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Sunstorm (Gollancz S.F.)
 
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Sunstorm (Gollancz S.F.) (Paperback)

by Arthur C. Clarke (Author), Stephen Baxter (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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Sunstorm (Gollancz S.F.) + Time's Eye: A Time Odyssey Book One: Time's Eye Bk. 1 (Gollancz S.F.) + Firstborn: A Time Odyssey Book Three
Price For All Three: £15.31

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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz (13 April 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0575078014
  • ISBN-13: 978-0575078017
  • Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 18,944 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #3 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > C > Clarke, Arthur C. > Complete List
    #5 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > B > Baxter, Stephen

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Product Description

Product Description
The observatory on the moon has the proof. Life on earth will be incinerated in April 2037 by a massive solar flare. It is building down and it is unstoppable. With only 18 months until doomsday mankind must unite and embark on the most ambitious engineering project ever: the construction, at the La Grange point between the sun and the earth, of a deflecting mirror the diameter of our home planet. The price of failure? Extinction. One scientist, an expert on the sun, predicted the flare. One person who knew nothing about the sun nevertheless knew the exact date that life on earth would come to an end. She had witnessed the bizarre time dislocations brought by the 'eyes'. She knows who is responsible. This is hard SF in the grand tradition of the genre

About the Author
Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead in 1917. During the Second World War he served as a radar instructor for the RAF, rising to the rank of flight-lieutenant. After the war, he entered Kings college, London taking, in 1948, his Bsc in physics and mathematics with first class honours.One of the most respected of all science-fiction writers, he has won Kalinga Prize, the Aviation Space-Writers Prize and the Westinghouse Science Writing Prize. He also shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on his story, The Sentinel. He has lived in Sri Lanka since 1956. Stephen Baxter is the pre-eminent SF writer of his generation. Published around the world he has also won major awards in the UK, US, Germany, and Japan. Born in 1957 he has degrees from Cambridge and Southampton. He lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife. Stephen Baxter is the pre-eminent SF writer of his generation. Published around the world he has also won major awards in the UK, US, Germany, and Japan. Born in 1957 he has degrees from Cambridge and Southampton. He lives in Northumberland with his wife.

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Fight for survival, 26 Feb 2006
By Ross P. Gidman "Vampire fiction fan" (Lancashire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
In the first book the protagonists were first introduced to a fractured world, and struggled to come to terms with their changed circumstances. At the end of that book, one person was allowed to return to the home world that had been lost.

In this book, we get the returnee having to come to terms with what has happened. We also get the prospect of scientists realising what will happen, with one genius predicting what will happen to the earth during solar storms, and if the damage to the earth can be limited. They also discover the tampering done by an intelligence first introduced in the first book.

The interplay introduced between scientists, politicians, religions and people is nicely interwoven, and we get to see the best of humanity. We also get to see some of the more base reactions that humanity can produce, but thankfully these are rare. This book is more about a feel-good version of humanity, and what might be achieved if there is a common purpose.

The story woven is detailed enough to satisfy the curiosity of most, without being too detailed and thus boring. This book moves along at a faster pace than the first book, and has a greater sense of urgency. Due to the subject matter, this is appropriate. It is well written and involves the reader better than the first book did, and I enjoyed this book more.

I would recommend this book be read, but ONLY after the first book has been read, as otherwise some of the refences made may not make sense. It can be read independently, but may not then be as enjoyable.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable, very Clarkean read, 16 Jan 2007
By Teemacs (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This is the second book in the "Time Odyssey" (as opposed to "Space Odyssey") series. This time, those aliens who messed up the world's historical times in the earlier book are back, having in the normal timeline shot a Jupiter-sized planet into the sun thousands of years ago to cause a major solar eruption and the cleansing of the solar system of human life. As the line in "2001" puts it, "And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed". The attempts of humanity to avoid catastrophe with a daring technological innovation are the subject of this book, a typical logical Clarke outworking of the concept. And, in a delightful twist at the end (the sort of O. Henry-like flourish that Clarke seems to enjoy) the actions of the aliens, instead of destroying humanity to purify the solar system, serve to bring them into contact with humanity in a most unexpected way.

The two books really don't hang together as a series. They have in common British Army captain Bisela Dutt, who came back from the time-splintered world of the first book via the agency of the mysterious aliens who caused the whole mess and introduces to the world (or at least the great and good of the world) the idea that the coming sunstorm is not entirely a natural phenomenon. However, independently, they are great reading for all lovers of good science fiction.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Lacking flair?, 1 Oct 2006
By Lee A. Fox "foxalito" (Reading UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
A burst of activity from the sun, and communications across the world are disrupted. In London, the power outages dangerously disrupt the normal activities of the city. It is just the beginning. It is AD 2032.

In a message from a scientist on the moon, the Astronomer Royal learns this solar flare is the precursor of a sunstorm that threatens to wipe all life from the Earth in 5 years time. She must gather and lead a disparate group to prevent the unthinkable.

Baxter is a giant of hard SF. His best novels compare favourably with non-generic fiction. This, however, is not one of them. The natural heir to Arthur C. Clarke's mantel, their collaboration here is all the more disappointing.

The second outing in the Time Odyssey cycle, the usual Baxter preoccupations are there - an emergent humanity pitted against inscrutably ancient foes in a struggle on a cosmic scale. But here, it is a little forced, a little contrived and some times lacking cohesion. Baxter, for example - sometimes self-consciously - affords strong and central roles to his female characters. However, the litany of characters who are `the first woman to become...' Astronomer Royal/President of Eurasia/President of America, (fill in the blanks), is a device that wears a little thin. Nor is it clear what contribution Gisela, the dislocated soldier of the first novel Time's Eye, makes to actually move the narrative along. At best she is expository.

That said, whilst lacking the scope of other of Baxter's novels, Sunstorm is an engaging read with pace and momentum. Reminiscent of a 70's disaster movie, it brings together a diverse group of characters in the application of sheer grit to the defence of humanity. The graphic visuality of the sunstorm as it finally unfolds is fraught with suspense and a cold, otherworldly beauty.

The result is a sense, as so often with Baxter, of the fragility and of the contingency of the human condition. Does it work as a stand-alone novel? Probably not. But then, it is a credit to Baxter the lesser novels in his opus still prove better than most.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A C Clarke
This is the first in this series and has some very good A C Clarke moments. And as with many Clarke predictions, they are now turning up on programmes about Dec 2012. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. G. P. Barnett

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