The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Review).

Where the divide of society is those who have all the luxiries of good food and pleasant amenities and those that struggle to make ends meet. We find society at the Capital of Panem (previously known as North America), a thriving society that takes delight in the common members of other districts watching them compete, the winners inside an arena consisting of 2 competitors from each district, fight within the arena to the death. The irony in all of this is to consider the rich civilized, and the poor struggling to make it need to compete for the former's amusement. Peeta (the baker's son) and Katniss (the coalminer's daughter) have been selected from District 12 to compete in the arena.  What start's out as a romance and a competition, fighting for survival against another 22 tributes from various districts. Together they pool their survival resources and abilities. Disliking the whole-thing from the beginning. Winning promises the same fate that those have already established themselves in this world. The gamemakers make the rules, and allow (at first) for there to be 2 winners in the arena, and later to be revoked of this rule, the two manage to take out the other tributes in various methods of sabotage and trickery. As winners they find themself covering each other up and goind along with what the "civilized" observers conceive as a good story. Finds to be an enjoyable read all around. There's not a hint of the old stereotype of traditional North America, but a modern anomaly worth delving into of priceless Science Fiction.

The Necronaut by Michael R. Pilinski (Review).

From a tragic accident the antagonist Justin and Leah, skydiving one-day... What starts out as Justin being held under life-support at a conventional hospital, Doctors Luthor and Diana Cain solicit Leah and offers Justin an alternative to conventional life-support. Leah reluctantly agreeing to let the Cain's experiment with her husband, they proceed to put them into their scientific experiement through a procedure called "biostatis", where a computer system with a wordly capacity gathers Justin's conscious state inside a torus, with all of the encoding mechanisms and hyper-scientific lingo involved, while his body is maintained in a frozen state (time stood still), this Electro-Conscious Entity could be transferred between torus's and manipulated by scientist assuming they have the same "copied" technology. The Cain's were able to acquire the necessary equipment through the National Security Agency, and as conspiracies unfold, the death of Luthor, Leah's desire to be with her husband again, and the transformation of Justin's Electro-conscious existence made the Science Fiction read incredibly complicated on many levels, but in a very strange sort of way believable to the science fiction imagination. Mr. Pilinski makes fiction look believable within this book, you would have to read between the lines, and have some kind of quantum-electro and psychological background to prove that this story is truly fiction, separating the believable from the unbelievable. Hard to follow at times, lost in the psycho-technical babble, but still a delightful story and a suitable ending.

The Sam Gunn Omnibus by Ben Bova (Review).

This is yet another good read where the storyline is hard to follow, as Ben Bova seems to disregard structure, he is adept at grabbing the attention of the reader. Among the many adventures of Sam Gunn I find myself running into previouse characters such as Martin Humphries and the exiled Lars Fuchs. Sam Gunn finds it easy to work with other scientists, geolgists, rock-rats, businesspeople, lawyers, congresspeople, senators, etc. Full of livelihood, the women find him exhilirating and exciting. You never know what Sam is up to. And he is always turning on the charms to the many beautiful women that come his way. Sam at some point finds himself, the schemer that he is, gambling with the mafia, he and the Rockledge Industries owe the Godfather some 20-blllion dollars, so Sam puts on a micheivous grin and has the idea to play poker for double or nothing. Of course he loses, but later on it tured out to be a scheme that turns profitable in the end. As tiring it can be to keep up with Sam Gunn, the quantum physician he schemes with manages to reproduce or duplicate him using a Matter-Duplicator, and it successfully duplicates Sam. As if one Same were not enough, it is comical how two Sam Gunn's make the book more interesting, as science fiction does get interesting, Sam gets trapped by his little known daughter, which is discovered towards the end of the story, and he manages to satisfy two different wives where one was totally in love with him, and wanted to make him an honest man. The other simply was after his money. Well with two Sam Gunn's was able to divide himself among the affections of the ladies, and also manage to be two different places at once. Eventually his idea of a Matter-Duplicator, actually he finds himself correcting himself (Matter-Transmitter), as he made a promise to extinguish any idea of a Matter Duplicator. This was an enriching read, very rewarding. I found myself thinking about Star-Trek, and I am not a Trekkie.... in the possibilities of materialization/dematerialization, made manifest. This was a very enjoyable book.

The Rock Rats by Ben Bova (Review).

