Solar System Books

To the publisher I would appreciate it if the publisher could produce an audio adaptation of this book. I would love to listen to this while I drive to work and to let my 16 month old son listen to it as a bedtime story. My goal is to expose him to some of my favorite passions, maths, sciences, physics, geophysics, paleontology, astronomy, electronics, photonics, new science and discoveries etc. The more audio books you can produce of the above genre the more I will support you. Arnold D Veness

I liked the book, but do not rate it as highly as "Rain of Iron and Ice" by John S. Lewis and "Impact" by Gerrit L Verschuur. However, it is much better than "Fire on Earth" by John and Mary Gribben.
My chief reservation about Steel's work is that he seems easily drawn to flights of whimsy such as Clube's and Napier's contentions regarding Beta Taurid cometary impacts that have affected history on a mammoth scale. While these are captivating proposals, perhaps, there isn't enough hard scientific evidence for them clutter up what was otherwise a hitherto fine scientific presentation of a real problem by Steel. Up to the author's dalliance into the speculative, the book is a good read about a serious, overlooked, preventable threat. His admonitions should be taken seriously.

Duncan Steel is one of the best known advocates for a near Earth observation system, and he and others like him should be listened to. Unfortunately the book is not too great. It didn't hold my attention, partly because of the intrusion of some of his opinions. If nothing else is available on the topic, this could be an okay choice. See instead "Rain of Iron and Ice" by John S. Lewis

Related titles include "Night Comes to the Cretaceous" by James Lawrence Powell and "T Rex and the Crater of Doom" by Walter Alvarez.

Three events in the past decade have caused a great deal of interest in objects around us in space. Giotto's encounter with Halleys Comet, Hubble Space Telescope pictures of the Shoemaker/Levy comet crashing onto Jupiter and lastly the naked eye sightings of the Hale/Bopp Comet we have enjoyed earlier in the year. Originally from Somerset, Duncan Steel now works at the Anglo-Australian Observatory and his book provides a very readable account of the nature and movements of these very varied objects.

Ever since the first pictures of other planets and in particular their moons arrived, studies have been made of their cratering records. Pictures from space have also been the main method of detecting craters but this time down on earth where plate tectonics, erosion, sediments or vegetation tend to erase them.

Astronomy and Geology linked up when cosmic impact events were suggested as possible cause or trigger for some of the major extinctions we find in the fossil record. The effects of both solar and cosmic cycles on all aspects of life on the planet are now widely studied.

Mr. Steel gives an account of a very bright meteor seen by many people in 1993 in New South Wales. When asked for an estimate of how soon it would before another such sighting to occur the answer was given in years. One week later, however, an object estimated to be 2-3 meters in size and traveling at 30Km/Sec exploded 18Km overhead with the amount of energy produced by a Hiroshima Bomb. Events such as these and the trail of impacts left on Jupiter show that objects in space are certainly not solitary. Lines of craters have been found on other moons in the system. Comet Hale/Bopp provided a spectacular sight a few months ago but for now the interest is in the debris and dust they and asteroids can leave behind often in highly eccentric trails across our orbit. Gravitational forces and solar wind affect the objects and the trails have a structure and it is the "busy" parts of the belt which give the peaks to meteor showers as we pass. The widely varying time scales which have been linked with extinctions and other cycles are the result of earth and solar system moving round the galaxy.

The possible effects of a large impact, global warming, ice ages, large fire storms or basalt floods have all been discussed elsewhere but the book considers several other theories. A large object landing in the ocean could cause a truly instant catastrophe.

This is the tsunami wave which can be caused by earthquakes or large undersea slope collapse. Islands in the middle of the Pacific can feel the effects of activity right across the ocean. The sloping continental shelves amplify the height of the waves and in low lying areas they can reach well in land. Observations of the cratering pattern on Mercury led to one theory where the shock waves from a large impact travel round the globe and fracture the crust on the opposite side. Reconstruction of the continents at the times of suggested impact events seems to make it possible to link basalt floods such as the Deccan traps with their "opposite" partner.

The remainder of the book deals with the problems involved first in detecting objects which may be a threat to the earth and also discusses what or how anything could be done about it. The pictures of S/L 9 described as a "string of pearls" as it approached Jupiter show just how much of a problem this could prove. For a book found

on the astronomy shelves in the library this one provided a very interesting read and shows that we on earth are not alone in space.

