Can anyone recommend a good science non fiction book?

M

mb345345

Banded Mongoose
I expect it will be a number of books, but I'm looking a book which will cover topics such as: LaGrange points, brown dwarfs, black holes, etc. I much prefer physical books, but a pdf is ok. I'm guessing some aspects of world building such as spin, seasons, earth's magnetic field, etc may fall under geography.

Thanks for your help :)
 
I will give you two links. Both lead to libraries of free PDFs. I've just googled them; I haven't browsed them yet. Check for yourself and see if the items they have links for are any good.

Link 1.
Link 2.

Can somebody come up with links for books on geography, geology, and so on?
 
For the Astrogation fans, I'm also throwing in some books on celestial navigation. I mean, these books are strictly Earth-based, but if you know how to find at least two familiar stars in our sky, such as Deneb and Antares, e.g. by identifying them through their spectra, you can work out where your character would be in Charted Space.
Bonus: I'm chucking in some books on basic geometry.
Celestial Navigation 1.
The Principles of Celestial Navigation.
Another book on celestial navigation.
Hilbert - Foundations of Geometry.
Geometry for Enjoyment and Challenge.
Euclid's Elements - the first book written about geometry. When they're talking about Euclidean space, this is what they're on about.
 
alex_greene said:
I will give you two links. Both lead to libraries of free PDFs. I've just googled them; I haven't browsed them yet. Check for yourself and see if the items they have links for are any good.

Link 1.
Link 2.

Can somebody come up with links for books on geography, geology, and so on?
Click to expand...

I haven't read any Astronomy or geology books recently, but I have found these YouTube channels to be good for keeping up with the latest theories and developments:

Astronomy:

Astronomy and other new science:

Geology & paleontology:
 
alex_greene said:
I will give you two links. Both lead to libraries of free PDFs. I've just googled them; I haven't browsed them yet. Check for yourself and see if the items they have links for are any good.

Link 1.
Link 2.

Can somebody come up with links for books on geography, geology, and so on?
Click to expand...
Note: Malwarebytes blocked the first of those links for me because of a Trojan. Not the astronomical type.
 
I really enjoyed Exoplanets and Imagined Life by Michael Summers and James Trefil. Great and engagingly written science books with relevance for Traveller.
 
Might I recommend Astrophysics Is Easy!: An Introduction for the Amateur Astronomer by Mike Inglis? It's available for the Kindle if you like throwing money at Amazon.

This isn't science, but if you are interested in defining the visual look of your setting, I strongly recommend Typeset in the Future: Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies by Dave Addey. His blog https://typesetinthefuture.com/ analyses the design choices made by various SF films - focusing on typography. It gives you an appreciation of the importance of Eurostile Bold Extended in the SF genre.

(Actually...this second book might be useful to the graphic design and layout folks at Mongoose!)
 
As an old school but very accessible read, as well as a reflection of the science at the time Traveller was written, look up one of Isaac Asimov's essay collections: "The Planet That Wasn't"

There are a couple Geologists who have written books on various parts of the world with great enthusiasm, if that is of interest. I'll dig up (ha ha) the references if there is any interest.
 
I've ordered Astrophysics is Easy :) I've also wishlisted The Amateur Astronomer and The Terraformers’ Toolkit
 
Depending on how full-on 'University Degree Textbook'-y you want to get, I'm currently using [Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics] by Elena Bannikova & Massimo Capaccioli on the Uni course I'm currently taking for, well - fundamentals of celestial mechanics, heh.
That book is written in a very modern and accessible way... by a textbook's standards, that is. It also mandates a solid working ability of vector calculus.

Now, if what you really want is a comprehensive, layman-friendly-yet-deep resource covering everything and anything science fiction, well...

Atomic Rockets - Atomic Rockets

projectrho.com projectrho.com

Be warned that once one embarks into the Way of the Atomic Rocket, there is no turning back. :p
 
GabrielGABFonseca said:
fundamentals of celestial mechanics, heh.
That book is written in a very modern and accessible way... by a textbook's standards, that is. It also mandates a solid working ability of vector calculus
Click to expand...
Yowsers, it's been 30 years since I touched calculus! Personally speaking I'm just looking to understand the science in layman's terms.
 
After several false starts I've found the exact book I was looking for - Astronomy for Dummies. It's only just arrived but just by skimming it, I can see it covers everything a layman is likely to need to know for Traveller. Take it easy :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Geir
A riff on the 100D / 1000D limit thing
Replies
14
Views
805
phavoc
P
MongooseMatt
State of the Mongoose 2023
2 3
Replies
57
Views
6K
MongooseMatt
MongooseMatt
MongooseMatt
State of the Mongoose 2021
Replies
3
Views
8K
The Canterbury Tail
T
MongooseMatt
State of the Mongoose 2019
2
Replies
37
Views
42K
shakespear
S
H
Shipping goods in a MgT universe...
Replies
1
Views
1K
phavoc
P
Back
Top