Firestar

Rating:
Summary: Awakens your dreams... what higher praise?
Review: There is so little buzz out there about this book despite the fact it's put out by a very major publisher in Tor and despite the fact it's so very, very good. Maybe due to the title and cover-art, maybe a lack of marketing by Tor... but who knows? The truth is that it is not widely read nor very popular and that's a shame because it has to be discovered quickly if it's going to enjoy success. Almost no one has reviewed it, few websites have discovered it, it's impossible to find in bookstores, and it's listed as out-of-print at the internet booksellers. We think if it is discovered by what would be a very receptive audience it can have a tremendous (if short-lived) effect on the genre opening whole ranks of near-future speculations on space exploration. We hope for that event!

WHO SHOULD READ THIS:

We believe that this book should appeal to a huge audience most especially those who revere the concept of space exploration coming in our generation. It is a tremendous celebration of the human explorer and for those enthusiasts who enjoyed that aspect of Star Trek or Robinson's Red Mars they will find Firestar an immensely satisfying book. Additionally, it will be greatly uplifting for those students nearing high school graduation or first entering college. It is a stupendous argument for taking one's education very seriously and entering the hard sciences or military academies or even better focusing the objectives of business majors. Certainly, for every young person that read and loved Ender's Game and thought they found the ultimate novel, these should turn to Firestar and have their dreams truly awakened.

WHO SHOULD PASS:

There is some complaint over the political aspect of the book, which is said to have a Capitalist bent. This is true to the extent that government is shown as a stumbling bureaucracy and capitalists are shown as something other than greedy scumbags. If you can't stand the thought that private enterprise could successfully launch a space program, then this is not the book for you and you should return to your commune with some other kind of book. We think that both sides of the political argument are dealt with very fairly and depicted perfectly--you have to be some kind of real left-wing nut to feel this way but they're out there. We will say that while certain sentiments in Firestar owe themselves to Atlas Shrugged and perhaps The Fountainhead, it is completely unfair to try and claim Firestar is a similar kind of political diatribe. That is simply not the case. It is a book about dreams and those dreams are reaching beyond our potential. That should be worthwhile for the vast majority of people in any political movement.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM

Rating:
Summary: Right wing political ramblings disquised as SF
Review: This book could have been very good, but it falls very short of it's potential.

First the good:

1)the protaganists (there are several) are interesting, three dimensional charectors. They have strenghts and weaknesses, and often do the wrong thing for the right reasons. Very believable.

2)The plot is fairly interesting, though this book is much more charector driven than plot driven.

3)The science, though there is not a lot of it, is accurate and plausable.

These things gave it the makings of a very enjoyable read. Unfortunately it wasn't because of:

Tha bad:

1)the antagonists were one dimensional charecatures. Not real people at all. This was much more pronounced than usual becuase of the well rounded protagonists. The bad guys were just bad because that's what they did.

2) Right wing politics. If you are far to the right and enjoy being preached to, you may really enjoy this book. I'm middle of the road, and I hate being preached to be either the left or right. This book is basically an excuse to make up situations and show how the government or enviromentalists would ruin everything. As portrayed here, large multinational corporations are looking out for the good of the earth. If they happen to make money, that's a happy side-effect, but they are really trying to better humanity. All would be good if these companies could be left to their own devices, but the evil government wants to regulate them and put barriers up to stop them from helping humanity. And enviromentalists are even worse. They want to stop any progress at all costs. They throw up legal hurdles and when that doesn't work they resort to violence. Public schools are attacked too. They are filled with teachers who are not interested in teaching and are just out to ruin the children. But once a corporation buys a school district and starts teaching the kids how to run a business, everyone turns into a genius. Oh please.

I actually agree with some of the political philosophy that is in the book. Unfortunately, it is so heavy handed and pounded into you again and again and again, that it really ruined the book for me. The fourth or fifth time an antogonist throws a spanner in the works FOR NO REASON, I had to shake my head in disbelief.

It's too bad that the author had sucha n axe to grind, because he is a talented writer. The parts of the book that didn't deal with the evil government were quite entertaining, it's just that they were few and far between.