I enjoyed the book . It explains things easily. The only thing I didnt get was on one page, it said "the next 3 planets are the gas giants..." and it has a picture of 4 planets. I dont know if its a typo or what! LOL Then it also confused me because it doesnt consider Pluto a planet. I grew up thinkingit was. Maybe scientists changed that recently but it threw me off a little.

excellent, up to date book about space/solar system. lots of words, but my 2 yo still enjoys it and will grow with it.

I am kind of disappointed at this book. The illustration is dull. The words are plain.

Not very appealing for preschoolers or 1-2 graders, while it is too simple for a savvy reader. I would not recommend it for either gifts or self use.

What a GREAT book! I was looking for a book for my 3 1/2 year old that would introduce him to space in a simple way, "What's Out There" is exactly what I wanted. He is so captivated by this book, it is short, simple and easy to understand. It is perfect for him now and will be for the next several years. All of the basics are covered such as the 9 planets and their relation to the sun, how the earth travels around the sun and spins, the moon, gravity, the make-up of all the planets, asteroids etc. Each topic is explained in a fun and easy way for a child to understand and the illustrations are wonderful. Highly recommend as a first book about space!

As it is usual in Meeus' books, it presents a thorough exposition of all the algorithms needed to calculate with high accuracy all you can imagine, but there is not the slightest sketch of a mathematical proof in the whole text, making it incomplete. You will find it very useful, as I have, to compute the local circumstances of solar eclipses in remote or very particular locations, and much more, but you will LEARN nothing.

Vaataks raamatut

The main tabular body of this book are Besselian Elements calculated using the newest theories of the motions of the Sun and Moon. The author gives algorithms and numerical examples on how to calculate circumstances of a solar eclipse anywhere on the earth's surface, these algorithms can easily be programed on a home computer. The book's biggest drawback is that it contains no maps showing paths of eclipses.

Dalla Hadron has been doing a little bit more scientific meddling than she should. As such, she has blown a fair holes in a certain society's theory of Statistical Reincarnation. i.e. that it all balances out in the end.

Given that this culture has a Society of Assassins as part of normal business practices she has a few problems.

Luckily Verkon Vall comes back, and is pretty handy with the old weapons himself.

Politics and action, quite entertaining.

Hadron Dalla, once (and future!) wife of Verkan Vall, has gone to the Akor-Neb alternate reality sector to study their breakthroughs in studying reincarnation. However, with her superior knowledge of medicines and hypnosis from other sectors of the multiverse, she has produced a colossal breakthrough. Cause for celebration, no? No. Dalla has now completely thrown the Akor-Neb view of reality out the airlock, and civil war is right around the corner. Now, it is up to Vall to rescue Dalla and keep the Paratime secret safe.

This story was first published in Astounding Science Fiction (Vol. XLV, No. 6), in August of 1950. Like all of H. Beam Piper's (1904-64) Paratime stories, it is exciting and filled with adventure, and yet is philosophically interesting with Piper's trademark self-reliant man. Also, as always, the author was an expert at creating fascinating milieus that give the story so much interest. Overall, I found this to be a great story, one that is sure to please any fan of great science-fiction.

With the transition of much of H. Beam Piper's work into the public domain publishers like Aegypan Press have finally begun to bring Piper's work back into print and for that fans of Piper owe them a debt of gratitude. This short novel is an interesting introduction to Piper's Paratime series. It concerns an alternate world where people believe in reincarnation. The discovery that a "discarnate" individual has control over the time and place of his reincarnation leads to political turmoil, putting an undercover Paratime researcher in jeopardy. The hero of Piper's Paratime series, Paratime Policeman Verkan Vall, must step in to save the imperiled researcher--who just happens to be his ex-wife! The action is non-stop as hired assassins on all sides battle it out, fearless in their confidence that they will be reincarnated.

Other recommend works in Piper's Paratime series are the short novel Time Crime, the collection Paratime edited by John F. Carr, Piper's only full-length Paratime novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, and its authorized sequels Great Kings' War, Kalvan Kingmaker, and Siege of Tarr-Hostigos by Carr and Roland Green.

E. Everett Evans was a pal of more famous author E. E. Smith, and Evans on his own published about 40 short stories of science fiction, fantasy and supernatural horror, as well as three science fiction novels written toward the end of his life. I recently found the original Fantasy Press edition of this, his first novel... and struggled through it.