Lars Fuchs is the geologist turned pirate, murderer in this sequel to Precipice by Ben Bova. The Rock Rats are a group of miners prospecting for ores and minerals, trying to make a living or a big financial break usually hindered by interplanetary corporations such as Humphries Space Systems, run by Martin Humphries, the villain that persists to make it harder for the underdog to take him down. Outwardly lusting after Fuchs wife, and at the same time seeking to eliminate Fuchs, as he has turned into a liability expendable. Competing fiercely with the Astro Corporation, Humphries is finding it extremely difficult to keep his thugs alive, yet he can lose billions and still have the power to feed the judicial system to see thing his way. Eventually Fuchs is tried for piracy and murder, his wife which he abandoned agrees to marry Martin Humphries, as long as he spares Lars Fuchs life, as he gets exiled for another possible continuation to the story.

The Precipice by Ben Bova (Review).

Where the moon is considered to be another liveable planet, and the Earth struggling with greenhouse gas issues, Ben Bova has put together a book about the struggle for economic stability, environmental efficiency at the cost of the struggles of the characters in this book. Mr. Humphries, the villain... inheritably rich, the struggling, pretentious billionaire that doesn't know his limits, where greed justifies everything battling the Mr. Randolph, an entrepreneur for the Astro Corporation has developed a nuclear-propulsion spacecraft that would help him reach the Asteroid Belt which would help the earth gather necessary resources to save the earth. Precious metals to keep the steel industry in full swing, finding himself an his crew at the mercy of nanotechnology, the idea that you can deteriorate a metal with a bug goes beyond the imagination. The crew finds refuge at an asteroid that provides protection for some kind of meteor shower, where they get queasy either from low-gravity or radiation, finding them swimming in vomit in their spacesuites. The story goes beyond the possibilities, as the other books I have read by Bova. The whole idea of the earth losing its structure through greenhouse gases is a bit out there for me, but using the science fiction frame-of-mind, makes the book relatable from an Al Gore standpoint. Science Fiction is the key to the imagination, and Ben Bova delivers a good dialogue in the midst of what you learn in this book.

The Kinsman Saga by Ben Bova (Review).

Chester Arthur Kinsman (named after president Chester Arthur) becomes a hero to the United States by single-handedly killing a Cosmonaut on the moon, had other ideas in mind that would make him more of a legend near the end of the 2nd millennium. He along with other scientists/astronauts found the city of Selene at Space Station Alpha where they manage to initiate a Star Wars Defense System, controlling the earth's Nuclear War and Further Space Exploration as an Independent State he manages to grab the attention of the United Nations and lose popularity with the people. The United States had him pegged as a traitor and unsuccessfully plot his downfall. Kinsman was an astronaut deeply set against war bares the burden of founder with a life support system that he only used when in full g-gravity because he is so weak from the experience he has on the moon in 1/6th g. Among his task of being an earth police force, he had hopes of using weather control systems to control the accessibility of natural resources in certain smaller countries making them more globally competitive. The author didn't go into a great deal of elaboration in weather control, but this is a Saga, and may have been more abundant in Ben Bova's Millennium, or another book As on a Darkling Plain. Ben Bova has created yet another masterpiece that I simply could not put down.

The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks (Review).

This is a fine piece of science that takes you to a planet unknown, a galaxy uncomprehending, and if there was a solar-system; the book made me escape earth for the time I was reading it. The Techno-scientific reverbering, chemistry-laden terms that twisted my thoughts about scientific possibilities. Two lovers communicating by tapping each other on the back, was a thrill the way it was explained, sort of a joyous morse-code between two intimates. There is a strong military presense among the Dwellers, kind of giving the feel of freedom-fighters and a countering from the Interplanetary Society. My mind but can only imagine how primitive we are on this planet, compared to the imagination. To say that Mr. Banks has a wild imagination, would not do him the justice in this book that he so richly deserves. I found myself lost in fantasy, thinking it would be more about a book about mathematics, i.e. algrebraist.... it means to understand the twists and innerworkings of the fictional galaxies, and forces of a nature typically unknown to our primitive earth. Characters that would retreat and turn into vapor when attacked, or girls young and energetic you can imagine them having pink hair and wide eyes like you would see on speed-racer or other modern cartoons. I found myself lost in my imagination, and I wanted the story to go on.... I think I'll pick up some more work by this author.