Critical Mass
A Novel
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4.3 • 143 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In New York Times bestselling author Daniel Suarez's latest space-tech thriller, a group of pioneering astropreneurs must overcome never-before-attempted engineering challenges to rescue colleagues stranded at a distant asteroid—kicking off a new space race in which Earth's climate crisis could well hang in the balance.
When unforeseen circumstances during an innovative—and unsanctioned—commercial asteroid-mining mission leave two crew members stranded, those who make it back must engineer a rescue, all while navigating a shifting web of global political alliances and renewed Cold War tensions. With Earth governments consumed by the ravages of climate change and unable to take the risks necessary to make rapid progress in space, the crew must build their own nextgen spacecraft capable of mounting a rescue in time for the asteroid's next swing by Earth.
In the process they'll need to establish the first spin-gravity station in deep space, the first orbiting solar power satellite and refinery, and historic infrastructure on the moon's surface—all of which could alleviate a deepening ecological, political, and economic crisis back on Earth, and prove that space-based industry is not only profitable, but possibly humanity's best hope for a livable, peaceful future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former crew members of an unsanctioned mining operation on the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu race to rescue the colleagues they left behind in bestseller Suarez's dragging and excessively technical sequel to Delta-v. Taikonaut Jin Hua Han, cave diver James Tighe, and roboticist Priya Chindarkar have four years to use the resources mined from Ryugu to build a space craft capable of traveling back to the asteroid to rescue their friends. It's an exciting premise coupled with a high-stakes obstacle: the Russian, Chinese, and U.S. governments are each determined to claim the mined resources for themselves and so prevent their rivals from making any space-based advancements that would put them at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, the narrative is bogged down by bland, long-winded exposition as Jin, James, and Priya realize they will have to build all the infrastructure they need themselves, including a space station, a lunar mass-driver, and a solar power satellite. Suarez paints a depressingly realistic picture of a near-future Earth ravaged by climate change, but the exhaustive detail makes this read more like a textbook than a thriller. Even ardent genre fans will have a hard time getting into this one.
Customer Reviews
Not complete
I only have 148 pages. Where is the rest of my book?
A Space SciFi Book Aerospace Engineers Can Love
So many space sci-fi book are heavy on fiction but a real vacuum on space, or the things needed to get from x to y, and especially the big question of whether to even spend (waste?) time on landing on Mars (maybe Deimos and Phobos instead?). In Delta-V and Critical Mass, it is apparent to this former practitioner of astrodynamics that Suarez has done a lot of work to get things right. And that made his works so much fun to read.
Wild SciFi Ride Punctuated By Needless Global Warming Propaganda
Like the previous book, this one contains a rollicking story of realistic space exploration and construction. Unfortunately, it frequently bogs down in long lectures of global warming propaganda. The rest of the science is so realistic that the propaganda detours really break the reader out of the story. Eventually, I just skimmed the lectures like FF on a DVR through the commercials.