All of the usual criticisms non-SF readers usually have of the genre simply do not apply in these books. It's real literature, not space opera or MacGuyverish gee-whiz techno-babble. There are some very cool scientific ideas, but they're a part of the story, rather than the story being an excuse to play with them. The characters are highly memorable and likeable. You feel like you get to know them quite well over the course of the story, and when Bad Things happen, it's very affecting because of that.
The story is epic, but above all believable. I think that's what really did it for me. The books paint a picture of humankind's future that's not only possible, but quite believable. It's not a Star Trek utopia or a 1984 dystopia, it's the real world, where progress doesn't come deus ex machina, and who the Bad Guys are can be very subjective. The characters are multi-dimensional, like real people. Really cool real people, most of them. People you'd like to know.
All that, and a space elevator. How can you go wrong?
The one mea culpa is that it takes a couple hundred pages of the first book before you really get a sense of what the situation is and who the players are. But if you like an intelligent story about a very interesting plausible future, then by halfway through the first book, you won't be able to put it down. |
