In this section, you’ll find my favorite science fiction and fantasy books.  While I find myself mostly reading nonfiction these days, this remains one of my favorite areas.

Burden of Proof, although set aboard a spaceship, is not primarily a science fiction book. It could be described as “science fiction/military legal drama”, and is completely fascinating as the author intertwines the details of space travel and military law while keeping the story moving.

Paul Sinclair, recently promoted to Lt. j.g. (the day the book opens, in fact) is relieved to have life back to normal after having been involved in the court martial of his former captain (A Just Determination). Life, unfortunately, is about to get a lot more interesting as an explosion in engineering disables the USS Michaelson, killing the chief pretty officer.  Something doesn’t look right, and Paul soon comes to believe that the real cause of the accident is being covered up. Unfortunately, all of his evidence is circumstantial, and the suspect is the well-liked son of a powerful vice-admiral..

Burden of Proof is the second book of a four-book series, but easily stands on its own.  It was the first book I’ve read by this author; having finished it yesterday I’m already planning to buy the others.

Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove

To be free, or not to be free...

In 1588, Spain attempted to conquer England, but was turned back by England's fire ships. Had the attempt succeeded, however, the result could have been Turtledove's Ruled Britannia. It is now 1597, and Britain has spent nearly a decade under the rule of King Phillip of Spain. A revolution, however, is brewing, and will drag in a certain British playwright named William Shakespeare...

While no knowledge of either history of Shakespeare is required to enjoy this book, fans of Shakespeare's work will take particular enjoyment in the blank verse and bad jokes typical of the bard's writing.  While the story is written in modern English, the dialog is partially in Shakespeare's English, with enough of it thrown in to givethe story a period feeling.

Rating: 10/10. My favorite alternate history to date

So starts the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a new collection containing all six novels in the Hitchhiker's Guide series. This book may severely test your tolerance for nonsense; things often happen for no logical reason, and the vastly improbably happens with great regularity, due in part to the Infinite Improbability Drive powering the starship stolen by Zaphod Beeblebrox, the president of the galaxy.

Add in a depressed robot, an earthman snatched from Earth immediately before its destruction, doors that are entirely too cheerful, the loudest band in the galaxy and intelligent shades of blue, and you're left with 815 pages of highly engrossing reading. If you're ready to laugh along with quite a bit of silliness, this is the book for you.

Rating: 10/10. Several classic novels collected in one volume!

I've always enjoyed Larry Niven's work; even his books from the sixties and seventies read like they could have been written today. However, while I've read Ringworld, I've never gotten around to reading the sequels.  Luckily for me, Ringworld's Children, the latest book in the series, is perfectly readable without having read the rest, although there are allusions to what has gone before.  That said, having a basic familiarity with Niven's universe will definitely increase your enjoyment of this novel.

At the start of the book, the human Louis Wu and puppeteer Hindmost are trapped on Ringworld by the Ghoul protector Tunesmith. Ships from the various factions which seek control of the Ringworld (ARM, Kzinti, puppeteers, Trinocs, and others) fight a cold war in the immediate area, and due to using antimatter weapons, they may actually pose a threat to Ringworld.

Tunesmith, having learned all he can from the technology available on Ringworld, has determined to capture the Long Shot, the only known ship with a Quantum II hyperdrive. This results in moving the Fringe War closer to Ringworld, where an antimatter explosion blasts a hole large enough to quickly drain all the air from Ringworld if Tunesmith cannot close it in time.

If you liked Larry Niven's other Known Space books like Ringworld and Neutron Star, you will like this book. Quite possibly the end of the Ringworld series, it wraps up the storyline by making the Ringworld inaccessible to the species of known space...for now.

Score: 9/10. If you like Niven's writing, you want this book.

Disclosure: I recieved a free review copy of this book.

One of the strong points of the original Star Trek series was that, aside from being science fiction, it was also social commentary; the series expressed Gene Roddenberry's view of society. Now, Robert Zubrin brings us a piece of science fiction satire that will leave his readers shaking their heads with disbelief.  Reading the dust jacket tells you all you need to know about the story:

To save the Minervans from oppression in the central galaxy, the liberal Western Galactic Empire relocates the sect to their ancient homeland of Kennewick, Washington. But for the fundamentalist fanatics who rule the United States, the presence of pagans in the holy city is intolerable.

When direct assault to expel the intruders fails, the U.S. government tries to mobilize galactic opinion by moving the Kennewickians into miserable refugee camps and recruiting their children for suicidal attacks on the Minervans. But this play for sympathy falls on deaf ears of the policy makers of the mighty WGE.

If the Minervans are ever to be removed, the WGE needs to receive a more forceful message, and the President and his cabinet are prepared to deliver it. Camps for training planet assassins are set up. Soon, billions of pagan aliens will know the wrath of the followers of Jesus.

Unfortunately, there is one little problem with this brilliant plan.