Rating:
Summary: Right wing political ramblings disquised as SF
Review: This book could have been very good, but it falls very short of it's potential.

First the good:

1)the protaganists (there are several) are interesting, three dimensional charectors. They have strenghts and weaknesses, and often do the wrong thing for the right reasons. Very believable.

2)The plot is fairly interesting, though this book is much more charector driven than plot driven.

3)The science, though there is not a lot of it, is accurate and plausable.

These things gave it the makings of a very enjoyable read. Unfortunately it wasn't because of:

Tha bad:

1)the antagonists were one dimensional charecatures. Not real people at all. This was much more pronounced than usual becuase of the well rounded protagonists. The bad guys were just bad because that's what they did.

2) Right wing politics. If you are far to the right and enjoy being preached to, you may really enjoy this book. I'm middle of the road, and I hate being preached to be either the left or right. This book is basically an excuse to make up situations and show how the government or enviromentalists would ruin everything. As portrayed here, large multinational corporations are looking out for the good of the earth. If they happen to make money, that's a happy side-effect, but they are really trying to better humanity. All would be good if these companies could be left to their own devices, but the evil government wants to regulate them and put barriers up to stop them from helping humanity. And enviromentalists are even worse. They want to stop any progress at all costs. They throw up legal hurdles and when that doesn't work they resort to violence. Public schools are attacked too. They are filled with teachers who are not interested in teaching and are just out to ruin the children. But once a corporation buys a school district and starts teaching the kids how to run a business, everyone turns into a genius. Oh please.

I actually agree with some of the political philosophy that is in the book. Unfortunately, it is so heavy handed and pounded into you again and again and again, that it really ruined the book for me. The fourth or fifth time an antogonist throws a spanner in the works FOR NO REASON, I had to shake my head in disbelief.

It's too bad that the author had sucha n axe to grind, because he is a talented writer. The parts of the book that didn't deal with the evil government were quite entertaining, it's just that they were few and far between.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for anyone fed-up with the current system
Review: This book has some excellent ideas for changing the way people are educated. It may be science fiction now but in five years it will be science. With the increase in competition in the education industry look to see some changes that closely resemble the ideas in this book. And once people are properly educated we will see a resurgence in the space programs. Pretty soon more and more people will see the need to get off this rock! And with the help of this book and some other ideas from pioneering authors such as Michael Flynn we will get off this rock.

Rating:
Summary: Had promise, squandered promise to become propaganda tract
Review: This could have been a great book. The first 300 pages had a lot of promise... the next 300 pages were mediocre, and the last 300 pages made me wonder whether I was reading a "hard science fiction" novel or a libertarian tract. And to think there will be a bunch more of these novels? Yawn!

The promise was there, but oh, how it was squandered. Don't read this book for the science fiction; read this book if you're interested in a vastly simplified near-future utopian epic with cardboard, cliche-riddled characters and "oh wouldn't it be nice" pining. Blah.

Rating:
Summary: Conservative, reactionary malarchy
Review: This is easily one of the best novels I've read in a long time. Firestar has a good story filled with real people. It faces up to moral ambiguities. The characters struggle and in the process grow or sometimes fail. There were no stereotypical good guys or bad guys, just people.

I'll also say that Flynn is one of the few authors with a clue about business. The interplay that could lead to the commercialization of space is very well done. The obstacles and in-fighting are painfully realistic.

I thought this book had a perfect ending. Like life, there are lots of loose ends. I'm actually disappointed to hear that there's a sequel. It should have been left as is.

Overall, this is science fiction some real meat. Agree or disagree with the content - it makes you think.

Rating:
Summary: This is science fiction for adults
Review: This is easily one of the best novels I've read in a long time. Firestar has a good story filled with real people. It faces up to moral ambiguities. The characters struggle and in the process grow or sometimes fail. There were no stereotypical good guys or bad guys, just people.

I'll also say that Flynn is one of the few authors with a clue about business. The interplay that could lead to the commercialization of space is very well done. The obstacles and in-fighting are painfully realistic.

