IT ALL HAPPENED SO FAST
One minute the two space Hab astronauts were scoop-diving the atmosphere, the next they'd been shot down over the North Dakota Glacier and were the object of a massive manhunt by the United States government.
That government, dedicated to saving the environment from the evils of technology, had been voted into power because everybody knew that the Green House Effect had to be controlled, whatever the cost. But who would have thought that the cost of ending pollution would include not only total government control of day-to-day life, but the onset of a new Ice Age
Stranded in the anti-technological heartland of America, paralyzed by Earth's gravity, the "Angels" had no way back to the Space Habs, the last bastions of high technology and intellectual freedom on or over the Earth. But help was on its way, help from the most unlikely sources ....
Join # 1 national bestsellers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn in a world where civilization is on the ropes, and the environmentalists have created their own worst nightmare: A world of
Fallen Angels
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Product ReviewA big, sloppy butt-smooch to fen everywhere, especially the subset that think that knowing how to add and subtract makes them economists and knowing how to read a thermometer makes them climatologists. Still, it's an amusing read, if only for the glimpse it gives into fennish egos.
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Product ReviewVery enjoyable read.
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Product ReviewOriginally written/published back in '91/'92, I've been intending to read this for a long time, and just now got around to it. Wow, it is amazing how timely it is becoming with respect to luddite Greens promoting non-science, attacking real science that could help our energy problems, etc. The story is a combination of fugitive chase and cautionary tale. As such, it probably is guilty of exaggerating characters and threats a bit to sell the cautionary tale portion of the story. In short, luddite Greens have shut down 'inappropriate' science in the name of 'saving the Earth'. This leaves the various small habitats in orbit stranded and on their own. The Green politics of attempting to save Earth from Global Warming has led once again to a trip down Best Intentions Lane to the sudden onset of the long-delayed next Ice Age. Of course, just as Global Warming Believers are now claiming that anything that happens, be it increased floods, increased droughts, more hurricanes, less huricanes, etc. is actually proof that man-caused man-preventable Global Warming is REAL, the Greens of the novel claim that the mile-thick ice sheet that has swallowed Canada and begun to eat the northern US is actually the fault of Technology and capitalism, conveiniently forgetting that they got to power by claiming Technology and capitalism was causing Global Warming. After all, it's all 'climate change', right? So, with 'inappropriate technology' banned, scientists finding themselves hanged and burned right along with their books, SF writers, and fans being labeled as 'dangerous technophiles' who need to be 'helped' psychologically, and any of a number of technologies that could have saved Canada and the northern US from the glaciers being outright banned, the world has become a colder, bleaker place for hope and optimism in the future. It is into this state of affairs that two space-men are dropped when their craft is shot down over the glacier, and a small band of underground sci-fi fans scramble to rescue them, staying one step ahead of the Green police who want them for 'crimes against Earth and Humanity'. The neat thing is that the story makes reference to, and uses as a character, Gary Hudson, who has been and still is intimately involved with the civilian rocket and space plane development going on at Mojave today. At the time of writing in '91, Gary Hudson had merely had plans for a cheap, reusable rocket lifter, and the story tells of how he built a working prototype that the Greens shut down. It is this prototype which the space-men and their sci-fi fans hope to utilize in a bid to return the fugitives to orbit. However, in real life, Hudson really did build a prototype that made a few atmospheric test in the late '90s, and is currently working on real rocket craft at Mojave now, along with many others, including the Rutan's Scaled Composites (winner of the X-Prize for the first civilian craft in 'space'), XCOR, and many other small companies. The Aug. 2008 issue of Popular Mechanics, just out, has an article on Hudson and the other men and companies now working on civilian space craft at the 'Mojave Space Port'. It is very interesting to see real history playing out around us with people like Al Gore and his ilk leading us to the Green Luddite future on the one hand, and the men and women in the Mojave leading us to the future in space on the other. When the Gore's of this world shut down Mojave in the name of protecting the 'fragile ecosystem of the Moon', then this book will be the first on their 'burn list'.
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Product ReviewVery good story, I enjoyed it completely, I would recomend this book to anyone who is a sci-fi fan ;)
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