The Ganymede Club

Rating:
Summary: Mystery and Science Fiction-Great Combination
Review: I really enjoyed this book. The characters were varied, the plot intriguing and the writing was clear and literate.

Rating:
Summary: Mystery and Science Fiction-Great Combination
Review: I really enjoyed this book. The characters were varied, the plot intriguing and the writing was clear and literate.

Rating:
Summary: Same Universe as Cold As Ice, Different Feel
Review: It's five years after the Great War that killed nine billion people in the Solar System, but violence hasn't ceased. It's just returned to the traditional forms of individual murder for profit and paranoia.

The targets in question are haldane Lola Belman, a therapist trained in the aracana of the mathematical underpinnings of the brain, psychotropic drugs, and medicine, and her patient who seems to be suffering a severe bout of false memories.

Unlike its prequel _Cold As Ice_, there are not a lot of neat scientific concepts here. The plot is not driven by scientific exploration and corporate and political intrigue but mostly by the suspense of the characters trying to figure out things the reader knows already, specifically who's trying to kill them and why. And those characters are generally a more interesting lot than those in the earlier novel. The only overlap in the cast is with the best character: the Bat, an obese and extremely private genius who delights in solving all sorts of puzzles from scheduling conflicts in the spaceship transportation network to murder. Here we see him twenty years earlier in his career.

Essentially, if you like a good, suspenseful science fiction tale with a bit of hard science, this novel is for you. Sheffield has created, in these books, a universe of adventure, discovery, and intrigue about 90 years in the future. Each stands alone, and the books can be read in any order.

Rating:
Summary: Same Universe as Cold As Ice, Different Feel
Review: It's five years after the Great War that killed nine billion people in the Solar System, but violence hasn't ceased. It's just returned to the traditional forms of individual murder for profit and paranoia.

The targets in question are haldane Lola Belman, a therapist trained in the aracana of the mathematical underpinnings of the brain, psychotropic drugs, and medicine, and her patient who seems to be suffering a severe bout of false memories.

Unlike its prequel _Cold As Ice_, there are not a lot of neat scientific concepts here. The plot is not driven by scientific exploration and corporate and political intrigue but mostly by the suspense of the characters trying to figure out things the reader knows already, specifically who's trying to kill them and why. And those characters are generally a more interesting lot than those in the earlier novel. The only overlap in the cast is with the best character: the Bat, an obese and extremely private genius who delights in solving all sorts of puzzles from scheduling conflicts in the spaceship transportation network to murder. Here we see him twenty years earlier in his career.

Essentially, if you like a good, suspenseful science fiction tale with a bit of hard science, this novel is for you. Sheffield has created, in these books, a universe of adventure, discovery, and intrigue about 90 years in the future. Each stands alone, and the books can be read in any order.

Rating:
Summary: Good sf/mystery by a hard sf author.
Review: The "Ganymede Club" is a sf mystery set in the same universe as "Cold as Ice". However that novel was unremarkable, "Club" is much better. It ports the best aspects of that universe and its most endearing character (Bat). The novel is not original enought to be great. The plot is the tried and true: "Psychiatrist learns of plot while treating patient, and now must die." And there is the surly, omnipotent Hacker--Bat to provide all the answers and save the day. Sheffield is from the "hard" school of sf, so "Club" is not space opera. He's also not a gritty writer--man has not fallen to far in his fiction. Hence "Club" comes across as a slightly risque Nancy Drew (since the main character is a woman)in Jovian orbit. However, it is entertaining despite its predictability.

Rating:
Summary: Sheffield is tough, but I'm tougher.
Review: This is a good book and an easy read. And I did enjoy it. But I want more. I was not as challended by this book as I could have been. I love stories about colonization and terraforming without aliens and this book is in that category. About halfway into it you are feeling great and reading standing up, and then you get to the second half. I was really excited as I already read Cold as Ice and was anxious to learn about the origin of Sheffield's universe. This book did that but not much more. Not only are the dates hard to fathom, the ages are too. Is there an event that stimulates scientific development at such a rapid pace? At 16, Bat is much too young to be so eccentric. The source of his knowledge, his income, even his culinary skills are not explained. I wanted to know more about how the Bat became the Bat.
That aside. It is a good read but not exceptional. Some exciting moments. A nice book for summer that gives you somthing to think about, as the question is just how long is living forever and would you really want to. And the ethical question does not seem to come up when talking about your brain living forever. What is the big mystery plot of the Ganymede Club? It is not addressed until the very end and then it is not complete. Who are the other members? Should we be looking for them in a future Sheffield series? And why is it so hard to find Helene since they took out a lease on it? Were the records lost in the Great War? Have Bat find them. And just who was that girl on Mars? There are too many gaps in the story. But it is still an enjoyable read. A few mild sexual references, some violence, no profanity.

Rating:
Summary: Sheffield is tough, but I'm tougher.
Review: This is a good book and an easy read. And I did enjoy it. But I want more. I was not as challended by this book as I could have been. I love stories about colonization and terraforming without aliens and this book is in that category. About halfway into it you are feeling great and reading standing up, and then you get to the second half. I was really excited as I already read Cold as Ice and was anxious to learn about the origin of Sheffield's universe. This book did that but not much more. Not only are the dates hard to fathom, the ages are too. Is there an event that stimulates scientific development at such a rapid pace? At 16, Bat is much too young to be so eccentric. The source of his knowledge, his income, even his culinary skills are not explained. I wanted to know more about how the Bat became the Bat.
That aside. It is a good read but not exceptional. Some exciting moments. A nice book for summer that gives you somthing to think about, as the question is just how long is living forever and would you really want to. And the ethical question does not seem to come up when talking about your brain living forever. What is the big mystery plot of the Ganymede Club? It is not addressed until the very end and then it is not complete. Who are the other members? Should we be looking for them in a future Sheffield series? And why is it so hard to find Helene since they took out a lease on it? Were the records lost in the Great War? Have Bat find them. And just who was that girl on Mars? There are too many gaps in the story. But it is still an enjoyable read. A few mild sexual references, some violence, no profanity.

Rating:
Summary: Good, hard sci-fi!
Review: This is one of the better science fiction books I've read in a long time. It weaves alien symbiosis, Solar System-wide war, personality transference, and psychiatric sleuthing into a great whodunit. It's marred only by the unreasonable choice of setting it in the period A.D. 2040 to 2070. It took me half of the novel to put that in the back of my mind. A.D. 2340 would have been more appropriate. Other than that, it was an outstanding read. I don't think they come any better than Sheffield.

Rating:
Summary: Good, hard sci-fi!
Review: This is one of the better science fiction books I've read in a long time. It weaves alien symbiosis, Solar System-wide war, personality transference, and psychiatric sleuthing into a great whodunit. It's marred only by the unreasonable choice of setting it in the period A.D. 2040 to 2070. It took me half of the novel to put that in the back of my mind. A.D. 2340 would have been more appropriate. Other than that, it was an outstanding read. I don't think they come any better than Sheffield.