If it had been published as a juvenile, I'd have no problem with it, but as a novel aimed at adults it's preposterous. No character in the story behaves in any plausible or believable way at any time.

A young man is supposedly kicked out of Space Academy just before graduation for cheating on an exam, but in fact he has been recruited into a nonsensically-organized secret service and is immediately sent to a distant colony planet to investigate, simply because higher ups in the SS have a gut feeling that something dangerous is brewing there.

Although this tale takes place in a distant future, social and even technological changes seem nonexistent. [The communications device used by the secret service is nothing more than a bank safe-deposit box!] The hero supposedly can "read minds," but in fact he can't... his main supernatural ability turns out to be controlling domestic and wild animals remotely by sending "part of his mind" out into them.

The hero leaves so many clues strewn around that he is a undercover law enforcement official that he should have been killed or tortured to death by the bad guys a few chapters along into the book. Instead, he is being tortured to death only toward the end of the book, surviving implausibly to take part in a final space battle that shows the clear influences of E. E. Smith in every line.

If you encountered this book in 1953 at the age of 13, you'd probably love it. At any other time or any other age you'd find yourself reading a work of fiction so primitive, stumbling and poorly-thought-out that it belongs in a museum instead of a library or bookstore.

Like the above reviewer, I read this book as a boy also. The book was for me very inspirational as a child, and so inspiring and imaginative that nearly 50 years later I am happy to have found it again. The book, in fact, was first found at a time early enough in my life that it inspired me to consider very seriously a career in science. At the time I read the Man of Many Minds, our own space program was still in its infant years.

I also found another book today I enjoyed as a boy, The Indian Mummy Mystery. You can believe that both will be reread cover to cover when I receive them. I don't doubt that they will both be enjoyed as much as the memory that kept them alive for all these years. I had searched for both titles before and nearly lost hope that I would find them again.

So, not only do I recommend one book, I recommend both of the titles listed above highly!

I think this was the first science fiction story I ever read... I was a boy of around 12.. and the `pictures' that were generated by the author as I read his story were totally captivating. I found my self at Cadet George Hanlon's elbow as he found himself joining the Secret Service of the Federation... a young kid just out of the Academy and pressured into once again using the ability of being able to probe another's mind for his thoughts. It doesn't that long before the story is in full swing as George tries to discover to source of very mysterious activity on a planet so far away from Terra.
The author does a very good job developing the story line and I would recommend this as very enjoyable light reading for anyone.

As a Mars enthusiast, I originally bought this book because I just couldn't find anything really new in any other kind of book.

I knew some of this book would be outdated. Indeed, it predates by a few years PathFinder, Global Surveyor and the brand new Odyssey. But you just cannot invalidate 1500 pages of science in a few years, so I bought it.

Well, I was not disappointed! There is one (or more) chapter for every topic you could think of about Mars. And each chapter contains tons of scientifically accurate data, presented in an completely neutral way. Basically, everything is new, or if I thought I knew it, the book just goes way further.

This book is not for the casual reader. You must be highly motivated and/or and technically-educated to make the most of it.

And, of course, you must realize that this book is only a summary of what you could learn about the planet if you had the time (and mental capacity) to handle all of it.

And, you should also be aware that this book is only one book about one planet. Because the Arizona Press has "a few" other books, about "Mercury" (800 pages), "Venus II" (1500 pages), "Uranus" (1076 pages), "Neptune and Triton" (1249), "Pluto and Charon" (728 pages), etc.

As soon as I have finished "Mars", I will go and buy the rest (one at a time), because you just can't beat this collection.

As the editors state, it is the next best thing to the full list of scientific literature about Mars (the list of references they refer to is 95 pages long, or about 3,000 publications). The next best thing is just fine by me. The editors also state that it is at a level appropriate for graduate study (like myself), however it would also suit a keen enthusiast.

As a reference book it isn't riveting bed time reading but, as a reference book, it is top quality and for its intended readers it is excellent.

If you want to seriously know things about Mars, our "brother" planet, you must have this book on your desk. This volume is totally indispensible for serious Mars students and is the distilled wisdom of the Mars Viking Missions, plus eveything else that went before.

