine.com

I don’t often plug things so heavily, but if I had a little space cadet, I’d be buying them this for Christmas. It utterly charmed me — a delightful gift for any age!

Today marks NASA’s 50th anniversary. It also marks the release of their space art collection in book form, NASA/ART: 50 Years of Exploration! Here’s to a great 50 years, and hopefully to another legacy-filled 50 years to come.

I was gently reminded last week that my book reviews and related posts are, as relevant as I might think them, changing the focus of this blog, so I aim to stop after this post. Having recommended some new things last week, I felt it would be leaving this subject incomplete if I didn’t mention some old things, newly compiled, republished or otherwise presented for your review.

Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century is an anthology from 2001, edited by Orson Scott Card. I admit, this fact alone was enough for me to pick it up! There’s some terrific classics in here — Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed by Ray Bradbury is one of my favorites. “All You Zombies—” by Robert Heinlein is a mind-twisting time-travel tale that makes what Douglas Adams did to Zaphod Beeblebrox’s family tree look positively amateur.

Another great set of compilations is The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, sharing stories from 1929-1964. Volume One (which I own and love) is pictured here. Volumes Two A and Two B are available in hardback, and were originally published in 1973 “to honor novellas that had come before the institution of the Nebula Awards.”

Volume One’s short stories hail from the same span of years (1929-1964): “Selected by a vote of the membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), these 26 reprints represent the best, most important, and most influential stories and authors in the field.” Indeed, this volume is full of great stuff — Scanners Live in Vain! by Cordwainer Smith and The Weapon Shop by A. E. van Vogt are fantastic, and Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester will tie your grey matter into several complex knots. In a good way, I mean.

Classic science fiction is just as enjoyable today as it was when first published, especially the stuff presented in the above anthologies. Do yourself a favor and check them out!

Science fiction and spaceflight have great influence on each other, and have done for centuries. (Yes, plural! Some very important fiction came out of the 19th century that had great impact on spaceflight and orbital mechanics.)

One great way to get acquainted with new (and old) authors in the sci-fi genre is to pick up an anthology or two. The book featured here is the 2008 Year’s Best Science Fiction anthology — featuring the best stories published each year, this anthology is consistently good, with a lot of variety in authors and story types. I find it helpful to pick up a Year’s Best every so often, to introduce myself to new authors, or old authors I’ve not come across. If you like a story, you can drop that author’s name into Google or Amazon and see what else they have to offer!

The only downside of this particular anthology is that all the work featured is (as the name implies) very new, so those wishing to familiarize themselves with earlier works or authors gone before will be out of luck. (I’ll be featuring some anthologies that fill in this gap nicely later on this week!)

I was offered a review copy of Mars Life by Ben Bova — it’s the first time I’ve agreed to review something sight-unseen. I don’t read as much hard-sf as space opera, so this will be a bit different than most reviews I plan for future posts, but hey, I’m game….

Mars Life concludes the saga started by Mars and Return to Mars, but explains itself well enough from the start that it can easily be read on its own. As the title suggests, the plot revolves around the controversial discovery of ancient, now-extinct intelligent life on Mars, and how this discovery impacts (and is impacted by) religious and political movements back home. The author earnestly expresses his opinions in the book, and as such, it may not be for all fans. Since the plot deals with very current hot-points, I have a feeling people will either love the religious and political angles, or find them profoundly offensive.

The setting is what I call “plausible future” — respecting physical/natural constraints, technology has clearly advanced, yet nothing mentioned strikes the reader as particularly far-fetched. The Moon is its own nation, with permanent colonies; a base has been established on Mars. The book has a lot of science in it, but doesn’t overload the reader with jargon.

One aspect of Mars Life I find particularly intriguing is how the governing of Mars is handled. According to the Outer Space Treaty, “outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.” If a nation wishes to claim exclusive use of a celestial body, however, they can do so, and their claim will be maintained as long as at least one citizen of that nation is in residence — no idea if this is a genuine legal loophole, or one fabricated for the purpose of the story. Mars exploration, therefore, is governed by the Navajo nation, fully ratified by the international community. A fascinating choice — and an appropriate one, in the context of the story! (I presume the other two books expand on how Mars came to be Navajo-governed.)

