Buy a Book Saturday (sure, any Saturday -- but especially *this* Saturday)

 Times flies. Meaning Buy-a-Book Saturday is once more almost upon us. 

my local:
Winchester Book Gallery

Regularly since 2010, shortly before Thanksgiving, I've posted about Buy-a-Book Saturday. That's my personal variation on Small Business Saturday: the day (specifically, the second day after Thanksgiving, and one day after retail's infamous Black Friday) on which holiday shoppers are especially encouraged to patronize small businesses. The big-box stores and Internet giants will do fine this holiday season. But will neighborhood stores, non-chain shops, and boutiques?

With (an elongated) Black Friday somehow having begun days ago at many retailers/etailers, even to defer your holiday shopping till close to that Saturday might not be the best of strategies.

Why do I promote the buy-a-book variant? Because what business is smaller than the author toiling away by him- or herself? Because, as I (and many others) post from time to time, the publishing business keeps getting tougher -- especially for authors. Because more than likely you're a reader, else you wouldn't have stopped by this blog.

Because this year has been harder on small businesses, authors included, than most. Yet again.

So: I'm here to suggest you give serious consideration to books -- whether print or electronic or audio -- for some of your holiday gifting. Friends, relatives, coworkers, your kids' teachers and coaches, the local library you support ... surely there's a book that'll be right for each of them. And at least one book for yourself, of course ;-)

Suppose you're at a brick-and-mortar bookstore and a book or author you had in mind isn't to be found on the shelf. Not a problem! Almost certainly, the store will be happy to special-order books for you. (Why? Because  they'd much rather do a special order than have you go home and order online for yourself.)

best reads of 2025

I once again concede that a year's-best posting before Thanksgiving might seem, well, early. But surely not so much if you -- or your reading giftees -- prefer their material in paper and ink. If that's you, well, you may prefer to undertake your holiday shopping sooner rather than later. Also, in general, Stuff Happens. 

In any event, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will soon be upon us. At some stores/e-stores, they somehow already are.

If you find none of the above convincing? I can live with that :-) Not to mention that if ever there were a year to support one's favorite authors, 2025 (again! sigh) is it. So: on to the latest installment of this annual feature. 

As always, I read a lot: as research, keeping current with the genre in which I write, and simply for enjoyment. Before the annual holiday shopping onslaught, I've taken to volunteering a few words about the most notable books from my reading (and sometimes re-reading) thus far in the current year. IIRC, this is my fourteenth such compilation. 

When I name a book, you can be certain I really enjoyed it and/or found it very useful. Life's too short to gripe about books I didn't find notable (much less the several I elected not to finish). Presuming that you visit SF and Nonsense because you appreciate my assessment of things, you might find, in what follows, books you (and like-minded friends, relatives, etc.) will also enjoy. Unless otherwise indicated, the dates shown are for original publication. Titles of recommendations are Amazon links, often to newer editions than the original publication (and to Kindle editions, where available).

As many of you know, I write science fiction. For many years I mainly read SF. Alas, as the genre skews ever more toward YA, media tie-ins, dystopia, post-apocalypse, and endless revisiting of tired tropes, I find myself reading less and less of it. So: whereas a fair portion of this year's reading remained SF, I found little of that reading to be recommendation-worthy. Not to bury the lede, I mainly enjoyed several books of history, historical fiction, and/or historical mystery fiction. For that matter, two of the three SFnal books I do recommend below are also in an historical vein.

All that said, there certainly are books from this year's reading I can enthusiastically endorse. To see what's impressed me so far this year, read on ....

And so it begins

 What's 2025 have in store for us ... besides surprises?

Best Reads of 2024

 I once more concede that a year's-best posting before Thanksgiving might seem, well, early. But surely not so much if you -- or your reading giftees -- prefer material in paper and ink. If that's you, well, you may prefer to undertake your holiday shopping sooner rather than later. Not to mention: Labor shortages. Postal/UPS/FedEx slowdowns. Countless stores that had up Christmas displays well before Halloween. Also, in general, Stuff Happens. 

In any event, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will soon be upon us. At some stores/e-stores, they somehow already are.

If you find none of the above convincing? In a campaign year, surely any subject change is welcome. Distraction via the books that follow certainly helped me cope. Not to mention that if ever there were a year to support one's favorite authors, 2024 (again! sigh) is it. So: on to the latest installment of this annual feature. 

