I finished reading this book a few days ago, and find myself constantly bringing it up in conversation with my wife and other people. It's extremely good: paleoanthropologically accurate, but also dead-on in its human psychology. More: it's one of those books that happens to be packaged as science fiction that could be read, and thoroughly enjoyed, by any thoughtful reader. Indeed, I used to say that no SF book would ever have a chance of being an Oprah's Book Club pick, but this one just might. Its soaring humanity, fascinating look at the concept of slavery (through the distorting lens of a group of African-American slaves having actually burried australopithecines who had been forced to work alongside them in the fields), and finely detailed (and completely believable) African-American female protagonist would make it a natural choice for Oprah. But it also should satisfy anyone who IS a science-fiction reader. It certainly satisfied this lifelong fan. I've written my own paleoanthropologically themed SF (HOMINIDS, from Tor Books), and deliberately waited until I'd finished before I started Allen's book, so as not to be influenced by it. Now that I have read it, it impressed the heck out of me. Five stars.

The year this book came out, my friends passed it around until the copies we had were tattered. We all thought Allen deserved to win the Campbell award for best new writer. I still have a "circulation" copy for others to read because it's so good.

The basic story line takes you from Africa to the Smithsonian Institue in Washington, DC, then to a startling discovery in the Southern States (remains of prehistoric man are found that only date back to the 1800's). The main character is a black woman, who's point of view is so convincing, I initially thought Allen was a pseudonym for a woman. She's not only dealing with an anthropological mystery, but also with everyday life and marital problems.

The anthropology and basic science presented in the story helps move the plot along, rather than interfering. In fact, by the end of the book, I found myself believing the events depicted really could happen!

I thouroughly enjoyed this book.

It wasn't just science fiction, it discussed some pressing moral issues such as euthanasia and the right to die with dignity.

It discusses the social implications of immortality and the associated hoarding of wealth (which applies today to inheritance).

It had a very positive outlook on life...my favourite quote in the whole book after a crippled woman is asked why she chooses to go on was "because it feels good to be alive" and that about sums it up for me.

The book gives a very interesting view of what may happen if Sirus B goes Supernova. The star is within 10 light years of earth. The individual making the prediction is a young astronomer who just obtained his P.Hd. Due to his young age, he is not taken very seriously. More discriptions were needed within the book reguarding the atmospheric effects of the supernova. The only discriptions given about the changes in the weather patterm was the statement such as "Storms were the result of the Supernova." There were also brief mentions of the unusualy cool days in parts of California. Also, there was a brief mention of icemelt and snowstorms in Antarctica. Book also includes a rogue religious cult bent on distroying L.A. after it is blasted by a Electro Magnetic Pulse from the supernova. Good book if you like to see L.A. and Tokyo burn. I still recommend it. Need some science background to understand small parts of it

Second in the series but (I must admit at the begining) surely not planned as last in the story. Earth "stolen" to alien Multisystem after gravitic experiment has triggered on wheel-like superstrucure burried deep into Moon. In the second book we can watch Earth, NaPurHab (crazy Naked Purpure Habitat) and Terra Nova ship in Multisystem strugging to survive among COREs and SCOREs - alien objects smashing nearly anything what get into their path or into collision course with any planet they guarding.
This book is one of the true hard SF with all hi-tech stuff and of course some future-stuff tech. You can find here some psychological background of main characters also, but there is also bad side. The plot is moving to slowly from the beginning and reader have to wait nearly till the end of the book for some real action. Everything before is only "getting data, sorting data, making some kind of hypothesis etc..." ocassionaly inset by short flashes about Charonians Heritage Memory or Adversary thinking.
The end is not "The End" the way we would expecting it. It seems to me as small stop before next volume which should be great conclusion of this story. May be establishing something like relationship between humans and Charonians like it is stated on last two pages of Shattered Sphere book.
Calculated together - very good book for those who like SF, but you have to expect, that there is no strong end. I hope there will be third book soon and I will be able to get one copy to read it.

This book, like its predecessor, is some of the best science fiction that I've ever had the privelege to read.

Unfortunately, the author leaves the reader hanging, waiting for a sequel to tie up all sorts of loose ends (intentionally, no doubt). The author has not, however, published the third book in the series.

