Fortress on the Sun

by Paul Cook

When a bizarre epidemic threatens the inmates of the twenty-first-century labor camp run by planet Earth on the distant planet of Ra, one man's search for a cure leads him to uncover a colossal conspiracy. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Ebooks

96 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

Reviews

[Efka · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @25%

Kaip čia gražiau pasisakius... Nu tikrai prasta knyga., žemo lygio. Nerandu ką pozityvaus apie ją parašyti - nuobodu, neišradinga ir nyku.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how to rate this book, so I'm giving it 3 stars. The book was so uneven. Parts were brilliant & quite creative. Other parts weren't so hot. (There's a pun.) I was tempted to give it 4 stars up until close to the end.

I liked most of the characterization. There was a real mix of characterization types. Most were boldly drawn, too boldly in some cases. Think Doc Savage. Others were quite well done, though.

The plot was very interesting, especially for the first 2/3 of the novel. It was almost unfortunate when I finally figured out what was going on. That part was so well done & once the revelations started, they fell flat. They just didn't live up to the earlier work, unfortunately. There was too much magic & exposition in the final solution.

I have no idea why I read this. I thought I was reading a new author's free novel for some reason & was surprised when I finished & didn't find his email to send him back these comments privately. Oh well, although my plate is very full with other books to read, this one certainly wasn't a waste of time. Everyone else will just have to be patient a bit longer.
;-)

[Jeff Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an example of why I love SF. Imaginative situation of a group of prisoners on a harvesting ship built in the sun with massive shields to protect them. The prisoners have had their memories of their crimes erased and in some case their memories were regressed to a younger age.

Things are starting to go wrong on the station and there is a great mystery involved in the situation.

Well written and it kept my attention throughout.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in the mood for a more traditional Science Fiction novel, so I picked up Fortress on the Sun at my local library.

Fortress on the Sun was full of twists and turns and I was always left guessing. It was an interesting premise and I loved trying to figure out the mystery.

Overall, it was a very interesting story that kept me fully entertained.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up for free during a Read an eBook Week promotion. It's $4.61 in the Amazon Kindle store as I write this review, and you will get a lot more value out of it than the $4.61 purchase price.

I use a modified version of the Baen criteria in judging science fiction: the technology and plot lines need to be believable, you have to be able to relate to the characters, and if there are aliens don't gross me out or overly confuse me with strange names and abilities.

All that being said, I think this book hits it all except a little bit on the technology of a habitation being able to literally be anchored to the sun's surface, and the facility is actually mining materials, etc. from the sun's core and surface. Other than that one detail which I took off one star in the review - and that shouldn't stop you from reading a very good story - this book would hit all of my modified Baen criteria.

The author does a good job of developing the story line, interaction between the characters, and getting you to think: if a book can get me to think about the storyline and plot for a significant amount of time while both reading it and after the fact, I call that a pretty darn good job on the author's part. Even if science fiction is not your genre, this is really a story about good vs. evil and trying to overcome it and I would recommend it.

I'm looking forward to reading more from this author!

[Spectral.Crescent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. For mass market sci-fi from the 90s (something I tend to enjoy, but that also finds its way easily into bargain bins) this book actually had an incredibly unique plot, climax, and resolution.

Essentially the basics are that a group of people, all with technical backgrounds, are imprisoned in what is essentially a plasma farm on the surface of the sun. However, all of them suffer from amnesia, something that they believe was forced on them by their captors so that they would not be able to remember their crimes.

However, their normal day-to-day lives get altered when a new group of prisoners arrive, leading to a wild twist that I didn’t see coming.

Honestly, on that note I have to give the author major credit. I’ve read a lot of sci-fi in various subgenres, so sometimes plots get redundant. However, this book kept me guessing right up to the very end.

[Toney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. Thought the ending was somewhat confusing, but that could have just been me.

[Dave Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great plot - it reminded me of a good dr who episode - executed well but perhaps a little rushed and a little too full of maguffin jargon

[Marc Goldstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aboard Sunstation Ra, a giant space station anchored to the sun and protected by powerful energy shields, a group of more than 100 prisoners harvest solar plasma for their captors. Despite having their minds wiped to erase any memory of their crimes -- regressing some back to childhood -- the sunstation prisoners have managed to carve out a peaceful existence during their three years of captivity. That is until a strange sleeping sickness spreads through Ra. The arrival of a new batch of prisoners complicates matters, initiating a series of events that reawaken the residents' memories and endanger their lives.

Fortress on the Sun is an engaging yarn, full of mystery and suspense. Cook moves the plot along briskly, filling it with clever twists. On the down side, Fortress on the Sun suffers from the weakness of most plot-driven adventure stories: thin characterization. More disappointing, the novel's denouement feels hurried -- Cook anti-climactically strips away the last few layers of the onion during the closing exposition of the epilogue. But while certain events stretch the limits of plausibility, Fortress on the Sun's fast-moving plot and engrossing hook make for an entertaining read.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really great free eBook find thanks to http://www.freeebooksblog.com/. The story revolves around a group of prisoners that are considered so dangerous they are held in a space station in the sun. None of them have complete memories, some of them have had their mental capacity reset to that of a child, and there is a set of mysterious rules they have to follow or they will all be killed.

That's the setup, and I don't want to give anymore away than that. This book was a really quick read because I just could not put it down. It reminds me of The Prisoner (the odd 60's series and AMC miniseries remake). If you like sci fi, I recommend you give it a shot.

[Mike Franklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that could have been so much better. Sadly this is much the same as the only other book I've read by Paul Cook - The Engines of Dawn.

The excellent ideas, setting and plot of this book are rather let down by poor writing, which is such a shame. As I say, the ideas are brilliant and had me completely gripped, the plot twists were good and credible whilst still being unpredictable and the characters again credible and likable (where that was the intent). But clumsy prose and dialogue made reading at times quite painful.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again this book hasn't let me down. I can't get enough of it and I don't know way. It's action pack from the beginning and just keeps the pace until the very end. It also has you thinking the whole time on what's going on.

[Jeff Wetherington · Rating 1 out of 5]

An interesting story idea burdened by excruciatingly awful sub-plots, characters and dialogue.

[Shalin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was good in parts, it was little interesting here and there, very sluggish at some and the ending was a 'meh'.

[Deborah · Rating 2 out of 5]

An OK book. I liked the first part, then it got kind of sluggish.

[Gobasso · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok book. Has some interesting twists to it. Good for an easy summer or vacation read.