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RE: starship-design: Is this fiction?
-----Original Message-----
From: KellySt [SMTP:KellySt@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 1999 9:10 PM
To: erps-list; starship-design; starship-design
Cc: bfranchuk
Subject: starship-design: Is this fiction?
I picked up a paperback novel today cause it had nice SSTO craft
on the cover. The is the development of such a craft and the support
structures in the very near future ( Ie. 1999-2000) from Brazil
without the
support of the US-Goverment. Firestar by Micheal Flynn, is the
books title - isbn 0-812-53006-3. This is good reading, and a good
reminder of
the dream of Real space travel.
Ben.
Hum, sounds interesting. I searched for it on the Amazon.com site.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812530063/o/qid=929633315/sr=2-1
/002-1524617-7012049
General reviews on it there were good (Reviews below) thou some of the
elements might be a bit over the top.
As for the private SSTO angle, its a big interest of a lot of folks,
including US interest. Thou NASA, and to a lessor degree DOD, are
against making space that open - corporate interests are chewing around
the edges to get past those roadblocks.
check out
http://www.spaceaccess.com/
http://www.wtn.org/crda/payloads.htm
http://www.wtn.org/ProjectStories/crada/payloads.htm
For a us Company quietly working toward a ship like the FireStar cover.
;)
Kelly
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
Firestar
by Michael F. Flynn
List Price: $6.99
Our Price: $5.59
You Save: $1.40 (20%)
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours.
Mass Market Paperback - 960 pages Reprint edition
(March 1997)
Tor Books; ISBN: 0812530063 ; Dimensions (in inches):
1.51 x 6.83 x 4.22
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 42,613
Avg. Customer Review:
Number of Reviews: 9
Write an online review and share your thoughts with
other readers!
Customers who bought this book also bought:
Rogue Star; Michael F. Flynn
Moonfall; Jack McDevitt
Moonwar; Ben Bova
Moonrise; Ben Bova
Click here for
more suggestions...
Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews , March 1, 1996
Part one of an ambitious near-future multivolume saga
from the author of
Country of the Blind (not reviewed). Rich heiress
Mariesa van Huyten has
developed plans to save the human race. She sets up
Mentor Academies, an
educational foundation, and contracts to take over part
of the crumbling New
Jersey public school system, hoping to find among its
hopelessly drug-ridden or
sociopathic or cynical populations some sparks of
creativity--talents that will be
vital in the near future if humanity is to transcend
its self-imposed limits. She also
prepares the Prometheus project, using political,
industrial, and economic
pressure to develop a sustainable space program. Once
established in
space--where raw materials need only be gathered and
processed; where
there's nothing to pollute; where power from the sun is
free and
inexhaustible--humanity can expand and prosper without
constraint. There is,
however, a cloud on the horizon: one Cyrus Attwood, a
reactionary who will use
religion and violence to stop Mariesa and her
progressive notions. Not quite a
Libertarian party tract, but call this a textbook,
retitle it How to Save the World, in
Umpteen Very Large Installments, and you'd be close. A
dense, vastly overstated
yawner. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All
rights reserved. --This
text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition
of this title.
Book Description
It is the beginning of the twenty-first century and one
woman is determined to
bring America and the world back on track in the
technological future. She has
the strength, the intelligence, the money. It will be
done. This is the story of the
rebirth of innovative technological expansion on Earth
and in space.
Synopsis
Firestar is a chronicle of private enterprise and
individual initiative, the story of
one woman's quest that becomes the focus for a whole
new world of the future.
This is a saga of hard-won optimism, about a
technological future where things
are better for everyone.
Synopsis
A popular Analog short story writer, several times a
Hugo nominee, Michael
Flynn launches a bold, multi-volume epic of the future
in the tradition of Robert A.
Heinlein's Future History seres. In this first volume,
a young heiress with a vision
begins a private educational system for America's
public schools. The story of
one woman's quest becomes the focus for a whole new
world of the future.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable
edition of this title.
Click here
for all reviews...
Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 9
Randi (randi_pattersen@hotmail.com) from Tucson,
Arizona , June 1,
1999
Distressingly dull How-to-save-the-world manifesto.
Flynn's exposition of a Rand-esque privatization of the
US education system and
space program reads like a Libertarian Party position
paper -- it is interesting
only to other Libertarians. The characterizations would
be laughable if they
weren't so trite. Rich young idealistic heiress finds
love and destiny with old,
poor, burned-out teacher, incidentally solving the
crisis in the American
educational system and putting the American space
program back on track. Feh.
A disappointing rehash of themes Rand and Heinlein have
already championed
with far more style.
dragonsmithent@bigfoot.com from Grand Junction,
Colorado , April 23,
1999
Excellent book for anyone fed-up with the current
system
This book has some excellent ideas for changing the way
people are educated.