As always, I read a lot: as research, keeping current with the genre in which I write, and simply for enjoyment. Before the annual holiday shopping onslaught, I've taken to volunteering a few words about the most notable books from my reading (and sometimes re-reading) thus far in the current year. IIRC, this is my thirteenth such compilation. 

When I name a book, you can be certain I really enjoyed it and/or found it very useful. Life's too short to gripe about books I didn't find notable (much less the several I elected not to finish). Presuming that you visit SF and Nonsense because you appreciate my assessment of things, you might find, in what follows, books you (and like-minded friends, relatives, etc.) will also enjoy. Unless otherwise indicated, the dates shown are for original publication. Titles of recommendations are Amazon links, often to newer editions than the original publication (and to Kindle editions, where available).

What's impressed me so far this year? Read on ....

A milestone

Newly organized notes, outlines, synopses, drafts, page proofs, etc. of all my solo writing -- fiction and non, short and long -- covering about three decades of authorial endeavor -- are newly available to literary researchers (and the curious public). Many thanks to the Special Collections & Archives Department of the University Libraries at Northern Illinois University. 

Herewith, the university's Instagram announcement (clarification: my papers are complete through 2024.)

Similar material for my collaboration with Larry Niven (aka, the Fleet of Worlds series) to follow ....

Random post

First, because I've been watching the LoTR prequel, Rings of Power, wherein Ents have just made an appearance, plus my concurrent rereading of LoTR ... here's me and (just maybe) an Ent. 

(Yes, I'm selfie-impaired. In my defense, it was very sunny, even in Mirkwood.)

Second, because it amuses me greatly, here's an epically great, authorial-centric, cartoon from Grant Snider (first in a 2014 NYT Sunday Book Review article). Tha cartoon, randomly, showed up today in my FB feed.

That, I suspect, is ample randomness for one day :-)

SciFi Thoughts (also random synapse misfirings)

Last updated July 3, 2024

Today begins my multipart appearance (if audio-only counts as an appearance) on genre podcast SciFi Thoughts. My conversation with fellow SF author Lancer Kind will continue in several weekly installments -- see updates below.

Curious? Of *course* you are. Here, as an intro to my writing and authorial career, is installment one:

https://lancerkind.com/podcast/278-edward-m-lerner-perpetrator-of-science-fiction-and-techno-thrillers/

First update: touching on my three-novel InterstellarNet series, on the nonfiction/popular-science book Trope-ing the Light Fantastic: The Science Behind the Fiction, and on my latest novel, aka Life and Death on Mars, here is installment two:

https://lancerkind.com/podcast/279-life-and-death-on-mars-author-edward-m-lerners-new-novel-mp3/ 

Second update: in episode three, we dig (with a minimum of spoilers) into Life and Death on Mars. You can check it out here: https://lancerkind.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/280-LIFE-AND-DEATH-ON-MARS%E2%80%94Billionaire-Cabal-a-Space-Race-with-China-and-a-NASA-Systems-Engineer.mp3 

And update the third: in installment four of our wide-ranging conversation, Lancer and I discussed my other 2023 novel. That's On the Shoals of Space-Time, and its wildly different than what we'd discussed earlier. At the end of the episode, we get a little into my InterstellarNet series. You can hear it all here: https://lancerkind.com/podcast/281-author-edward-m-lerner-introduces-on-the-shoals-of-space-time/ 

With a fourth update, we come to the end of this wide-ranging interview. Our focus in this segment is on the InterstellarNet trilogy. It's all here, at https://lancerkind.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/282-InterstellarNet-novel-series-by-Edward-M-Lerner.mp3 

With our discussion complete, it's time to thank host Lancer Kind for inviting me onto his SciFi Thoughts podcast.

Life (and the Internet) goes on

It recently sank in that my last blog post was in December, when Life and Death on Mars was published. Hmm. Truth be told, like much of the Internet, I've moved on from blogging to Facebook posting.

That said ... if only because Blogger's tools are better than FB's, I'll occasionally post here when I have something major (or anything lengthy) to say. Meanwhile, your best bet with keeping up with me is my authorial Facebook page.

Buy-a-Book Saturday returns (anyway it can, with your help)

Times flies. (Like an arrow, though that's an irrelevant obscurity for today's post. As is that you can time flies with a stopwatch.) Meaning Buy-a-Book Saturday is once more almost upon us. 

