{"id":2514,"date":"2011-09-12T05:00:09","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T09:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=2514"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:41","slug":"review-the-fountains-of-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/review-the-fountains-of-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Fountains of Paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"FountainsArthur C. Clarke’s 1979 Hugo and Nebula Award winning novel, The Fountains of Paradise is Science Fiction’s definitive novel about the “space elevator,” or “Skyhook”.\u00a0 This concept enjoyed a brief period of enthusiastic interest among SF circles in the early 1980’s. The concept deals with an elevator (more like a monorail train car actually) that stretches from Earth’s surface to a space station in geosynchronous orbit, which would in turn serve as a construction, servicing\u00a0 and\u00a0 launching facility for ships voyaging to the moon, planets and even deep space.\u00a0 A primary plus was eliminating the need for expensive, inefficient, and environmentally unfriendly rocket launches from the ground.\u00a0 The whole idea seems incredible but is not outside the realm of engineering possibility.\u00a0 Clarke makes a strong case for the feasibility of such an unconventional project within the context of a completely engrossing story set mostly in the 22nd century.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The book tells of Vannevar Morgan, the greatest civil engineer of his time. Having built a series of ever-more impressive structures, culminating in a bridge across the Straits of Gibraltar, he dreams of his crowning glory: a bridge into space.\u00a0 To accomplish this feat would require a planet-side base station with very specific properties and location.\u00a0 The only place on the planet that possesses all of these properties, is a mountain inhabited by an order of monks.\u00a0 Morgan must convince the monks, arrange tremendous financing, spar with political powers and race against his own age: he wants to complete the project in his lifetime so he can be the first to ride his express elevator to space.<\/p>\n

The book is written in the tight, economical prose that is A.C. Clarke’s hallmark.\u00a0 All of the science is solid and plausible, and the story is punctuated with an assortment of colorful and life-like characters that give this scientific tale real personality.<\/p>\n

If you like hard science, science fiction, you will like this book.<\/p>\n

For more information about the plausibility of\u00a0 the space elevator envisioned by Clarke watch this:<\/p>\n