Customer Reviews

Fountains of Paradise

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

 

 

I was given this book and a lot of others by a friend who was doing some spring cleaning and remembered my love for reading. I had it for a long time before reading it. I can't believe how long I owned this incredible book before I "discovered it". Some of the ideas Clark comes up with are simply astounding. If you can find this book, grab it!! You won't regret it.

When people talk about ACC's best books The Fountains of Paradise is rarely mentioned. And although it's not quite as good as 2001, Rendezvous With Rama, The City and The Stars, or Childhood's End, it is certainly just a step below them. The book is an interesting mix of SF and historical fiction. It's not the same type of story that Clarke usually delivers, but equally good. The mentions of the space elevator (though not original) are fascinating, not to mention many of the other things in the book.

It's a crying shame that they let this book go out of print, it needs to be reissued. Try to find a "mom and pop" used bookstore somewhere (or use the auctions or Z-Shops here at Amazon) and pick you up a copy of this book.

An exciting story of future technology that describes construction of a "space elevator." The best science fiction story ever.

I admire Arthur C Clarke, because in most of his books he manages to rattle my perceptions, to push me through a conceptual breakthrough. Fountains of Paradise is no exception to that. In the midsection of the book the alien computers observations on man's religions had me baffled, laughing out loud (having just studied Thomas Aquinas, and Ockham) and pondering.

Unfortunatedly the book is unballanced. It starts as an historical antropological novel. The midsection deals with alien visitors and filosofical conceptions, the end has the plot of an action movie, featuring a disaster and rescue mission. On the whole not a pleasant read. But the reactions of the alien computer made it more then worth while.