The Tranquillity Alternative

Rating:
Summary: If you can find it - enjoy it
Review: ... It is one Steele's more gripping novels. It started slow for me - only in that I had to guide myself into Steele's alternative history and get used to Presidents McGovern and Dole. I had to convince myself that Neil Armstrong was NOT the first man on the moon. These were just minor distractions. However once I figured it all out, I became totally entrenched in this book. He breaks up each chapter with a newspaper article or television report that provides a chronological alternative history to the space program. I liked that idea. It gave it more believability. There were a few unexpected twists and turns toward the end, which I won't give away...

Rating:
Summary: If you can find it - enjoy it
Review: ... It is one Steele's more gripping novels. It started slow for me - only in that I had to guide myself into Steele's alternative history and get used to Presidents McGovern and Dole. I had to convince myself that Neil Armstrong was NOT the first man on the moon. These were just minor distractions. However once I figured it all out, I became totally entrenched in this book. He breaks up each chapter with a newspaper article or television report that provides a chronological alternative history to the space program. I liked that idea. It gave it more believability. There were a few unexpected twists and turns toward the end, which I won't give away...

Rating:
Summary: Suberb blend of technology, humanity and action
Review: Allen M. Steele writes with a combination of poetry and high energy that are rarely seen by writer's of hard science fiction. Well drawn characters draw you into a fast moving Heinleinian plot set against a backdrop of an alternate space program. The politics and the underlying message may leave you chilled, but the storyline and it's telling is handled superbly

Rating:
Summary: Alternate history in near space
Review: As usual for Steele, this is a hard sf book of the exploration of near-Earth space. But unlike Orbital Decay and Lunar Descent, The Tranquillity Alternative is not set in the near future, but in an alternate history, where the American space program started in World War II and effectively ended after a joint US-USSR expedition to Mars in 1976. The story line is intriguing because of the close similarity to real history, which makes the deviations surprising (Nixon won the 1960 elections, Robert Kennedy became President after Nixon in 69, was shot in Dallas. McGovern became president in the 70s, Dole instead of Bush was Reagan's vice president and followed him as president).

What makes alternate history hard to swallow is that one the one hand America is depicted as a nation in decline without the will to pursue objectives in space anymore - Tranquillity Base is sold to a German company - much worse than in reality: Is this meant to be the consequence of higher spending for space in the alternate history?

Another disappointment is that of the 300 page story, about 250 pages are used to depict the scenery, and only for 30 or so pages there is some action. However, the descriptive parts are most interesting and thought-provoking.

Rating:
Summary: Alternate history in near space
Review: As usual for Steele, this is a hard sf book of the exploration of near-Earth space. But unlike Orbital Decay and Lunar Descent, The Tranquillity Alternative is not set in the near future, but in an alternate history, where the American space program started in World War II and effectively ended after a joint US-USSR expedition to Mars in 1976. The story line is intriguing because of the close similarity to real history, which makes the deviations surprising (Nixon won the 1960 elections, Robert Kennedy became President after Nixon in 69, was shot in Dallas. McGovern became president in the 70s, Dole instead of Bush was Reagan's vice president and followed him as president).

What makes alternate history hard to swallow is that one the one hand America is depicted as a nation in decline without the will to pursue objectives in space anymore - Tranquillity Base is sold to a German company - much worse than in reality: Is this meant to be the consequence of higher spending for space in the alternate history?

Another disappointment is that of the 300 page story, about 250 pages are used to depict the scenery, and only for 30 or so pages there is some action. However, the descriptive parts are most interesting and thought-provoking.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough details on the alternative space program
Review: Sorry, I wasn't satisfied with TA. I was looking for more specifics about an alternative space program that started in the 1940's. Instead, I got a silly plot set ahead to the 1990's with a disappointing ending. If you are looking for hard details about an alternative NASA and its accomplishments, try Stephen Baxter's "Voyage".

Rating:
Summary: Tranquility Alternative is anything but tranquil!
Review: TA is anything but tame! The plot moves at breakneck speed. The characters, though somewhat cardboard, are there long enough to deliver the desired effect. Parnell, the main character, at least is a thoroughly likeable fellow. He's not a philanderer, drug abuser, or wife beater; nor is he a magnanimous prick, as several other well-known scifi authors seem to favor for their main characters. This Parnell guy is an honorable, relatively reasonable and likeable character to follow through a great Heinlein-ish plot. Indeed the likeable character is also much like RAH's own main characters in his earlier work. Therefore, the story works for me, and I believe it'll work for the mainstream audience as well because of these notoriously wonderful ingredients that make for a great read. Grab it and enjoy the ride!