Name: Tuf Voyaging
ISBN: 9781592220052

Tuf Voyaging

"Haviland Tuf is an honest space-trader who likes cats. So how is it that, in competition with the worst villains the universe has to offer, he's become the proud owner of the last seedship of Earth's legendary Ecological Engineering Corps? Never mind, just be thankful that the most powerful weapon in human space is in good hands--hands which now control cellular material for thousands of outlandish creatures. Armed with this unique equipment, Tuf is set to tackle the problems that human settlers have created in colonizing far-flung worlds: hosts of hostile monsters, a population hooked on procreation, a dictator who unleashes plagues to get his own way... and in every case, the only thing that stands between the colonists and disaster is Tuf's ingenuity--and his reputation as a man of integrity in a universe of rogues."--Page 4 of cover.

What Hacker News says

kristianpJan 2024

These are books I re-read every few years, I would say more often than every decade though:

Iain M. Banks S.F. novels:

Excession, Consider Phlebas, The Algebraist, Use of Weapons, Look to Windward, Surface Detail, Matter. I don't re-read Inversions or Feersum Endjinn as I find them harder to get into (and they aren't Culture novels anyway).

Neal Asher: Cowl, Gridlinked and Brass Man

Michel Swanwick: Vacuum Flowers

Bruce Sterling: Involution ocean

George R.R. Martin: Tuf Voyaging, Nightflyers

Samuel Delaney: Nova. Nightflyers and Nova are back to back in a single volume as Del SF Binary Star #5.

William Gibson: Neuromancer

Robert Reed: Sister Alice

I'm currently re-reading (for the first time) Micaiah Johnson - The Space Between Worlds. She has an upcoming book this year: Those Beyond the Wall, which seems to be a prequel.

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hyperion2010Jan 2020

Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp which appears to recently have received a reprinting, my copy is from the 40s.

Deathworld by Harry Harrison. I've been waiting for some screenplay writer to stumble across this one, and if I had to guess James Cameron probably did, but just didn't tell anyone.

SLAN by A. E. van Vogt.

The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz.

Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, and Paratime by H. Beam Piper.

However the best of all, is maybe only slightly less know, since the author is certainly extremely well known: Tuf Voyaging by George R. R. Martin. An absolutely fantastic collection of stories about an ecological engineer.

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chimprichDec 2016

* The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. The prose was a bit purple for me but fascinating book about the progress of cancer treatment including recent advances. Second half of the book is more interesting in my opinion so don't give up if you find the history of cancer a little do dry.

* Tuf Voyaging by George RR Martin. I thought this was a stupid premise (guy travels the universe in a huge ship with cat companions?) but a friend strongly recommended it and I found it stupidly readable and very entertaining.

* Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh. Deeply interesting and humane book about the work of an eminent brain surgeon.

* The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence In History And Its Causes by Steven Pinker. Strong persuasive central thesis even if though I didn't agree with all his arguments. Very wide-ranging book with many ideas from philosophy and history.

* Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen. Informative and scary book about zoonotic diseases. Like a non-fiction cross between the detective, horror and sci-fi genres.

* The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. Read this because I felt I should rather than out of pure interest, but it was a good decision: fascinating biography and startling how intelligent and occasionally ruthless Mandela was.

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BdiemApr 2015

Tuf Voyaging by G.R.R. Martin

Gray-Death-Trilogy by William H. Keith, Jr. (Subset of the Battletech Series)

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