It's been a 10 year wait so far. Only buy this book if you are willing to subject yourself to the heartache of needing to look for new Anderson every time you walk into a bookstore, but find nothing other than continuation of lesser men's work (Asimov, Lucas, etc).

This book is awesome in its scope taking place pretty far in humanities future. It's the second book in the series. In the first book, a gravitational control experiment on Pluto wakes up alien machinery which steals the Earth through an artificial black hole and begins dismantling the other planets for its own purposes. It's humanties first glimpse of FTL travel, and follows the desperate struggle of those left behind to survive and halt the aliens progress towards transforming the solar system, all the while trying to duplicate the feat.

This book picks up with the efforts of the humans left behind to find and retrieve the Earth from the alien menace. It also follows the struggle of the people of Earth who find themselves in an entirely new system, with hundreds of stars and planets and ravenous alien life form/machines bent on exploiting all life and resources of the Earth. Not to mention the mysterious "enemy" that consumes all life, that has located Earths new home.

The book ends just as things start to get REALLY good, and there has yet to be another book to finish off this story, and it's been quite a while now. So - Where's the Rest? If you don't buy it, put the series on your "watch" list and when the next one comes out - get them all!

Superficially, at least, Isaac Asimov's Caliban is like many of the Asimov robot novels: a human investigator working with a robot partner to solve a crime against a political background. The way the story is contructed is somewhat similar, as is the restrained use of language and the "feel". But I found this book far superior to any of Asimov's novels.
A crime is committed at Leving Laboratories on the planet of Inferno. The planet's best roboticist has been assaulted, and unbelievably, the attacker seems to have been - a robot. The Sheriff of Hades, Alvar Kresh, is called in to investigate with his robot assistant, Donald. Meanwhile, the presence of Settlers on the planet, called in to assist with Inferno's failing terraforming, complicates matters . . . and the robot Caliban is awake and on the loose, with only a limited understanding of what is around him.
Allen just writes so well, and so much better than Asimov ever did. His characters, both human and robot, leap out at you as real. Alvar Kresh and Fredda Leving, the roboticist, have genuine depth and engage our sympathies. The setting of Inferno is really brought to life, both its geography and people, and we are thus given something that Asimov never gave us: a solid picture of Spacer society. In Caliban, we have the naive observer, who both drives the action and provides a useful commentary on what he sees around him. That commentary links in to the central issues of the novel: why are things the way they are between humans and robots? Is the status quo harmful to both? Fredda's responses to these questions, the actions they lead her into, and what results from them, are really at the heart of this story.
I always really enjoyed Asimov's classic robot novels, but reading Allen's has shown me how limited they are. With his superior characterisation and writing abilities, and the way he takes fresh ideas about robots to their logical conclusion, Allen gives us a more enjoyable and thought-provoking read than Asimov ever did.

Let me start by saying that I have read all of Asimov's Robot series and enjoyed them tremendously. To me, this book represents a major achievement in the understanding of robots in Asimov's Universe. I completely enjoyed this book from cover to cover, reading it in one night. But the most important part (I think), was how Caliban developed. Never before have we had a look into a robots mind like this, regardless of the Three Laws. The way Allen described the development of the robot was amazing. I hope to see more of his development in Inferno, which I will definitely purchase. In addition, I thank Mr. Allen for leaving Asimov's Universe intact, not changing any of his fundamentals (Except for the Three Laws obviously), and for helping to fill a blank in Asimov's future history between the Spacer and Settler era, and Trantor's rise.

Asimov's robot novels are my favorite novels by any author. Therefore Allen had a tough road ahead of him in my mind when writing additional material for that universe and he succeed completely. I very much enjoyed Caliban. It faithfully followed the "historical" course started in Asimov's books. Something I consider essential when writing in another author's universe. It provided a wonderful example of the Spacer/Settler struggle and how it may have played out through the centuries until the complete decline of the Spacer worlds. It was very interesting to witness a Spacer world in decline, not just culturally but also in the enviromental sense given that the idea of the Spacer worlds degenerating enviromentally was a theme touched on by Asimov in Foundation and Earth. Also, the idea that at least some of the Spacer worlds may have been adbandonned due to enviromental neglect as opposed to the neglect setting in after they had left is thought provoking. The spirit of cooperation represented by the Spacer/Settler union was also a nice theme. It could have only been better if Gladia Delmarre had made an appearance as liaison between Inferno and the Settlers but you can't have everything now that the Master himself has gone. I highly recommend this book.

