The Fountains of Paradise (Millennium SF Masterworks S)

Arthur C. Clarke novels often have some of the following elements: mankind progresses and invents new things, the inevitable clash with religion, the start of a new history of mankind and a meeting with alien life, most always more intelligent than us.

And still, every novel is a joy to read as is "The Fountains of Paradise". An ambitious man wants to build an elevator from here to the geostationary orbit. The book follows the initial difficulties (economical, political and religious) to get the project started and then the building itself.

There is a meeting with alien life, a little like in Rama and it teaches mankind a lot, though the link with the general story is hard to get sometimes.

As always, this Clarke book is a great story about what mankind is able to do in a few centuries.

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 the store) and pick you up a copy of this book.

I have just finished reading this book and the notes at the end. Do not pass up reading the post scripts. You will need to know more of the man who penned this fantastic story. He was a scientist in his own right.
He will be missed!

As always, Clarke's eloquence and descriptive abilities take you to a world that is entirely feasible, and yet currently just out if our grasp. His visionary capabilities have already left their mark on the world. There's no reason why his influence won't continue to be felt in the future.

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.

There is hardly any character development in this entire book. The story line is somewhat awkward. There are too many chapters (57) which only makes the story choppy.

The whole plot revolves around the building and operation of an orbital tower or space elevator. The tower doesn't really play a big part of the story until almost half way through the book however. The author explains the technical problems in building the tower fairly well but I thought he could have done a better job in explaining exactly how the tower was built, what it looked like and exactly how it worked. The part of the book that was meant to be suspenseful wasn't to me because it was hard for me to visualize exactly what was happening and the physical surroundings.

Also, I think it was way too easy to build that tower.

The story here is seems really long and drawn-out, filled with characters that have little or no purpose at all. The main character, Vannemar, is the only one that seems to have any definition. The others are kinda meaningless. It's as if Clarke thought up the ending, then wrote a bunch of "bla bla bla" to lead up to it.

The only thing that kept me interested was the Starglider side story. The Starglider was an unmanned alien craft that traveled to our solar system and used it's on-board computer to communicate with us.

The ending is one of the best that Clarke has written. Which I thought made the entire book worth reading. Although I thought the characters and the rest of the story only served one purpose: filler.

The technology of the space elevator is interesting, but Clarke failed to build a compelling story around it. Plot elements, such as the sojourning spacecraft and the king who wanted to build a stairway to the stars, come and go without amounting to a unified whole. Character does not seem to be a major concern for Clarke, which is fine if you have as strong a plot as he did in, for example, "Rendezvous with Rama," but I did not find the struggle to build the space elevator sufficiently interesting in and of itself to satisfy me.

One of Clarke's greastest novels. A rather more optimistic future than today's SF novels, but in no way utopian or naive. He may not have invented the idea if the space elevator, but he certainly makes it a realizable goal.

If you like Clarke's style (shallow characters who are either ignorable or clones of himself, but very solid and interesting scientific concepts) then this book is a must read. Aside from advancing the idea of the space elevator (which he credits to a Russian scientist) he goes into the little design details and problems such a monumental project would face. This may sound boring, but at least something happened, unlike in Rama, and both are truly interesting if you're into his style. This is Clarke at his best. Take him or leave him.

The technology of the space elevator is interesting, but Clarke failed to build a compelling story around it. Plot elements, such as the sojourning spacecraft and the king who wanted to build a stairway to the stars, come and go without amounting to a unified whole. Character does not seem to be a major concern for Clarke, which is fine if you have as strong a plot as he did in, for example, "Rendezvous with Rama," but I did not find the struggle to build the space elevator sufficiently interesting in and of itself to satisfy me.

One of Clarke's greastest novels. A rather more optimistic future than today's SF novels, but in no way utopian or naive. He may not have invented the idea if the space elevator, but he certainly makes it a realizable goal.

If you like Clarke's style (shallow characters who are either ignorable or clones of himself, but very solid and interesting scientific concepts) then this book is a must read. Aside from advancing the idea of the space elevator (which he credits to a Russian scientist) he goes into the little design details and problems such a monumental project would face. This may sound boring, but at least something happened, unlike in Rama, and both are truly interesting if you're into his style. This is Clarke at his best. Take him or leave him.

A classic that gets SO much of current tech correct and explores the human ego in timeless fashion. As good as Clarke was in his early years, The Fountains of Paradise shows the marks of a master's maturity.

This story is dated. The long winded explanations about the amazing tower and the politics it takes to make it happen grind on and on. Lastly the gotcha ending is a bit much. Good for a teenager or even younger.

I found Clarke irritating in this book. He is like a nerd trying to cover all the bases of multiculturalism in one setting. This distracts terribly from any action or story line especially if that kind of stuff annoys you. All the gimmicks of parallel stories you jump between do nothing but annoy you more. Figures it won the Hugo etc... all the PC multiculturalism and parallel plot gimmicks must have wowed them.

Warning this guy burned out after the movie 2001. Warning do not ever try and read his later books supposedly co written by others (I think wholly written by others). Jerry Springer comes to Science Fiction---am not joking.
Especially the Rama sequences.... you have to try to read them to believe me.

I read an interview the New Yorker magazine did with Clarke in the 90s. They describe someone irritatingly
boring and full of himself. Too bad some of his early stuff is good. A lot of authors are like this they
simply burn out especially after some fame. Authors need to know when to retire.

DO NOT RECOMMEND