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jaybatson's review
2.0
This is an uncomfortable review to write. There are reasons I want to like the book: the idea of a big slingshot to send stuff to space is fascinating, the story could have been suspenseful, and more.
But I can't give this book more than 3 stars (using my consistent rating scale - see http://startupdj.com/book-rating-rules ).
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book (via Netgalley) in exchange for an honest review.
This book builds a story around a project to build a "Launch Loop" - a very large scale (1,800 km) slingshot that accelerates capsules from zero to launch earth escape velocity - in a horizontal direction (vs rocket-ship vertical). The project - and story - must surmount a combination of leviathan-sized technical challenges and saboteurs to succeed.
This premise holds interesting - but ultimately unfulfilled - potential. But sadly, the writing simply falls flat for me.
The characters have all the elements that you might want; super-capable project leads, nefarious and unlikeable villains, along with a cast of supporting characters. All the traits you would want these characters to have are dutifully given.
But they're just not presented in an interesting read. The descriptions seem flat, intellectual, and didn't generate affection (or dislike).
It's the same with the story line; it felt like it was taking a long time to make progress in the actual story, even though I was reading chapter after chapter. The adventure / suspense was simply missing. The elements are there; but the exciting writing is missing in action.
Sometimes I felt like I was reading an academic post-hoc analysis of the build project. The remainder of the time I felt like I was reading the foreward to the book; an interesting build-up to what I hope could be a good book; but the good book never materialized.
Then there is the problem the author faces in trying to describe the tech. Have you ever tried to read a text-description of something that took a long time to describe in words, but when you saw the image, you understood it immediately? This book suffers from this problem from end-to-end. There is a TON of descriptions of the way this slingshot device is built, and the author relished in using text to describe lots of detail. Sadly, I got bored of trying to construct the image of any given thing in my mind, and ended up skimming the description until the story picked up again. IMO, given the need to describe so much physical stuff, the author should have worked with an illustrator to get the things drawn up, and simply embedded those in the story - and shortened the descriptions.
One minor nit was the enormous suspension of disbelief that I had a hard time with on how quickly and flawlessly solutions to huge engineering challenges could be met. When 40km of heavy cable comes crashing down on you from the sky, it doesn't get cleared - and the structures under it rebuilt - in a week. The thorny solutions that are thought up by a single human, built in a couple of days from exotic materials that happen to be available at a nearby warehouse strained credibility. This book is too near-future to escape from the physical realities of tackling the challenges this project faced.
The only other thing that bugged me was the sex. I'm good with sex in books; most of us have it, and it is often a key element in stories. But the sex in this book (mostly) did absolutely nothing for the story. The bits of this thrown in were so gratuitous that it actually took away my affection for the characters, rather than increased it. I can't tell you why; it just diminished them rather than make them more likable, or human.
Despite this comparatively negative review, if you're a book-a-week reader, and want a nice distraction from an interesting idea, it's an ok read to zip through. Plus, I'll give the author another chance; the included teaser of the opening chapter of the author's next book sounded immediately better than the entire book Slingshot. I hope for good stuff.
But I can't give this book more than 3 stars (using my consistent rating scale - see http://startupdj.com/book-rating-rules ).
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book (via Netgalley) in exchange for an honest review.
This book builds a story around a project to build a "Launch Loop" - a very large scale (1,800 km) slingshot that accelerates capsules from zero to launch earth escape velocity - in a horizontal direction (vs rocket-ship vertical). The project - and story - must surmount a combination of leviathan-sized technical challenges and saboteurs to succeed.
This premise holds interesting - but ultimately unfulfilled - potential. But sadly, the writing simply falls flat for me.
The characters have all the elements that you might want; super-capable project leads, nefarious and unlikeable villains, along with a cast of supporting characters. All the traits you would want these characters to have are dutifully given.
But they're just not presented in an interesting read. The descriptions seem flat, intellectual, and didn't generate affection (or dislike).
It's the same with the story line; it felt like it was taking a long time to make progress in the actual story, even though I was reading chapter after chapter. The adventure / suspense was simply missing. The elements are there; but the exciting writing is missing in action.
Sometimes I felt like I was reading an academic post-hoc analysis of the build project. The remainder of the time I felt like I was reading the foreward to the book; an interesting build-up to what I hope could be a good book; but the good book never materialized.
Then there is the problem the author faces in trying to describe the tech. Have you ever tried to read a text-description of something that took a long time to describe in words, but when you saw the image, you understood it immediately? This book suffers from this problem from end-to-end. There is a TON of descriptions of the way this slingshot device is built, and the author relished in using text to describe lots of detail. Sadly, I got bored of trying to construct the image of any given thing in my mind, and ended up skimming the description until the story picked up again. IMO, given the need to describe so much physical stuff, the author should have worked with an illustrator to get the things drawn up, and simply embedded those in the story - and shortened the descriptions.
One minor nit was the enormous suspension of disbelief that I had a hard time with on how quickly and flawlessly solutions to huge engineering challenges could be met. When 40km of heavy cable comes crashing down on you from the sky, it doesn't get cleared - and the structures under it rebuilt - in a week. The thorny solutions that are thought up by a single human, built in a couple of days from exotic materials that happen to be available at a nearby warehouse strained credibility. This book is too near-future to escape from the physical realities of tackling the challenges this project faced.
The only other thing that bugged me was the sex. I'm good with sex in books; most of us have it, and it is often a key element in stories. But the sex in this book (mostly) did absolutely nothing for the story. The bits of this thrown in were so gratuitous that it actually took away my affection for the characters, rather than increased it. I can't tell you why; it just diminished them rather than make them more likable, or human.
Despite this comparatively negative review, if you're a book-a-week reader, and want a nice distraction from an interesting idea, it's an ok read to zip through. Plus, I'll give the author another chance; the included teaser of the opening chapter of the author's next book sounded immediately better than the entire book Slingshot. I hope for good stuff.
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