| The first story in Tips, a typical one, "Mommy, Why | | | | White also writes about power armor. He was |
| Am I Here?", talks about how mankind will first | | | | inspired by Heinlein's Starship Troopers book and |
| engage in exploring alien cultures on distant star | | | | deeply disappointed in the movie adaptation, so he |
| systems. The fastest and cheapest way to send a | | | | wrote his own version of the power armor story. In |
| human to a distant star system that has intelligent life | | | | "The ticket out" he shows how really versatile power |
| is not to send a starship, but to send information | | | | armor can be by having five mercenaries get hung |
| using radio waves. We will send DNA codes to distant | | | | out to dry when the invasion they are part of goes |
| star systems long before we send starships. But it | | | | sour and their fleet pulls out. Whoops! |
| takes more than just sending DNA information to | | | | White's stories in this book all deal with interesting |
| make a good star system explorer, and that's the | | | | science issues in a good story telling way. I really like |
| twist that makes the story interesting. | | | | the internal consistency of these stories -- people |
| Another story, "Where Does the 500 pound Alien | | | | (and aliens!) are all doing what they do for good |
| Sleep?", tells the story of a human starship finding a | | | | reasons -- no one does things just to follow some |
| planet orbiting a distant sun with an alien life form | | | | space opera story formula. |
| that is really just too creepy for humans to deal with. | | | | This volume, Volume One, is about stories in space. |
| They cut bait... well they try to, and that's when the | | | | Volume Two is about stories on Earth. |
| robots get involved! | | | | |