Pillar to the Sky: A Novel

I loved one second after and was eager to read this book. This was before I realized it was a paid commercial by NASA....actually sponsored by NASA. Made a great concept take silly turns to make NASA the hero.

It tells an interesting story, but it would be difficult to write more corny or contrived dialog. Over the top and consistently sappy sentimentality also contributes to this work being a difficult read. Throw in Forstchen's typical partisan themes, and a very compelling story becomes a mostly cumbersome and sometimes uncomfortable exercise. By time the plot reached its climax, I was skimming in order to just be done with it.

Sir, I applaud you and your amazing skill set. I've now read them all and except for getting confused about which book fits into the order of events I find little to criticize. I paid real money for this book and I consider it well spent.

Simplistic. More focused on getting to the end than on character development or meaningful dialogue. While there were attempts at plot twists they were simplistic, as were the characters-one dimensional at best. Some of the technical logical aspects were interesting, and that really is what it came down to. Seems the author tried to contrive a story to push his own agenda winding up with something merging that was far from genuine.

Having read William R. Forstchen’s One second after (see my review of 4/15/2011), I expected to read an exciting adventure based on the novel’s title. Not so. I dozed off and on through the first 184 pages until something happened to wake me up. A woman astronaut, Selena Singh, has three of her toes sliced off when she had to unjam the tangled wire being dropped to earth to start the building of the 23,000 mile high Space elevator. That’s right...A pillar to the Sky. Who would even think of this project? Well, the author did. Sometimes I think that sci-fi writers come up with an idea that makes no sense at all then try to justify the story with farcical claims and details. This is one of those suppositions that makes little horse sense. I’m not saying that the story was all bad or boring but it was close to being a surreal probability at the very best. What one reads as monotonous sometimes becomes a smash hit in the movies; such as, the mind-numbing novel, The Martian (see my review of 4/15/2014) by Andy Weir. If you think potato farming is exciting then you will love this novel. If you are a reader who tends to count sheep when reading...then order an extra herd. Okay, what’s this novel about?

The novel begins with Dr.Gary Morgan, a PhD in astrophysics and engineering, sitting in front of the Senate committee headed by Senator Proxley, who has the oversight of NASA’s budget. The senator reacting to Morgan’s request for money to build a 23,000 mile high elevator into space says, “In these times of economic stress, of towering deficits and public demand for budget cutbacks...pipe-dream schemes that are a waste of taxpayer’s money are utterly absurd and, frankly, a waste of my time as a senator who believes in fiscal responsibility.” As the process continues, Dr. Morgan and his wife, Dr. Eva Morgan, realize that they fighting a losing battle. Their bright daughter, Victoria, is fuming in the audience. Finally Gary Morgan makes his final statement, “Senator, ten years after its completion, this project has the potential of transforming the global economy...This project is not some ill-conceived flight of fantasy like those we see in far too many government proposals, which either deservedly get filed away and forgotten or become public embarrassments after they are attempted, when they fall flat…” The senator rejects their request for the funding of the Pillar to the Sky. As the senator leaves the room, he is verbally attacked by the Morgan’s daughter, sixteen year old Victoria, to no avail.

After the senate defeat, the Morgans are greeted by their long time mentor, Dr. Rothenberg, who consoles them at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. From here we travel back 18 years to see how this project started and then back to the present. This flip-flopping continued for quite a few pages. I fought gamely to stay awake. Finally the Morgans and Dr. Rothenberg found a benefactor. On page 63, Dr. Rothenberg tells the Morgans (the Morgans always seem to be together), “A friend of ours who has taken great interest in the events of today. He expected this debacle. The moment the hearing closed and it was clear that NASA would be forced to entirely drop this line of research, he was already in flight from Seattle.” Then suddenly we zoom back to 18 years earlier. Once again, I’m counting sheep. Later, the reader finds out that the benefactor is afro/american billionaire, Franklin Smith. On page 77, Smith says, “With your help we are going to build that.” Smith fly’s the Morgans to Kiribati (formerly the Gilbert Islands). This is where the Pillar to the Sky will be built or fail. Sometime later, a professor Garlin debates Franklin Smith about the project (I’m snoring) and says, “Are you familiar with the thesis of disruptive technologies?” “I am.” “You do realize if this tower-or, as you call it, this pillar-of yours actually works, it will put hundreds of thousands out of work...And to be blunt, sir, it would put into your hands, and your hands alone, access to space. I am uncomfortable with that.”

What happens next will require you to buy your own copy of this novel. Although the story was tedious for me, it might not be for you, especially if you think a space elevator can be built 23,000 miles high. I, for one, didn’t buy into the hypothesis. There was too much technical jargon versus sci-fi action. The best excitement for the first 185 pages is when Singh has her three toes severed. So I think you get my thoughts loud and clear. I must give this novel a neutral rating.

First, I must acknowledge the fact that I think the book was a great read about a subject, the complexity of which could have rendered it boring in the extreme. Dr. Forstchen did a great job with the story, and characters. If you are looking for a great sic-fi fantasy, I recommend it highly.

That being said, I have quibbles, and major problems with the premise.

First the quibbles:
1. C-60 refers to buckminsterfullerene which is a ball made up of 60 carbon atoms, not to carbon nanotubes. [...]

2. Any time the space elevator was broken (say at 1000 miles up), the top would speed off due to the centripetal force, and would be very difficult to catch. It would not just park itself in a stable orbit.

