Fond Memories

When I was a kid, like so many who grew up in the 70's and 80's, I had hours to kill after school before my parents got home. Often times I would ride my bicycle down the street a couple of miles to the independent book store.

There, I would peruse the Science Fiction and Fantasy aisles like I was looking for lost treasure. Anything to spur my imagination and relieve me of the after-school boredom. Back then, mass-market paperbacks were usually $1.95, or if they were really thick, maybe $2.25 (yes I am that old). Which was good because that was usually all I had been able to scrounge from my lunch money or chores. So each book had to be carefully selected.

"You keep reading it in the store and we're going to charge you by the page," the clerk would say as I sat in the corner and read the first few pages of each candidate. I was only trying to make sure the first few chapters warranted my hard saved coin.

Books came and went through my library, as I often swapped with friends when I was done, stretching my meager reading budget further. But a few never even left the table beside my bed. Authors like Heinlein, Cherryh, Eddings, Asimov, Hambly -- those were my partners in crime. Characters that inspired and forced me to think.

I still consider Robert Heinlein's opening to Friday to be one of the best I have ever read, even if the rest of the book may have a few flaws.

“As I left the Kenya Beanstalk capsule he was right on my heels. He followed me through the door leading to Customs, Health, and Immigration. As the door contracted behind him I killed him."

The main character, an Artificial Person named Friday, then proceeds to talk about how much she hates that particular method of travel.

What? You just killed a guy! Like, in the first three sentences! That's it? Now you're complaining about space travel?

Needless to say I didn't need to sit and read the first few chapters of that book to know it was the one. And that started me down the rabbit hole. I consumed every book that R.A.H. wrote that I could find. And I still keep a copy of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress on top of the end table -- TANSTAAFL! In high school, I had a short story published in a Science Fiction Anthology, for which I earned $23.44 (before taxes), and it was written as an homage to Mistress. Maybe one day I will post it here! Well, maybe not...

It wasn't long after that my tastes in genres shifted as I got older, not coincidentally around the time that Tom Clancy's Hunt For Red October hit the shelves. They called it a political thriller, and man, was I ever hooked. Almost forty years later, I have never left the hallowed ground that Tom first set before me when I was 15. I still read every Jack Ryan and Jack Jr novel with the same excitement (Don Bentley's turn at the helm is already pre-ordered, and undoubtedly in good hands).

But usually, after every 5 or 10 novels I read in the thriller genre, I cheat back to my childhood and grab a Science Fiction title.

When Andy Weir came out with The Martian, and then followed up with Artemis, he had earned a spot on my favorite authors list.

And I can say, without a doubt, that his latest novel, Project Hail Mary, is absolutely worth the read. Somehow, he has the ability to make a book full of hard science, mathematical challenges, and physics into a character-driven book you will not want to put down. Without giving anything away, it has a very surprising and satisfying ending, albeit bittersweet. And yet, by the time that surprise ending arrives, you know the character well enough to think, "well, of course, that is exactly what he would do."

So, if you ever get the notion to cheat on Jack Ryan, Mitch Rapp, The Grey Man, Pike Logan, or (heaven forbid) Frank Xavier, give it a try. I felt like the 12 year old kid in the book store again. I trust the stars will keep our transgressions secret!

-DGE