Tag space exploration

The Book Cover depicts two young people, one wearing blue and one wearing brown and gold, reaching out for each other while moving through space in front of a bright heavenly body., with distant stars in the background.

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

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The Book Cover depicts two young people, one wearing blue and one wearing brown and gold, reaching out for each other while moving through space in front of a bright heavenly body., with distant stars in the background.

by Eliana H.

What makes someone a person? What is needed to fall in love? How might society grapple with a significant and mystifying setback in their efforts to secure a safe new home for humanity? What might another dimension be like? What are the moral ramifications of destroying a sentient species we can’t begin to comprehend if it means saving humanity? Readers of The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton may find themselves pondering these and other questions, while also laughing, crying, and maybe falling a little bit in love themselves.

Twenty years ago, humanity’s hope suffered a huge blow. The Providence I, a spacecraft powered by a dark matter engine, was supposed to take its crew of more than 200 people to a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, where they would establish the first human colony on an exoplanet. Instead, the entire crew vanished at the moment of launch, leaving the empty ship and a very confused populace behind. Cleo McQueary and her best friends were children when the Providence I crew was preparing to launch and then disappeared, and they have grown up under the shadow of the mystery, wondering what happened. 

Due to a troubled relationship with her father, Cleo spends most of her time with those best friends who have become her chosen family, Abe, Kaleisha, and Ros. Each of them was profoundly influenced by the anticipation of the Providence I launch and the disaster of the crew’s disappearance. Now adults, they have spent the past two decades frustrated by Earth’s abandonment of space exploration after being unable to determine what happened to the Providence I crew. And of course, the situation on Earth has continued to deteriorate since then as well. 

Cleo’s insatiable curiosity has led the four friends to devise a “space heist,” where they will break into the abandoned facility owned by now-defunct Erebus Industries and explore the Providence I for themselves. The friends are able to reach the ship surprisingly easily, but things do not go according to plan from there. The dark matter engine activates at Cleo’s touch, and they find themselves heading toward Proxima Centauri B. None of them are trained astronauts, and they haven’t even said goodbye to their families. Thankfully, their topics of expertise are fairly relevant. They also have unexpected help from a holographic version of the original mission’s captain, Wilhelmina Lucas. Captain Lucas looks just the same as they remember, but she’s 20 years behind on what has been happening. And, of course, she’s a computer construction of the real Captain Lucas’s consciousness. 

This particular computer has a lot more personality than readers may be used to, and the book invites readers to consider what constitutes consciousness and sentience – is this version of Billie, as Captain Lucas invites her unexpected passengers to call her, a person? Cleo and her friends certainly come to see her as one, even without ever being able to physically interact with her. The relationships they develop with her certainly push the boundaries of what one would imagine might develop between a human and a hologram. As the group tries to solve the problem of returning home to Earth, they also work to unravel the mystery of exactly what happened on the Providence I all those years ago. Will they be able to find the missing crew? Will they make it home themselves? What else will they discover on their travels? To learn the answers, check out The Stars Too Fondly, a debut described by the publisher as “part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com.”

Eliana is a Children’s Instructor and Research Specialist at the Elkridge Branch and co-chair of the HCLS Equity Committee. She loves reading, even if she’s slow at it, and especially enjoys helping people find books that make them light up. She also loves being outside and spending time with friends and family (when it’s safe).

Space Shuttle Stories with Astronaut Tom Jones

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A black book with large white type features the space shuttle in the place of the A.

Thursday, Oct 17
7 – 8 pm
HCLS Elkridge Branch
For everyone. Registration preferred.
In partnership with the Maryland STEM Festival and the Howard Astronomical League. Books available for purchase and signing.

“Astronaut Tom Jones provides readers of all ages with a definitive look into the spirit, challenges, enjoyment, and faith that accompanies Earth-orbit exploration. Space Shuttle Stories takes us inside the lives, the risks, and the dedication of those men and women who are reaching for the stars.”
—Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and geologist

NASA’s space shuttle was the world’s first reusable spacecraft, accomplishing many firsts and inspiring generations across its 30-year lifespan as America’s iconic spaceship. In Space Shuttle Stories, astronaut Tom Jones interviewed more than 130 fellow astronauts for their personal vignettes, covering all 135 space shuttle missions from Columbia’s maiden flight in 1981 to the final launch of Atlantis in 2011.