Another reviewer thought that this book is hard sci-fi. No. It is most assuredly a fantasy because:

1. You can buy carbon nanotubes right now. They will be about 25 nanometers wide, and 25 micrometers long. (A micrometer is 1/1,000,000 of a meter.) 25 micrometers is very long, high quality nanotube. They cost at least $30000/kilogram. There is likely no way to make one 30,000 miles long, and so the materials to build the elevator may never exist - not in this century, or any other.

2. And the real killer, and I am truly surprised that the author did not realize this - carbon is flammable. If that portion of the pillar in the atmosphere was lit on fire, it would burn very well, and very quickly. So, one would not need a missile to bring it down, a cheap lighter, a static electricity spark, a lightening bolt would do the job nicely. Kevlar is almost strong enough to build the space elevator, but since on the equator it would be struck by lightening on a nearly daily basis … towering inferno anyone?

The book is written as if the author does not understand the above two issues, as if he thinks the space elevator is not a fantasy. ( Imagine Anne McCaffrey arguing that dragon husbandry will save the world. LOL ) Whether he doesn’t get the science, or whether he is just a brilliant writer that chose to sell something impossible, I can’t say, but one line from near the end of the book does strike me as brilliant - one of the main characters asks,

“Do we dislocate now, or do we doom our grandchildren to extinction?”

Indeed.

If you want to really understand why we are here in ecological overshoot, and what we really should do about it, i highly recommend:

Czech, Brian (2013-04-26). Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution . New Society Publishers.

“It may be premature to call this book a masterpiece, but it’s evident that Czech has mastered the art of melding science, economics, policy and politics in one readable piece. Supply Shock belongs in the classroom, boardroom, town halls and policy circles. It belongs in the hands of all those who care, as Czech might say, “about the grandkids.”
— Herman Daly, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, School of Public Policy; author of Steady State Economics; Lifetime Achievement Award winner, National Council for Science and the Environment

The best part of the book was its interesting premise and technological exposition on the design and construction of an equatorial space "pillar" linked to a platform in geosynchronous orbit. The unfortunate balance of the novel's elements-characters, plotting and pacing are all sadly unsatisfying. The characters are either black or white, insightful heroes or anti-progress villains, with no leavening of nuance. The plot is slow, uncompelling, repetitive (numerous travel to space scenes which are interesting the first time but not the third and fourth) and bogged down with fulsome emotionalism-I can't remember more crying, goodbye scenes and I love yous in any novel let alone a techno-thriller. The book starts promisingly but then bogs down in a glacial progression of incremental progress and set backs in building the Pillar. I really enjoyed his prior book One Second After, but this was a substantial let down.

Author doesn't seem to understand the science/engineering of the space elevator concept. E.g., in reality the entire primary structure would be in tension, yet author discusses compression. Also, tension will be highest somewhere in the middle, yet author speaks of reinforcing the bottom end first after the initial strand is established.

Author wants audience to believe that a 2mm carbon nanotube wire will slice through steel like butter and that everything it touches has to be protected with carbon nanotube fabric. Sorry, but 2mm is not a knife-edge.

The first trip up the "pillar" by a human is in a "pod" that is first propelled by a jet engine, then a rocket, then by electric motor for the last 95%. The only purpose of this ridiculous design is to create artificial drama and describe the sensations the passenger feels as the different propulsion systems turn off/on. Supposedly the pod SLIDES up the tower (you know the one that will slice through almost any material with no resistance) while being propelled by a rocket to over 1000 mph before it slows down and the electrically driven wheels are allowed to touch it. It just doesn't make sense.

But the worst part is there is just way too much corny, mushy drivel. Much of the dialogue is simply unbelievable. I think the author is trying to make the audience cry but it's just so damn boring.

I gave up about 70% through. I should have given up at the beginning when the aerospace engineers at NASA were explaining to each other what a geosynchronous orbit is.

The premise is that one overcomes the energy and carbon debt incurred in reaching orbit by building a tower one hundred thousand times taller than the tallest structure on Earth. This raises the interesting question, "What foundations and building materials have sufficient compressive strength to withstand such a load?" This question is unfortunately not considered, but when the tower is finally built, a character ascends to geosynchronous orbit using the tower and (among other things) a rocket engine. This raises a second interesting question: "If you're going to do rocketry anyway, why build the tower?"
Aside from that, this book features prose as trite and characters as stereotyped as those in any soap opera, which tend to highlight its essential vacuity and want of invention.

I read and enjoyed Forstchen's book "One Second After," so of course I had to read his new book, and I liked this as well.

Pillar to the Sky is the story of the dream of several engineers and a visionary financial titan to build a ladder to space, which sounds far-fetched at first but becomes theoretically possible as the author goes into great depth expounding on all of the science in the book. In a way the book reminds me of Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, and Hank Reardon's battle with those who oppose his steel, because the concept of a Pillar to the sky quickly garners opposition from those who want to preserve the status quo and are frightened of the "disruptive technology" such an undertaking represents.

Gary Morgan and Eva Petrenko first met as interns assigned to Erich Rothenberg at the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, and it was there that they first began to work on the theory of a space elevator. Their dream is to open up space with it's limitless possibilities to mankind, as well as benefiting man with the boom in new technologies that are certain to come from this, just as the Apollo missions led to technological innovations. Eighteen years later, as they appear before a Senate committee to appeal for more funding, they learn that the program is to be shut down. As the now married couple meet with their old mentor, Erich, he informs them that he wants them to meet someone, and their lives take on renewed purpose. The "someone" is Franklin Smith, a dot-com billionaire, and he recruits them to fulfill their dream, but this time for his company instead of NASA.

