Pillar to the Sky

NASA-inspired Works of Fiction, a partnership between NASA and Tor/Forge, is aimed at raising awareness of science, technology, engineering, and math, and attracting students to those fields. Unfortunately, this first installment is earnest, simplistic, and dull. In the near future, with the fate of Earth and its dwindling resources an increasing concern, some visionaries plan to create a space elevator that would make travel beyond Earth cheap and efficient. The concept is developed by scientist spouses Gary Morgan and Evgeniya Petrenko Morgan, and after a skeptical Congress denies them funding, multibillionaire Franklin Smith promises to front and raise the immense sums needed to get the project going. The plot follows a fairly predictable arc with few surprises. The writing is often clunky (“He could sense that Dr. Rothenberg was showing some interest with this brief breaking down into an emotional response”), and readers will struggle to believe in either the flawlessly angelic characters or their fantastical plan. (Feb.)