Hmm... What can I say about Paradisi Escape? It was good to read a science fiction book that actually had a go at writing hard science. It's been a rarity to read sci-fi that's taken this route. Space elevators have fascinated me since I read Arthur C Clarke. In addition to the well realised back story and world, I also enjoyed the main character and his desire to keep his word to his crew.
What I didn't like however was the extremely rushed introduction of the central conflict or the main antagonists. I felt I only partially knew the background to Solomon and his struggles and if I was supposed to divine some conflict stemming from his past and mentor, then it didn't resonate clearly enough. The romance was obvious from the start but I couldn't get any real feeling for it as it seemed shoe horned in.
This book is not poorly written, but parts seem poorly thought out. The opening was almost an info-dump of exposition and I couldn't quite understand how things got bad so fast.
Make no mistake, this is a well written book with an interesting backdrop and a real effort to bring the science back to science fiction, but far too little of the action and character motivations actually impressed me. If you ask me now what happened, I could only give you the barest bones of plot, because nothing really sunk in.
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What I didn't like however was the extremely rushed introduction of the central conflict or the main antagonists. I felt I only partially knew the background to Solomon and his struggles and if I was supposed to divine some conflict stemming from his past and mentor, then it didn't resonate clearly enough. The romance was obvious from the start but I couldn't get any real feeling for it as it seemed shoe horned in.
This book is not poorly written, but parts seem poorly thought out. The opening was almost an info-dump of exposition and I couldn't quite understand how things got bad so fast.
Make no mistake, this is a well written book with an interesting backdrop and a real effort to bring the science back to science fiction, but far too little of the action and character motivations actually impressed me. If you ask me now what happened, I could only give you the barest bones of plot, because nothing really sunk in.
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