I have to admit that, not being of an engineering frame of mind, a great deal of the science and engineering involved in the book went straight over my head, but I was still fascinated with the action and human drama in the story. The arguments posited in favor of the Pillar were inspiring, and the arguments against it typical of nay-sayers who prefer to adhere to the old ways of doing things, again, reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged. A great, inspiring read!

I found this book in the clearance section of Barnes and Noble and was excited to get it for a great price! The cover and description on the back cover immediately grabbed my attention prompting me to pick it up. I was a little wary of reading it after I read some of the previous reviews posted on the store however, I decided to give it a chance and I'm glad I did. I'm proud to give this book 4 stars as it was a gripping story wrapped around a fantastic concept.

Pillar to the Sky centers around a not-so-distant future when the world can no longer rely on fossil fuels for power. It's inevitable that man must look to the stars soon in order to expand our world and our capabilities as a race. Those who don't realize that should really pick up this book. Although it's pure fiction, it makes valid arguments and counterpoints that apply to today's politics. I'm not someone who regularly enjoys politics and at some points throughout this book, I did become a little tired of the banter, however, it was necessary to the story. Mr. Forstchen puts in just enough to keep the reader well informed and knowledgeable on the subject at the hand.

If you're looking for a great science fiction novel that is heavily centered around a futuristic idea, and a plan to take man back into space, then you should get this book. It's not heavy on action and at times can be a little dry, however, it makes up for it with its emotion, intensity, and message that we need to find a new source of clean energy....and FAST!

With all the problems facing Earth there’s only one place left to go - the sky. The space program has been gone for years but dreamers Gary Morgan, his wife Eva, and their daughter Victoria have plans to resume travel to the stars.

As graduate students, Gary and Eva conceive a plan to get humans back into space. They’ve thought of space elevator and have an ideas on how to get it implemented. With the help of their mentor Erich Rosenberg and billionaire Franklin Smith the couple will do all the research to make this dream a reality even though there are politicians and businesses against them.

As daughter Victoria gets older she becomes a true believer in what her parents need to do to get humanity above the clouds again and somehow get the space elevator into fruition.

“Pillar in the Sky” by William R. Forstchen is not the first book that talks about a space elevator. Kim Stanley Robinson, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter, and Terry Pratchett are just a few writers who have mentioned an elevator like this in their books.

The concept of a space elevator was first proposed as far back as 1895, possibly earlier. In fact, a study says that an elevator like this could be built by 2035. This concept has always fascinated me. In a way, the coward that I am would love to go to Mars one day or at least the moon so when I heard about “Pillar in the Sky” I had to read it and find out what William R. Forstchen had to say about this possibility.

The book was filled with science that not surprisingly went way above my head. I tried to pay attention to what was being explained but I kind of kept drifting. The storyline was better. I liked the dynamics between the main characters Gary, Eva, and Victoria Morgan. Their dream was to help humanity and get the world back into space travel. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with them. Some politicians were afraid that many people would lose their jobs if something like this were allowed to happen, others were afraid of the concept, and others were just naysayers in general.

The three protagonists fought for years to start the program and met with all kinds of problems along the way. Without the help of a few powerful friends they never would have gotten as far as they did. But they constantly had to prove themselves to the world.

Look, I liked this book. I like space travel. I like the idea of going to different planets. I also know this will never happen in my lifetime but I can dream about it and read books by authors who dream about it too.

The main problem I had with this novel was that it was very slow at times. Yeah, the science of it slowed down the reading for me but I guess you have to have the science for people who care about it. To me the slow parts were also the long speeches that the characters gave.

On the other hand the best parts were the space scenes. Now those were great and the pages flew by while I was reading them.

There is some gore, not much, but some gore because accidents do happen in space so it made sense to add in those scenes. I read those areas kind of fast because I’m not a gore-loving type of reader.

“Pillar in the Sky” is a good book if you like the idea of space travel, how to get up there, and the science behind it. If science is above your head, like it is to me, the plot line is interesting but you’ll wish for more of it.

Warning, warning Will Robinson, the novel has 400 pages to it but give it a go if you like the genre.

I offer two stars because the idea of the pillar and how it might work with today's technology are thought provoking. However, the story is so poorly told, there's not much else to be excited about. I listed the one positive, so here are the negatives:

1. There is excruciating background detail on the characters to show you how committed they are. You could skip the first 1/3 of the book and not miss out on any of this. We get it, they devoted their entire lives to this cause.
2. The characters give tons of speeches that don't advance the story. One or two are fine, but they are repetitive and preachy. In other words, lots of fluff. I'm ok with fluff if it paints a clearer picture or adds depth, but most of it is repeated.
3. The antagonists of the story aren't very convincing. There is a stereotypical college professor, senator, and rouge country, but there is very little tension to leave the outcome in question.
4. All decisions are black and white with obvious answers. It makes the characters feel unrealistic.
5. There is a really annoying habit of referring to famous people not by their names, but by reference only. For example, "That famous actor from a popular space movie", "the billionaire space loving brit". These characters are referenced over and over again without names. If you can't use their name due to copyright, then make up your own character. The approach used here is fingernails-on-the-chalkboard annoying.

