A review by manuphoto
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

adventurous informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Although well conceived and executed, The Fountains of Paradise is not my favourite Arthur C. Clarke novel. 

I like how he describes the different cultural, political and technical challenges in attempting to build a space elevator, but I had some issues with the characters. Morgan is pretty much the only one who gets decent treatment and he’s not that interesting to follow.

Although the last third of the novel is more compelling it felt forced to me. It didn’t flow as well as other novels by Clarke.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this book and I think it’s worth reading, but it think it’s only “good” not “great”. I enjoy hard science fiction and there is some of that here, but for some reason I had a harder time connecting with it that I thought I would.

All that being said, Clarke remains an excellent writer. The cultural passages are clearly better “felt” than the technical ones and you can see that he wanted to convey a message on the importance of respect, understanding and curiosity regarding other cultures. That can only be lauded. 

Also, there is a whole discussion about religion, put in the context of first contact with aliens. It was interesting but felt quite underdeveloped, I’m not exactly sure why it was included in this novel, it almost felt like an afterthought, even though the subject was dear to Clarke from what I understand.