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4.0 out of 5 stars
A walk down memory lane, Jul 7 2002
As an original reader of the first two books, it'd been a long time since I'd walked the aisles of Venus. It's fairly amazing to me that I'd still, from time to time, search on 'Sargent' to see if she'd ever written the third book. The pleasant surprise at seeing she had can not be overstated.What was also exhilarating to me was how-- prodded reflectively by the author-- I was able to recall the first two novels read nearly a decade and a half ago. That alone was worth the trip. However, to be frank, the book is a *good* read. How to describe it? It is a character novel. Specifically, a novel on the entirety of the protagonist's Mahala's life-- her choices, the people with whom she interacts, etc. It's interweavon nicely with a science fiction thread dealing with the fate of Venus, the Habbers, Earth and, ultimately, all of humanity. As such, it's a good thing that Sargent's strength in this novel is the fine, yet gentle literary tapestry of characters, future 'plausible' science, and, quite frankly, leveraged strength wrought from the legacy of the first two novels. If anything, the weakness in the books-- borne out in the closing 50 or so pages-- seems to be the cause of the delay in writing the third book (12 years? 13 years?): namely, how to end it. After all, the trilogy, at least from a Sci Fi standpoint, is about terraforming venus. of course, I'm not going to divulge that here. bottom line? It's a good read. If you haven't read the first two books, SHAME ON YOU. Get them. Read them all. Enjoy them.
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