There are very few surprises in the book, as all parts of the story should be familiar to anyone who follows current events, but it makes for an entertaining read as Zubrin skewers the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the war on terror, and more. Needless to say, if you're looking for an original story, this may not be the book for you. But if you don't mind a bit of satire, it's kind of fun seeing how the author brings together so many elements of today's society into the world of the future.

Score: 7/10. Worth a trip to the library, but I don’t know if I’d buy it.

If you read science fiction, chances are you’ve read the Foundation series.  A long-time fan favorite, the series has been in print for over 50 years.  The series is written as a historical novel, chronicling the fall of the first galactic empire. The first book, Foundation, follows Hari Seldon, the psychohistorian who realized that the Empire was destined to fall, as he established the Foundation in an attempt to shorten the period of suffering that will inevitably follow before the rise of the second galactic empire from thirty thousand years to a single millenium. As the Empire begins to lose power at the fringes of the galaxy, the Foundation finds itself an island of civilization in the midst of neighboring kingdoms which are sinking into barbarity.  In Foundation and Empire, the Foundation has come to the attention of the still-powerful Empire under its last strong emperor. Later, they face the first threat that Seldon could not anticipate, a force that even the Foundation's advanced science cannot stand against.  Finally, in Second Foundation, we see the two Foundations, set "at opposite ends of the Galaxy", finally come into conflict, in a battle to determine the eventual rulers of the second galactic empire.

Fan outcry eventually forced Asimov to expand the 'trilogy' to include four more books, including two prequels.  With seven novels covering a thousand years, this series is the very definition of epic, and a must-read for any serious fan of science fiction.

When the Constitution of the United States was enacted, the people feared giving excessive power to the federal government and so amended it to include the Bill of Rights, specifically enumerating rights which the federal government could not infringe.  The 10^th amendment specifically asserted that all powers not delegated to the federal government were reserved to the states or the people. At the time, the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government; they did not apply to the states.  For example, in 1804 Thomas Jefferson wrote:

"While we deny that Congress have a right to control the freedom of the press, we have ever asserted the rights of the states, and their exclusive right, to do so."

After the civil war, the 14^th amendment was enacted in order to guarantee to black Americans the fundamental rights of free citizens; it prohibited states from abridging the "privileges and immunities" of US citizens or denying to any person "due process of law" or "the equal protection of the laws".

Over the course of the 20^th century, the Supreme Court began to find, in the so-called "incorporation doctrine", that the protections found in the Bill of Rights are incorporated into the due process clause of the 14^th amendment and are therefore binding on the states as well as the federal government. The eventual result was that any state law which conflicted with the Bill of Rights could now be struck down as unconstitutional.

Our story opens in 2056, forty years after the 37^th amendment has removed "due process of law" from the Constitution.  Laws are strict - murderers in California are often executed within a week of arrest - and crime is almost nonexistent.  However, a murder in Los Angeles in which an innocent man is wrongly convicted and executed leads the protagonist into a fast-paced, exciting attempt to clear the executed man's name, eventually becoming the symbol of the fight to reverse the 37^th amendment.

In addition to the story, the book includes an appendix tracing the history of the US Constitution and the Supreme Court decisions leading to the incorporation doctrine.

Rating: 10/10. Well worth a read.

Addenum: Not sure yet? You can also read the book online!

I have a weakness for time travel stories, so I couldn't pass up this one. Michael "Pup" Young is a grad student in history, writing his dissertation on the young Hitler at Cambridge University. He runs into a theoretical physicist who has invented a time machine, at the same time that his girlfriend is doing research on male sterility pills.  Michael convinces the physicist to send the pills back through time into the well that Hitler's father drinks from, causing the madman to never be born.

All seems well and good, when Michael wakes up as an American philosophy student in a world that has never heard of Hitler.  Unfortunately, they have heard of the Nazi party. In a world without Hitler, another man rose to power... but without Hitler's level of rabid anti-Semitism, rather than driving off the Jewish scientists he used them to enable Germany to be the first to develop the atomic bomb. With it, Germany conquered Europe and won World War II.  America was later able to independently develop the bomb, leading to the cold war.  Half a century later, tensions are still high..

Overall, Making History is an interesting book that's definitely worth a read.

One Knight Only by Peter David

Star Trek fans may recognize Peter David as the author of such books as Q-in-Law, Q-Squared, and Imzadi, but he has also written some interesting fantasy.  In Knight Life, King Arthur is released from his imprisonment and, at Merlin's behest, runs for mayor of New York City.  In the sequel, One Knight Only, Arthur is now president of the United States, having successfully run as an independent.  He enjoys high approval ratings and has focused his attention on fighting terrorism. However, after his wife Gwen is shot by a terrorist and slips into a coma, Arthur resigns the presidency, sends a basilisk after the terrorist group responsible, and sets off on a quest for the Holy Grail.

I wouldn't put this book as Peter David's best work, but it was interesting enough to read straight through a few days ago. If you liked the books I mentioned above, then One Knight Only is worth a look.

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