I came to this book with high expectations after enjoying One Second After and can't believe the same author created both. The people who love this book seem to have a nostalgic connection to the space program. If you weren't alive for the "glory days", never worked or lived near NASA, I doubt you will like this book.

I loved this story, a very long narrative and a lot of technical stuff is explained throughout the story, but it must be provided. How the author brought the story from young minds to a generation later was awesome. The story had plenty of twist, high stress situations, and as a read I felt total devotion to the Morgan family trying to build the pillar. It made me think of how close are we to building this or could we even build it.

The book did a lot of explanation as to what was happening in the world and why. The author did a lot of research for this story.

A well organized story. I listened to this on audio and the narrator was pretty good. Understood ever word and provided smooth transitions. A must read or listen to book.

Forstchen is right, our civilization is at a dead end with respect to advancing without destroying ourselves and we do need something like a CNT tower. I gave it a five star rating for this reason, though there were a few missteps:

Early in the book, Franklin asks Gary & Eva what they think of anthropogenic climate change, and Eva replies that she thinks it's a "billion dollar scam". This was a bad mistake on Forstchen's part and I'm glad that he didn't continue to go in that direction. No intelligent scientist denies that man is responsible for climate change and the fact that Eva voiced such an ignorant opinion discredits her and the image of a super-intellect that Forstchen was trying to build Eva up to be. If he wanted to bring a little bit of the climate "debate" into the book, he should of picked someone of lower intellectual caliber to carry that banner. Nearly any Republican is available for that task, and Forstchen missed an opportunity to call "the party of the stupid" out for what they are.

Secondly, Forstchen says that building the tower would save Kiribati and other countries with a low sea level by abating sea level rise due to climate change. He says that this will be accomplished by switching-over to solar energy from fossil fuels. While reducing and eventually eliminating the burning of fossil fuels is what must be done, it is far too late to save countries like Kiribati. Global warming will continue to rise for hundreds of years and our atmosphere will be stuffed with ice-melting greenhouse gases for at least a thousand years as clearly stated in a report by NOAA a few years ago. Typically, our wonderful press turned this report into a ten second sound bite instead of what should have been a blaring warning. Arctic tundra areas will continue to melt, exposing millions of square miles of vegetation that will decay and release methane. The world's glacier fields will continue to melt and the massive Antarctic icecap will cause a steady rise in sea level. Forstchen should have known better than to try to push the Pollyanna lie that we can stop global warming overnight simply by switching to solar. The next time you see a Republican, thank them with a kick in the butt for not having the balls to take responsibility for screwing up the planet.

I didn't like the constant veiled references to God. Lots of references to praying, and a spiritual presence. And, passages like "your father (who was dead) is proud of you at this moment", weaken the scientific appeal of the book. Most real scientists are atheists and wouldn't be caught dead praying and thinking that their deceased loved ones are watching them.

If the book were a movie, it would get a G rating. Eva and Victoria never "get their oats" as John Lennon would say. That, and my previous comment about the many references to God, should make this readily accessibly to the supernatural crowd. For these reasons, I found much of the book boring, and speed-read many of the parts. Example, I have no interest in learning the details of Victoria's flying lessons. I was more interesting in some hay in the hangar action but it never came.

I enjoyed the speeches by our heroes Franklin, Eva and Victoria. They reminded me of the speeches by John Galt and his followers in Atlas Shrugged, which asked mankind to rise above their baser instincts and embrace the future. Indeed, we must embrace the future and dramatically increase NASA' budget, while at the same time, dramatically increase our war on fossil fuels. I knew that before I read the book.

My criticisms are such that I would normally give a book like this a two star rating because, as a novel, it fails to impress me. But Forstchen succeeded in a very big way to describe space elevator (SE) technology and the many support technologies in such great detail that I forgave him the above transgressions. He obviously researched SE very well and made me believe that SE could be possible within 100 years, though Forstchen thinks it could be done in less than 20 if there are some breakthroughs in CNT. A notable Japanese company says that they will be able to produce CNT strong enough to build a SE in 38 years. I would conservatively double or triple that estimate. Another criticism that I can levy on Forstchen is that he failed to mention the other nanotubes technologies that are being research,e.g., boron nitride nanotubes, silicon nanotubes, etc. This would have enhanced his credibility as a researcher.

This book will be easier to understand if you reference the Wikipedia articles on space elevators, space elevator construction, and several related articles while reading this book. Strangely, though the Wikipedia article references lots of literature on space elevators, it fails to mention this book, which is the only thorough fictional imagining of a space elevator.

Don’t expect “Pillar to the Sky” to be the sort of sci-fi with aliens, time travel to other galaxies, etc. This is the story of a loving, exceptional family and their friends who undertake the monumental task –and fulfill a dream– of building a tower (space elevator) 1000’s of miles into outer space.
It is well written and easy to follow with edge of your seat tension–as the project is fraught with “Murphy’s law” occurrences. The characters are wonderful and believable. Their interplay with politicians and critics is realistic and typically exasperating; you’ll want to scream.

The premise of global warming, the depletion of earth’s fossil fuels and the promise of a better future and survival of mankind were the motivation, incentive and justification for building a space elevator. It would not only result in harnessing
limitless solar energy, but a re-birth of space exploration through a cost efficient means of getting into space.

