A very clever story that made me re-think one of my basic ideas on books I like. Normally, I love the scientific explanations, and to start with in this book I really did, and it was obvious that the author really knew his subject. However, as the book advanced and the story developed, I found myself skimming over the science to follow the action part of the story. I found the reporter and her antics unnecessary, and felt it added nothing to the story, as the other characters were fine as they were. The ideas, and the action part of the story were really great, and I did enjoy them.

Amazing novel! Well written and edited. A definite must for fans of the sci-fi genre.

This is an uncomfortable review to write. There are reasons I want to like the book: the idea of a big slingshot to send stuff to space is fascinating, the story could have been suspenseful, and more.

But I can't give this book more than 3 stars (using my consistent rating scale - see http://startupdj.com/book-rating-rules ).

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book (via Netgalley) in exchange for an honest review.

This book builds a story around a project to build a "Launch Loop" - a very large scale (1,800 km) slingshot that accelerates capsules from zero to launch earth escape velocity - in a horizontal direction (vs rocket-ship vertical). The project - and story - must surmount a combination of leviathan-sized technical challenges and saboteurs to succeed.

This premise holds interesting - but ultimately unfulfilled - potential. But sadly, the writing simply falls flat for me.

The characters have all the elements that you might want; super-capable project leads, nefarious and unlikeable villains, along with a cast of supporting characters. All the traits you would want these characters to have are dutifully given.

But they're just not presented in an interesting read. The descriptions seem flat, intellectual, and didn't generate affection (or dislike).

It's the same with the story line; it felt like it was taking a long time to make progress in the actual story, even though I was reading chapter after chapter. The adventure / suspense was simply missing. The elements are there; but the exciting writing is missing in action.

Sometimes I felt like I was reading an academic post-hoc analysis of the build project. The remainder of the time I felt like I was reading the foreward to the book; an interesting build-up to what I hope could be a good book; but the good book never materialized.

Then there is the problem the author faces in trying to describe the tech. Have you ever tried to read a text-description of something that took a long time to describe in words, but when you saw the image, you understood it immediately? This book suffers from this problem from end-to-end. There is a TON of descriptions of the way this slingshot device is built, and the author relished in using text to describe lots of detail. Sadly, I got bored of trying to construct the image of any given thing in my mind, and ended up skimming the description until the story picked up again. IMO, given the need to describe so much physical stuff, the author should have worked with an illustrator to get the things drawn up, and simply embedded those in the story - and shortened the descriptions.

One minor nit was the enormous suspension of disbelief that I had a hard time with on how quickly and flawlessly solutions to huge engineering challenges could be met. When 40km of heavy cable comes crashing down on you from the sky, it doesn't get cleared - and the structures under it rebuilt - in a week. The thorny solutions that are thought up by a single human, built in a couple of days from exotic materials that happen to be available at a nearby warehouse strained credibility. This book is too near-future to escape from the physical realities of tackling the challenges this project faced.

The only other thing that bugged me was the sex. I'm good with sex in books; most of us have it, and it is often a key element in stories. But the sex in this book (mostly) did absolutely nothing for the story. The bits of this thrown in were so gratuitous that it actually took away my affection for the characters, rather than increased it. I can't tell you why; it just diminished them rather than make them more likable, or human.

Despite this comparatively negative review, if you're a book-a-week reader, and want a nice distraction from an interesting idea, it's an ok read to zip through. Plus, I'll give the author another chance; the included teaser of the opening chapter of the author's next book sounded immediately better than the entire book Slingshot. I hope for good stuff.

Sorry, I wanted to love it. I was hoping for another _Fountains of Paradise_. But what I got was a story centered around an advanced but hard-fact technology... in which even that technology wasn't explained well enough for the reader to really envision the structure and functioning of the system. More and better explanation was needed, perhaps accompanied by more diagrams of the system as a whole and its various parts.

Then there's the trashy, gratuitous sexual pandering. There are maybe six more or less important female characters. Four of them are NFL-cheerleader-gorgeous. And all are male-adolescent-fantasy hot to trot. The only reporter apparently allowed near the project is a bisexual nymphomaniac, who flagrantly uses her flirtatious sexuality to manipulate everyone around her. And the project managers don't seem to mind her presence or behavior at all.

None of that adds anything worthwhile to the thrust of the story.

The nefarious mega-funded organization that is trying to destroy the project sends the SAME saboteur THREE different times. The first time he was seen and conversed with at some length by project personnel. So, naturally, the deep-pocket evil corporation sends the SAME guy back, this time to infiltrate and work for months in close proximity to many of the people who caught him the first time... and who never recognize him until it's too late. Somehow that unwitting pawn (of North Korea!), totally inexperienced in construction, gained enough knowledge of high-iron type construction in a few weeks to pass as an inspector of the work.

His sabotage is only partially successful,. He is recognized and recaptured, but sprung by his evil organization, who send him back yet again, to re-infiltrate, this time with some slight effort at disguise. Of course his devilish work is discovered (at the last possible second--how else?) and he is only then recognized as the same saboteur who worked up close and personal with these very men, whom he tried to murder a couple of months previously.

While we're at it, let's mention the project general manager (a hunk, of course) and chief engineer (a real babe, of course) who personally handle the dangerous underwater inspection and repair work. Yeah, that's realistic.

Before you read this, read Clarke's _Fountains of Paradise_. Then skip _Slingsot_. You'll be greatly disappointed if you're expecting a story of anywhere close to the same quality.

The science portion of the narrative was overly complex, and the character development was uneven.