[.ca] Fallen Angels (ISBN 0743435826)

Underground Trekkies:
I love the premise of the book- what happens when environmentalists get crazy and start an ice age, but the authors, all three great, could have done so much better. The idea that a bunch of underground science fiction fans being hunted by the government are helping the "space people" in the midst of Luddite oppression is just assinine. If you are not a hard-core science fiction buff, with enough knowledge of the genre to be able to sweep the category on the game show Jeopardy, don't bother reading this book. Like their real-world counterparts, most of the characters in this book are a bunch of weenies, and the obscure references to sci-fi of the past are tedious and sleep-inducing.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks:
Good entertaining speculative fiction with a surprising and unusual perspective! OK, this book is not great Sci-Fi. It reads like an old StarTrek episode, or even more like Galaxy Quest! I was inspired to write because of the negative reviews about this book. A writer accused anyone who likes this book as being "Braindead" and a "Rush Limbaugh dittohead". Yes, in this book, the environmentalists are the bad guys. Unfortunately, most people in the environmentalist community act more on feelings than science. Worse yet, most of our environmental POLICY is shaped by feelings and not science. This book is science fiction. It offers the scientifically sound POSSIBILITY that the environmentalists are wrong. In real life they often are. Many people are. If your strong political feelings make you take offense at a work of fiction that even suggests that you might be wrong, then you are not a good candidate to read or criticize speculative fiction. In fact, interesting unexpected possible futures are what real science fiction fans are usually curious about. To the writer who called Pournell fans (that's the rest of us reading this) braindead Rush Limbaugh dittoheads- what are your credentials? Here are the credentials of Fallen Angels author Larry Pournelle (copied from the Science Fiction Book Club) - Pournelle boasts a fleet of degrees from the University of Washington: a B.S. in psychology and mathematics, an M.S. in experimental statistics and systems engineering, and PhD.s in both psychology and political science. An energetic proponent of technological progress, Pournelle serves as chairman of both the Citizen's Advisory Council on National Space Policy and the Lunar Society, Inc. He worked on human factors for the early space program, creating proposals that led to the development of on-board computers and more. The Air Force Academy still uses his nonfiction 1970 work, The Strategy of Technology (co-written with S.T. Possony), as a textbook. Always a trailblazer, Pournelle was one of the first authors to use a computer (as far back as the late 1970s) for his fiction and nonfiction writing; his first personal computer, EZEKIEL, is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. "Chaos Manor," his column of computer punditry, was a monthly mainstay in Byte until the magazine folded in 1998.

I have owned five copies of this book...:
And I've given four of them away to friends, who all liked it. You can get the story from other reviews. While the Greens are the "enemy" in this story, it's really aimed at anyone who would rather follow an emotional cause than think for themselves. While the argument over global warming is far from settled (despite the popular press), the "dumbing-down" of our society is not in question. Science is a mystery to the vast majority of Americans, and nobody trusts anything mysterious for long.... This book is not about politics. It is about a small, intelligent, educated, and devoted group (of sci-fi fans)outsmarting a country of mindless followers (of environmental socialism). While the details are a departure, the basic theme is not new. Frankly, my favorite parts of the book are the actions of the Greens, and how apparent they are in today's society: A Federal officer arguing how his gun is "appropriate technology"... the infighting on the committee in charge of finding the "Angels"... the focus on process over results throughout the pursuit.... I see this behavior more and more since first reading this book. Final word: Don't let the word "politics" scare you from an enjoyable book. Read it and decide for yourself. If you're a sci-fi fan, you'll get the inside jokes and obscure references (some of which are explained). If not, there's plenty of material inside for you, too.

A very good book:
Alex MacLeod is flying what may be his last mission. Injured while rescuing Space Station Freedom from disaster, he is expendable, and as such sent on a mission to scoop some much needed nitrogen from Earth's atmosphere. But, when his ship is shot down over the United States, Alex finds himself on the run in a world vehemently opposed to everything he represents. The Earth is slipping into a new Ice Age, even while zealous Greens and "Eco-Fascists" put a stop to any technology that might lead to global warming. There's only one group to whom Alex can turn, one group still attached to the ideas of progress and science - Sci-Fi fans! But, what can these enthusiastic, but quirky, people do for Alex? You might be surprised! While definitely polemical in nature, this is nonetheless a very good book! The authors, two titans of the Sci-Fi genre, have put together a very good book that makes for some interesting reading. As a long-time fan of Sci-Fi, I loved all of the references to other Sci-Fi books! I highly recommend this book!

A lazy Sunday I'll not see again!:
As someone who does live on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, it's getting warmer...not colder. And yeah, I get the fact that this book has a humorous angle and was intended to get a reader thinking...but really! A tedious haul at best, and a promising premise completely wasted by lazy writing. I am a fan of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle both, but I will be looking at their books out of a jaundiced eye for quite some time after this. If you truly want to read this, I implore you to check it at the library and save your hard earned pennies. Can a guy petition an author for his money back?