Customer Reviews

Grand Central Arena

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoyed this book - even though I thought it got off to a slow start. For me, there was too much explanation of 'the amazing construction' that they were seeing and not enough action. The action came along later and I found it quite entertaining.
But I also had the continual impression that this was the second book in some kind of a series - as there was frequent mention of "Hyperion" - which may be another book?

that is one thing that I would like to see publishers and Amazon change - whenever there is a series, I would like them to put it into position with other books - as 'this is the 2nd book in John Doe's Hyperion series - which is the second series chronologically in the XYZ universe' and so on.

A group of eight explorers from the not too distant future set out to test-fly The Holy Grail, the very first faster-than-light experimental ship. Instead of finding themselves in interstellar space, they find themselves at a massive artificial construct that houses thousands of different intelligent species, and has existed for long enough to house creatures that have evolved to live within it. The Grand Central Arena is vast in ways that defy comprehension: it is apparently large enough to provide for a large population of every intelligent species in the universe, and has a history dating back though occupation by many species that have since become extinct. It has rules of conduct that it rigidly enforces, and a culture that is beautifully diverse yet may be suddenly deadly.

For Ariane Austin, the beautiful rocket racing pilot and default skipper of the expedition; for Dr. Carl Edlund, Ariane's crew chief and design expert; Dr. Marc DuQuesne, survivor of a massive genetic and psychological experiment; for Dr. Simon Sandrisson, inventor of the FTL drive and the rest of this elite crew the challenge becomes far greater than a simple test flight. The stakes in this arena run from full partnership in an interstellar trading community far beyond their greatest dreams, to slavery or destruction of the entire human race. Spoor does an outstanding job of bringing together a disparate party of human adventurers and an eclectic set of aliens with a wide variety of motivations. He also dragged this reader right into the midst of the battle to create a place for humanity amongst the stars.

Grand Central Arena (2010) is a standalone SF novel. It is set about two centuries in the future. Mankind has achieved breakthroughs in fusion power and artificial intelligence. Now they have developed a faster-than-light drive.

Humanity has also had calamities during this period, including the Hyperion experiment. Government has been reorganized to prevent the reoccurrence of such disasters. The new government has strict limits on their surveillance of the population and the capabilities of AIs.

In this novel, Ariane Austin is an obstacle racer. She flies her ships through especially constructed courses in space. She gets high on adrenaline and risk.

Carl Edlund is Ariane's crew chief and control engineer. He has an advanced degree and certification in control and interface design and another in small-craft drives.

Simon Sakuraba Sandrisson is a renown physicist and creator of the FTL drive. He has tested the concept with probes, but the results are anomalous. Now he is gathering a crew for a manned craft.

Steve Franceschetti is a renown structural designer. He is designing the FTL spaceship.

Marc C. DuQuesne is an expert in power systems. He is also a Super from the Hyperion experiment.

Thomas Cussler is a nanotechnology engineer. Tom is a Transcender, although he hasn't completely downloaded his consciousness into the nanotech. To do so is to lose his citizenship, since the law considers such downloads as artificial intelligences.

Gabrielle Wolfe is the physician on Ariane's crew. She has broad experience in emergency medicine.

Laila Canning is a renown biologist. She wishes to monitor the humans on the FTL ship.

In this story, Ariane is close to winning against the reigning champion of obstacle racing. She and Hawke are far ahead of the pack. Carl warns her about the keyhole coming up.

Ariane tries to lag behind or get ahead of Hawke, but he matches the velocity of her ship. They enter the keyhole together and Hawke makes his move. But Ariane avoids his ship's wings and tries a counter move.

Then they exit the keyhole and Ariane gains time in the driftmaze. She wins the race and eagerly rejoins her crew to celebrate their triumph. She hugs Carl and the rest of the crew.

Simon is waiting at the dock to talk to her, but first he gets the attention of Carl. Then Carl waves Ariane over to meet Simon. They settle around a table and Simon makes his pitch.

He wants Ariane to join his crew as the backup pilot. All the surviving probes seem to have lost the use of their AIs. Mechanical devices and some simpler electronics had continued to work and test animals seemed unharmed. But smart devices did not appear to function at all.

Ariane agrees and brings Carl and Gabrielle with her. The ship is under construction by Steve, but will be ready in a couple of weeks. The main problem is providing manual controls and instruments that will work without smart devices.

When the time comes, Ariane is at the controls of the Holy Grail as her AI starts the FTL drive. Immediately, Simon screams and the lights go out as the fusion reactor goes offline. She discovers that they are within a huge enclosure and rapidly approaching the far wall.

The fusion pulse rocket is also inoperable, so she lights the chemical rockets and decelerates. The ship loses velocity under four gees of thrust. It barely hits the wall, but breaks off one of the mass-driver coilgun tendrils and bends the others.

Ariane and Marc are fine, but other crewmembers suffer from the shock of losing their embedded AIs. Tom has lost most of his abilities to monitor and control the ship functions. Laila, however, was connected to more smart devices than the others and is now in a catatonic state. Her brain scans indicate some cerebral activity, especially in her speech center.

They are within a space containing a very large model of their solar system. They find a ledge at the apex of the space that seems to be a dock. It has standard docking ports. It even uses standard signals -- with nonstandard IDs -- in response to the docking communicators.