Regularly since 2010, shortly before Thanksgiving, I've posted about Buy-a-Book Saturday. That's my personal variation on Small Business Saturday: the day (specifically, the second day after Thanksgiving, and one day after retail's infamous Black Friday) on which holiday shoppers are especially encouraged to patronize small businesses. The big-box stores and Internet giants will do fine this holiday season. But will neighborhood stores, non-chain shops, and boutiques?

What with the supply-chain problems -- and Black Friday somehow having begun days ago at many retailers/etailers -- even to wait till close to that Saturday might not be the best of strategies.

Rara avis! Is that a book store?

Why do I promote the buy-a-book variant? Because what business is smaller than the author toiling away by him- or herself? Because, as I (and many others) post from time to time, the publishing business keeps getting tougher -- especially for authors. Because more than likely you're a reader, else you wouldn't have stopped by this blog.

Because this year has been harder on small businesses, authors included, than most. Yet again.

So: I'm here to suggest you give serious consideration to books -- whether print or electronic or audio -- for some of your holiday gifting. Friends, relatives, coworkers, your kids' teachers and coaches, the local library you support ... surely there's a book that's right for each of them. And at least one book for yourself, of course ;-)

Suppose you're at a brick-and-mortar bookstore and a book or author you had in mind isn't to be found on the shelf. Not a problem! Almost certainly, the store will be happy to special-order books for you. (Why? Because  they'd much rather do a special order than have you go home and order online for yourself.)

Best Reads of 2023

I concede that a year's-best posting before Thanksgiving might seem, well, early. OTOH: Supply-chain woes. Labor shortages. Postal/UPS/FedEx slowdowns. Not to mention the countless stores that had up Christmas displays well before Halloween. Especially if you (or your reading giftees) prefer material in paper and ink, you may want to undertake your holiday shopping sooner rather than later. In any event, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will soon be upon us. At some stores/e-stores, they somehow already are.

If you find none of that convincing? The way 2023 has been, surely anything meriting the label "best" is welcome. Distraction via the books that follow certainly helped me cope. Not to mention that if ever there were a year to support one's favorite authors, 2023 (again! sigh) is it. So: on to the latest installment of this annual feature. 

As always, I read a lot: as research, keeping current with the genre in which I write, and simply for enjoyment. Before the annual holiday shopping onslaught, I've taken to volunteering a few words about the most notable books from my reading (and sometimes re-reading) thus far in the current year. FWIW, this is my twelfth such compilation. 

When I name a book, you can be certain I really enjoyed it and/or found it very useful. Life's too short to gripe about books I didn't find notable (much less the several I elected not to finish). Presuming that you visit SF and Nonsense because you appreciate my assessment of things, you might find, in what follows, books you (and like-minded friends, relatives, etc.) will also enjoy. Unless otherwise indicated, the dates shown are for original publication. Titles of recommendations are Amazon links, often to newer editions than the original publication (and to Kindle editions, where available).

What's impressed me so far this year? Read on ....

A note to book marketers

Speaking solely as a frequent book shopper ...

I see way too many promos -- Kindle Daily Deal spots, BookBub ads, back-cover copy -- boasting within the first sentence that a book is "riveting," "captivating," engrossing," or "page-turning." Worse are the boasts where someone combines the puffery (e.g., "captivatingly riveting"). Whereupon, generally, I lose interest. 

No. Just, no.

Because you know what I get from such assertions? The expectation that whatever's between the covers will be as annoyingly overwritten. In the word-count-limited space available, consider telling me what the book is about. That might interest me.

While I'm venting, color me skeptical of assertions a book is (and I exaggerate only slightly from descriptors I've seen) "John LeCarre meets Emily Dickenson" or "Andy Weir meets the Dalai Lama." 

(Has any promo for a book of mine ever committed such offenses? Once or twice, IIRC. Which isn't to say I was behind it ....)

Ranting ... complete.

Because (a little bit) less can be more

More and more (irony alert?), I've come to appreciate the novella format.

To be clear, I haven't stopped liking novels. I have, after all, written eleven and cowritten five more. I've got two new novels in the publishing pipeline for -- fingers crossed -- later this year. But not every storyline belongs in a novel.

