by Mary Roach This book is worth reading simply for the laughs. It covers all the niggle and naughty little details about space flight, backed up with details from NASA files. The books focuses on weird and whacky details. Did you know, for example, that rabbits are the only animals…
by Eugene F. Mallove Another classic reference for the SF writer. Covers all technical aspects of space flight in a format that is not too hard for non-physicists, although this book does cover a bit more detail than others mentioned here. Most of the discussions focus on principles and restrictions…
Entering Space by Robert Zubrin Another book I would highly recommend for writers of science fiction. This book goes through the history of space flight, the basics of rocket flight, realistic directions for the future of space flight, and a few pie-in-the-sky ones as well. Want to know the realistic…
Aliens and Alien Societies Stanley Schmidt, edited by Ben Bova People often ask where to start reading up on factors to consider in worldbuilding, and I think this book should be up there with the advice to use sites like Wikipedia. In each chapter, it goes through a different aspects…
