Legacy of Prometheus [Hardcover]

Eric Kotani (Author), John Maddox Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2000

Eric Kotani is a pen name used by a world class astrophysicist. He was the head of the astrophysics laboratory at the Johnson Space Center during the Apollo and Skylab missions and has since served as director of a NASA satellite observatory for fifteen years.

Kotani and John Maddox Roberts, an accomplished SF and mystery writer, join forces on Legacy of Prometheus, a thriller that tackles the biggest question the world will face in the coming century: an energy crisis.

Conventional methods for harnessing power are failing, but technology is racing to tackle the problem, seeking to generate energy with solar power. When the government announces it will guarantee a market for the first company to beam a gigawatt of energy to the planet, Cash Carlson and his Lone Star Space Systems get a jump on their rivals by constructing Prometheus, the solar powered satellite. Cash eventually teams up with the beautiful young journalist, Sachi Sasano, to play a dangerous game with desperate men. And it's not just control of the world's energy market at stake. It's also their lives.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the near future, an old-fashioned space race begins. Earth's energy crisis is coming to a head, and conventional alternative energies are falling short. There is increasing interest in the idea of high-orbit solar satellites that would collect the sun's direct, undiluted rays and beam energy down to the planet, but no one has yet successfully designed and launched one. Cash Carlson, a cowboy of the first order, hopes his Lone Star satellite will be the first. In his favor are incredible charisma, a top-drawer security expert, world-class press agents, money magicians, a mysterious computer genius known only as Max and Cash's new leading lady--a beauty with a mind for science and a love of space as great as his own. Cash has much to contend with, however: a proposition in the U.N. to internationally control any launched energy satellites; an aristocratic Frenchman--Jean-Claude Du Mont--with a severe Napoleonic complex; the leaching of funds by another competitor; and a great deal of serious sabotage, along with the usual problems of any space adventure. And looming in the skies may be an even greater threat. Dipping in and out of astrophysics lecture mode, the narration is light and fast paced. The characters are instantly recognizable but are not caricatures. While the ultimate outcome is never in any real doubt, each skirmish adds excitement, and the setting and technology are believable. With their fine storytelling skills and irredeemably good-guy hero, this space adventure from Kotani (a pseudonymous astrophysicist) and Roberts, coauthors of four novels including Act of God, will thrill even the most Earth-bound reader. (Apr.)

Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Each skirmish adds excitement, and the setting and technology are believable. With their fine storytelling skills and irredeemably good-guy hero, this space adventure from Kotani and Roberts will thrill even the most earthbound reader." --Publishers Weekly

"The authors have buffed up the chrome and tinted the windows to wow an audience segment more oriented to glitz and gore-and succeeded pretty well." --The San Diego Union Tribune

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: Forge; 1st edition (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312872984
• ISBN-13: 978-0312872984
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,118,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars James Bond meets Heinlein Stereotypical Potboiler, December 7, 2005

By 

Lisa Small - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Legacy of Prometheus (Paperback)

I came to this from John Maddox Roberts' sophisticated SPQR series, set in ancient Rome, and was disappointed by the drop in quality. I thought perhaps the two writers just needed more time to get used to one another -- but this is their fourth book together, though the first with these characters.

The first error was surely not the fault of the authors, whom one assumes were mortified. On page 11, the protagonist goes on about how he prefers reporters with scientific backgrounds, who won't make mistakes that are then attributed to him. The very next paragraph identifies an aircraft as a "Cesna" rather than a "Cessna." The simple typo wouldn't be so blush-worthy were it not juxtaposed with the protagonist's barbed remarks about technical accuracy.

Overall, I liked the science and particularly enjoyed the global socio-economic aspects of the plot, but was disappointed by three things in its execution:
===A. the level of cliché -- the beautiful-but-covertly-brainy reporter with martial arts skills (once they made this character Asian, the chop-socky was inevitable), the bravura capitalism (there's the Heinlein for you), the effete Frenchman, the freakish but omnipotent hacker recluse, the wicked Eastern Bloc assassin, the stoic Native American bodyguard, the good-old-boy Texan who gotta-gonna solve the world's oil problem. The authors waited until page 229 before making the inevitable "Cowboy & Indian" remark, bless them, and they did take a few baby steps away from the stereotypes, but baby steps are not enough when great strides are called for.
===B. it REEKED of screenplay, so why bother with the book at all? And it would be quite a successful movie, say with Bruce Willis and Lucy Liu, so why waste time in New York when they could have taken the outline directly to Hollywood?
===C. the unsubtle foreshadowing of what would come next in the series -- but there's been no "next" yet, though five years have passed, so perhaps there will be no series, after all.

If you like James Bond, if you like the older Heinlein novels, if you're secretly hot for Ayn Rand, you'll like this very much. If they'd had the guts to scramble their stereotypes a little -- how about making the love interest a she-geek hermit who is NOT beautiful? Or try out an assassin made bitter by her failure to advance in the U.S. military, or a Frenchman who's not a pantywaist, and let the Native American be the wealthy scientist-entrepreneur instead of Tonto -- etc., etc. -- I might have liked it very much, too.

3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre Science Fiction, September 24, 2002

By 

Kevin Spoering (Buffalo, Missouri United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Legacy of Prometheus (Hardcover)

In this novel, as in reality, oil is becoming scarce, so this gives incentive to an international race to put a solar energy satellite into geostationary orbit to beam energy down to earth. This may actually happen someday, but mabe not, if it does it is decades off, at least.

I found the character development to be sketchy at best, with the plot amateurish at times. The ending was abrupt, with the whole novel being a bit too brief. It was not a page turner for me, however I have read worse science fiction than this. According to the cover on this book one of the authors, Eric Kotani, is a pseudonym for a world-class astrophysicist, so there is some actual science included here so not all is lost, it is informative to some extent, but for me it just did'nt have the 'fire' other science fiction I have read did.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good start for a series! More, please!, October 3, 2000

By 

W. Bailey (CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Legacy of Prometheus (Hardcover)

I was first drawn to "Legacy" because of the premise of the solar power farming using satellites, a concept that inspired me 20 years ago to give up a dead end life style and go back to school. It was a senior project done by the Aerospace school at the University of Michigan named "Project Rodan", I believe.

The character development is wonderful with believable business and government senarios. The wheeling and dealing at the highest level reminds me of the Heinlein novels where money was secondary and vision and persistance win out over deceit and treachary.

My only complaint is that there seem to be a few chapters missing. These team of characters are too good to leave hanging out there... especially when a "first contact" may be eminent.