Space Books

I am teaching an introductory astronomy course this semester, and chose to use a different text since that is what others before me had used. Early on, the publisher sent a free copy of this book to me. I liked it so much that I ended up using it to prepare many of my lectures, and when I teach this course again I suspect that this will become the new text. The overall tone of the book is very good, presenting scientific material in a well thought-out fashion that doesn't talk down to the reader. The figures are clear, and often address common misconceptions. The material is also very up to date, addressing hot topics like Pluto's status as a planet, dark energy, WMAP results, etc. The only thing I don't like about the book is that the chapter titles and section headings are often complete sentences. For example, the chapter on the Sun is called "The Sun is an ordinary G star," instead of just calling it "The Sun." Strange, but overall an excellent book.

This is my third year teaching introductory astronomy. I've used three textbooks. Last year I got a copy of 21st Century Astronomy free--publishers are always trying to get professors to adopt their textbooks. Anyway, I really like this one. I haven't been able to use it in a class yet, but I would like to. I use it already to help me prepare for lectures. It's clear and don't talk down to the reader. Many textbooks get weighted down with frills, but not this one. The graphics are clear but never superfluous. In keeping with its title, it includes may up to date topics.

The other texts I have used are Kaufman, Seeds, and Bennet et al. (which I liked a lot too--it's a little bulky though.)

Wonderful explanations. This is the astronomy book I never had as a kid! I'm a biologist and always thought I had the good fortune of working in the most interesting field. It sounds trite, but this book has opened my eyes to a universe out there. Now I even sort of understand black holes and the implications of relativity.

Wow! For someone like me who could never get into technical articles and books about the Internet, Ralf Hirt's 8W8 Global Space Tribes is as refreshing as a cool breeze in Death Valley.

I found myself thinking I was one of the characters in the novel waking up in EA-RA and sitting down for breakfast wondering what new insights, digital or otherwise, waited to be revealed to me that day. It made me think what different ideas I might have come up with if I had been sitting down at the table with the Golden Skyers.

I read 8W8 on a flight from New York City to LA. I was doing the Okay Fellow trip in reverse. It was almost spooky as when I began looking down and trying to put myself in his position. I began wondering what it was that I was seeing. All of a sudden, I realized that I had always had a nagging feeling that what I had been seeing wasn't really what it appeared to be. By the time we circled in from the ocean into LAX, I had stopped thinking LA as a basin and, instead, I was seeing it as a huge mountain with a large base rising higher than Everest. I remember thinking it was a good thing that the pilot was back in Web 2, because we might have crashed right into that mountain.

Before 8W8, I had never understood the future of the Internet so clearly and what it meant to me personally or the world in particular.

R. Arnold

"8W8 Global Space Tribes" leads us trough a flattened pre-Columbian InterWorld which defines the next metamorphosis of the Internet Web 3, and perhaps beyond. Rather than following a convoluted trail through a multidimensional world, the writer brings us to one spot, a vortex where all aspects of our physical world come together; where each individual identifies her or himself as a member of a tribe. Members of these tribes can be living in the Amazon, the Urals or Nebraska, however, more than a common mindset knits these tribes together: they share a common weltanschauung.

Using the clever device of a helicopter (8W8 Heli), resources, markets and capital flow can be mapped like rain water forming rivulets; then streams, rivers and, ultimately oceans. For me as a businessperson and a fan of new technologies, this book has been awesome since it reveals what, hithertofore, had been invisible... the "Golden" flow.

Ralf Hirt's 8W8 Global Space Tribes goes beyond the concept of a flat
world, it draws the reader into a virtual "What if?" reality. What if
the Internet could be used to erase national borders and
ethno-cultural divides creating entirely new social systems... global
space tribes!

Taking a ride in Hirt's 8W8 Global Space Tribes' Helicopter is more
than experiencing the Web 3.0 envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee as "an
overlay of scalable vector graphics (with) everything rippling and
folding and looking misty:" it's entering a 5-D world where Time and
Space serve as connective tissue further compressing an already
flattened world.

Eschewing technical jargon that could alienate the average
non-techgeek, Hirt, instead, introduces the reader to 15 individuals
who call themselves the Golden Sky. They are an IT think tank composed
of international business people, lawyers, politicians,
environmentalists, a musician, a doctor and a philosopher, all of whom
share one thing in common--a futuristic vision of the future. They come
together on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the home of one of their
members, Winston Chee, an IT entrepreneur, for a week-long break out
in which they intend to focus on an IT conundrum: how to make the
invisible, visible.

