Space related books?

[Djsnowboy267]

I'm getting a bit tired of reading war/fighting/spy books ha ha (I've spent the past 2-3 months reading Cold War books, most of which are Tom Clancy). Any suggestions for books that are related to space topics? I'm looking for more on the realistic side of things, but I'm not too picky.

[Specialist290]

I've got a few recommendations I could give, but first: Would you prefer fiction, or non-fiction?

[Flymetothemun]

I like the space section of Science Made Stupid by Tom Weller. It's a parody of a science textbook (I think). Some guy got permission from Weller to scan it and upload it to the internet: http://www.chrispennello.com/tweller/

Edited May 10, 2013 by Flymetothemun

[Djsnowboy267]

Non fiction fiction PREFERABLY, but I don't care too much.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Djsnowboy267

[Specialist290]

I'm going to interpret "non-fiction fiction" as meaning "realistic fiction."

In general, anything by Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, or Arthur C. Clarke. They've written tons of quite well-researched science fiction, and they don't skimp out on creating good stories and relateable characters, either.

[nyrath]

The Rocket Company

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rocket-Company-ebook/dp/B00BWEEWOI/

Very realistic, the rocket described inside is patented. And it might give you some ideas for Kerbal rockets.

[NovaSilisko]

Stephen Baxter - Voyage.

The book depicts a manned mission to Mars as it might have been in another timeline, one where John F. Kennedy survived the assassination attempt on him in 1963.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_%28novel%29

[zalzane]

chasm city

revelation space

the moon is a harsh mistress

ringworld if you want something a bit more out there, but for the love of god don't read the other novels in the series

[Awaras]

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy is pretty realistic and a nice read.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Awaras

[loppnessmonsta]

I generally prefer fiction, but my favorites are the almost-hard-science, where the universe is largely newtonian, but there's a few differences, usually FTL capabilities.

Highly recommend the authors on Specialist's list (Except Arthur Clarke- haven't gotten to him yet, so can't judge his work), and some of my personal favorites (That I've read recently) are C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series, David Weber's Honor Harrington series, and Daniel Abraham's Leviathan Wakes series (Reminds me a lot of Firefly). That being said, the volume of work I've got on my backlog (And even the stuff I've already finished) is staggering and will take me a lifetime to finish... and I kinda lose track of who wrote what, so there's a lot of stuff out there that's really good, but I can't recall all of it at will. If you're an avid reader, I suggest getting an e-reader (I've got a Kindle). It lets me build a massive library at a vastly reduced cost per book, and I can take pretty much the whole thing wherever I go. I've sunk a TON of hours into it.

[Kuldan]

Well it's a shame you haven't had time to read Clarke yet..that man is one of the most intelligent people I had ever the honor to personally meet.. Yeah, his later books are so-so, but still a good read.. and he also did a lot for the science community,

for example: http://lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/