High Tech Books - Page 3

Orphanage (Jason Wander)

Robert Buettner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good solid fun - hard to put down 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Well written with great characters. I really enjoyed this book. It just captured my imagination and had me immediately ordering the next two in the series. I like the style, the humor, and the creativity. I do agree that it captured the essence of why our warfighters fight and the bond between them. Well done.

one of the best... 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is probably one of the best military sci-fi novels I have ever read, right up there with The Forever War and Starship Troopers. It's not often you get a chance to read a good sci-fi novel with plenty of adrenaline, character devlopment, and, most importantly, humor. Bravo, Robert Buettner, your book is terrific.

Editorial Review:

Mankind's first alien contact tears into Earth: projectiles launched from Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, vaporize whole cities. Under siege, humanity gambles on one desperate counterstrike. In a spacecraft scavenged from scraps and armed with Vietnam-era weapons, foot soldiers like eighteen-year-old Jason Wander-orphans that no one will miss-must dare man's first interplanetary voyage and invade Ganymede.


They have one chance to attack, one ship to attack with. Their failure is our extinction.

A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought)

Vernor Vinge

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 200 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

SciFi fans of the 60s and 70s 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Story details, synopsis is in numerous other reviews. If you grew up in the 60s and 70s and enjoyed that periods scifi, sweeping, epic stories with good and evil, heroes to cheer for....this is one of several books that brought me back to scifi after about a 20 year hiatus. Belongs with Stranger in a Strange Land, Dune, Childhoods End, Forge of God.....

Editorial Review:

After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds.

The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens' very doorstep for their strange star to relight and for their planet to reawaken, as it does every tow hundred and fifty years....

Then, following terrible treachery, the Qeng Ho must fight for their freedom and for the lives of the unsuspecting innocents on the planet below, while the aliens themselves play a role unsuspected by the Qeng Ho and Emergents alike.

More than just a great science fiction adventure, A Deepness in the Sky is a universal drama of courage, self-discovery, and the redemptive power of love.

Woken Furies (Takeshi Kovacs Novels)

Richard K. Morgan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Richard K. Morgan has received widespread praise for his astounding twenty-fifth-century novels featuring Takeshi Kovacs, and has established a growing legion of fans. Mixing classic noir sensibilities with a searing futuristic vision of an age when death is nearly meaningless, Morgan returns to his saga of betrayal, mystery, and revenge, as Takeshi Kovacs, in one fatal moment, joins forces with a mysterious woman who may have the power to shatter Harlan’s World forever.

Once a gang member, then a marine, then a galaxy-hopping Envoy trained to wreak slaughter and suppression across the stars, a bleeding, wounded Kovacs was chilling out in a New Hokkaido bar when some so-called holy men descended on a slim beauty with tangled, hyperwired hair. An act of quixotic chivalry later and Kovacs was in deep: mixed up with a woman with two names, many powers, and one explosive history.

In a world where the real and virtual are one and the same and the dead can come back to life, the damsel in distress may be none other than the infamous Quellcrist Falconer, the vaporized symbol of a freedom now gone from Harlan’s World. Kovacs can deal with the madness of AI. He can do his part in a battle against biomachines gone wild, search for a three-centuries-old missing weapons system, and live with a blood feud with the yakuza, and even with the betrayal of people he once trusted. But when his relationship with “the” Falconer brings him an enemy specially designed to destroy him, he knows it’s time to be afraid.

After all, the guy sent to kill him is himself: but younger, stronger, and straight out of hell.

Wild, provocative, and riveting, Woken Furies is a full-bore science fiction spectacular of the highest order–from one of the most original and spellbinding storytellers at work today.

Orphan's Destiny (Jason Wander)

Robert Buettner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Orphan's Journey a fun read and a great ride! 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I just finished Orphan's Journey and I am very excited about the next book in this series. Mr. Buttner has created a great universe, wonderful characters and packed the story with action and drama. If you like Military Sci-Fi this work is for you.

Terrific Summertime reading! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

After having read the first book in this series, Orphanage, I was hooked. I just finished this one and it was just as good. The very first couple of chapters are a little disorienting, but it all gels together soon enough. Fast paced through the middle and end with a crackerjack ending. I'm starting the third book now.