Although new data is emerging about the Red planet, you cannot take it in isolation. The new data shows details within the framework of the old Viking-era Mars, which you must understand to be able to communicate with workers in the field.

Some new conceps and insights render parts of this volume dated, but it is dispassionate and unbiassed so the basic data and images are presented before too much interpretation is overlaid.

If you don't have this book, you aren't trying.

The only reason I gave this book 4-Star rather than 5-Star award is because it is written on a high technical/scientific level which renders it difficult for non-scientific readers. For scientists, it probably rates a Six!

I bough this pocket book and haven't found useful even once. In Internet age, this book renders itself pretty much useless. The book mainly has one pages with color photo of one of the deep sky objects and a very dry short description on the other page. That's pretty much about it. You can find all these photos on Internet in much better resolution or in the software like TheSky just by clicking on object. The accompanied description is just dry numerical tid-bits printed in font that discourages reading it. There are no constellation maps. You can find much better quality and interesting history, significance and field notes on Internet. May be this is not the authors fault. The description is supposed to be limited to that tiny page, what else they can do?

If you have ever wanted to know the difference between a barred spiral galaxy and an irregular galaxy, this is the book for you.

Beautiful photographs of these galaxies, and so much more, await you in this wonderful little book. It has served as a reference for me for several years now. Even with oodles more Hubble shots available these days, this book is still not dated.

Each photo is given a description as to type of deep-sky object it is (a spirial galaxy or an emission nebula, for instance), light years distance away from us, where in space it is located and a little data about the nature of itself.

Andromeda, the Pleiades, the Ring Nebula and much more await you in this little pocket book by the National Audubon Society.

Much recommended for the "space nut"!

Easy to read and even easier to look at, this little book is a giant. The photos are beautiful and their full-bleed format makes them look like little windows to the universe. If it's photos of the deep-sky objects you want, this book is the perfect place to start.

A technical and very thorough book for those interested in the origins of Venus, its composition and why we call it our sister planet. Detailed descriptions of the Venera, Vega, Magellan and Mariner missions allow us to glimpse at the surface features, but alas, it is a very in-hospitable environment. A must have book for those interested in the second planet from the sun!

This book has the reputation for being too technical for the layman... and it is... but in many ways that is what made this a cool book. It is certainly a much harder book to read than David Grinspoon's "Venus Revealed" (A very good book for the layman). However I found some of the technical parts of this book very facinating and it made me look up where some of the equations came from (the part on the study of the clouds, Nephelometry, was very interesting). There were other parts though were I did not even bother with the math and 'took their word for it'.

I would recommend if you have not read "Venus Revealed" try that first. If Grinspoon captures your imagination then buy this one and give it a try.

A very detailed book on the Planet Venus, however, it reads like an algebra text book. You can read a chapter and still not know what you read. I was dissapointed that all the photographs were in black and white. If you work for NASA, this is the book for you, otherwise I would recomend somthing a little less technical

Good fun read involving increasingly zany philosophical conundrums in a sci-fi format.

"The Status Civilization", albeit a quick read, is highly entertaining as a satire and as a bit of science fiction. Scheckley's prose is terse and easy to read, the chapters well cut, and the stroyline quick moving that makes the book impossible to put down. The 150 pages disappear in a blink. The only part of the book that is laborious are the final few chapters, which act as a satire on modern living, and are a bit dense with criticism although tey do employ interesting satiric conventions. As a bit of dystopian/utopian literature, it is well worth reading, especially along side Kurt Vonnegut's "Player Piano".

I wish I could find more books by Robert Sheckley. "The Status Civilization" is one of those maddening little pieces which reaches out and grabs your attention with the sheer _audacity_ of scope and ideas, only to fall short when it comes to delivering substance. Part of the problem is that it's a very short book; I read it in an English paperback as part of a two-novels-in-one, a la Ace Double.

The story starts with a familiar premise : Earth, having become an enlightened techno-utopia, no longer executes its criminals. Instead, such deviant elements are dumped on the surface of a vaguely livable planet called Omega. For good measure, the convicts' minds are wiped clean of all past memories. Our protagonist is one of these convicts.

He's been sent up for murder. Problem is, he doesn't want to believe it. Problem with that is that the memories leaking out from "beneath the surface" seem to indicate that he is.

