Rating: 
Summary: read it for the experience, not the story
Review: There is hardly any character development in this entire book. The story line is somewhat awkward. There are too many chapters (57) which only makes the story choppy.
The whole plot revolves around the building and operation of an orbital tower or space elevator. The tower doesn't really play a big part of the story until almost half way through the book however. The author explains the technical problems in building the tower fairly well but I thought he could have done a better job in explaining exactly how the tower was built, what it looked like and exactly how it worked. The part of the book that was meant to be suspenseful wasn't to me because it was hard for me to visualize exactly what was happening and the physical surroundings.
Also, I think it was way too easy to build that tower.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful and poetic book about what we might acomplish
Review: This book is one of my favorites for two reasons. First it has that thought provoking idea that all great science fiction books nead. Second is the fact that tied in to the speculation about the future is another storie about the life of a king who lived a thousand years before the story, and how these two are buetifully related.
Rating: 
Summary: Great use of real science and technology
Review: This is a must-read for Clarke fans. The space-elevator he wrote about has a real basis in science and some scientists still consider it a legitimate and leading candidate for mass transportation off earth in the next phase of space exploration. The writing and characters are classic Clarke. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Hard Sci-Fi at its best!
Review: This is the story of an engineer using diamond cable to build a space elevator. Along the way we have visions of the Gibraltar bridge and the argument of putting rails on the side or not, since the vehicles on the bridge will be controlled not by occupants but by the road. Here is Clarke writing about stuff that is now in development. Intelligent roads. When will we seriously look at the Space elevator? The book is set in Clarke's favourite place on earth Sri-Lanka, although admittedly he conveniently shifts it to a more favourable latitude for scientific reasons. This book is beautifully written but has a backbone of hard science behind it. Today's writers could learn so much from this man.
Rating:
Summary: Hard Sci-Fi at its best!
Review: This is the story of an engineer using diamond cable to build a space elevator. Along the way we have visions of the Gibraltar bridge and the argument of putting rails on the side or not, since the vehicles on the bridge will be controlled not by occupants but by the road. Here is Clarke writing about stuff that is now in development. Intelligent roads. When will we seriously look at the Space elevator? The book is set in Clarke's favourite place on earth Sri-Lanka, although admittedly he conveniently shifts it to a more favourable latitude for scientific reasons. This book is beautifully written but has a backbone of hard science behind it. Today's writers could learn so much from this man.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: When I knew that the book was all about the construction of a 36000km high tower, I look scornfully at it. But when I started to read the strong and plausible scientific background the story has, I started to consider Clarke not only the greatest science fiction writer ever, but also one of the greatest visionaries of our time.
I only took one star out of my rate because the story developed around it is not as good as in Rendezvous with Rama and Space Odyssey, but this Clarke's vision of future compensates it by far and makes the book worthwile anyway.
Rating:
Summary: The People Who Build the Future
Review: You can almost see Patrick Stewart playing Vannevar Morgan, the driven engineer who pushes to construct the world's first "space elevator." For any reader unfamiliar with the concept, what Clarke talks about in this book is a train track that stretches from the equator to geostationary orbit, where our weather satellites generally reside. This immense tower, elevator, or "skyhook" could humanity tremendous amounts of money and energy, as we would no longer have to launch rockets into space, but could simply send payloads up this extended elevator. From there, we could use the spin of the earth at the elevator's uppermost point to launch payloads throughout the solar system without using as much fuel.It's heady stuff, and I thoroughly enjoyed Clarke's play with this concept. And along the way, he manages to describe the "office of the future" (much of which has already occurred in the 22 years since the book was released), the flooding of the Sahara, the damming of the Bering Sea, the bridging of the Straits of Gibraltar, and other massive engineering projects. Oh yes, and Clarke also throws in a lesson or two about Buddhism, contact with an alien space probe, weather satellites, the aurora borealis, the history of a monument in his native Sri Lanka, and half a dozen other historical engineering developments. Clarke's work here is about PROGRESS, writ large. This is still one of my favorite books. Perhaps that is because of Morgan, the only well-developed character in the whole story. He is one of those characters whom the real world does not have enough of: the truly visionary engineer. At any rate, Clarke manages to show a future in which man-made machines are awe-inspiring but not detrimental or overpowering to mankind. I'd like to live in this world.
Rating:
Summary: The People Who Build the Future
Review: You can almost see Patrick Stewart playing Vannevar Morgan, the driven engineer who pushes to construct the world's first "space elevator." For any reader unfamiliar with the concept, what Clarke talks about in this book is a train track that stretches from the equator to geostationary orbit, where our weather satellites generally reside. This immense tower, elevator, or "skyhook" could humanity tremendous amounts of money and energy, as we would no longer have to launch rockets into space, but could simply send payloads up this extended elevator. From there, we could use the spin of the earth at the elevator's uppermost point to launch payloads throughout the solar system without using as much fuel. It's heady stuff, and I thoroughly enjoyed Clarke's play with this concept. And along the way, he manages to describe the "office of the future" (much of which has already occurred in the 22 years since the book was released), the flooding of the Sahara, the damming of the Bering Sea, the bridging of the Straits of Gibraltar, and other massive engineering projects. Oh yes, and Clarke also throws in a lesson or two about Buddhism, contact with an alien space probe, weather satellites, the aurora borealis, the history of a monument in his native Sri Lanka, and half a dozen other historical engineering developments. Clarke's work here is about PROGRESS, writ large. This is still one of my favorite books. Perhaps that is because of Morgan, the only well-developed character in the whole story. He is one of those characters whom the real world does not have enough of: the truly visionary engineer. At any rate, Clarke manages to show a future in which man-made machines are awe-inspiring but not detrimental or overpowering to mankind. I'd like to live in this world.
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