Kudos to Forstchen. His view of the future is thought provoking and plausible.
5 Stars

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

While reading William R. Forstchen’s Pillar to the Sky, I kept thinking this is what would have happened if, back in the 1960’s, NASA had commissioned Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein to co-write a story that would get Americans excited about space exploration… and then forgot to send it to an editor. Pillar to the Sky has an exciting premise and an appealing nostalgic feel, but it’s marred by some annoying editorial issues.

The story is about a couple of innovative scientists — Ukranian Eva Morgan and her husband Gary Morgan — who want to build an equatorial space elevator à la Arthur C. Clarke’s in The Fountains of Paradise. The proposed “pillar” would make it easier and cheaper to get people into space and they’d be able to launch exploratory space missions without the need for so much expensive rocket fuel since the pillar, using the Earth’s angular momentum, would act as a sort of catapult. Also, the Morgans plan to attach solar panels to the pillar so that they can harness the sun’s energy to not only power the elevator, but also Earth’s cities.

Politicians in Washington D.C. think the Morgans are crazy, but the couple finds a financial backer in Franklin Smith, a California billionaire. Together, with the help of an international team of scientists, they set out to bring their bizarre idea to fruition. Along the way there will be triumphs and failures, both for the Morgans and for the world. Like so many other grand schemes in history, such a victory for mankind will require plenty of blood, sweat, and tears.

I’ve always loved the notion of a space elevator since I read Clarke’s book years ago so, though I recognized Forstchen’s idea as an old one, I nonetheless enjoyed revisiting the idea. I was particularly interested in the structural engineering aspect of the story since my son wrote a high-school thesis about graphene a couple of years ago and we talked about how that substance might work for Clarke’s elevator. Also exciting is the idea of powering the Earth by putting solar panels in space — it just seems like such an obvious answer to our energy problems. If these sorts of topics aren’t of interest to you, you’ll probably be bored with Pillar to the Sky.

The story has such a wholesome optimistic feel — much like a Heinlein Juvenile. Readers who find those types of stories pleasantly nostalgic are likely to appreciate this. Others may be annoyed that almost all of the characters (excepting some of the politicians) are intelligent, educated, hard-working, patriotic middle-class Americans. (Even the people from different countries seem like intelligent, educated, hard-working, patriotic middle-class Americans.) There are a couple of references to “air-headed bimbos in Hollywood” and “egotistical Grammy winners” which gives the story a slightly unpleasant elitist tone.

Pillar to the Sky sometimes feels like a fundraiser for NASA. There are speeches to congress and regular reminders of how NASA has benefitted us and how we should expect occasional setbacks and even deaths because previous major human accomplishments, such as the transcontinental railroad, had setbacks and failures, too. Later in the story, when the pillar needs to be defended from terrorists, we see why world governments, rather than private citizens, need to be in charge of such huge international projects. I’m all for funding NASA, but when I’m reading a book I don’t want to feel like I’m being lobbied. (As I understand it, NASA was involved in the book’s publication.)

I’m not sure what happened with the editing, but it’s atrocious in places. Some of the ideas, lectures, and images become repetitive. The world “literally” is used incorrectly. Chapter 18, the climax of the story, is a mess with repetitive phrases and jumbled up action sequences. Related to this is a writing style that doesn’t live up to the majesty and wonder that Forstchen tries to portray. He seems aware of this deficit because in more than one scene Gary Morgan laments that he doesn’t have the right words to describe what he’s experiencing in space. That’s a little disappointing.

Still, despite my complaints, I enjoyed Pillar to the Sky for its optimism and can-do attitude. I listened to the audiobook which was produced by Blackstone Audio. It’s 15.5 hours long. Grover Gardner narrates and he’s always terrific.

This book was a lot of fun to read and I'm happy with 95% of it. The plot was intriguing and highly entertaining, but what bugged me the most was the author's writing style, which is a bit clumsy and unwieldly at times. Like bad grammar or just poor word choice, and sometimes even wrong punctuation. This is something that any decent copy-editor would've caught and corrected. I'm kinda surprised a major publishing house like Tom Doherty Associates let some of these mistakes through:

pg 201: "Throw the locks!" the mission controller and Franklin shouted. [awkward wording]

pg 230: Fortunately the one that did fail four minutes into flight, carried a cargo of wire.... [incorrect comma placement]

pg 314: "My parents taught me never to say what I want to say to some of you right now trying to tell us what to do with our own lives and this project we believe in." [rambling unclear run-on sentence]

pg 368: But she had argued that even if they lost the link she dreamed of after even but a few days of operation... [awkward syntax, the word "even" used twice in the same sentence]

After absolutely loving "One Second After" and "One Year After" I was very excited to read Forstchen again; only this time I was met with disappointment. Compared to the fast paced world of the other two books, this book was more of a research paper, coupled with investment pitches, with a side of plot. I struggled to get through the first half of the book, and after skimming a few of the later chapters determined it wasn't worth finishing.

If you're looking for a "razor-sharp thriller", as one of the reviews on the back of the book state, look elsewhere. The first half of this book, which primarily focused on the woes of getting new, controversial technology to market, could have easily been condensed into a few chapters.

I'm old enough to have watch the first space flight and the first moon landing. The first and last shuttle launches. I would like to be around to see the next generation, Mag-lift. I also had knowledge of some of the technical data that he uses in this book.It will be a new age for space exploration. It's too bad that will be people against this. Especially the energy companies, suck as oil, coal, and nuclear. Afraid of change or that their pockets not filled with money anymore. The story is one of the best that I have read in a long time. It really had me guessing as to which direction it was heading. Once again outstanding book, wait for his next one to come out.

