Quote:
Originally Posted by Joykins
I did get the Starfarers book (free is so excellent) only it's formatted weird. Like 2 inch margins on both sides which means a sort of thin column of text marching down the middle of the page. I found this distracting. I may try again.
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Yeah, I'd heard that the ePub version was b0rked, but apparently all you have to do to fix it is unzip, blank the css file, and repack.
If you're willing to go library-trawling, Joan D. Vinge is excellent, if a trifle out of print at the moment.
Another freebie possibility is Peter Watts' novella
The Island, which is very good and won the Hugo last year. He offers it as a
Creative Commons ePub off his website along with his other short stories and novels.
It's got a female narrator on a generation ship building some sort of hyperspace bypass (cue HHGTTG jokes) so it's a bit light on the action, but heavy on the character-driving. Watts' writing is cerebral and visceral at once, kind of like an angry punk Clarke, if I had to compare him to one of the Big Three.
If you're in the mood for something more optimistic and Asimovian, Robert J. Sawyer has a couple of pretty good novels, albeit the space opera ones are mainly set from a male viewpoint.
Starplex is one of those interstellar discovery things if you want a more exploratory book, and
Golden Fleece, one of my personal favourites, is a locked room murder mystery IN SPAAAAACE!
They're a little pricey in the ebook editions, but he's got a page full of
novellas and short stories free to read online so you can sample more of his writing first.