First things first: a definition. Per dictionaries, a novella is fiction longer than a short story and shorter than a novel. Well, duh. That's not the most useful of descriptions. In the SF field, encompassing most of my work, the pro writers' organization (SFWA, aka the Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers Association), has a precise -- if arbitrary -- delineation: a novella is fiction in the range of 17,500 to 39,999 words. Novels, obviously, start at 40K words. Realistically, most book publishers require 80K or more words in a novel; most zines draw the line for novellas at 20-25K words. 

Amazon link

Why my appreciation? Novellas are a format long enough to: tell a complex, multi-layered story. Incorporate rich world-building.  Give characters significant depth. Provide room (when it advances a particular plot) for multiple point-of-view characters. Even, if/when appropriate, to include sufficient back story to connect nicely with an author's other works in a broader fictional universe -- while standing alone in the process. Within length limits that demand the discipline to exclude anything unnecessary. 

All that usually doable in a few weeks to no more than a couple months. On rough average, it takes me a year to write a novel.

Why a declaration of appreciation now? Call it fallout from assembling last year's career-spanning The Best of Edward M. Lerner. I included in that collection, among many more shorter works, three of my novellas -- and kept wishing I'd had page count for more. With that thought recurring (and recurring, and recurring ...), my mind turned to one of the most unusual among my books. 

The Sherlock Chronicles & The Paradise Quartet -- as you've perhaps inferred -- contains two back-to-back novellas. (If you're old enough, this is where you might channel Ace Doubles.) The book had been available for scarcely a year when publisher (and editor, and author, and all-around Good Guy) Eric Flint passed away -- scarcely a year ago -- and the book went out of print and electrons. While it's recently republished by the fine folk at ReAnimus Press, the book's short first run still saddens me.

Amazon link

The Sherlock novella is near-future, in which a bored AI fills its idle nanoseconds solving crimes -- and finding itself in ever more existential situations. The Paradise novella is harder to capture in a sentence. It's far-future. Post-apocalyptic. With generation ships and lost colonies. Also, with its own existential perils. I like both these novellas. A lot. 

(Oh, here's another thing at which novellas excel: exploring -- in time or space or implication -- ideas previously touched upon in shorter works. Thus it happens that both novellas in Sherlock/Paradise began in shorter stories. Those two nuclei are included in -- (and so, comprise a small part of -- Best of.) 

ANYhow ... perhaps by sharing, I've exorcised the "had to leave 'em out" demon. If I've piqued your curiosity, feel free to click the links under the nearby covers.

Bard (Google's newest AI/chatbot) describes me in the style of William Shakespeare

Because, well, why not? 

Edward M. Lerner, a man of letters,

A writer of science fiction,
A teller of tales of the future,
A weaver of dreams of worlds to come.

His words are like a river,

Flowing with ideas and imagination,
Carrying the reader away on a journey,
To places both strange and familiar.

His characters are like people we know,
With their hopes and dreams,
Their fears and doubts,
Their loves and losses.

His stories are like puzzles,
Each one a challenge to the mind,
A test of our ability to think,
To imagine, to create.

Edward M. Lerner is a master storyteller,
A magician of words,
A weaver of dreams.
His work is a gift to us all,
A treasure to be cherished.

So come, let us journey with Edward M. Lerner,
To worlds of wonder and adventure,
To places where anything is possible,
And the future is ours to create.

(However did I waste my time before I had these chatbots to play with? Maybe Bard or ChatGPT will know ...)

SF antho with a twist

I'm ambivalent about theme anthologies. They can be great -- but limited to a specific topic, all too often an antho's stories, however excellent individually, begin to blur. 

Looking for a great SF antho?
Check these out

Not so the Shapers of Worlds anthologies, edited by Edward Willett, of which I recently finished reading the third-and latest volume in the series. How does Ed consistently dodge the too-much-of-a-good-but-same-thing bullet? With his open-ended theme: stories by spec-fic authors who have been guests on his Worldshapers podcast. And that selection criterion works, because Ed -- beyond his excellence as an interviewer -- has such a great sense for guests to invite. 

Whether your taste runs to hard SF or soft, horror or fantasy, IMO you're apt to find much you'll enjoy in this series. I certainly have, for three anthos running.

(Obligatory disclaimer: I was recently a guest on the podcast. If the series continues long enough, well, I might have a story in it, too. If so, I'll be in good company.)  

