レビュー要約

• 科学への信頼とファン文化への愛情を前面に出す点が好まれている。一方で、政治風刺の強さや人物描写の古さを気にする読者もいる。

レビュー

• At least 4-star, and 5-star for those who have read some of the earlier classic SF

  I rated this 4-star only in comparison with other Niven books such as "Ringworld" and collaborations such as "The Mote in God's Eye" and "Dream Park", which I think are truly exceptional. It's actually a cracking good yarn in itself, but I suspect the readers who will get most out of it are those who have read some of the earlier classic SF; two examples are Robert A. Heinlein's "If This Goes On . . ." and L Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt's "The Incomplete Enchanter". As well as enjoying the story, I thoroughly enjoyed the logical and ingenious ways by which Niven, in this book, has made use of references to characters in those early tales. I first read "Fallen Angels" when it came out in 1991, and reading it took me back to the 1960's when I first read the stories I've referred to. Happy days!

• Not bad at all

  A fascinating take on global warming and the politics created thereby. Even the most rabid anti-CO2 protesters should at least read it.

• A wonderful premise but you sometimes miss the inside jokes

  This book has a wonderful premise. After the US (and presumably other) governments are taken over by a coalition of radical Greens, kooky spiritualists, Christian fundamentalists and cheapskates, science and progress take a backseat to political and environmental correctness. Not realizing that global warming was the only thing preventing a new ice age, much of the Northern Hemisphere is faced by advancing glaciers. Only in the increasingly stressed habitats of the former Russian and American space stations does anyone have faith in science and progress. There and in the dwindling legions of science fiction fans. When a shuttle is shot down over the North American glacier, a rescue operation is mounted by attendees at a nearby science fiction convention. The "fallen angels" are moved around the country in an effort to avoid capture by the Green Police, various other technophobes (who blame the space stations for global cooling) and an Air Force security officer, whose motives (and gender) are not entirely clear. The book is fun, and the premise is great. The problem is that to a large extent, it is a several hundred page long inside joke. Many of the characters are thinly disguised members of sci-fi fandom. If, like me, you have never knowingly been within 100 miles of a convention, you are missing a large part of the joke. But the many premises (environmental chicken littleism, technophobia, and even the idea that sci-fi fans might have something important to say) rings very true.

• always a good read

  Fallen Angels is one of those novels that gets taken off the book shelf once a year for the sheer fun of it.

• This Could Never Become True?

  There is a well put together world here where the threat of global warming and the actions taken thereof have resulted in the return of the glaciers. The realities of this situation are quite scary and the implications for the world profound. This provides an excellent background for the adventure/love story to sci-fi fandom that keeps things moving along. The characters are unforgettable and make the story fun to read. I found the following sentence quite interesting. If I had read this book back in the early 90s when it was written, I would have thought this was the most ridiculous statement in the book. “He said that the alleged objectivity of materialist science was an invention of heterosexual, white males, so we shouldn't use that as a basis for judgement." In 2019, this statement is actually being uttered in the halls of Higher Education. Let's hope the rest of this book doesn't also come true; although the weather report for the next few days predicts the Midwest will have some of the coldest temperatures ever experienced!

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