Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best speculative fiction books ever written, Mar 5 2003
This is an emerging classic in speculative fiction. A book with both heart and vision, it is quite simply the best portrayal of life in a zero gravity environment I have ever read. It takes you there so you really FEEL what it's like to live without an apparent up or down--and not only to live, but to dance as well. On top of that you will fall in love with each of the main charectors. They have heart, depth, strengths, and weaknesses--they are real people set in an extraordinary environment. They become a group of friends that I would love to meet and become a part of. And then there are the aliens...
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Zero-gravity dance and lots more, Aug 15 2002
This omnibus volume includes the full text of both _Stardance_ and _Starseed_, the first two books in Spider and Jeanne Robinson's series on zero-gravity dance. The third volume, _Starmind_ is available separately.Both of the books included here are excellent -- the first one, I think, just slightly moreso, but the sequel is way better than sequels usually are. The premise: dancer Shara Drummond, too tall and zaftig to be accepted as a dancer on Earth, hooks up with Charlie Armstead to shift her career to an orbital environment where her size isn't a liability. While they're up there . . . well, that's what the book is about. And of course I can't tell you _anything_ about the sequel without spoiling the first book for you. At any rate, these were the first two of the three books that the happy Robinson couple cowrote, and they work together mighty well. Jeanne is clearly no slouch as a writer -- and at the time these books were written, she led a dance company in Nova Scotia. Spider's delightful sensibilities inform the entire project too, and you'll meet some of his most memorable characters here. (Fat Humphrey comes to mind.) I don't like the third volume quite as well, largely because I don't care for the ending. But pick it up too, just so you'll have read them all. The Robinsons don't just recycle the same story from one book to the next; they tell a genuinely new story in each one. Check out Spider's solo work too. He and James Hogan are my two favorite living SF writers.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Soul catching..., Jun 18 2002
I read the second book "Starseed" before I ever found this first one. I recieved it for one of my birthdays, several years ago, along with a few other second hand books. The book was pretty much older than I am, well, the first one is from memory at least, but regardless, i gave it a shot, being an ardent sci-fi/fantasy fan, as long as it's good. Well, I was simply blown away. I thought that the whole concept was so original, and completely different from the usual books I've read, that I went on an immediate search for the first book, and found it months later in a second hand book shop quite by accident. I found it just as good as the first one I'd read. One of the best books I've ever read. I've read a few reviews about what people have thought about this book, and the common assessment by most that you have appreciate dancing, or be a dancer, to like this book. Not true. I am by no means a dancer. True, I like dancing, but I've never tried the sort that the book describes, and nothng near ballet that could be called coherent. I wouldn't be able to choregraph, or follow a piece, if my life depended on it! Yet I still found the book moving, incredible, and awe inspiring. You don't have to be a lover of dance to appreciate this book. This is simpy a form of speech, an original one at that, that they've used to understand and be understood by aliens. It's the sort of book that makes you stop and think afterwards, makes you wander if there ever could be a place like that somewhere in the known universe. Who says you have to be a dancer to appreciate it? all you really need to appreciate the book is an _understanding_ of dance, of how it is an expression of self, just like anything else could be.I found this an original piece, moving and addictive. I've read the book at least half a dozen times now and am on the constant lookout for more books by Spider & Jeanne Robinson. My vote? A must read! Though perhaps it may go over the heads of those who don't read deeper than the surface, if you put your whole heart into reading a book and appreciate it for what it is, then yes, this is a goer! I still love it, and there's no hint of boredom on the horizon yet!
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