Rating: 
Summary: This a very worthwhile read
Review: I have enjoyed a few of Sawyer's later works(Frameshift,Factoring Humanity)but this earlier work was far better. The characterizations are good which is the usual for Sawyer. But more than that, I enjoyed the background of the alien races and found the story intiguing. My only complaint was that I thought the end of the story was a little too much; Sawyer didn't need to make the events of the story to be THAT important. It was already a good enough book, it didn't need any more.
Rating: 
Summary: Not on Sawyer's "A" list!
Review: I have nothing but praise for Sawyer and I find him one of the best Science Fiction writers ever! However, this book was a major letdown, lacking the interesting characters and intriguing plots of some of his other books. Also, in other books, Sawyer does a far superior job explaining complex science. In this book he makes the scientific explanations difficult to follow unless you happen to be Stephen Hawking.
The plot itself reminds me of a long episode of Star Trek TNG. You have the starship searching the galaxy with both human and alien crewmen united by a planet Commonwealth (did you say Federation?). They ultimately must save the galaxy by the book's end.
Rating:
Summary: A work of genius
Review: I met Sawyer recently at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne, and picked up this book from one of the dealers (sorry, Amazon!). It was terrific. I can see how pimply faced kids might not like the characterization, which is adult, subtle and sophisticated, but as a man of 51, I found it bang on target. Sawyer's exploration of midlife crises (both his main character's, and that of the entire human race) was inspired and worked perfectly, at least for this (lifelong) SF reader. I've read another of his now, too (Illegal Alien). It's just as good (see my review on the appropriate page here on Amazon).
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as you would think.
Review: I read "Starplex" as a serialization in Analog Magazine, and I must say that I was not as impressed by the novel as many others seem to be.
True, there are many mind-bending ideas in this book. It makes every effort to create that "sense of wonder" that so many critics have sought in vain in contemporary science fiction. It is in the process of providing that "sense of wonder" that "Starplex" falls short.
To put it briefly, I was unable to achieve the necessary suspension of belief required to enjoy any novel. The main reason for this was Sawyer's unfortunate habit of pulling rabbits out of hats.
The most obvious example of this that comes to mind is a scene where the research star vessel "Starplex" is under military attack. Suddenly, in the middle of a battle, the director (analogous to the captain) of the space laboratory orders that unarmed shuttles be retrofitted with laser drilling gear and sent out as fighters. Incredibly, the crew of "Starplex" manages to accomplish this feat, and the improvised battle craft actually defeat fully armed alien battle cruisers!
The fact that this novel was nominated for a Hugo Award depresses me. If it wins, I will be disgusted.
Rating: 
Summary: When Sci-Fi goes bad
Review: I read this book because it was a Hugo nominee. I concluded the author (I certainly can't call him a writer!) must have had a lot of friends who voted for him. It reads like a juvenile parody of a bad science fiction novel by the sort of literary critic who despises science fiction without reading any. The plot is a poor attempt to duplicate "Star Trek," with a pretension to greater scientific knowledge and psychological complexity. The scientific pretension is evident in the long, complicated digressions Mr. Sawyer makes to explain the physics of the novel. It is *ALMOST* enough to make you think that he cares, at least, about good science, even though he shows no concern for anything else. But that's an illusion, rapidly dispelled by the way Mr. Sawyer cheerfully ignores real science when it gets in the way. As the previous review noted, spaceships rarely "swerve" in space fast enough to avoid on oncoming laser "bolt." And the convenient time-travelling that is thrown in to help the protaganist out of his difficulties towards the end of the book have to be read to be believed. Mr. Sawyer attempts to show psychological complexity by providing the internal thoughts of his central figure. Unfortunately, his central figure doesn't seem capable of thought, greatly undermining this effort. He meanders through the book, considering adultery--AND ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE. It's as if, having given the figure (I don't say character) the single subject to think of, Mr. Sawyer couldn't devise anything else for him to consider. He wanders around considering adultery and firing photon torpedos, or considering adultery and firing phasers, or considering adultery and solving quantum field theory equations, and just generally boring the hell out of those of us along for the ride. The rest of the figurines in the book are even less substantial. This book is not good, it is not fun, and it is not necessary. Please do not read it, as we do not want to encourage its author to strike again.
Rating:
Summary: His Worst Book
Review: I read this when I was reading all the Hugo nominees that year and this was the most disappointing. I felt that this did not belong on the same platform with the other nominees. This book appears to be an obvious attempt to "do Star Trek right" with a non-military starship, alien races who are truly alien, and real adult characters. Unfortunately, as previous reviewers have written, Sawyer does not pull this off and we have a novel about a university director contemplating an affair co-mingled with the worst of the Star Trek movies. The entire novel seems inconsistent from scene to scene and is sometimes amazingly illogical which carries through to the ending. I cannot write too much about it without giving away some of the book but someone makes an awe-inspiring, illogical, bad, mundane, much more than life-time committment. He can be a good writer and people should enjoy his other works more.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: I saw a web site on the use of sci-fi to teach astronomy at the university level that said this book dealt with more cosmological concepts than any other sci-fi work, and dealt with them well. (I don't think Amazon allows URLs, but try a search on 'teaching astronomy science fiction'). I can only agree. I follow the cosmological literature quite closely and Sawyers' book is a first rate summation of all the issues currently vexing cosmologists ... wrapped up with action-adventure and fun characters and aliens.
Rating:
Summary: Just for fun
Review: I strongly advice not to read this book, if you want to read a consistent novel.
Rating:
Summary: If you like characters this isn't your book.
Review: I was really pretty disappointed by this book; I just met the author at a convention in NY and had him sign it before I read it. Guess he should have stuck with dinosaurs -- the one book I'd read by him before was OK. This book has bad science, really bad characters, and stupid motivation from the good guys and the bad guys.I read it to the end hoping he could pull it out, but things just got worse. I've been reading sci-fi since 1965 and if I could give it a one-half star rating I would.
Rating:
Summary: Snoozeplex
Review: Most of Starplex is a very dull read, packed with dense physics discussions that become tedious for the science-impaired. The book picks up in the last 100 pages, but it was never an edge-of-your-seat read, and I never really cared about any of the characters. The entire thing was like an episode of Deep Space Nine or Babylon 5, only with more scientific mumbo-jumbo. What was the most farfetched moment of the book is when a little shuttle thing launched from Starplex takes out a huge battle cruiser with a geological laser that miraculous hits some fuel storage tank and POOF! goes the bad guy ship. What's interesting is that if you read Starplex and then read "FlashForward" by Sawyer, you can see where he plagiarizes himself. Both novels feature a balding, middle-aged Canadian who will potentially receive the magic potion for immortality and live out the rest of time in some kind of mechanical body. I didn't like that element in either book, it seems completely rediculous for one novel, let alone two. Overall, Starplex is not a bad book, but it's not great either. And if you need a cure for insomnia, just read the first first chapters and you'll drift right off into dreamland.
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