Rating: 
Summary: Great near future novel...only hope we can get there.
Review: I just finished reading Ben Bova's "Moonrise" and both novels make a GREAT case for privatization of global space programs. Flynn really knows how to develop characters, both protagonists and antagonists, that contain positive as well negative attributes. Great reading and hard to put down, although the last 100 pages seemed a bit ambiguous and crunched for an ending. It definitely left me with a desire for more. SSTO is now one of my favorite subjects.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed and overwhelmed
Review: I like "airplane" books, but I could have flown around the world and not have finished this one. It was too long, it had too many characters, and it took on too many issues. I know the sequels are here, but I wasn't left with the burning desire to order them. The characters were unbelievable, both too trite and too inconsistent. The goals of the principal, a poor little rich girl with a vapid, yet all controlling mother, were supposed to save the world if achieved. The premises were ok for sci-fi, but they didn't go anywhere. Unfortunately, the inclusion of critical events taking place on both Yugoslavian battlefields and the Mir spacecraft turned out to be rather silly in the light of recent real events in both of those locales. I was totally turned off by the inner-city episodes. They sounded more like an apology than a literary creation of credible human drama. I'll look elsewhere for my reading entertainment.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping, great story line
Review: I really liked this book, and found it difficult to put it down. The characters are good, the writing is good, the plot is good. Can't wait to read Rogue Star.
Rating:
Summary: inspiring hard science in the near future
Review: If only we had a Mariesa van Huyten to lead us back to space. The characters are complex. The politics nerve racking. The hard science exciting. All together a great read that makes me wish for more from this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Conservative, reactionary malarchy
Review: If you looking for science fiction forget this book. Science fiction is speculation about the future, spacships and other worlds, fantastic theories like time travel, exploring strange new worlds and civilizations. This book is boring melodrama about present day earthlings with soap opera relationships and questionable motives. Part of it is about a school in a ghetto with stereotyped angst-ridden teenagers trying to "find themselves" (snore). Not the least bit of science fiction there. Part of it is about a wealthy industrialist running various companies and stuggling with the Evil Empire (our government) and bleeding heart liberals whose social causes are misguided, self serving lies and whose attempts to protect the enviroment are really just totalitarianistic and communistics ploys to obstruct progress and thwart capitalism. The third part is about rugged "Right Stuff" pilots testing a spaceship. I'd hardly call that science fiction and Tom Wolfe told that story far better anyway. Go read Time Enough for Love or Methusula's Children by Heinlein, Rendezvous with Rama or Childhood's End by Clarke, the "Foundation" trilogy by Asimov if you want to read some real sci-fi. Great story lines, amazing adventures, wild theoreticals, spaceships going warp speed, lazer beams, weird aliens and plausible near future predictions. You'll be glad ya did.
Rating: 
Summary: Liked it in spite of politics
Review: Like some other reviewers, I found the rightward-leaning politics a bit on the tiresome side. This is clearly somebody whose favorite books include "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged", but at least the author seems to have little patience with crony capitalism and nepotism.Good things about the book: The technology is believable, and the protagonists are fairly interesting characters. It's a reasonably well constructed novel and the prose does not drag endlessly; the plot is reasonably well paced. The writing is competent, but not particularly outstanding -- this man is more like Isaac Asimov than Neal Stephenson. Bad things about the book: Many of the antagonists are caricatures, especially any given liberal character. Liberals are either portrayed as hard-bitten cynics or else empty-headed, knee-jerk radicals with no real concept of what the world is like. He seems to lack a basic understanding of what motivates liberals who take well-considered positions, and conveniently ignores the fact that such people even exist. At one point, somebody who considered himself a "moderate lefty" discovers to his surprise that he has some basic values in line with "conservatives", read in this case as Rand followers. He's no Ann Coulter (thank goodness), but he's clearly somebody who is looking for a John Galt to lead the way to the next century. Having said that, at times he seems to be torn between wanting to talk about politics and wanting to avoid talking about politics, and so fails at both. I distinctly get the impression that he thinks politics of any stripe are a dangerous diversion from what we should really be thinking about, getting humanity into space to save us from extinction by asteroid strike, but nevertheless he seems firmly convinced that free enterprise, not a government program, is the only thing that will get us there. I did my best to put the politics aside as I read the book, not always an easy thing to do in light of his caricatures of environmentalists and progressives, but overall I thought it was good science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Liked it in spite of politics
Review: Like some other reviewers, I found the rightward-leaning politics a bit on the tiresome side. This is clearly somebody whose favorite books include "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged", but at least the author seems to have little patience with crony capitalism and nepotism. Good things about the book: The technology is believable, and the protagonists are fairly interesting characters. It's a reasonably well constructed novel and the prose does not drag endlessly; the plot is reasonably well paced. The writing is competent, but not particularly outstanding -- this man is more like Isaac Asimov than Neal Stephenson. Bad things about the book: Many of the antagonists are caricatures, especially any given liberal character. Liberals are either portrayed as hard-bitten cynics or else empty-headed, knee-jerk radicals with no real concept of what the world is like. He seems to lack a basic understanding of what motivates liberals who take well-considered positions, and conveniently ignores the fact that such people even exist. At one point, somebody who considered himself a "moderate lefty" discovers to his surprise that he has some basic values in line with "conservatives", read in this case as Rand followers. He's no Ann Coulter (thank goodness), but he's clearly somebody who is looking for a John Galt to lead the way to the next century. Having said that, at times he seems to be torn between wanting to talk about politics and wanting to avoid talking about politics, and so fails at both. I distinctly get the impression that he thinks politics of any stripe are a dangerous diversion from what we should really be thinking about, getting humanity into space to save us from extinction by asteroid strike, but nevertheless he seems firmly convinced that free enterprise, not a government program, is the only thing that will get us there. I did my best to put the politics aside as I read the book, not always an easy thing to do in light of his caricatures of environmentalists and progressives, but overall I thought it was good science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Firestar
Review: Not what I expected but, a very good read. Liked the characters! He has a very good grasp of the hard sciences of what is needed to explore space. Very enjoyable, the next one, Rogue Star is just as good!
Rating:
Summary: New hope for the Apollo Generation!
Review: One of the best reads I've had in years! Good story line development with reasonable extrapolation of technology rather than the fantasy tales of many other authors. Liked especially the detailed character development and the interaction between them and our central visionary, Mariesa. She was at times a bit vague and removed on feelings toward others (somewhat unrealistic) but "Dreaming the Vision" of what our future in space could be is what makes this book so real. For those of us who lived through the excitement of the early lunar landings and the ultimate rise and fall of high technology in aerospace during the mid sixties to the early eighties it provides a renewed enthusiam for sustained development of the high frontier. I also felt that the approaches for education are refreshing. As any parent with college age children can attest, our high schools need encouragement to develop a more challenging approach to nuture stronger values and problem solving. Would definitely recommend this book for highschool through adult ages. I am sure you will find yourself, as am I, waiting with high expectations for the sequel. Give this book to your children to stimulate them about the future that is there if they reach for it! A great gift.
Rating:
Summary: Some strong points
Review: The execution is very good except for the relationships. His development of romantic relations among his characters is bad -- and perfunctory. Does he put them in because he thinks that he's expected to?
The themes of developing the space program and schools are nicely done. His discipline keeps those themes controlled despite his obvious passion for them.
Good job -- lose the romance sub-plots.
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