Future Ben

Freefall is an adorable science fiction webcomic. It tells the story of Florence, a geneticly anthropomorphized wolf, and her crewmates, an alien and a robot and their adventures on a newly terraformed planet. While Freefall is neither action packed nor hilarious it is always entertaining and endearing to the reader, while presenting compelling science fiction concepts. One of my favorite moments is when the terraforming robots let Florence come to their secret meeting because technically she is just another form of artificial inteligence.

The Integral Trees This is the first Larry Niven book I ever read, and I have to say it was the best. Imagine 2001 meets Lord of the Flies. The decendents of castaways make their way through a world without gravity, the Smoke Ring. In just a few generations humans have already adapted. Without the compression of gravity, their toes stretch out like fingers, and their entire bodies are wispy and elfin. Damn I loved this book. Its sequal, The Smoke Ring is equally rocking. I remember wishing so fervently that I would wake up in the Smoke Ring and my own body would grow out to match that of the locals. Of course now we know that bones need to be compressed in order to stimulate growth, but who knows what happens in microgracity. Perhaps everyone who grows up in space will strectch out and grip with their feet as we once did. One day Ben. One day.

Kim Stanley Robinson presents some of the most realistic projections of the future I have ever read. The Mars trilogy is an opus depicting the colision of science, politics and humankind’s final frontier. When reading these books it is important to remember that these are the stories of real people. There are a number of moments which are less than epic sometimes they are just trying to get a job for a few chapters.