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arf88 's review for:
The Fountains of Paradise
by Arthur C. Clarke
This book is less about building a space tower, and more about the the hurdles needed to be jumped when building a space tower.
There's some interesting characters in this, and while there's no great "character building" moments, I never felt that they were cardboard cutouts. Saying that, anyone who reads books for the characters is probably going to be disappointed.
The plot was simple but had lots of entertaining elements, with the random "history" of the island coming back to relevance in interesting ways. Although, I can't be the only one who knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as the legend of the butterflies was brought up, and the weather monk then decided to wander off. It's not like Clarke to be predictable, but it did make for an amazing part of the book, so the obvious foreshadowing can be forgiven.
I think of all of Clarke's books I've read, this is the one where his love of science most shines through, and it's got me interested enough to start googling about the realistic future of space lifts.
There's some interesting characters in this, and while there's no great "character building" moments, I never felt that they were cardboard cutouts. Saying that, anyone who reads books for the characters is probably going to be disappointed.
The plot was simple but had lots of entertaining elements, with the random "history" of the island coming back to relevance in interesting ways. Although, I can't be the only one who knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as the legend of the butterflies was brought up, and the weather monk then decided to wander off. It's not like Clarke to be predictable, but it did make for an amazing part of the book, so the obvious foreshadowing can be forgiven.
I think of all of Clarke's books I've read, this is the one where his love of science most shines through, and it's got me interested enough to start googling about the realistic future of space lifts.