It may be science fiction now but in five years it will
be science. With the
increase in competition in the education industry look
to see some changes that
closely resemble the ideas in this book. And once
people are properly educated
we will see a resurgence in the space programs. Pretty
soon more and more
people will see the need to get off this rock! And with
the help of this book and
some other ideas from pioneering authors such as
Michael Flynn we will get off
this rock.
A reader from Salt Lake City, Utah , March 25, 1999
Gripping, great story line
I really liked this book, and found it difficult to put
it down. The characters are
good, the writing is good, the plot is good. Can't wait
to read Rogue Star.
atomicbohr@aol.com from Hamilton, OH , November 9, 1998
Top notch near future novel that makes one wish it were
true
FIRESTAR is a very near future novel about an extremely
wealthy business
woman who believes that we need to be in space. She
launches a very
complicated, expensive, and VERY BELIEVABLE plan to get
us there.
There are good guys, bad guys, flawed heroes and
heroines, action, "police
action," intrigue, great science, and extremely
believable characters and
situations.
If you want a book that will make you think as well as
challenge your
assumptions in a lot of different areas you will love
it. If however, you are a
doctrinaire Liberal, Libertarian, or Conservative you
will hate this book.
Flynn has a deep respect for Robert Heinlein. A number
of writers over the years
have been acclaimed as the next Heinlein only to
falter. Flynn is the first I have
seen that has a real chance of truly deserving that
type of honorific. This novel
fares very favorably with Heinlein at his best and is
head and shoulders above
90% of what passes for SF.
Mike
lphillip@redrose.net from Lancaster, PA USA , September
7, 1998
inspiring hard science in the near future
If only we had a Mariesa van Huyten to lead us back to
space. The characters
are complex. The politics nerve racking. The hard
science exciting. All together a
great read that makes me wish for more from this
author.
tmiho@pcinternet.com from So Cal , March 2, 1998
Great near future novel...only hope we can get there.
I just finished reading Ben Bova's "Moonrise" and both
novels make a GREAT
case for privatization of global space programs. Flynn
really knows how to
develop characters, both protagonists and antagonists,
that contain positive as
well negative attributes. Great reading and hard to put
down, although the last
100 pages seemed a bit ambiguous and crunched for an
ending. It definitely left
me with a desire for more. SSTO is now one of my
favorite subjects.
from Austin, TX , January 22, 1998
Dominique Francon in space
A model for how corporate invasiveness in the
educational system might prove
Ayn Rand right. This book demonstrates in
can't-put-it-down fiction how rational
billionaires might choose to finally ditch NASA and
really get mankind into space.
Any objectivist would love this book (but I liked it
too.)
drewthacker@earthlink.net from Dallas, Texas , December
19, 1997
New hope for the Apollo Generation!
One of the best reads I've had in years! Good story
line development with
reasonable extrapolation of technology rather than the
fantasy tales of many
other authors. Liked especially the detailed character
development and the
interaction between them and our central visionary,
Mariesa. She was at times a
bit vague and removed on feelings toward others
(somewhat unrealistic) but
"Dreaming the Vision" of what our future in space could
be is what makes this
book so real. For those of us who lived through the
excitement of the early lunar
landings and the ultimate rise and fall of high
technology in aerospace during the
mid sixties to the early eighties it provides a renewed
enthusiam for sustained
development of the high frontier. I also felt that the
approaches for education are
refreshing. As any parent with college age children can
attest, our high schools
need encouragement to develop a more challenging
approach to nuture stronger
values and problem solving. Would definitely recommend
this book for
highschool through adult ages. I am sure you will find
yourself, as am I, waiting
with high expectations for the sequel. Give this book
to your children to stimulate
them about the future that is there if they reach for
it! A great gift. --This text
refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of
this title.
arc@inetport.com from Lago Vista (Awestin), TX ,
November 30, 1997
True "science" fiction, classical in construction. Want
More
This story offers a traditionally-constructed approach
consisting of 3-dimensional
people with human motivations and relationships and
built upon a
solid-appearing foundation of scientific principles. I
delight in extrapolations
based on current societal conditions and trends. This
author has such a "John
Brunner"-like ability, without sinking into the dark
dead-end gloominess of the
nihilistic. The only negative I care to mention is that
I hate finding a series like
this at the git-go, because I then have to wait
impatiently on the rest of the
author's work. I recall such impatience with Juanita
Coulson, for one. :) I'd say
this book is worth the price paid and requires little
effort to read because it is so
engrossing. I'm also keeping it on the shelf to read
again just prior to reading the
next installment. --This text refers to an out of print
or unavailable edition of this
title.