Dr. Thomas Jones in a blue flight suit covered in patched standing with arms crossed in front of the Atlantic shuttle.

Thomas D. Jones, Ph.D., is a veteran astronaut, planetary scientist, pilot, author, and speaker who completed four space shuttle missions and three spacewalks in helping build the International Space Station. Jones has authored six books, including Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir, and has written for aerospace magazines such as Air & Space Smithsonian, Aerospace America, Popular Mechanics, and The Planetary Report. A senior research scientist for IHMC, he appears regularly on television news as an expert commentator for space exploration and science stories.

Space Shuttle Stories is available to borrow in print.

The main characters from The Expanse television series are groped against a backgroup of an alien wold, with James Holden most prominently figured.

The Expanse: Book and TV series

Kristen B. Leave a comment
The covers of the first and last books in the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Wakes and Leviathan Falls. Both covers feature space ships: the first in blues and greys and the last in fiery yellows.

By Kristen B.

James S. A. Corey (pen name of writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) has written a nine-book sprawling science fiction series about humanity among the stars and first contact (and beyond!). It all begins in Leviathan Wakes, with James Holden and the crew of (eventually) the spaceship Rocinante. You could say it’s an apt name, as Holden has a tendency to tilt at metaphorical windmills.

In this far-future novel, humanity populates Earth, Mars, and the asteroid belt beyond Mars where lucrative, dangerous mining takes place and people live mainly on ships and stations. Earth is ruled by the United Nations, which provides the bare basics to an overpopulated, under-resourced planet. Mars is still undergoing massive terraforming, so its population lives in a constrained and almost martial society. The Belters are the under-appreciated scruffy lower class of the solar system, and they are ready to change things – with revolution if necessary as the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance) flexes its muscles. The OPA’s politics walk the line between a new nationalism and terrorism, often depending on a character’s point of view.

In this strained atmosphere, the ice-hauling ship Canterbury, aboard which Holden is the executive officer, responds to an emergency beacon. To say nothing goes right about the situation is a massive understatement – as the Cant is destroyed, the Martian Navy is implicated, and its shuttle limps into Ceres Station with a crew of reluctant heroes. Meanwhile on station, Detective Joe Miller has been hired to locate Julie Mao, missing daughter of an interstellar magnate. Julie Mao is the thread that binds all the mysterious doings together, including the Cant‘s destruction, the OPA’s aggression, and a strange, deadly organism known as the “protomolecule.” This sounds complicated but is really just the set-up for the rest of the excellent, thrilling series.

Many smaller, personal stories held my attention within the larger framework, which helps make this massive undertaking worth the effort. Usually science fiction gives you a plot driven by big ideas or by identifiable characters to root for in strange situations – this has both! Naomi Nagata, Belter and engineer extraordinaire, stole my heart early and remained my favorite character with her deep backstory and good heart. I also love straightforward (blunt) mechanic Amos, who sees the world in simple terms of survival but who always has his crewmates’ backs. The list goes on as the world expands.

But wait … maybe you’re not ready to commit to nine books, all in excess of 500 pages? I mean, it’s a great way to lose track of time and what’s going on in the “real world.” Or maybe you’re a fan and want to experience the story via another medium? In that case, I highly recommend the TV series from SyFy channel and Amazon Prime, with the first four (of six) seasons available on DVD. The show follows the first few books to a remarkable degree, probably because the authorial team acts as producers. In some ways, the streamlined show moves even faster than the books, which is a feat. I love switching between Earth, Ceres Station, various ships, and other locales. Each separate set is completely realized and feels lived in. Also, the casting choices are, pardon the pun, stellar! There’s real chemistry among the Roci’s crew, as well as the folks who seem fully invested in the stakes of their individual story.

It’s a completely binge-able series, however you choose to interact with it – books, screen, or both.

Kristen B. is a devoted bookworm lucky enough to work as the graphic designer for HCLS. She likes to read, stitch, and make soup in the winter.