Editorial Review:

At twenty-five, General Jason Wander has fought and won man's only alien conflict. Now, after long years in space, he's coming home...but to what? Earth's desperate nations, impoverished by war damage and military spending, are slashing defense budgets. There's just one problem with this new worldwide policy-the first alien invasion was merely Plan A.


Suddenly, the real assault begins: Earth is attacked by a vast armada of city-sized warships. To block their invasion, mankind has only one surviving craft and a single guerrilla strike force...a suicide squad led by Jason Wander.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 256 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Arthur C. Clark: Travelogues of the Mind 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I don't know that I would classify Clark as a creator of great fiction; as mentioned in other reviews, the "human equation" in his works is largely missing. Clark excels and creating vivid descriptions of technology and alien grandeur, but his books are a bit lifeless at they have almost no character developement or interesting dialog.

I've read most of his books, and find he is a great alternative in those times I would find myself reaching for an atlas or a National Geographic. Honestly, I think AC Clarke is one of those sacred cow authors--praised by those who think it raises their intellectual profile, and read mainly when bored by those who can see that the emperor, while not entirely naked, could do with more than a loincloth.

Editorial Review:

2001: A Space Odyssey is the classic science fiction novel that changed the way we looked at the stars and ourselves....

2001: A Space Odyssey inspired what is perhaps the greatest science fiction film ever made- brilliantly imagined by the late Stanley Kubrick....

2001 is finally here....

"Dazzling...wrenching, eerie, a mind-bender."-Time

"Full of poetry, scientific imagination and typically wry Clarke wit. By standing the universe on its head, he makes us see the ordinary universe in a different light...a complex allegory about the history of the world."-The New Yorker

"Brain-boggling." -Life

"Clark has constructed an effective work of fiction...with the meticulous creation of an extraterrestrial environment...Mr. Clark is a master."--Library Journal

"Breathtaking."-Saturday Review

The Terminal Man

Michael Crichton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 129 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Outdated, not Crichton's best 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have been an avid fan of Crichton's for a long time and decided to peruse his older material. Terminal man was written in 1972 and Crichton's writing skill has come a long way since then. Well, perhaps the audience is much different from that of the 1970's. I couldn't finish this one. Characters were not engaging, a majority of the book was spent on describing the technology, so very little plot actually occurs until the end, at which point, I no longer cared. Would not recommend to those who are fans of Crichton's faster paced books like Jurassic Park.

lame... 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I just finished this book...finally & with great disappointment. What a lame ending. I thought about not even finishing it, but kept hoping that it would get better. Well, it didn't. Many other reviewers mentioned the outdated technology, which is true, but outdated technology isn't what ruins a story, a lame story is what ruins a story. And speaking of lame, Andromeda Strain is just as bad as Terminal Man. If you want suspense & action, read Jurassic Park & The Lost World.

Editorial Review:

Hearry Benson suffers from violent seizures. When he becomes part of an experimental program that sends electrodes to his brain to calm him, he is in recovery. Until he discovers how to get those soothing pulses more frequently, and then escapes the hopsital--on a murderous rampage with a deadly agenda....

The Forever War

Joe Haldeman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 298 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A easy and enjoyable SF read--with bonus social commentary 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I finally read the classic 1974 sci-fi novel by Joe Haldeman called The Forever War which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1975 and 1976, respectively. These are pretty significant achievements and it would be difficult for a book to live up to them.

This one does.

The central premise is about a war between humans and aliens that is occurring way out in space so that even though faster-than-light is possible via wormholes, the trips ends up taking decades of Earth-time. The author uses this relativistic effect as a time-machine that allows the characters to experience huge time shifts and allows the author to speculate on Earth's future in exciting, engrossing and particularly amusing ways.

The protagonist of the book is an Everyman: William Mandella, a (presumably) straight white American male who is conscripted to fight the aliens despite a 50% casualty rate and somehow manages to survive multiple missions in what becomes known as "The Forever War."

GRADE: A.