At the beginning, at least, he's got a few more important things to worry about, like surviving. See, Omega doesn't have nice Earth values concerning the sanctity of life. Instead, a citizen's status is dependent upon how many people he can kill...but only according to the rules.

He narrowly escapes death, but only at the price of killing in self-defense. This touches off a round of self-doubt, but, at the same time, catapults him into Omegan society as the proprietor of a poisioners' shop. This gives him time to become acquainted with some of the more quaint Omegan customs, like mandatory substance addiction and the worship of Evil. Later, he finds himself the unhappy subject of a Hunt, and an unwilling participant in In the absence of patriachal authority, our happy band of convicts have developed a uniquely maladaptive society - one in which death is celebrated above all else. No wonder the average lifespan is only three years.

Eventually he uses his remaining morals to drag himself out of the muck and effect an escape. The Earth he finds is superfically a triumph of Utopian central planning : everyone has a job, everyone seems happy, crime and war are unknown, et. al. Robots cater to all humankind's needs. The worship of life and Good are central tenets of civilization. It is, oddly enough, a complete antithesis of Omega. The people are SO open-hearted that they don't even mind his presence, despite the fact that he sticks out like a sore thumb.

Something is wrong. Very wrong. Naturally, finding this wrong and curing it (and coincidentally coming to terms with the split images of himself as killer/saviour) ties off the novel.

I say "ties off" instead of "ends", because that's what it feels like : a stopping point for a novel that could have gone on longer. By the end of the book, I had become attached to the nutty, schizoid worlds of Omega and Earth, and curious as to the motives of the robots who are (implicitly) controlling them both.

Omegan life is downright entertaining; like a little boy poring through travel books crossed with the thrill of a police novel. Sheckley manages it all with a sort of deadpan/matter-of-fact narrative that manages to slip events past one so quickly that they're felt rather than seen.

The sheer weight of ideas reminds me of Phillip K. Dick novels. Perhaps this one, like so many of his, was written under a short contract. How else could one get delightful scenes of cowering outside the door to Hell's Congregation in a blizzard, or the twisted dual religions of Evil and Good that dominate Omega and Earth? Make no mistake...Sheckley can more than hold his own in astonishment.

I wanted more...but unless Hollywood picks up and films this one (not likely in the wake of Freejack's flop at the box office)it probably won't be forthcoming. If you can find this for a reasonable price (if you live in the UK, for instance, and have access to paperback reprints), give it a try. I'd be hesitant to pay great amounts for it used, unless I was more of a Sheckley fan...but it's books like this that keep me looking for more.

Mention the word "volcano", and most people think only of the Earth. However, as this fine book shows, such is hardly the case. Indeed, the phenomenon of volcanic activity is widespread in our own solar system.

The text is introductory in nature, and the book is unconfounded by spates of hypertechnical language. Anyone with an average scientific backgound will easily understand the great bulk of the matters discussed. Excellent photography, both from telescopes, as well as manned and robotic space vehicles, closely follows the text and contributes to its comprehension.

I believe the author occasionally leaves technical terms unexplained, however. Also, the photography is largely in black and white.

The book begins with chapters on Earth's own volcanism, and then proceeds to other planets and moon, including our moon, Venus, Mars, Io, and Triton. I found the chapters on Venus especially fascinating, given the wide variety of igneous features.

Any reader will come away with a well enhanced understanding of both our solar system and the part that vulcanism plays in its ongoing development. Recommended highly, especially for student of and devotees of planetary astronomy and volcanic processes.

This book offers an introduction into the dynamic forces forming the surface of the planets. It is easy to read and offers a lot of information. I would recommend it to everyone who is interested in planetary geology.

This text discusses the geology of volcanoes throughout most of our solar system (it lacks a chapter on Mercury). In it the author begins with an examination of earth's volcanic landforms and then progresses to examine those on other planetary worlds. The level of writing is non-technical, and clearly for the beginner. However, on occasion I noted that the author did not define various terms which make parts of this text a bit more difficult for the novice to follow. Still, the text is quite readable and offers a good overview. This is especially true in the design of the book's chapters: there is an initial one on each of the major planets which is 'more introductory', which is then followed by a second chapter which is 'more advanced'. I will note that the photography is quite nice, and that the book covers some of the more exotic volcanoes (such as those on Io and Triton). This is a good text for those interested in an overview of one of the most facsinating landforms in our solar system