One proposal that, until the late seventies, didn't attract a lot of attention was the idea of a cable stretching from the Earth into space, held in place by some form of geosynchronous structure. It's probably the least sexy technology available, nothing more than a really, really, strong, long, cable with objects climbing up and down it using whatever means fit the designer's imagination.

Two science fiction authors, Arthur C. Clarke and Charles Sheffield, decided to raise the idea of such a cable at roughly the same time (Clarke's book, The Fountains of Paradise, was published two weeks before Sheffield's), and at once the obvious simplicity and advantages of the idea captured the public imagination. Well, sort of, currently there is no known material strong enough to withstand the tension a useful cable would carry, but we're probably not far off.

This book is a treat. As well as the story itself, mostly a thriller centered around an engineer (who builds the cable, 'natch), a billionaire solar system miner, and a dubious amoral biologist, the book comes with a contribution from Arthur C Clarke on the history of the how the idea was brought to press, and a long appendix detailing the physics involved in building a "beanstalk" (Sheffield's name for the thing.) It was this part I personally found most interesting - it covered how such a thing would be built, other designs centered around the same principle, advantages the cable would have such as the ability to slingshot ships from the end, using the Earth's own rotation to move objects to anywhere in the solar system.

The novel itself is a multi-layered story which is centered so much around a sub-plot that the beanstalk itself is almost an afterthought. In a pinch, Merlin, the main character, investigates the death of his parents and why they were murdered, after the new project he's hired to lead unexpectedly brings him into contact with people who were involved or knew the reasons. The Science in the Fiction includes the beanstalk (obviously), genetic engineering, the mining of asteroids and other trips around the solar system. About my only grouse is that the characters are a little wooden and come across in that kind of pseudo-machismo usually associated with salesman culture and office politics, something that ought not to have irritated me to the extent that it did.

A wonderful book though, proposing a wonderful idea that, if ever implemented, will probably mean more for mankind's eventual exploration of space than the moon landings themselves.


see my review on the other listing of this book   September 9, 2000
 2 out of 12 found this review helpful

i think 'a reviewer' of feb 20, '97 must be thinking of a different book!!


Good charecters, weak plot.   August 29, 2001
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

First of all - don't mistake this book with "Between the strokes of night" which deals with life-prolongation by altering the body's metabolic speed and time sense. Now, the reason everybody are so dissapointed, I believe, is that the book lacks Sheffield's usual giant scope, and therefore highly advenced thechnolegy, with the setting in the far future. (allthough thet description is'nt compatiblle with the wonderfull "Proteus" series). But the plot did waver a bit. the climax was not all that. I do think though that all the charecters were excellent, and developed through the book. Not a bad story, it's only the higher expectations of the readers from sheffield.


Interesting but gets sidetracked.   October 2, 2005
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Some good info on building a space elevator complete with mad industrialist with more money than god. There are misc other subplots though which were completely unecessary and uninteresting. Worth reading at a used price but not full retail.


find this one!   September 9, 2000
 1 out of 6 found this review helpful

merlin is an engineer of the future- he builds in space. the book is about the expense and limits of transporting goods and persons between earth's surface and space, and merlin's collaboration with a space ore miner to build a ' skyhook' or 'beanstalk'- a transport tower anchored on the earth's surface and extending into orbit- that would allow constant, cheap, easy travel into space. a neat story by itself, but i think made a lot more interesting by the fact that almost simultaneously, arthur c clarke published a book about an engineer building a 'skyhook' ....- apparently neither knowing about the others' publication until after the fact. the juxtaposition makes an interesting comparison of the idea.