When I was growing up, we were told of the moon program, we can spend the money to go to the moon or we could give everyone in the country $5. Thankfully, except for one bratty elementary school classmate who wanted the five bucks, the rest of us wanted to go to the moon.
A space elevator(a concept that has existed for a long time), could be the next big Apollo sized project. It could, but it won't. When we have a president who never thinks beyond the next election(unless it personally benefits himself, you know the $5 will be used to buy votes instead. If we had a leader who could think beyond the next election and think big, who knows what we could achieve. This book describes one such vision of the future. Bravo.

I really was enthralled by this book, particularly the second half. There were times when the first half dragged a little, but the latter half made up for it. Well written, superbly researched, one only wishes that there was a space tower under construction right now.

You'll note some real-life characters appearing in this book under assumed names, or in one case, no name at all, just The Brit. It's okay, you'll know who they are if you have half a brain and are more than twelve years old.

And for the younger readers, and their science teachers, this might give some insight into how to engage young people in the hard sciences, to draw their interest to the infinite possibilities waiting for us in space.

As one character said, in substance, "Earth is our cradle. It is time to leave the cradle." The stars are waiting for us.

I had a hard time actually picturing in my head what was being built (when I read, the words play out as a movie in my head). The story, as a whole, was okay. The dream, the obstacles to get there, the time it takes to achieve something so.... unreachable. Those were the things that I looked forward to, and got them in a lukewarm way. I wanted to be more invested in the characters and feel their frustration, joys and heartaches with them as they tried to make their dreams come true, and that was missing. This story seems to be more about the Pillar and less about the people, blood, sweat, tears, money and years that it took to make a dream a reality. This is why I can't give it more stars.

I often wonder how and when NASA and space exploration became dull and unimportant. I remember the promise of space during my childhood---John Glenn orbiting Earth 3 times!!!--the first space walk---Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon. After a few more flights to the moon, the US turned its back on its big goals for further exploration. I remember how disappointed I was as a young nerd as the space program seemed to get boring.
This book tells an interesting story about a possible approach to reentry to space exploration. Forstchen weaves an interesting story, combining technology, history, politics with some believable characters.

This book is a glimpse of what I hope our future holds. It is about the politics, the science, and the personal battles likely to be involved in raising (or should I say lowering) a "space elevator". While it does discuss the science involved, this is not a science text. This book is one hell of a good story, with some twists that I did not see coming. If you have read "One Second After" you should enjoy this book, if not, get both.

If you are looking for science based books I recommend: The Space Elevator: A Revolutionary Earth-to-Space Transportation System by Bradley C. Edwards or Mining The Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John S. Lewis

Interesting story idea. I really liked the authors previous book One Seconded After and enjoyed. For the most part I enjoyed the book. Good characters, well stated premise, nice drama. The author does a good job of laying out the problem and getting the reader to care about the characters. Like his previous work he is good at putting in the tear jerk moments. The negative, the book was a bit wordy in stating and defending the vision of the future and reasons for NASA and private ventures. Book would have been a tighter more enjoyable read if done less political talk and built in more drama.

Overall enjoyable read.

The explanations are so good I think I understand the science. It refuel my enthusiasm and hope for the future. The characters are people I really like. Every time I see a new book by him, I want to read it. The EMP series was the books that got my attention. Now I am hooked.

I listened to the audio of this book. I wanted to read it because I try to keep up with science, on a layperson level, and had read about the possibility of a space elevator. I did learn quite a bit about the technology involved in creating it. I was disappointed in the story line, however. Much of the book was political commentary on global warming, congress not funding NASA, etc. The actual story line lacked compelling action. I found it was repetitive. I do have a better understanding of what it would take to complete such a project so I am glad I listened to the book. If I had listened to the novel for entertainment, I would have been disappointed.

I'm a big fan of William Forstchen and have read several of his books. This was decent but not quite the page turner of One Second After or One Year After. I love the concept and had always thought a space elevator to be not only total science fiction but also never saw the point but after reading this book it really opens up the possibilities. I don't know that it could ever be accomplished in my lifetime but I'd love to see someone try.

Not really into sci-fi but the author did such a great job tying it into current events and current technology that it was an easy read. His character build-up was amazing and I easily bought into each character's roles and couldn't wait to get back to what they were doing whenever I had to put the book down. By the end, my emotions rode with each of the characters and their actions, which i feel is a great testament to a writer. I defy you to read this book and not feel the passion the author put into each of the principle characters.

There are some decent scenes in here and some really interesting details on how a space elevator could actually work. But the language was sometimes tedious, the facility with handling emotion in the characters was often lacking and I sometimes had the urge to just stop reading. It's mixed. I don't feel like I wasted my time but I'd have trouble really recommending it.

I had high hopes. But they've fallen so far since The Lost Regiment series. Why does it seem that the more main stream something is the less substantial? Oh well. Not a bad read but like others have stated; very redundant. Also, I get what the author is beating into our heads about awareness for space research but is NASA really our savior? I have doubts. This book was more a propaganda piece than novel; warning us against the threat of not supporting NASA because of their past greatness with the Apollo missions.

Spoiler: Is putting more junk above our heads, like miles and miles of cable and solar panels really a wise idea? It comes across as telephone poles in the sky.

"Pillar to the Sky" is a 180 degree departure from "One Second After". One Second After was a gripping, plausible scenario following a very real threat to our civilization. Pillar to the Sky is an attempt to combine a basic formula written thriller with science fiction. It is not successful.