When the three man scouting party enters the structure, they find air with the proper mix of gases. Yet no other particles or organisms are detected other that those that came from their ship. Then the gravity comes on.

This tale confronts the crew with a series of circumstances that are impossible according to current scientific knowledge. Then they find the alien inhabitants of the structure. The alien calling himself Orphan becomes their guide to the Arena.

This story is inspired by the space operas of E.E. (Doc) Smith, most particularly the Skylark series. One character -- DuQuesne -- is even named after the sometimes opponent of Richard Seaton.

The author definitely generates a sense of wonder. There does not yet appear to be sequel to this novel, yet a new volume -- Threshold -- in the Boundary series is forthcoming. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Spoor fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien contact, improbable situations, and personal courage.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The cover art makes it pretty clear that you are going to get a 'Space Adventure'! While there are times that that is exactly the sort of low-intensity reading experience that I am looking for, I rarely end up giving such books 5 stars. But man, I simply could not put this book down. The pacing was excellent, the action fun, and the world building deftly swerved between amusingly science-fictiony and oddly thought provoking. I hope there will be a sequel, as this is a rich universe for future exploration.

Ryk is very much a world builder, having known him through the old rec.arts DND Usenet Newsgroups. I won't go over the worldbuilding so aptly covered in a review previously, but his skill and dedication show through in this book. The homage to early pioneers in the work (E.E.
"Doc" Smith for DuQuense and the Skylark,for example) was very much a pleasure to read. I very much suspect that this universe was based off of his time at the gaming table, with several different factions, marvelous powers and technology to encounter and explore, and a very much unlimited palette to paint with.

I am very much looking forward to more set in this milieu.

I'm very happy to find well done character-driven sci fi that has great tech-talk, detailed world building and entertaining plots. This book was exactly what I was looking for. I can't wait for the sequel.

My only quibble is that I often doubted Captain Austin's charisma and her role as the obvious leader - she just seemed so young sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I got an absolute kick out of her and all of the characters. I just hope Captain Austin gets the chance to come into her own a little more, she's a great heroine.

In the meantime I'll just keep re-reading. There's always Boundary too, written in the same style of space opera hi-jinks and super fun aliens. These two books stand out for me because they consistently include men and women working side-bye-side as equal partners. None of the women have to pretend to be men in order to have an adventure, nor do they constantly need saving or turn into simpering, tearful damsels in distress. There's also a lack of chest-thumping misogynists and man-hating ball-busters. In fact, its as though the author takes for granted that men and women have gotten beyond the problems of racism and sexism, etc. I love optimistic sci fi!

Excellent start to a new series. Writing is on par with other writers I really like [Flint, Weber, and Ringo].

Lots of tidbits of data scattered through the start of the book that really come together in the last half of the book.

Could have been a little tighter and I debated 4 or 5 stars. Decided on 5 stars because I ended up losing sleep to finish the book.

The underlying assumptions are a bit out there, but have internal consistency.

I swear by Klono's Shiny Silver Stinger that I have not enjoyed a book this much in a decade or more. What a wonderous antidote for Hawking's declaration of surrender.

I have been reading Science Fiction for 46 years. While I love the genre, the last few years have been painful. It feels like Science Fiction has turned away from joy and fun. It's been one hard blow after another. The failure of SETI. The US turning from space and technological advancement. Seems, every day I see another damned cyberpunk dystopia being hailed as a model for future progress. It makes me ache. What will we become if we are all afraid of the unknown? Afraid of the future?

Grand Central Arena is a much longed for breath of fresh air. Spoor channels the spirit of Doc Smith and weaves a future that seems plausable and optimistic. His solution to the Fermi paradox is breathtaking. He tells an engaging story of valour and villany.

Come friends, drink your fill. Grand Central Arena is a joyous gift to us all. The future can be fun!

Miles

Ever wondered why, in a huge galaxy, we've not come across any other intelligent life forms?

the explanation is lovingly detailed in this book. But i can't tell you what it is - THAT'S the spoiler to end all spoilers.

Spoiler issues aside, this was a fun, fast-paced book, set a couple centuries into the future. A future that's based heavily on Free Market ideals - science, the advancement of, requires people donating money to those who wish to do research and experiment. the "hottest" scientific research is towards leaving the solar system - the moons of Jupiter are nice and all, but that's the backyard, we want to go someplace NEW.

the man at the forefront of this advance has sent off probes, using his newly developed tech that gets rid of the need for generation ships - it goes thru "sub-space" or "hyper-space" or maybe it's a tesseract - but either way, it goes instantly.
only one of the probes comes back - and he doesn't know what happened to the others. the answer? Hire the hottest pilot in the solar system, gather a merry band of the best adventurers, and go LOOK.

but even they don't believe what they see...

I found Grand Central Arena to be an enthralling, gripping adventure tale in the tradition of the old SF Space Opera stories. I had difficulty putting this one down to do necessary chores, and read the whole book in a day. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the book up until the end with very few pauses in the action. The characters are constantly confronted with ever-increasing challenges, and they manage to rise to the occasion wonderfully. I know that I'm going to be passing my copy around to most of my friends. I just wish there was a sequel already, but I know an author can only write so fast, not to mention convincing someone to publish it.