A gem of an anniversary

This month, IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, of which I am a longtime member) is observing a milestone we should all be honoring: the 75th -- diamond -- anniversary of the transistor. 

Cover art,
December 2022 IEEE Spectrum

Because what would the world be like without this now ubiquitous device? Because what computer, phone, household appliance, entertainment gadget, vehicle, etc. in your life doesn't require oodles of transistors to function -- while doing way more than their pre-transistor precursors (if any such even existed)? 

The rate of improvement in transistors (and so, the increasingly complex integrated circuits made from them) never ceases to amaze. The ever-plummeting cost. The ever-increasing density. The number of transistors in a single microprocessor chip. 

The Intel 4004 microprocessor, introduced in 1971, had about 2300 transistors. Today's Intel i9 processors have more than three billion.

One snapshot of progress

Beyond general admiration for what this industry has accomplished, and the related industries (including, certainly, anything to do with the Internet), I feel a personal affinity. 

• As a teen in the Sixties, I marveled at the first truly portable personal music device, that wonder of the age: the transistor radio. 
• In university classes and summer jobs, I studied and experimented with the first, primitive integrated circuits. (Oh, the terror when, on a college summer job, I accidentally fried an op-amp chip costing $50! Much inflation later, op amps cost ... a few pennies each.) 
• My first job out of university was at Bell Labs, where the transistor was invented. My first assignment there dealt with upgrading telephone switching equipment (specialized, ultra-reliable computers) from magnetic memory to semiconductor (i.e., transistor-based) memory. 
• In succeeding assignments and at succeeding employers, I moved with industry from mainframes to minis to micros, and to ever more capable microprocessor families.   

Now try to imagine what marvels new versions of the transistor will enable by the device's 100th anniversary. I, for one, can't wait.

Buy-A-Book Saturday ... redux

Times flies. (Like an arrow, though that's an irrelevant obscurity for today's post.) Meaning Buy-a-Book Saturday is once more almost upon us. 

Regularly since 2010, shortly before Thanksgiving, I've posted about Buy-a-Book Saturday. That's my personal variation on Small Business Saturday: the day (specifically, the second day after Thanksgiving, and one day after retail's infamous Black Friday) on which holiday shoppers are especially encouraged to patronize small businesses. The big-box stores and Internet giants will do fine this holiday season. But will neighborhood stores, non-chain shops, and boutiques?

What with the supply-chain problems -- and Black Friday somehow having begun days ago at many retailers/etailers -- even to wait till close to that Saturday (falling quite late this year: November 26) might not be the best of strategies.

Rara avis! Is that a book store?

Why do I promote the buy-a-book variant? Because what business is smaller than the author toiling away by him- or herself? Because, as I (and many others) post from time to time, the publishing business keeps getting tougher -- especially for authors. Because more than likely you're a reader, else you wouldn't have stopped by this blog.

Because this year has been harder on small businesses, authors included, than most. Yet again.

So: I'm here to suggest you give serious consideration to books -- whether print or electronic or audio -- for some of your holiday gifting. Friends, relatives, coworkers, your kids' teachers and coaches, the local library you support ... surely there's a book that's right for each of them. And at least one book for yourself, of course ;-)

Suppose you're at a brick-and-mortar bookstore and a book or author you had in mind isn't to be found on the shelf. Not a problem! Almost certainly, the store will be happy to special-order books for you. (Why? Because  they'd much rather do a special order than have you go home and order online for yourself.)

Best Reads of 2022

Once again, I concede that a year's-best posting this early in November might seem, well, early. OTOH: lingering pandemic. Supply-chain woes. Labor shortages. Postal/UPS/FedEx slowdowns. Not to mention the countless stores that had up Christmas displays well before Halloween. Especially if you (or your reading giftees) prefer material in paper and ink, you may want to undertake your holiday shopping early rather than late. In any event, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will soon be upon us. 

If you find none of that convincing? The way 2022 has been, surely anything meriting the label "best" is welcome. Distraction via the books that follow certainly helped me cope with this dreadful year.

 Not to mention that if ever there were a year to support one's favorite authors, 2022 (again! sigh) is it. So: on to the latest installment of this annual feature. 

