Science Fiction Writers Workshop

This book calls itself "A writer's guide to the science of interplanetary and interstellar travel". It is aimed more at hard science fiction writers, as it gets deeply into the details, although there are no equations (hooray). Topics covered include rockets and propulsion mechanisms, traveling and living in space, planets and stars, and even touches on space politics and economics. All discussions are from a writer's point of view.

It seems to be an excellent reference. It covers a wide range of topics from basic to advanced, and makes many suggestions as to how writers could use the material, or warns about pitfalls . I don't write sf but I might someday soon, especially after flipping through this book.

The copy I have is a first edition, and it shows copyright 1997. That means the book is at least 7 or 8 years old. When Bova talks about "upcoming events" that have already happened, it shows its age. However, most of the topics are timeless, and most of the rest are current enough for a writer's purposes.

It is a Writer's Digest book, ISBN 0-89879-747-0. Cover price is $17 US but I got it for half that (book sale).