Editorial Review:

Private William Mandella is a hero in spite of himself -- a reluctant conscript drafted into an elite military unit, and propelled through space and time to fight in a distant thousand-year conflict. He never wanted to go to war, but the leaders on Earth have drawn a line in the interstellar sand -- despite the fact that their fierce alien enemy is unknowable, unconquerable, and very far away. So Mandella will perform his duties without rancor and even rise up through the military's ranks . . . if he survives. But the true test of his mettle will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the time dilation caused by space travel the loyal soldier is aging months, while his home planet is aging centuries -- and the difference will prove the saying: you never can go home. . .

Luna Marine (The Heritage Trilogy, Book 2)

Ian Douglas

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The revelations on Mars -- a half-million year-old legacy of the vanished star-traveling Builders -- have fed the flames of catastrophic war. A beleaguered United States and its Russian and Japanese allies struggle to hold their own against the indomitable forces of the enemy United Nations. The bloody conflict that has swept over the home planet now rages across the blackness of space -- with the U.S. Marine Corps in the vanguard, leading the charge as always.

But Mars is not the sole repository of alien wonders. The Earth's moon hides unsettling mysteries of its own-and dangerous secrets pointing toward an unstoppable threat advancing from somewhere beyond the solar system. And as scientists on both sides ract to utilize technology they have only barely begun to comprehend, the UN makes the opening move in a gambit that could end the hostilities quickly and decisively by bringing about the death of millions...without the aid of alien-inspired weaponry.

A bad situation worsens by the nanosecond. And that means it's time to call in the Marines -- to make a life or death stand on the gray shores of Luna.

Victory Conditions (Vatta's War)

Elizabeth Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Elizabeth Moon’s thrilling Vatta’s War series, featuring the no-holds-barred space-faring heroine Kylara Vatta, has secured her reputation as a master of first-rate military science fiction. Now Commander Vatta is back–locked and loaded and ready to win the fight against the marauding forces of ruthless space pirate Gammis Turek.

For Ky, it’s not just about liberating the star systems subjugated by Turek and defending the rest of the galaxy’s freedom. There’s also a score to be settled and payback to be meted out for the obliteration of the Vatta Transport dynasty . . . and the slaughter of Ky’s family. But the enemy have their own escalation efforts under way–including the placement of covert agents among the allies with whom Ky and the surviving Vattas are collaborating in the war effort. And when a spy ring linked to a wealthy businessman is exposed, a cracked pirate code reveals a galaxywide conspiracy fueling the proliferation of Turek’s warship fleet.
Matching the invaders’ swelling firepower will mean marshaling an armada of battle-ready ships for Ky to lead into combat. But a violent skirmish leaves Ky reeling–and presumed dead by her enemies. Now, as Turek readies an all-out attack on the Nexus system–a key conquest that could seal the rest of the galaxy’s doom–Ky must rally to the challenge, draw upon every last reserve of her strategic skills, and reach deep if she is to tear from the ashes of tragedy her most decisive victory.


From the Hardcover edition.

Broken Angels

Richard K. Morgan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 82 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Welcome back to the brash, brutal new world of the twenty-fifth century: where global politics isn’t just for planet Earth anymore; and where death is just a break in the action, thanks to the techno-miracle that can preserve human consciousness and download it into one new body after another.

Cynical, quick-on-the-trigger Takeshi Kovacs, the ex-U.N. envoy turned private eye, has changed careers, and bodies, once more . . . trading sleuthing for soldiering as a warrior-for-hire, and helping a far-flung planet’s government put down a bloody revolution.

But when it comes to taking sides, the only one Kovacs is ever really on is his own. So when a rogue pilot and a sleazy corporate fat cat offer him a lucrative role in a treacherous treasure hunt, he’s only too happy to go AWOL with a band of resurrected soldiers of fortune. All that stands between them and the ancient alien spacecraft they mean to salvage are a massacred city bathed in deadly radiation, unleashed nanotechnolgy with a million ways to kill, and whatever surprises the highly advanced Martian race may have in store. But armed with his genetically engineered instincts, and his trusty twin Kalashnikovs, Takeshi is ready to take on anything—and let the devil take whoever’s left behind.