Time to catch up on space again, and where better to begin than Marina Benjamin鈥檚 Rocket Dreams (Vintage/Free Press, 拢7.99/$14)? A trip down the space coast of Florida frames her brilliant history of our fascination with space. She links outer and inner space, public and private space, and makes the Apollo programme midwife to cyberspace. She approves of the insight of philosopher Gaston Bachelard that there is 鈥渃orrespondence between external immensity and inner intensity鈥�, which explains how nourishing space dreams can be for all of us. Full of surprises: Al Gore鈥檚 Triana project 鈥� a satellite sitting at a Lagrange point 鈥� would have provided great feedstock for cosmological research. The project was killed (politics), NASA鈥檚 budget was cut (politics). Now George Bush sets up a new high frontier (election politics) and NASA will be swimming in dollars (politics). Brush up on your Apollo missions, readers, space is back.
And maybe it鈥檚 worth buying a copy of Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart鈥檚 guide to alien biology, What Does a Martian Look Like? (Ebury Press, 拢6.99). You never know鈥