Haven’t read any straight up science fiction in a while, so I picked up a few paperbacks earlier in the week. Right now I’m halfway through Jupiter by Ben Bova, which I selected after becoming intrigued by the cover of Leviathans of Jupiter and subsequently learning that it was a sequel. It’s all right. Some of the characterization is a little iffy, but it’s very readable and there’s a lot of interesting classically sci-fi stuff. I’m not all jazzed up to read the rest of the series, but I can see Bova’s twenty-something other Grand Tour books becoming the things I reach for when I want to burn through something really quickly for a palate cleanse.
Next up is The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It turns up on just about every sci-fi recommendation list I’ve seen, and I’ve heard it described as being like a particularly heady episode of Star Trek, so I’m looking forward to it. I was really surprised to see that the chronology before the prologue has the Cold War ending in 1990 since the book was published in 1974. I’m pretty sure I’ve read things from the late 80s that weren’t that accurate.
After that, I’m thinking I’ll finally get around to Ender’s Game. I almost never actually end up sticking to a book itinerary for that long, though.