The author cleverly uses the house, itself, as a living entity that,
in many ways, embodies many of the same elements as their quest.
Called EA-RA, it is a six-story mansion built into the side of a
mountain. It's exterior is a semicircular sheet of black glass infused
with golden fiber which faces south and stretches in a semicircle 180
degrees from east to west. The effect is that it not only catches the
sunrise but the setting sun as well, all the while reflecting the
sun's rays like a golden mirror. Unseen and undetected from outside is
the vast interior which encloses a self-sustaining environment
including a farm on its ground floor, the entire panoply and
requisites of a modern spa and convention center on the the five top
floors, all of which are hidden from view to the outside observer.

The hero of the piece is a San Francisco based IT journalist called
Oskar Kiernan Feller, or more commonly called by his friends, O.K.
Fellow. He is probably a manifestation of the author, himself,
conflicted and driven. It is O.K. Fellow whom we first meet as he sits
in an airplane flying from San Francisco to an IT conference in
Berlin. It is a trip he has made many times in the past, but on this
trip he is gripped with a sense of anxiety. He has flown millions of
miles without an incident, but his mind has made a calculation that at
some point there had to be a "statistical fluctuation" which might
result in...? He tries to stop thinking about it by repeating a mantra
silently to himself.

Ultimately, somewhere over St. Louis he experiences an existential
moment when he begins to question what he is seeing. That results in a
dialectical switch where, for a moment, he is watching himself trying
to find like-minded individuals among the houses and buildings below.
We are introduced to all the main characters in the first two
chapters. Except for their different vocations, they all share the
same uneasiness as O.K. Fellow. They want to see the unseen elements
of their world. For some, it's a search to find people as
themselves,for the others, it is to be able to see the actual flow of
elements into streams and rivers which make up what they call "Global
Space Tribes."

Eventually, they develop the concept of a virtual helicopter which
they imagine could hover above the earth with an instrument panel.
This tool could discern hidden values from single elements to
concentrations of elements, "mountains," as they eventually see them.

This is a fast and enjoyable read for both the lay reader as well as
the technophile.

Have you ever wondered how people think of God in another world? In the book Passages; Darein's Rise by Paul McCuster, two yuong children, Kyle and Anna were venturing through an old abandoned huose when they found themselves in a diffrent world. Kyle ends up in a castle and Anna ends up in King Lawrence's closet. Both are surprised, they didn't know where they were. Soon they find out they were in Marus. Marus is on a world that has two moons, one was white and the other was a light orange. Marus is also a country that stroungly beleives in the Unseen One. Thruogh out the story the King goes mad and looses his faith in the Unseen One, which causes him to want to kill his best general. Kyle and Anna were sent by the Unseen One as a protector and a vioce. kyle is the protector and Anna is the vioce. Kyle keeps getting these weird feelings and Anna keeps having these wierd dreams. Eyes of two colors in Marus means you were sent by the Unseen One as a vioce. Will Kyle and Anna ever make it home? Does the King succeed in his plot to kill the general? To find out I invite you to read Passages; Darein's Rise by Paul McCuster.

I thought this book was a great re-telling of the King Saul and David story.I can't wait to read the next one! I think Darien's a great charactor. I'm 11 years old and I loved this book.

A cool new way to learn the story of David ("Darien") from the Old Testament, while also touching the "Other Worlds" lobe that makes things like this, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings books so cool.

Kyle and Anna accidentally stumble into the world of Marus while exploring an old shack in the woods. Each is quickly caught up in the action from different sides, while trying to figure out what in the world happened. They soon discover they're under the protection of the Unseen One, known in our world as God.

I began reading this book, and I honestly couldn't put it down; fortunately, it was on a weekend! It's pretty awesome, because instead of a slingshot, Darien uses a pocket knife. Instead of a sword, Darien uses a pistol and a saber. Marus is in a Western type of time frame for this story, and that is one thing that helps this book to work so well.

I'm already a fan of Focus on the Family's Adventures in Odyssey, and this book contains some elements of the series, but it can function on its own, for sure.

If you like this one (and I can almost promise you will), you'll want to check out the other five titles.

If you like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you will love this book. Fabulous!

Draven's Defiance. The story of a young man named Scott who found himself in the world you probably already know a little about, since you're looking up this book: Marus.

Confused and bewildered, he joins company with Draven, an individual who bears the mark of one chosen by the Unseen One as His servant: eyes of two different colors.

