The novel is beautifully written and despite being published in 1979 hasn’t aged much at all. The story follows how Van comes to evict the tenants, and then later his involvement in a rescue mission during the construction of the elevator.
The only mountaintop site on Earth suitable for this incredible project is already occupied by an ancient Buddhist temple. However, it’s the construction of the Space Elevator that provides the drama in the book. His masterwork to date was the Gibraltar Bridge, so huge it’s simply referred to as The Bridge. Such a structure would be used to raise payloads to orbit without the expense of using rockets that damage the environment.įountains of Paradise is best described as an Engineering thriller and details the adventures of Vannevar Morgan, the Chief Engineer of the Terran Construction Corporation. This “orbital tower” is a giant structure rising from the ground and linking with a satellite in geostationary orbit at the height of approximately 36,000 kilometres (approx. Set in the 22nd century, Fountains of Paradise describes the construction of a space elevator. It’s this duality of Science Fiction and engineering that makes the book so unique. Most of the communication satellites currently orbiting the Earth are in what is known as the Clarke orbit. As well as being an excellent novelist Clarke also devised the concept of putting satellites in geosynchronous orbit. Fountains of Paradise is one of Arthur C Clarke’s lesser-known works (despite winning both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel) as he is more famous for writing the story that the classic science fiction movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” was based around.
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