Rendezvous with Lewis and Clarke — Science Fiction

Lately I’ve been on a run of reading science fiction. It began with C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. These three superb stories predated his excellent work with the Narnia Chronicles. The books are: Out of the Silent Planet (a trip to Mars), Perelandra (a trip to Venus), and That Hideous Strength (set on Earth). Lewis does a superb job of tapping his skills in medieval history including creating an “old solar language” for this series that was spoken throughout the solar system by the various creatures and spirits. It makes for fascinating reading.

I then moved on to the works of Arthur C. Clarke. The first was Childhood’s End. I had watched the SyFy channel’s mini-series with the same title that is an excellent adaptation. But I usually really appreciate both the large and small differences that are almost always present in the book.

My next read was Rendezvous with Rama which is an exceptional story of intercepting a space ship from another world. It’s a fascinating tale with interesting takes on the various aspects of the science and technology displayed throughout the book from both alien and solar system based spacecraft.

Right now I’m reading Clarke’s novel Glide Path that is not science fiction but rather a novel written around his experiences in World War II in the Royal Air Force developing radar-based ground controlled approach for aircraft landing. This one I find fascinating with its tales of electron tubes, magnetrons, waveguides, and soldering irons. It is a really fun read and well connected to the world of amateur radio.

All these books I’m finding and reading on an iPad and occasionally on an iPhone. I subscribe to Scribd, the online ebook service. For a monthly fee, I have access to ebooks, audiobooks, and a few more items. The monthly fee allows trials on all the books and downloading 3 ebooks and 1 audiobook each month. It works great and sure beats the library for selection and seriously beats the bookstore on price.

As just one example, I love listening to books as I’m driving across country. They really came in handy this past summer on our trips to Michigan and the Dayton Hamvention. My Scrib subscription really came in handy then and seriously beats the prices on iTunes for audiobooks.

Hope you find some good reads this summer.