Scott eventually learns from Draven that, by the power of the Unseen One, judgment has been handed out on Marus in the form of time standing still. It is Perpetually Autumn, grass does not grow, people do not age. It is judgment against the apostate leader, Mobeck, and his wicked queen Skalaw. Scott finds himself headed, along with Draven, for a showdown with the corrupt leaders to vie for the hearts of the peoples of Marus. Will Scott join with Draven's Defiance?

Another very enjoyable tale about the fictional world of Marus, weaved by Adventures in Odyssey's Paul McCusker. It tells the Biblical story of Elijah in a refreshing way, a new environment that makes the story come to life anew. There's a few new spins on this story (Draven escapes with Scott on a motorcycle, and the judgment handed out is different from the God's No-Rain judgment in the Bible. A famine, however is a consequence of time standing still)

Another great read by the same great author, and I consider it worth the money. My only regret is that there are only six in this series.

This is a great retelling of the story of elijah and Elisha. Icant wait to read the next one.

First, how is this book so cheap? I've never seen many of the pictures in this book even though the subjects are so familiar. There are some very unique stories and subjects chosen for presentation in After Sputnik. I highly recommend this book for people who just want to collect 5-10 books on general space history. Extremely well-done.

Definitely coffee table size. The photos were an initial attraction, but the text is easy to read, interesting and very informative. Most of the pictures come from exhibits in the Smithsonian Institution. This book is good for a casual browse, but is also the sort of book that you might like to read from cover to cover. It is well worth the price.

Another great book from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
The book has many color photos and some black and white of each artifact and a one page detail of each item , starting with Robert Goddard's Liquid Oxygen Flask and the Carrier and goes forward with Rockets and V-2, Satellites, and Guidence systems and many unusal items such as the Bell Rocket Belt No 2. Pressure Suits, Russian stamp of Gagarin flight, lunch box, sample of Soviet Green Cabbage Soup, a pack of Apollo and Soyuz cigarettes and it also has Sally Ride's flight suite Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Capsules,Apollo 16 Commander Checklist, Gemini V mission patch that was never used and the Soyuz spacecraft and many other in glorious color .And the book ends with SpaceShip One ( the first Private spaceship to enter outer space) This book will entertain you and your children and will teach you about the space race through the many different items on display, it the next best thing to being at the Air and Space Museum.

All I can say about this is... it's about time. I first saw Ai no Kusabi a few years ago in the anime version and absolutely loved it. The graphic novel is equally as good. What I like about it is the untold part of the story the anime never really touched on. It adds more to the story itself and gives more depth to the characters. I currently am waiting for the rest of this series to come out so I can own all of them. It's a must read!

I liked the first novel and loved the second. I found the second easier to read and understand but still very compelling. Will definately read it again. I have placed an order for the 3rd book with Amazon and this book series looks to have won a place in my collection.

Ai no Kusabi Volume 2 concludes with more questions than answers. The questions about what led Riki, the leader of Bison, from the slums and into the grasp of the Blondy, Iason Mink, are the focal point of the volume, but as a result even more questions are raised.

The biggest question would have to be the details of Riki's time at Guardian and what happened to him and his "friends" there. Dark allusions to their unfortunate fate are made, but the details about some "incident" that keeps being mentioned are still elusive.

Also is the question about the black maket courier boss Katze's true intentions, though to pose that question might be too much of a spoiler for those who have not yet experienced the volume. Suffice to say, his own slum roots and connections to the driving plot of this volume are curious and more than a little ominous.

I do have to pose an issue, aside from questions, about the nature of Riki's relationship with Guy. It is still unclear how they met, and while it keeps being restated that they are "pairing partners" and trust and devote themselves to one another, anything but that is being shoved in our faces in this volume. Riki continues to drift further and further away from Guy and Guy's lack of presense this time around only leaves us wondering what is going through his head during all of this.

And in case any of that was confusing, volume 2 of Ai no Kusabi takes place entirely in flashback to the time before Riki and Iason Mink ever met by chance on the streets of Midas. As the restless 15 year old leader of Bison, Riki keeps searching for something elusive with almost obsessed fervor. Caught by Iason trying to pick-pocket a tourist, and subesequently let go on a whim, Riki, refusing to allow his pride to be indebted to anyone, forces an encounter with Iason that will forever affect both of their futures.

Iason is cold and calculating, but already by the end of the book we can see his own growing obsession with Riki. It's clear that not only is their chance meeting destined to pull them closer together, but also that this closeness will ultimately result in tragedy for both of them.

