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stevevig's review against another edition
2.0
Pessimistic, depressing, and jingoistic. The first half is mostly made up of meetings. The second half has some action, but too many characters, most of which the reader has no reason to sympathize with. The ending, rather than being climactic, is addressed in an extended epilogue.
tome15's review against another edition
4.0
Lerner, Edward M. Energized. Tor, 2012.
Here is the premise of Lerner’s well-plotted and well-researched techno-thriller: A terrorist act has rendered the oil fields in the Middle East radioactive, making Russia the world leader in oil exports. A fortuitous near-earth asteroid has been pushed into earth orbit and mined to build an American-controlled power transmission satellite. Russian saboteurs, aided by radical Gaiaists, attempt to take out the satellite and most or the world’s clean-energy projects. Can some astronomers and engineers save the world from an energy disaster? If you like near-future hard science fiction, Energized has a lot to offer. Lerner, who left a successful tech-industry career to take up full time writing in 2004, is a frequent contributor of both fact and fiction to Analog. Here, Lerner tells us a lot about radio-telescopes and solar power transmission. The plot has plenty of action and suspense. The weaknesses in the novel are about what one would expect from this sort of book, rather perfunctory, even clichéd, relationships between characters. Think TV-movie romance and you won’t be far off.
Here is the premise of Lerner’s well-plotted and well-researched techno-thriller: A terrorist act has rendered the oil fields in the Middle East radioactive, making Russia the world leader in oil exports. A fortuitous near-earth asteroid has been pushed into earth orbit and mined to build an American-controlled power transmission satellite. Russian saboteurs, aided by radical Gaiaists, attempt to take out the satellite and most or the world’s clean-energy projects. Can some astronomers and engineers save the world from an energy disaster? If you like near-future hard science fiction, Energized has a lot to offer. Lerner, who left a successful tech-industry career to take up full time writing in 2004, is a frequent contributor of both fact and fiction to Analog. Here, Lerner tells us a lot about radio-telescopes and solar power transmission. The plot has plenty of action and suspense. The weaknesses in the novel are about what one would expect from this sort of book, rather perfunctory, even clichéd, relationships between characters. Think TV-movie romance and you won’t be far off.
nackers's review against another edition
3.0
Science fiction with a lean towards science is not the norm for the genre but this book has it. While the story is a bit predictable it does not significantly detract from the enjoyment of this realistic near future read.
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