Books.

Finished: _The Getaway Special_ and _Anywhere But Here_, by Jerry Oltion.
_Airborn_, Kenneth Oppel.

Sense Of Wunda Alert! These authors bear watching. Oltion is writing Rigid SF following the invention of a hyperspace jump drive; he sets out the parameters and then goes to town with the consequences. I'm a bit suspicious of the abundance of Earth-like planets in his universe, but, hey, he's the author. And he's telling slam-bang exploration stories with wit, charm, and an easy lack of style; neither aggravatingly flat like Forward (peace be upon his shade) nor aggressively axe-grinding like Smith. If there's politics in these two, it's a sort of rationalist "internal affairs are their own business" combined with a hope for salvation through grassroots democracy.

Oppel's great work, on the other wing, is a sea story, complete with cabin boy as hero/protagonist, spunky tomboy first-class passenger love-interest, noble captain and dastardly pirate. Oh, and it takes place on airships, not seaships, sailing majestically across the Pacificus. The cabin boy is exactly the sort of Heinlein juvenile who is in the process of becoming a Competent Man; the tomboy might have fallen out of the same book, or the one next to it.

Both are on the Watch This Author list. All three are recommended.

Books.

Finished: _The Getaway Special_ and _Anywhere But Here_, by Jerry Oltion.
_Airborn_, Kenneth Oppel.

Sense Of Wunda Alert! These authors bear watching. Oltion is writing Rigid SF following the invention of a hyperspace jump drive; he sets out the parameters and then goes to town with the consequences. I'm a bit suspicious of the abundance of Earth-like planets in his universe, but, hey, he's the author. And he's telling slam-bang exploration stories with wit, charm, and an easy lack of style; neither aggravatingly flat like Forward (peace be upon his shade) nor aggressively axe-grinding like Smith. If there's politics in these two, it's a sort of rationalist "internal affairs are their own business" combined with a hope for salvation through grassroots democracy.

Oppel's great work, on the other wing, is a sea story, complete with cabin boy as hero/protagonist, spunky tomboy first-class passenger love-interest, noble captain and dastardly pirate. Oh, and it takes place on airships, not seaships, sailing majestically across the Pacificus. The cabin boy is exactly the sort of Heinlein juvenile who is in the process of becoming a Competent Man; the tomboy might have fallen out of the same book, or the one next to it.

Both are on the Watch This Author list. All three are recommended.