If you're looking for romantic bits, you're going to be disappointed, but there are a few graphic scenes in this volume: one frustrating and humiliating incident with Iason and a scene tarnished by that one with Guy (one of Guy's few appearances in the volume).

Again in this volume, as in volume 1, the translation is fantastic. But also again, as in volume 1, the entire book needs a good lookover by a proofreader. The language is so smooth and articulate that seeing simple typographical errors was incredibly irritating and off-putting. The illustrations this time around, with the exception of one image of Iason towards the end that was two pages ahead of where it should have been, actually hit in the right places for the moments they depicted. I'm glad DMP mostly took care of that problem from volume 1 and I hope they continue to pay attention to that detail in the future.

If you're looking through this review, having already read volume 1, knowing where this story is headed and still interested in continuing, the book is worth the read, I assure you. If you're looking through this review considering whether or not to start reading the series all together, I say, yes, please do, but go back and start with volume 1. The story is deep, tragic and so wide-scoping that missing all of the detail contained at the beginning will make it harder to appreciate coming this far.

well written good illustrations. very good story.

My son was so taken by the Alistair stories that even at age 11 he reads them often. Ok, too easy for an 11 year old, but he still loves them, and it's become a tradition for me to read Alistair in Outer Space to him at least once a month. I had to buy three of them used (and expensive!) but it was well worth it! Don't miss any of these books!

My son, Alistair, received this well-read book from his cousins when he was too young to appreciate it. We just unearthed it a couple of months ago and it gets just as many laughs from both of us each time we read it. I wish all the Alistair books were more available--not only because of the common name, but because of the great humor for both adults and kids. It is a rare gift for an author to be able to incorporate humor that is appreciated by the children and on a whole different level by the adults who read the stories to them.

Really something to see! If you've been to NASA or not , this is the best way to show someone the shuttle parts! And the size--WOW!

This is a great item for kids and interested adults as well. The engineering to design this is amazing. The details are good and at a scale that is impressive and easy to comprehend. The shuttle is a bit hard to unfold the first few times and you have to be careful with it as it is fragile (I would only buy this for a child if an adult were supervising the play). I would use a couple of hardcover books or small objects of similar weight to hold down the edges of the opened shuttle construct, then it is easier to examine and operate the various details. I got this for my 7 year old nephew and he thinks it's awesome.

David Hawcock has done it again. This time, he squeezed a 4-foot long space shuttle in a book ! Unfold the book and out pops, a gigantic space shuttle ! Busting with facts, this novelty book encourages any kids who hate to read, read as they play with the space shuttle. This fantastic book can be hung on the wall, great for classrooms or the home.

This volume covers the final moon landing in December 1972 in great detail. All aspects of the flight are covered and a great CD ROM is included as a suppliment to the volume. Great reading and it makes the reader wish the Apollo program continued on to Apollo 18. We will have to wait for the next moon landing sometime in the next decade.

If I could, I'd give this book four and a half stars, since it is really not up to the standards of the previous editions. I gave it five stars, however, because others might not agree with my opinion on why it is not as good as the previous Mission Reports.

With the publication of this book, Robert Godwin and Apogee Books have provided at least one volume of reproduced NASA material covering all of the manned Apollo missions. As is obvious from the title, this latest offering, examines Apollo 17, the final mission to the moon. Apollo 17 was the last of the three long duration (3 days) missions and again featured the lunar rover, which greatly extended the area that the two astronauts could explore. In addition, this mission included the only non-pilot, scientist astronaut, a geologist in this case, to explore the moon. The mission was commanded by veteran astronaut, Gene Cernan who was making his third trip into space, geologist and rookie Harrison "Jack" Schmidt accompanied Cernan to the lunar surface as the Lunar Module pilot and Ron Evans was the Command Module pilot.

Like many of the other volumes in this NASA Mission Report series, the book opens with the usual NASA mission press kit. It is easy to tell that the author and his staff spent some time searching for some very clean originals, since compared to their earlier efforts, such as Apollo 8, the scanned in drawings are almost perfect. Since this mission was the last lunar landing mission, it seems that NASA produced a much larger and more detailed press kit compared to its earlier Apollo mission press kits. In addition to the customary background information, the press kit focuses on the scientific aspects of the mission including some nice information on the often overlooked orbital photography observations and in flight experiments. The next section contains the Prelaunch Mission Operation Report, which presents a basic overview of the planned activities of the mission, including the EVA timelines. It is interesting to note that the format of these timelines is still used today to plan EVAs for the space station assembly. The next section presents the Post-Launch Mission Operation Report that provides a summary of the accomplished mission objectives and describes any Mission problems and deviations from these planned activities.