This formula written thriller has all the required parts: incredibly wealthy man, brilliant and courageous women, one brilliant man, villains posing threats, and streams of situations threatening imminent disaster but being miraculously resolve just in time. And a happy ending as well, as required.

Reading became tedious early on because of the nearly continuous technobabble. I have a graduate technical degree, but was so tired of the monotonous technobabble I had to force myself to keep reading past the middle, all the way to the end. A science fiction writer has license to make many assumptions, but good science fiction never asks you to accept obviously absurd premises. This invokes several glaringly ridiculous premises, including replacing ALL energy with electricity, oil prices rising to $225/bbl in the 2020s because the world is rapidly running out of producible oil, and rising sea levels because of man's CO2 emissions. A little research prior to writing this book would have eliminated these embarrassing elements.

The novel follows a very plausible future for the evolution of a space elevator. The problem is that it *reads* like it was written after all of this was accomplished. The science is well-backed, the story progression logical, the obstacles almost predictable.

My net opinion is that this is excellent speculative fiction in the Campbell mode, but without sufficient mystery.

One second after is a great book and I wanted to explore the author other works. This is a yawner. I think the target for this are people looking for emotionally driven sci-fi and eco idiots. Good start and character development, then is seems to lose focus and become dependent on tear jerker moments and keeping you engaged by hoping you have or will buy into climate change logic. Also I think the author got paid by apple for Ipad product placement. I liked how the author dealt with the obstacles to such a massive and world changing project, such as politics, planning and the media. The book really became long winded to the end and felt like he was struggling to express how grand and potentially world changing such a project could be. Overall it was a decent book but from his high point this is mundane.

The story starts out pretty well, and I don't mind using my imagination with a science fiction story, but the science behind the main subject of the story is a stretch. Okay, call me a pessimist. If you open your mind to the fantasy part of science fiction stories, and close "that can't happen" senses, then the book offers an entertaining story and a lesson of human ingenuity.

So much of what I read about humanity's future from science authors leaves me sad and a little depressed. With Pillar to the Sky I walk away hopeful. William Forstchen has given us believable, passionate about their cause and totally believable characters. He has created a story that leaves me thinking about the possibilities long after I had finished the book.I don't want to go into any detail about the book because it's not fair to those who are interested in possibly reading it. Suffice it to say that you won't be disappointed. You'll be entertained, informed and hopeful that it may still be possible in our lifetimes to reach for the stars.

The story and characters are OK. Nothing spectacular, but readable. However, if you're the kind of person who puts down a book and reaches for a calculator or starts a spreadsheet, the book raises some questions:

If the initial wire is 2mm in diameter and 40,000km long, it will have a volume of 125 to 160 cubic meters, depending on how well it packs onto the spool. That would require a spool with 4m outer diameter, 1m inner diameter and about 12m long. I guess that's possible, but the book doesn't really describe the spool that well.

The book never tells us the wire density. The weight of the 125 cubic meters is a critical element of the story, since it has to be raised to geostationary orbit.

Worst, of all, the wire is touted as having both tremendous tensile and compressive strength. If that's the case, how do you wind it onto a spool of reasonable diameter? If you do manage to wind it on the spool, think of the amount of energy stored in that tightly wound spool! This is where the wider and thinner tape mentioned as stage two makes sense. It should wind onto spools better as there would be much less difference between the inner and outer diameters of a layer on the spool.

I'm kinda sad I spent money on this. I made it a little less than half of the way through and it's just not getting better. For me is just too technical. I feel like I'm in an engineering class. Some may like that, but I'm bored. Not for me.

What's more to say? If you like Forstchen you'll look past his attempts to fourth wall breaking, forced dialog where characters try to convince each other of something they already believe or understand while trying to school us.

The science and vision of the future, though, is the thing that the dreams and hopes of space enthusiasts everywhere are based in.

Like One Second After, I thought this story was a great fiction run, but close enough to real life to get you thinking. For me, it started a little slow, but once I got invested in the characters I couldn't put it down.

I enjoyed Pillar to the Sky. While the beginning was somewhat hard to get through because of all the technical explanations, it was worth continuing on to the end. It has a wonderful storyline for dreamers as well as romantics. Beware that you may need to have tissues close at hand!

A thrilling entanglement of science fiction meeting science. Possibility more so bringing the Pillar to life with its outstretched web feeding its gigawatts of power to the earth below, but tens of millions of gigawatts of emotion that take you from wonderment through being "home" as Dr Morgan truly believed she was.

The author dares to dream. This story has the characters that one can live with and feel for. He makes a good case for this solution to get to space and makes a fine book out it. This was one of those books that are with you during meals, eating and reading, what happened to my sandwich.

I enjoyed the premise and the overall story, and as a fan of NASA myself, I appreciated the reverance paid toward it. But the author was overly verbose to the point of boredom in some places, the characters while likeable, lacked nuance, and it was melodramatic in places.

I enjoyed Pillar to the Sky. While the beginning was somewhat hard to get through because of all the technical explanations, it was worth continuing on to the end. It has a wonderful storyline for dreamers as well as romantics. Beware that you may need to have tissues close at hand!

A thrilling entanglement of science fiction meeting science. Possibility more so bringing the Pillar to life with its outstretched web feeding its gigawatts of power to the earth below, but tens of millions of gigawatts of emotion that take you from wonderment through being "home" as Dr Morgan truly believed she was.