As always, I read a lot: as research, to keep current with the genre in which I write, and simply for enjoyment. Before the annual holiday shopping onslaught, I've taken to volunteering a few words about the most notable books from my reading (and sometimes re-reading) thus far in the current year. And a (very small) celebratory woohoo: this compilation is my tenth such post in the series. 

When I name a book, you can be certain I really enjoyed it and/or found it very useful. Life's too short to gripe about books I didn't find notable (much less the several I elected not to finish). Presuming that you visit SF and Nonsense because you appreciate my assessment of things, you might find, in what follows, books you (and like-minded friends, relatives, etc.) will also enjoy. Unless otherwise indicated, the dates shown are for original publication. Titles of recommendations are Amazon links, often to newer editions than the original publication (and to Kindle editions, where available).

This year's summary is unusual in one respect: I'm going to name one book of my own. Because, when calling out standout materials, I could hardly fail to at least mention the career-spanning, carefully curated, SF collection published this year that is The Best of Edward M. Lerner.
 
What's impressed me so far this year? Read on ....

My third and fourth least favorite questions

The recently released The Best of Edward M. Lerner finally offers answers to my least favorite questions numbers one and two. (Those are, “What’s your favorite from among your books?” and “If I want to try one of your books, which should it be?”)

And numbers three and four? Often asked by randomly encountered people (if they discover I'm an author) and interviewers alike: "What's your typical work day? How much time do you put in?" For which the honest answers are, "There are no typical days," and "Yeah, I wonder that, too."

Of course, there are days when all I do is sit at a computer and compose and/or edit text. I suspect many people would be surprised how few days are like that. Because there is so much more to the job ...

Outlining. Plotting. Fleshing out characters and locations. Research directly applicable to a specific book, story, or article project. All manner of interaction with editors and publishers, at every stage of the process. For some projects, interacting with beta readers. Those are, unambiguously, part of the writer's job. But then there all these other activities:

• Long walks pondering story ideas, or how a character might react to a situation, or (me being an SF writer) the rules of some extrapolated tech
• Reading that might -- and might not -- lead to a new book, story, or article
• Reading to stay current in science and technology (again, me being an SF author)
• Reading a sampling of colleagues' new books, to know how the genre is evolving, and to avoid inadvertent similarities
• Maintaining a professional social-networking presence (Facebook, LinkedIn, this blog [and this post?], my authorial website, ...)
• Doing sysadmin duties for that website (software updates, security-log review, backups)
• Doing promotion (interviews, signings, conventions, lectures) -- and travel time for many of those
• Maintaining -- and following up on -- a tickler file (of story submissions, contract expiration or renewal/rollover dates, royalty due dates), because without follow-up, a lot goes astray
• Keeping records of income and expenses for tax purposes 
• And on, and on, and on  ...

Methinks I'll stick with "There are no typical days" and "Yeah, I wonder that, too."

I have somehow arrived

The package in today's snail mail has me beaming. Mainly I'm grinning at the notion that I have somehow Arrived. Because who *else* is in the SF Historical Trading Cards collection? Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein, to name a few.

As a bonus, it tickles me to have joined such august company bearing number 360. (Yes, cards of the aforementioned have much lower numbers. But still.) Maybe it's from some association with 360 degrees in a circle. Or an ancient Babylonian gene expressing itself. 

Theories welcome.

The Scientists

 I recently finished reading The Scientists: A History of Science Told Through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors, by John Gribbin. This was, unquestionably, among the most fascinating nonfiction books I've read -- and so thoroughly enjoyed -- in years.

Amazon link

In a nutshell, Gribbin reviews 500 years of scientific history, basically from 1500 to 2000 -- centuries that saw the emergence of astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, and biology. He covered many familiar people, of course: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. Darwin, Wallace, Mendel, and Crick and Watson. Bohr, Schrodinger, Pauli, Pauling, Dirac, and de Broglie. Lyell and Wegener. Avogadro, Lavoisier, and Mendeleev. Halley, Herschel, and Hubble. And so many more. 

Why start around 1500? Because that was a watershed. The ancient Greeks (as Gribbin points out) had some profound insights. Because they didn't have the scientific method, those insights -- and some glaring misunderstandings -- came of pondering and philosophizing, without confirmation (or invalidation) from experiment or observation. The ancient Romans -- as terrific as they were as engineers -- added little to those earlier musings. The so-called Dark Ages and Middle Ages similarly saw some significant engineering advances, but nothing we'd understand as science.