Two books by R. M. Meluch
Published on Apr 28, 2007 at 1:04 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under books, science fiction.
Recently, I read two very interesting books by R. M. Meluch, an author that I had not previously been familiar with. The first of these books was The Myriad. I liked it so much that I read the follow-on book Wolf Star, but that book was independent enough that the books could be read out of order (though there are a few references at the end of Wolf Star to something that happened at the very end of the first book, so if you get a choice you should read The Myriad first).
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I like science fiction. And, I rather like scifi that has some action in it. Both of these fall in the sub-genre of military scifi. They are set in the future, when a breakaway colony is at war with the United States.  Both books center around an American space battleship named U.S.S. Merrimac, captained by a swash-buckling man named John Farragut. OK, so that might sound sort of hokey, but really it sets the stage for a lot of fun.  Naturally, there are monstrous aliens that Farragut and the Merrimac fight, and the good guys win. Both books are a fun read, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I am eagerly waiting to see if there is a third book in the series that comes out.
Now, I rather like these adventuresome scifi stories anyway, but this is particularly good because the author has actually included some good astronomy in here. The first book takes place in a globular star cluster nicknamed the Myriad. Meluch explains about low metallicity stars in the star cluster (you almost never hear anything like that in science fiction!), and gives a pretty good description of several other interesting astronomical tidbits.  There are wormholes, temporal paradoxes, etc. Meluch does a great job. Now, remember this is fiction, so there are some liberties taken, but still I found the science to be not be totally out of whack like in many scifi novels. And any author who talks about stellar metallicity has got my attention!
So, any of my readers out there who are avid scifi fans like me, these are some fun books. Give them a shot!
-Astroprof
kelly on May 3, 2007 at 6:14 pm: 1
I stumbled onto Wolf Star about 6 months ago, & could not beLIEVE I’d managed to miss a writer this compelling that actually kept the ’science’ in SF. I’ve been reading hard SF for decades, & can’t recall when I’ve had so much fun with a series. I managed to get an advance copy of the 2nd book, so I’ve been waiting in a froth for #3, 4, etc. I check her site now ‘n’ then, & just now nearly wept when the announcement just came out that Book 2 was ‘just out.’ Thankfully, they claim #3 is coming out this year as well. Interestingly, I’ve dug up several of her older books –back to the 70’s– & they aren’t anywhere near as inventive or rousing as are the Myriad books.
Mariahn Scarborough on June 4, 2007 at 10:31 am: 2
I recently read a fabulous boo by Meluch called “Wind Child”. I found the book in a thrift store. I sat down and read it cover to cover yeaterday. I can’t wait to find more books by this author.
D Berthume on March 27, 2008 at 2:48 am: 3
SAGITTARIUS COMMAND just happened to be featured in the local library in the new fiction rack, It had a lot of action, great characters, and science that pushed the boundaries, but was easy to related to current theories, and laws as most non-astro physicist know them.In all a very good story of human conflict that somethings about us are destine to change very slowly. I immediately checked out the MYRIAD, and WOLF STAR