The author dares to dream. This story has the characters that one can live with and feel for. He makes a good case for this solution to get to space and makes a fine book out it. This was one of those books that are with you during meals, eating and reading, what happened to my sandwich.

I enjoyed the premise and the overall story, and as a fan of NASA myself, I appreciated the reverance paid toward it. But the author was overly verbose to the point of boredom in some places, the characters while likeable, lacked nuance, and it was melodramatic in places.

I liked his last book. This one was way too techie for me. It was awkward with tons of exposition and speechmaking for dialogue. Only the fascinating premise for the book works. It is all uphill from there.

Even if sci-fi isn’t your thing, Pillar to the Sky, will draw you in and make you want more. The idea that we could create an elevator to space seems so far-fetched … of course that is what people thought when we talked about landing on the Moon and Mars too. William Forstchen has mastered the art of storytelling and I hope Hollywood is taking note because this book is definitely big screen worthy!

I stumbled across William Forstchen when I read 1 Second After. I became hooked on his writing style and character development. I was almost disappointed when the book ended because I wanted to keep reading; Please William, give us a part 2!

This book is by a decent enough author but the book is one of his worst. The book constanly jumps back n forth in time frames ,the characters good n bad are one dimensional the writing is on a basic letter w too many cheap phrases n constant rehashing of characters n events the science is weak. This is more like a fantasty tale where the good guys save the world even if the evil world doesnt want to be saved. Forstchen can write good books. but sadly this is not one of them

It was a bit long, but quite imaginative and informative. This should give NASA a boost, which I would like to see. Our country should consider this Pillar to the Sky technology for funding, perhaps joined with corporate funding. It could be as important for our efforts to curb global warming as it is to improve space exploration.

I was very disappointed by this book. It is little more than a advocacy for funding NASA. The plot is thin and not compelling. The prose is poorly written. I kept thinking that the story would interest me and it never did.

Engaging characters and interesting concepts. Found myself opening my mind to possibilities. Just days after I finished the novel the news announced the tragic Richard Branson aircraft crash due to pilot error. The parrellel lines of fiction and reality were viscerally startling!

The topic of this novel, the space elevator, is timely and relevant, but the author should have given his mms over to an editor for culling; at times this work reads as a primer for Tsiolkovsky's proposal rather than a sci-fi novel. The author indulges himself in relentless, boring, word-spinning that does nothing to advance his plot. My personal feeling is that the word count should have been reduced by at least a factor of 2 or 3 -- and that the result would have been much more satisfactory.

It's an interesting story that has been offered in several scientific publications as possible. However this book leaves many unanswered questions and the reading public at a loss of of understanding ofmany issues.

It's an interesting story that has been offered in several scientific publications as possible. However this book leaves many unanswered questions and the reading public at a loss of of understanding ofmany issues.

First of all, I am glad that I borrowed this book from my local library instead of paying the ridiculously high $10 for the Kindle edition of the book. The high price is particularly outrageous compared to the the $3 for the much better "One second after" book also written by Forstchen.

I could not finish the book. It is little more than a book length public relations screed for NASA in general and their Goddard center in particular. It is not even good public relations and is written at the same level about our "dedicated public servant (sarcasm)" NASA bureaucrats as a Tiger Beat article about the latest boy band.

I wonder whether Forstchen was paid to do the book by Goddard? Goddard does not do much space work, that is mostly out of JPL for unmanned and Johnson Space Center for manned. Instead Goddard is home to James Hansen (now retired) and his climate change alarmists. These people also run a propaganda website realclimate.org out of Goddard that is paid for by the taxpayers so I would not put it past them to commission and pay him for writing the book.

The book is shot through with propaganda. Forstchen goes on and on about the coming shortage of oil. Well, tell that to the people of North Dakota. There are now environmentally sound ways to extract virtually unlimited amounts of clean natural gas. See a recent article in The Atlantic that we will soon be able to extract natural gas from ice deposits at the bottom of the ocean. As a result countries like Japan and Israel can now become energy independent.

The interesting thing is that environuts like Forstchen wring their hands about this because they think it is too much of a good thing for the unointed common people who do not jet off to the latest IPCC meeting in private planes to tell us to reduce our consumption of energy.

Forstchen also dismisses nuclear energy with another Tiger Beat argument. After all none of the cool people like it. Actually, it is the only feasible source of energy that does not depend on fossil fuels. As Germany and Japan and other countries that overreacted to the Fukushima power plant incident, where no one died except one middle aged engineer who died of a heart attack, have found, the only alternative to nuclear plants is coal-fired plants that are so dirty that they release many times more radiation from trace elements in the coal than nuclear power. Even James Hansen is now on board with nuclear energy since he realizes that the so-called renewable sources do not have a chance to provide the amount of 24/7 power required by our society. Wind and solar are also extremely damaging to the environment requiring huge amounts of materials to construct and taking up large tracts of land that displace many animals and plants.

The shame of it is that the cable idea could have been a decent science fiction book. It is probably the only way that humans can achieve our destiny to populate the universe. If Mr. Forstchen thinks carbon dioxide pollution is bad how about the emissions from the number of rocket engine boosters required for any real presence off earth. But then he does not have a science background.

In conclusion, even if you are a dedicated climate change alarmist, I think you should save your money to buy Algore's latest. The book is written, as others have noted, at about a 14 old level with cardboard cutout characters. It is extremely wordy and proceeds so slowly that I found it unreadable.