Setting up a checklist... The Grand Tour

This is a series by Ben Bova ... a latterday Heinlein-ish ... I've not read any, but think they might be of interest. We'll see. Noted some of them in the Audible catalog - see them at Ramsey. If they're any good, it will be a nice thread of future history to read ... here's hoping!

The "Grand Tour" books (in series chronological order, including the Asteroid Wars novels)

• Powersat (2005) - on request 2/22
  
• Empire Builders (1993) - on request 2/22
  
• Mars (1992)
• Moonrise (1996)
• Moonwar (1998)
• Return to Mars (1999)
• The Precipice (2001) (The Asteroid Wars I)
• Jupiter (2001)
• The Rock Rats (2002) (The Asteroid Wars II)
• Saturn (2002)
• Titan (Coming Soon)
• The Silent War (2004) (The Asteroid Wars III)
• Mercury (2005)
• Venus (2000)
• Tales of the Grand Tour (2004) (short stories occurring at various times throughout the series)

Star Wars Dark Nest III: The Swarm War Troy Denning

Fun and done. Hard to categorize these SW books - I suspect that not having read EVERY book of the NJO series (and the Young Jedi) a lot of the dynamics of the story blow past me. Some SW books (like this) seem more like Lord of the Rings than SF. Now Traviss's books and the recent Luceno Darth Vader book seem much more like hard sf - and are more to my taste. Zahn's books too (I should get Outbound Flight soon from the library) are also in the hard SF line.

Interesting how they worked on Revenge of the Sith details and C3P0 and R2D2's history.

NOW - among other things, I need to re-read Hard Contact to get ready for Triple Zero (and to start working on my Mando'a skills!)


....And read a bunch of Rex Stout - I need a dose of the 1930's!