The final section, the crew debrief section, covers about 40% of the book, and is 95 pages long. This section contains the crew's comments and feelings about various phases of the mission from liftoff, to landing and even post flight activities. This crew debriefing is fairly technical and uses a lot of undefined NASA acronyms, which makes the reading a bit difficult, even for this NASA contractor employee. Very few pages in this section are devoted to the EVAs (8 pages) and orbital observations (4 pages) and all three astronauts go into great detail describing all aspects of their respective duties. I found it quite odd, that with all the emphasis on the lunar exploration being conducted by an onsite geologist, that there would be such a small discussion about the EVAs and the geological investigations. Reviewing the crew debriefing shows that Cernan and to some degree Evans dominated the conversations, while Schmidt only talked about specific areas like training. All in all; however, an interesting section.

As typical of all the books in the Mission Reports series, the book contains a CD that includes additional material. It is here that I felt the book let the reader (or viewer is this case) down. Unlike the other books in the series, the CD does not contain any of the still photographs. Instead it only contains complete video camera footage from the three EVAs and twenty-two panoramic views. I would have preferred the still photos in lieu the video transmissions.

Some general information that might be useful.

1) These reports are just scanned-in documents from previously released NASA press kits, etc., In order to preserve the spirit of the original reports, all typographical and grammatical errors have NOT been fixed.

2) Proceeds from the book goes to "The Watch" an asteroid impact research project of the Space Frontier Foundation. In other words, Apogee Books is making very little off the sale of US government produced books and documents.

3) Many people have asked why the post mission reports are not included. Since NASA has published several books with hundred of pages each (The NASA SP series), it would be difficult to included this voluminous amount of data.

This is the best Apollo mission report yet! In this volume you find the documents that concluded Mans greatest adventure. The CD gives more panoramas, and more photos than ever done by Godwin before!
At the end of Apollo, there were more reports about what was found and what was done on the Moon- so I know that there will be at least a couple more books with ALL the mission reports!
This volume has the information dealing with the plans for the mission as envisioned, and the preliminary results of what Apollo-17 yielded from the Moon. Ah.. if we had only gone back to the moon again and again!!!
I can't wait to see the next Apollo-17, volume II.

"When I started covering religion and spirituality nearly a decade ago, I found that the state's natural beauty fostered infinite religious expressions, from Sedona's Chapel of the Holy Cross - a church nestled between red sandstone monoliths- to the native American tribes reverence for Spirit in nature." ~ Kelly Ettenborough

Arizona's beauty is displayed in sacred places that evoke a sense of awe and worship, not to mention the need to go on a vacation just to see these locations. This is truly a multicultural book filled with sites from all religious traditions.

Havasu Falls might be Arizona's most scenic and most hidden spot. ~ pg. 177

The book is divided up into main areas:

Phoenix and Vicinity
Tucson and Southern Arizona
Prescott and West-Central Arizona
Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona
Sedona and Vicinity
East-Central Arizona

Who would have thought of a gold mine as a healing and spiritual retreat? There is great variety here. Your heart may begin to long to run away to one of these retreats or visit a monastery no matter what your religious beliefs. These locations speak of a peaceful place to worship your creator and to connect with your spiritual self.

Each section is about two pages long and has the location, description and directions as well as the author's observations which are always entertaining.

"The bright aqua door stands out on the quiet side street near fraternity and sorority houses at the busy University of Arizona. "Peace on Earth" and an image of a dove are etched into the glass arch over the door, a sign of the calm respite that awaits you inside."
~pg. 90

As someone who has visited the Painted Desert, I can say this book is only an introduction to an entire world of beautiful places that are definitely easier to visit when the weather is cooler! Driving across America after college was a fun education.

~The Rebecca Review

This is a fascinating book that takes a close look at Arizona's heritage. I sent three copies of this book to out of state relatives. I am a native, my husband is from Oregon where ancestory is important and common knowledge. This book shows the way to look and appreciate our Arizona heritage. The photos are beatuiful and the directions are easy to follow.
Thank you.

I enjoy traveling, especially day-trips in the SouthWest. I was pleasantly suprised by this guide to sacred places across Arizona. The author has an easy style, and the guide is quite diverse in the types of destinations described. The directions are clear, and the book is well organized. The author is also the photographer, and she has done an excellent job with the illustrations in the book.

This book would make an excellent gift for friends who enjoy traveling.