I thought this book had a perfect ending. Like life, there are lots of loose ends. I'm actually disappointed to hear that there's a sequel. It should have been left as is.

Overall, this is science fiction some real meat. Agree or disagree with the content - it makes you think.

Rating:
Summary: True "science" fiction, classical in construction. Want More
Review: This story offers a traditionally-constructed approachconsisting of 3-dimensional people with human motivations andrelationships and built upon a solid-appearing foundation of scientific principles. I delight in extrapolations based on current societal conditions and trends. This author has such a "John Brunner"-like ability, without sinking into the dark dead-end gloominess of the nihilistic. The only negative I care to mention is that I hate finding a series like this at the git-go, because I then have to wait impatiently on the rest of the author's work. I recall such impatience with Juanita Coulson, for one. :) I'd say this book is worth the price paid and requires little effort to read because it is so engrossing. I'm also keeping it on the shelf to read again just prior to reading the next installment.

Rating:
Summary: Proof Hard SF Isn't Hard to Read
Review: To a lot of folks, Firestar may look intimidating. It's 960 pages long. It's labelled "Hard SF." It has three pages of Dramatis Personae. The listed 1.5 inch thickness was certainly measured in a vise (mine was almost 3 inches thick by the time I finished with it). It's yet another story about the collision of the Earth with another heavenly body... are you yawning yet?

Wake up! That means nothing for Firestar. It sucks you in from the first page, where heiress Mariesa van Huyten witnesses a giant meteor hurtling through the daylight skies over the Rocky Mountains. The characters and plot threads of this riveting, complex epic all revolve around Mariesa, and her reaction to witnessing this event.

What if it had struck? Why don't we do something about it? Well, over the next 3000 pages of Firestar, Rogue Star, and Lodestar, Mariesa does. And she has to build everything from scratch, including her allies and experts. (The enemies, of course, don't need any help.)

For a while, I couldn't put my finger on what drew me back to this book so strongly. The science and speculation aren't very deep. The central conflict is at first nebulous and later, a bit counterintuitive. And Mariesa, the main character, is difficult for most of us to identify with. Mareisa and the other players are all very skillfully characterized, but few are compelling. But eventually, I realized it was the execution - like the way addictively good fresh bread can be made from simple ingredients. Each character has his or her own conflict, and the stories are entwined to relate each conflict to the central one.

I personally seek out complex novels with multiple threads and page counts in the thousands. I like getting lost in a story that's so big I can't see the boundaries. And Firestar has just raised my standards.

Rating:
Summary: Proof Hard SF Isn't Hard to Read
Review: To a lot of folks, Firestar may look intimidating. It's 960 pages long. It's labelled "Hard SF." It has three pages of Dramatis Personae. The listed 1.5 inch thickness was certainly measured in a vise (mine was almost 3 inches thick by the time I finished with it). It's yet another story about the collision of the Earth with another heavenly body... are you yawning yet?

Wake up! That means nothing for Firestar. It sucks you in from the first page, where heiress Mariesa van Huyten witnesses a giant meteor hurtling through the daylight skies over the Rocky Mountains. The characters and plot threads of this riveting, complex epic all revolve around Mariesa, and her reaction to witnessing this event.

What if it had struck? Why don't we do something about it? Well, over the next 3000 pages of Firestar, Rogue Star, and Lodestar, Mariesa does. And she has to build everything from scratch, including her allies and experts. (The enemies, of course, don't need any help.)

For a while, I couldn't put my finger on what drew me back to this book so strongly. The science and speculation aren't very deep. The central conflict is at first nebulous and later, a bit counterintuitive. And Mariesa, the main character, is difficult for most of us to identify with. Mareisa and the other players are all very skillfully characterized, but few are compelling. But eventually, I realized it was the execution - like the way addictively good fresh bread can be made from simple ingredients. Each character has his or her own conflict, and the stories are entwined to relate each conflict to the central one.

I personally seek out complex novels with multiple threads and page counts in the thousands. I like getting lost in a story that's so big I can't see the boundaries. And Firestar has just raised my standards.