Falling Stars (Firestar Saga) [Mass Market Paperback]

Michael Flynn (Author)

Book Description

Series: Firestar Saga | Publication Date: March 15, 2002

In the early years of the 21st century humanity has advanced step by slow step into space, but has discovered through constant monitoring of the heavens that certain asteroids have changed their orbits and are headed for horrifying impact with Earth. Urgent action is required, but politics and a worldwide financial crash get in the way. The members of the van Huyten family, led by matriarch Mariesa who heads the vast space industry complex she has spent her life developing, the Pooles with their computer and security expertise, many political movers and shakers and dedicated pilots and space travelers of all stripes must pull together to save humanity from disaster. From the government offices and factories of Earth, to the Low Earth Orbit station, to manufacturing facilities on the moon, all of space-going humanity is united in an epic effort to save the planet from certain destruction and a new Dark Age, or perhaps even the extinction of all life on Earth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The world is menaced in true cataclysmic fashion in this epic of the near future, the conclusion to Flynn's previous books, Firestar, Rogue Star and Lodestar. The premise of the novel is exciting enough, and Flynn handles a vast number of characters reasonably well (there's a four-page list of names at the beginning), but the overall effect is exhausting. In the year 2017 certain asteroids have changed their orbit and are on a collision course with Earth. There's a global financial crash, and politics--including the quasi-fascistic machinations of a Huey Long-like politico--force the principals from Flynn's other novels to band together and voyage to an asteroid in a desperate, if not suicidal, attempt to save the world. Some of the characters are jaw-droppingly yclept (Chase Coughlin, Choo-choo Honnycott, Alexandra Feathershaft, Meat Tucker), and some of the techno-babble is irritatingly obtuse. And if Bill Pronzini ever does an SF version of Gun in Cheek, he need look no further for absurd, "alternative" dialogue. (A sample: "No, carry on, Rosario. I just realized. Some herbie dust bunny with his thumb up his toot stepped up on that flange and crunched the fibrops against the edge with his goddam boot!") Still, for readers hungry for a politically astute, crisis-laden SF novel in a well-imagined future, this is adequate fare.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The discovery of a group of asteroids headed toward Earth sparks a flurry of political and scientific maneuvering to prevent a disastrous collision. When some of the asteroids change their course, as if directed by some alien intelligence, a fleet of ships travels to the nearest asteroid in a desperate attempt to deflect it, destroy it, or, perhaps, capture it for future study. The conclusion of Flynn's grand-scale near-future epic combines the rapid pacing of sf action adventure with the subtle maneuverings of political intrigue in a panoramic drama of human courage and sacrifice. A good choice, along with other series titles (Lodestar, Rogue Star, Firestar), for most sf collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; 1st edition (March 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812561848
• ISBN-13: 978-0812561845
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,213,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Woman Who Sold the Moon, November 12, 2002

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Falling Stars (Firestar Saga) (Hardcover)

Firestar (1996) is the first novel in the Firestar Saga series. Mariesa Gorley van Huyten is the teenage heiress of an old and very rich family. She is eager to take over the management of the family business from her grandfather and has decided to obtain a degree at Chicago to learn the basics of administration and management. During the summer before leaving for college, however, she has a vivid vision of a large meteor strike and resulting destruction which haunts her for the rest of her life.

In the following years, Mariesa concludes that the only protection against human extinction from meteor strikes is an active and prosperous space industry throughout the solar system, providing both defense capabilities and dispersal of the population in self-sufficient habitats. Since very few others are concerned with the meteor risk, she determines to promote such industry by means of Van Huyten Industries.

Christian van Huyten III had begun naming his companies after mythological characters in 1873, so the space initiative adopted by Mariesa shortly after she takes over is named the Prometheus Project. She recruits several of the VHI executives into the Prometheus Steering Committee. Development of a single-stage to orbit prototype for the project is performed by Daedalus Corporation, a Brazilian subsidiary, with materiel and expertise provided by other VHI companies. Daedalus hires Ned DuBois and Forrest Calhoun as test pilots for the new "Plank" SSTOs.

Mariesa also sees better education as a necessity to support Prometheus, so she acquires Mentor Academies, a private education concern, and expands it to manage public schools, under contract with the states and local school districts. One of the first managed public school districts is North Orange, New Jersey, near her home. Barry Fast, a teacher within the North Orange district, becomes a Mentor Institute Fellow and confidante of Mariesa.

As Mariesa begins to build an autonomous space industry within VHI, she finds both supporters and opponents within VHI, in the other aerospace companies and in government. She also finds herself developing a special relationship with a group of students within the North Orange district.

This novel spends a great deal of time attacking the current education establishment. It doesn't take any position on the dogmatic issues, but rather supports an eclectic approach that enables teachers to control their own presentations and relegates much of the administration to the managerial staff. Success is measured by the degree to which the student body achieves stated objectives. As someone who has been exposed to the education curriculum, I tend to agree the author in that the style of teaching must vary according to the student, but current public education thinking seems to consider such an approach to be too expensive. However, my reading in psychology suggests that the evidence tends to support the author's position: lockstep teaching is too expensive as well as also ineffectual.

This novel lays the foundation for a provocative series. It has been much compared to Heinlein's works -- i.e., The Man Who Sold the Moon -- but it is much longer and thus more detailed. Moreover, it has more room for character development and uses it aggressively.

Highly recommended for Flynn and Heinlein fans and for anyone else who enjoys hard science fiction with believable characters and excellent plot development.

-Arthur W. Jordin

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Satisfying End To A Very Good Series, January 2, 2007

By 

D. Bowles (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Falling Stars (Firestar Saga) (Mass Market Paperback)

Michael Flynn concludes the near-future "Firestar" series in style. In the year 2017 the varied cast comes together to try to save Earth from impending disaster - an asteroid has somehow changed course and is now on a collision course with earth. The machinations of the previous novels all finally make sense, as there is now a team of dedicated, well-trained professionals perfectly equipped to attempt an intercept and diversion of the asteroid. This novel ties up all the political and industrial loose ends, and gives closure to the character development (although it must be noted that not all endings are happy ones). Flynn embraces the near-future genre with all the deftness and imagination of Heinlein while adding a very definite hard technical slant. This series may not be great fare for those readers who despise techno-babble, but for the rest of us it's a satisfying feast.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 'Stars' Faw Down. Go 'Boom!', February 17, 2001

By 

Ron N. Butler (Powder Springs, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Falling Stars (Firestar Saga) (Hardcover)

The fourth book of the trilogy...

Maybe if the third book in this series had not marked time so badly, Flynn wouldn't have had to cram as much material into the fourth. And maybe he wouldn't have had to leave so many major plot elements (Most notably: Who Threw the Rocks and Why?) dangling. Just from the viewpoint of plot mechanics, "Falling Stars" is unsatisfying -- and that makes the whole series frustrating.

From a viewpoint of characterization, all the major characters dig down to the clockwork in their souls -- and somehow it's just not very interesting. Possibly that's because it's the male characters getting in touch with their inmost selves in "Falling Stars," where the women went through this process in the earlier books. Flynn has written some of the most unpleasant, manipulative, driven female characters I've read in years -- but they're capable of better than their clockworks would indicate and they're always interesting. The males, on the other hand, don't seem to get beyond overripe adolescence.

I'm glad I read the "Stars" series -- Flynn is hugely inventive and his style is pleasant -- but I doubt I'll ever feel drawn to re-read it.