Summer Reading
Our recommended reading list from the Based Book Sale
Hans G. Schantz ‘s Summer Based Book Sale is running until May 26th, so this is the time for you to discover based books from established and up-and-coming authors for just $0.99, with many titles completely free. Here are a few of the Tortugans’ favorites.
Hacking Galileo (*FREE*)
by Fenton Wood
A story untold for over 30 years...
Teenage hacker Roger O. Miller made national headlines when he was arrested for hacking into NASA computers and hijacking an interplanetary probe. He told the authorities a wild story about a rogue asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Eventually, he recanted and admitted that he fabricated the whole thing.
Or did he?
I sat on this for a while because the cover looks boring and the book description has too many layers to send a clear signal. So let this be the signal: read this book. It’s a blast.
A gang of teenage boys pull pranks with electronics and get in trouble. That produces a couple of fun little anecdotes, but then they try to bounce a radio signal off Mars and we really start cooking. Because it’s not Mars that returns their signal. It’s something older, and worse. - Dan
The Powers of the Earth (Aristillus Book 1)
by Travis J. I. Corcoran (Author)
PROMETHEUS AWARD WINNER “BEST NOVEL” 2018
Earth in 2064 is politically corrupt and in economic decline. The Long Depression has dragged on for 56 years, and the Bureau of Sustainable Research is hard at work making sure that no new technologies disrupt the planned economy. Ten years ago a band of malcontents, dreamers, and libertarian radicals bolted privately-developed anti-gravity drives onto rusty sea-going cargo ships, loaded them to the gills with 20th-century tunnel-boring machines and earthmoving equipment, and set sail – for the Moon.
What a book! I haven't felt this way since I read The Martian. And like The Martian, Forces is idiosyncratic in a way you wouldn't see in mainstream science fiction. There are two stories, one about an exiled soldier hiking on the moon with a pack of illegal uplifted dogs, the other about the libertarian misanthrope who helped found the moon colony and must now overcome his antisocial nature to build his home's defenses against an upcoming invasion from Earth.
The novel doesn't do what you'd expect. It neither begins nor ends where an agent or editor or writers' workshop instructor would recommend. It's just utterly enthralling, because it's a labor of love. Corcoran loves Brin and Heinlein. He loves engineering and dogs. He loves playing with the toys he's made, and he's sharing them with you. This is everything fiction should be. Endless thanks to Jane Psmith for recommending this book. - Dan
Starquest: Catburglar of the Constellations
by John C. Wright
Crime flourishes amid the core stars. The most cunning phantom thief of all, the Merry Catburglar, can walk through walls, see through security, and not be caught! But when she encounters the masked and black robed Faceless Man, First of the Four Dark Overlords, she faces a menace beyond mortal!
This is the third book of the Starquest Series and it goes down like popcorn. Maybe buffalo wings. It’s tighter and more consistent than book two, and does a better job of weaving the big plot arcs around the central story (about a jewel heist). Risking a spoiler: a whole sequence of events I thought was a flashback to the distant past…wasn’t! Awesome. - Dan