Customer Reviews

Exiles To Glory

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Set on Earth, on a spaceship and in the asteroid belt, this is a straight up space adventure tale. The main protagonist, Kevin Senecal, is a college student forced to flee Earth. Working as a miner in the asteroid belt Senecal becomes mixed up in a plot involving vast riches, political intrigue and a beautiful girl.

Given the nature of the story and the protagonists, this book will appeal mostly to late teen and early twenties readers.

It is a well written and fast paced story. While not quite in the "read in one sitting" category it is a compelling read. The characters are all fairly well constructed given that the requirements for this type of story are not exactly strict.

If you like this book, of course, you should check out the author's other works but also have a look at the novels by Larry Niven. if you want something in the same style but with more substance try the collaborations between Niven and Pournelle.

Pournelle isn't a classic sci-fi author, though he has co-written some fine novels (with Larry Niven). So, naturally I was interested in reading a stand-alone novel by Pournelle. First I read Future History, which was a power-struggle based sci-fi novel. It bored me. Then I came upon Exiles to Glory and I thought Pournelle could justify himself.

Unfortunate for me and for Pournelle, I thought this book was also a bore. It's pace is written like a golden age sci-fi novel in its "fast-paced one-problem/one-solution" approach. It was unflavored and the plot was jerky most of the time. It was so jerky that the holes in the plot are pretty easy to piece together yourself. This will probably be my last stand-alone Pournelle novel.

Mr Pournelle's view's on our society show clearly here, its a world where everyone has rights but the victims....But at least in the sci fi future he postulates, you can always go spaceward and try again...The world written about is very close to ours...at the rate things are going with the law and all perhaps merely a decade ot two away. A good well written book about a very plasuable future.