Solar Express Audiobook By L. E. Modesitt Jr. cover art

Solar Express

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Solar Express

By: L. E. Modesitt Jr.
Narrated by: Robert Fass
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You can't militarize space. This one rule has led to decades of peaceful development of space programs worldwide. However, increasing resource scarcity and a changing climate on Earth's surface is causing some interested parties - namely India, the North American Union, and the Sinese Federation - to militarize. The discovery of a strange artifact by Dr. Alayna Wong precipitates a crisis. What appears to be a hitherto undiscovered comet is soon revealed to be an alien structure on a cometary trajectory toward the sun. Now there is a race between countries to see who can study and control the artifact, dubbed the "Solar Express", before it perhaps destroys itself.

Leading the way for the North American Union is Alayna's friend, Captain Christopher Tavoian, one of the first shuttle pilots to be trained for combat in space. But as the alien craft gets closer to its destination, it begins to alter the surface of the sun in strange new ways - ways that could lead Alayna to revolutionary discoveries, provided that Chris can prevent war from breaking out as he navigates among the escalating tensions between nations.

©2015 L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (P)2015 Tantor First Contact Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Fiction
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This story once again takes me back to L. E. Modesitt's roots! He perfectly captures character development along with the human need to explore to the next horizon and on. If you enjoy hard sci-fi then this book is for you. We need to support writers like this before great works like this, which don't earn publishers as much, dissappear.

Another Great Sci-fi Story

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Lots of very detailed science, somewhat hard to follow, worth the read though. The romance is charming and humanizes the whole, with a lot of letters in the bottle back and forth.

Entertaining Hard Scifi With Soul

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A slow-paced novel, with lots of science, politics and a touch of romance. I liked it's mature tone and the plotbearing letter exchange. In sum, a different yet rewarding read.

Worthwhile listen

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I liked "The Martian" (the Audible version more than the movie) because it was near future, pro-science and well-reasoned. This is all of those. A little more hard-science, just as much a sense of using reason and getting things done. There is a more political/personal backstory, but in the end it is another science fiction-procedural. It just adds a more military component as well (which is OK by me.) It is a long story, starting a bit slowly. But the narration is better than average and it moves at an ever-increasing pace to an engaging end. (Is it my imagination or is there a growing re-birth of throwbacks to earlier, more basic sci-fi themes updated for our time and science?) I expected three stars, thought it was four most of the way through the middle -- and ended at 4.5. But it had a lot of heart do I gave it 5.

I Really Enjoyed This -- Far More Than Expected

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clear narrator.
story plausible.
heroin memorable .
remember cutting people from wreckage, saving them by improvisation.

recommendable.

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So here’s the rub… Modesitt is more of a political-social philosopher and less of a storyteller. If you’ve read enough of his novels and liked them, you’ll like this one too.

If you haven’t, and wanted to read some of his SF, I’d recommend his other works instead, to start you off: Haze, Adiamante and Flash are all very good candidates.

I rated the story a 3/5 because the action peaks barely above the background noise, and doesn’t have any action pacing. The overall work is okay, but certainly not the best of his works.

The narration and production was flawless.

Typical Modesitt, an acquired taste

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Page turning diolg written with subconscious interjection. Geopolitical action with interpersonal relationships weave though a ten thousand years old space relic misery. Many questions are answered but each answer leads to more questions. A couple starts a long distance relationship as tragedies take personal toll around them they help each other while being unable to help themselves.

You've got mail in the 21st century.

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The storyline is clean, the idea is good (not new but some original perks). The book includes many side details which make it too long to my taste, and at some points lacking action and even boring. Strong finale, which if fact could be more detailed.

Too long, good finale

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I find myself upset with myself because I finished the book to fast. I tend to finish books too fast and I'm always stuck wanting more

out standing and

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I really enjoy the wide variety of themes in Modesitt’s books. This is my hard science favorite

One of my hard science favorites from Modesitt

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