My stylistic issues with the book are expressed by one reviewer (covering a different book in the Grand Tour series), who complained of “too many characters with too many agendas.” If I could add, “in too many locations”, that would about sum it up. It must just be part of the author’s writing style; the tumult of people and places was overwhelming at times.

I admit, I did not enjoy this book. The author’s portrayal of Western religion is deliriously misinformed by opinions clearly based on the most extreme fundamentalist views. These opinions do not intersect reality. Beyond that, the author lacks sufficient knowledge in the beliefs he lambasts — believers may find themselves questioning their faith at any point in life, but to have an elderly priest asking why God is mean to people is unrealistic at best. A minimal amount of research yields ample explanation for that basic question. (Had he done so, he could have picked something more appropriate?) Christians are referred to as “psalm-singing sons-of-bitches” repeatedly in the text; I’d be interested to see evidence of the scientific community being similarly attacked, to give rise to such grossly offensive slurs?

Unfortunately for the reader, Mars Life‘s sole purpose is to deliver the author’s view of current affairs in the United States, especially conflicts between the scientific community and Christianity (intelligent design, global warming, Darwin, etc.) As such, the book is a conceit, and I have little appreciation for conceits. Mr. Bova writes for a very specific audience, and it’s clear that audience doesn’t include me.

NASA turns 50 on October 1st, and in celebration, they’ve announced today their release of a new artbook, covering 50 years of space art as commissioned by our space program.

In 1962, four years after NASA was founded, Administrator James E. Webb recognized space exploration would make a profound cultural impact, in addition to advancing science and technology. He established the NASA Art Program to commission pieces from prominent artists that would illustrate and interpret the space agency’s missions.

NASA/ART: 50 Years of Exploration is available for pre-order @ Amazon, and some of the art will be on exhibition over the next few years around the country. (I hope a museum on the West Coast picks it up! Colorado’s too far for me.)

Artists, like astronauts, constantly probe the unknown. Shortly after its establishment in 1958, NASA created the NASA Art Program on the principle that artists are uniquely equipped to interpret and document the experience of space exploration.

One of the ways I spend my time is by devouring books whole reading science fiction (and fantasy.) I’ve always leaned toward the space opera camp in sci-fi, and although I’m not finished with it yet (at over 900 pages, I’m sure you’ll forgive me), I can heartily recommend The Space Opera Renaissance, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. This book is a blow-by-blow survey of the development of space opera, what it meant when it started (not what you’d think!), what it means now, and the best examples of every era. What I find unique is that it also includes a few parodies of the sub-genre, like Clive Jackson’s The Swordsmen of Varnis (the ending lives on as a visual gag in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark), commentary on what these authors were going for, and in some cases, how the parody caused a resurgence of interest in space opera.

Stories range from a few pages to over 100 pages in length, and the book offers a broad spectrum of authors, from forefathers of science fiction to present-day greats. It’s a great way to dabble in the sub-genre, and find new authors to read. (There’s also a lovely hardcover edition, if you’re interested.)

U.S. Human Spaceflight: A Record of Achievement, 1961-2006 is a monograph from NASA’s History Division, covering every human spaceflight mission from Mercury 1 on. Download the PDF here, or write for a free paper copy:

U.S. Human Spaceflight: A Record of Achievement, 1961-2006 (Monograph in Aerospace History No. 41) was compiled by Judith A. Rumerman and updated by Chris Gamble and Gabriel Okolski. This handy and richly illustrated reference work is an updating of the similarly titled Monograph 9 that was published in 1998. Interested readers may obtain a free copy of this monograph by sending a self-addressed, stamped 9×12″ envelope ($2.84 domestic first-class postage for 13 ounces) to the NASA Information Center, NASA HQ, Washington, DC 20546 or by coming in person to the NASA History Division in room CO72 of NASA Headquarters.