Customer Reviews

Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime Volume 2

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book to be a really excellent story. There were many places where I did not want to put the book down, so I made time to finish the section I was reading. Several times I exclaimed, "wow" aloud while reading on the Metro. It is easy to image-in what the author was writing, so I felt as though I was right there. I am looking forward to finding and reading venus prime 1 thru 5!

At first I felt put off by two things. First, the picture of the woman on the cover, while appealing, did cause me to refrain from leaving the book lying around for my 8-year old daughter to see. This book does not need sex to sell. Second, I was put off by the fact that Arthur Clarke was not authoring it. But I gave it a shot anyway, and I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised.

Sparta is a biologically enhanced woman who is on a personal mission to find her parents or the man who killed them. In order to do this she takes on a new identity, Ellen Troy, and rises to the rank of investigator in the Board of Space Control. With the help of her childhood friend, Blake Redfield, she begins to unravel the mysteries behind her biological enhancements and the group that calls themselves the Free Spirits.

In this second volume, Preuss does an excellent job of continuing the suspense and drama that made the first book so intriguing. Not only does each book hold a mystery in and of itself, but the series as a whole is a mystery in which the reader picks up clues along the way. Quite an interesting concept that I've not seen in the mystery/suspense genre. However, this technique does seem to lend itself to sci-fi where the reader is used to stories that continue past a single book.

I love that Sparta's intelligence is what we see as her "super power" along with her technological "improvements". She is not a heroine who has "super strength" but rather super character. The plot is fast paced keeps you guessing and defineltly can hold even the video gamers attention. Only complaint; the book describes Sparta with blue eyes not hazel which is on the cover and her body is described not quite as thin and "top heavey" as on the cover.