Solar Express
Written by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Narrated by Robert Fass
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
The discovery of a strange artifact by Dr. Alayna Wong precipitates a crisis. What appears to be a hitherto undiscovered comet is soon revealed to be an alien structure on a cometary trajectory toward the sun. Now there is a race between countries to see who can study and control the artifact dubbed the "Solar Express" before it perhaps destroys itself.
Leading the way for the North American Union is Alayna's friend Captain Christopher Tavoian, one of the first shuttle pilots to be trained for combat in space. But, as the alien craft gets closer to its destination, it begins to alter the surface of the sun in strange new ways, ways that could lead Alayna to revolutionary discoveries-provided that Chris can prevent war from breaking out as he navigates among the escalating tensions between nations.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the bestselling author of the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce, Corean Chronicles, and the Imager Portfolio. His science fiction includes Adiamante, the Ecolitan novels, the Forever Hero Trilogy, and Archform: Beauty. Besides a writer, Modesitt has been a U.S. Navy pilot, a director of research for a political campaign, legislative assistant and staff director for a U.S. Congressman, Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues, and a college lecturer. He lives in Cedar City, Utah.
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Reviews for Solar Express
34 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Less than ten years after publication elements of the story have become anachronistic, such as limited data communication in space.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting and pretty well paced though, it was a bit repetitive due to the format. And it had to dress up the story in an ‘international’ crisis and technical glitches.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An astrophysicist stationed at a telescope on the far side of the moon makes an amazing discovery. He pen pal, a space pilot, is sent to check it out. But so are the Chinese (or in the book, the Sinese Federation), and they, apparently, are being run by a bunch of paranoid and war-mongering nut-jobs.
I liked some parts of this story.
-It does a good job at reminding us that dull, routine duties constitute the largest part of most jobs, even cool things like flying spaceships and running a space telescope.
-It has a fair amount of physics technobabble. Some of it is even plausible.
-There is relevant commentary about the long-term effects of the societal choices we are making in the U.S. now, specifically on energy, the economy, infrastructure, and the environment.
And some things just didn't work for me.
-The relationship between the two main characters didn't make a lot of sense. They met briefly, once, and began a (very) long distance personal relationship via space e-mail. Not impossible, but the basis for it is never satisfactorily explained.
-The paranoia of the Sinese makes no sense at all. Why are they so determined to start a global war? How did what amounts to inmates at a home for delusional sociopaths come to dominate the nation? Yes, I know it sometimes seems like the world is dominated by maladjusted six-year-olds, but these guys are loony.
-And then there's the prose. It seems, well, clunky, unpolished, sometimes verbose. Here's an example (from page 304) that kind of made me cringe: "The only explanation he could come up with for their explanation was that the hexagons below had projected some form of energy in a hexagonal field, but that field had spread slightly and manifested itself as a circle in whatever effect it had upon the substance of the hull." I think that sentence could use a bit of work.
-There are typos, especially in the snippets of space e-mail. I'm not sure if these are intentional to make them appear more realistic or if the editor just missed them.
The story bogs down in places and sometimes requires a bit of effort to get the meaning from the prose, but the protagonists are likable folks doing admirable work. Their story is a good one.