Changing Tides

Last year Sharon Lee and Steve Miller tried an experiment of writing a draft of a new book set in their Liaden Universe online. The put a new chapter up each week with some weeks missed for various reasons. I really enjoyed reading it and when Baen published all their earlier Liaden books as ebooks I bought them.

This first draft was called Fledgling and is still available online.

This year they have decided to continue the project with the draft of the next story about the same character, and the first three chapters are already up. The new story is called Saltation.

The project relies on donations to support the writing of the draft, so if you enjoy it, donate!

I found this book very easy to read despite the complicated ideas it covers. The author has succeeded in making it an entertaining and accessible book.

It gives a good overview of quantum physics both from a historical perspective and the implications quantum physics has for our understanding of the world.

It doesn’t attempt to cover any of the mathematics or complexity. It explains any specialist terms at they are introduced, and uses good analogies to give you a feel for the topic.

If you are interested in physics then this is a great way to start looking at Quantum Physics.

Duncan Watts

I found the first part of this book very interesting, but I felt it starting going in circles a bit and I didn’t end up finishing it.

Another book on my reading list:

We have been working our way through an excellent introduction to chemistry - Mastering Chemistry by Peter Riley. It is very clearly presented and has questions in each section to check that you have understood the topic being covered.
We got ours from the Mornington Peninsula Library. It is also available from Amazon:

Mastering Chemistry by Peter Riley. (the cover is from an earlier edition).