Lodestar

Lodestar by Michael Flynn is books three in the Firestar series. It was originally published in 2000. My hardcover copy is 365 pages long. My first comment is that Lodestar is definitely part of a series. If you are interested in the series at all, you need to start with Firestar. On top of this, it is a transitional book in the series. Flynn moves away from the hard sci fi element of the story, but puts everything in place for the conclusion of the series in the fourth book. Flynn remains an intelligent, literary writer, which I appreciate. While the second and third books have seemed to drag out a bit longer than I would have liked, I'm looking forward to the conclusion. After investing all this time reading the series, I hope we find out who the aliens are/were and more importantly can stop the asteroids heading toward earth. Rating: 3.5


At Amazon, From Booklist:

Older and wiser, the fierce Mariesa van Huyten returns in this sequel to Firestar (1996) and Rogue Star (1998). She has no more luck than before in persuading presidents of the threat asteroids pose and must humbly ask her successor at Van Huyten Industries for money to keep the sky watch alive. The book darts about Earth and near-space to chart the politics of mounting a defense against the possible end of the world. Then, through the crusading efforts of Phil Albright, the world learns that a rock big enough to obliterate Manhattan is six years from impact. Interestingly, this rock hasn't wobbled off from the Asteroid Belt but seems to have been aimed. And there may be more rocks behind it. Hope lies with black chemist Leland Hobart, whose advanced experiments with high-temperature semiconductors point to the possibility of antigravity devices. Flynn's is a good series, though so intricately plotted and beset with characters that readers may be better off starting at the beginning. John Mort

Quotes:
"And cheeshead borderlined rude when flatskulls said it. Holes in your head for the I/O jacks. Swiss cheese. Jack cheese. Someday she would learn the identity of the person who had coined that particular slangt, and he would suffer terribly." pg. 22

"Don't come across so high and mighty, Mr. Scientist. If the news doesn't entertain, it doesn't get watched. Maybe it was different back when people actually had to read newspapers or listen to whatever factoids got read to them on the tube. They couldn't surf-'n'-choose which bytes to 'act with; but that was then and this is now. " pg. 41

"Look dude, people aren't just faces. They're habits, preferences, turns of phrases, mannerisms." pg. 86

"They said that the worst part of fear was dread. Remove the waiting, remove the uncertainity, and the fear vanished with it. So as she had grown more certain, she had grown less terrified. Unless she had only grown old and tired." pg. 104

"Red handled his imago awkwardly. The lips moved when he spoke, though not always in synch with the words; sometimes an arm performed a wooden gesture - what virtchuosos called an algore..." pg. 111

"You want to understand some template you've created in your head. You want to know why so many of 'us' are 'off the norm'? I'll tell you why! Because in there... no one knows you're a dog. No one can judge you on superficial appearances..." pg. 206