This Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel is reissued in this trade paperback edition. Vannemar Morgan's dream of linking Earth with the stars requires a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems while allaying the wrath of God. Includes a new introduction by the author.
The Fountains of Paradise (Arthur C. Clarke Collection)
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Published in 1953, 1952, and 1979, respectively, this trio of novels follow Clarke's recurring theme of humans thrusting themselves into space and then not necessarily liking what they find. The religious images that run throughout Clarke's work also are present here.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Clarke once again sounds his grand theme...man is most himself when he...challenges the very laws of the universe." -- -The New York Times Book Review
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More About the Author
"SIR ARTHUR C. CLARKE (1917-2008) wrote the novel and co-authored the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey. He has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, and he is the only science-fiction writer to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. His fiction and nonfiction have sold more than one hundred million copies in print worldwide.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
By Sailoil
Format:Hardcover
This is the story of an engineer using diamond cable to build a space elevator. Along the way we have visions of the Gibraltar bridge and the argument of putting rails on the side or not, since the vehicles on the bridge will be controlled not by occupants but by the road. Here is Clarke writing about stuff that is now in development. Intelligent roads. When will we seriously look at the Space elevator? The book is set in Clarke's favourite place on earth Sri-Lanka, although admittedly he conveniently shifts it to a more favourable latitude for scientific reasons. This book is beautifully written but has a backbone of hard science behind it. Today's writers could learn so much from this man.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Or not. But close enough. The sad thing about reading this book and reading the later Clarke books is the contrasting quality, this appears to be the last time he had his act completely together, later books have had little sparks of ideas here and there, but mostly lack that roar of inspiration. Not here. Clarke goes for broke, first putting forward an idea that was totally new at the time: a space elevator. For those of you not scientifically inclined, it's basically a long tether connecting a station orbiting the planet, and people could run up and down the cable in cars. Basically it would make spaceflight easier because ships could launch and refuel up there and not have to worry about gravity and escape velocity and it just opens the entire solar system up. These days it's been more commonplace, writers don't even bother centering entire books around it (though Kim Stanley Robinson probably had this book in mind when he had the Martians install an elevator in his Red/Green/Blue Mars book), but back then it was a fairly new idea. And a great one, it's out there but enough so the reader can envision it, the problem with the Ringworld is that I have trouble picturing it within the realms of reality, I just can't, I know it's possible but I just can't do it. Here, it's gloriously real and Clarke takes you every step of the way. He sets the novel in a renamed Sri Lanka and then proceeds to play with the history, framing the story about a king who built a series of gardens to reach the gods two thousand years before. Also there's this alien spacecraft that happens to pass through years before and laughs at the thought of God, which I thought had little relevance (I thought Clarke was just making sly references to Rendevous with Rama at first) and that makes perfect sense as well. It's a quick read, but not a light one, the science concepts are presented so that those without engineer's degrees can follow. Alas it's also out of print (cue rant: WHY?) but well worth your time to find, used book stores should have a copy if you try and look. But if you ever thought that we're reached the limits of our technical achievements, go read this and see just how far we can go.
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In the two decades since THE FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE was written, the idea of an 'elevator' into space has permeated the science fiction world completely, seen as merely a fact of things to come. In part, I believe it is because Arthur C. Clarke made such an excellent case for it in this novel which builds one up 36000 km (24,000 miles)--from Sri Lanka to geostationary orbit. It combines two of the authors most popular themes, technological evolution & human quintessential development, with sparse prose and moving directness. At the time of it's original publication, it was announced to be the author's last novel, which happily is one of Clarke's predictions which did not come true! Very Highly Recommended.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Science Fiction
I have always been a fan of Arthur C. Clarke and this is one of his best. I have the book in hardcover, but the chance to collect this book for my Kindle was too good to pass up.
Published 2 months ago by David L
5.0 out of 5 stars
Effortlessly Brilliant
The bad thing about Kindle books is the fact that one tends to get caught up in so many extremely bad books, that
we lower our standards very easily. Read more
we lower our standards very easily. Read more
Published 2 months ago by lidias kindle
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great work.
Dreams can have many effects on people, both good and bad. At their worst they can cause people to waste their lives (and the lives of others) chasing a fantasy to no good end. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Southern Geologist
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great work.
Dreams can have many effects on people, both good and bad. At their worst they can cause people to waste their lives (and the lives of others) chasing a fantasy to no good end. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Southern Geologist
1.0 out of 5 stars
Clarke trying to be socially relevant avoid this boring thing.
I found Clarke irritating in this book. He is like a nerd trying to cover all the bases of multiculturalism in one setting. Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Luis Madrid
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting science, but a few loose ends in the plot
The book has a great description of the space elevator and the process of building the first one. But the characters were painted a bit thin. (Typical of a lot of hard SF). Read more
Published 3 months ago by John
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting premise
Though it does take a while to get into the plot, at first I thought I had bought something non-sci fi by mistake it is certainly and interest and unusual story. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jennifer Berry
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good science!
As a satellite engineer, I was impressed with the level of technical detail in this novel. Clarke definitely did his homework. Read more
Published 4 months ago by orbops
4.0 out of 5 stars
review of fountains of paradise
I purchased this book with much anticipation, as i have read several stories and novels by this author, but no books. i was not dispointed. its an excellent work of fiction/fact? Read more
Published 9 months ago by Singhie
4.0 out of 5 stars
Where His Excellency puts on the Good Doctor's hat
They say that married couples at the end of their lives have a tendency to think and act more and more like they are one person. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Adman
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 13
books:
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72
books
cite this book:
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- The Deep Range by arthur clarke in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- The Ghost from the Grand Banks by Arthur C. Clarke in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne on page 192
See all 13 books this book cites
- Arthur C. Clarke: A Critical Companion (Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers) by Robin Anne Reid on 11 pages
- Professional Web 2.0 Programming by Eric van der Vlist on 8 pages
- Non-Rocket Space Launch and Flight by Alexander Bolonkin on page 2, page 84, and page 105
- Teaching Science Fact with Science Fiction by Richard Raham on page 6, page 65, and page 66
- Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!: Collected Essays, 1934-1998 by Ian T. MacAuley in Front Matter, page 229, and page 281
See all 72 books citing this book