First of all this is a good book. a very good one. It is not exellent because it lacks something in the more human side, what is called "soft" sci-fi. To say the truth, i cant really put my finger on it, but i sense it. On the "hard" side, i can find no flaw. his knowledge is extensive and super-uptodate, and is well-writen. It's a book to be read, if you consider yourself a serieus hard sci-fi fan.

I found the book to be a very good read. I enjoyed the character development that did not take up too much of the story. I liked the story content, and found that it never got dry. The author gave enough detail without taking a whole chapter to describe what something was. I have read many books, and I can honestly say that very few come close to this one. It was great

I liked The Ring of Charon because it was "real". There are no heroes, no amazing brakethroughs (no-one finds the cure to cancer 15 seconds before their best friend dies), and the best thing - it is writteng so well, that I couldn't stop reading...

The behind the eyes thinking was revealed better in Utopia than Inferno, but I would have liked to have seen more time spent behind Prospero's eyes. Prospero was the only New Law Robot you really get to meet, and for all his faults was complex and manipulative, but unlike Caliban, his thinking was rarely revealed except through overt actions. The governor, formerly police chief had serious planet wide dillemas and his tension was felt more. Since he married his one time adversary Fredda, I would have liked to have seen a more complete interaction than was done. The ending was a bit rushed, and I feel that some serious consequences were not dealt with.

This culmination of the robot series by Roger MacBride Allen is the best in the series. There is plenty of action and suspense, as there was in the second book, "Inferno", and there is plenty of depth, as there was in the first book, "Caliban". The Three-Law robots, Four-Law robots, and No-Law robots create confusion in their interactions with human society and, through that confusion, the impact of technology and artificial intelligence on people is put in the spotlight. This is a well-writen, and well-thought-out book, and it wraps up the series nicely.

Asimov's robots have delighted me since I was a boy, so it was a wonderful surprise to find new robot stories written by a capable author. The philosophy and plot lines of the new novels are true to the Good Doctor's vision and make a fine addition to the legacy left by Asimov. Caliban, Inferno and Utopia are all good, but Utopia is the best. Read them all, and enjoy once again being immersed in the wonderful world Isaac Asimov created for us!

This is a good series. It has a lot to do with the young Solo children. They seem to always be getting in trouble.

This trilogy was good except for 2 reasons first Mara Jade didn't use her force abilities,and second,the author seemed to take pleasure in killing characters from previous books for no reason,characters that could have been and I had hoped would be used in later novels.But still a good trilogy in all.

Overall it is a good series. I enjoyed having some of the old characters back, I always wondered what happened to them. Yes, the action is well written but some of the plot needed a little help. I didn't like that Mara Jade's force abilities were totally left out of the story. In fact, the book's whole position on Jade was not appealing to me. However, the writing of Lando's "search" is very entertaining and let's the character be what we all know and love.

The cover of the book tells you that this is book one of the Corellian Trilogy. Therefore, anyone who has ever read a trilogy (much less one of the several Star Wars novel trilogies) should know exactly what to expect: lots of character development, a slowly building plot, and no resolution whatsoever. That having been said, this book actually does a great job of living up to those criteria.

Let's face it, the writing in this one is not that great. However, it's definitely worth reading. For one, Han is the central character, an automatic plus. Second, we get to see some scene's with Han and Leia's children (what a novel idea!) and some sense of the "Solo family." And we get a very in-depth look at Corellia, too, a planet often referred to but rarely, if ever, seen. All things said, it' a pretty neat book, just not a really great one.

The best thing about it is that it's not about the Empire. I get rather tired of the Comeback Kings surfacing over and over again. Sure, this trilogy may not be of the same sweeping scale as the films or even Zahn's trilogy, but that only serves to work in its favor. It's different, which is something the universe of Star Wars novels needs more of. (Frankly, I don't really see NJO as the saving grace everyone labels it as; the Yuzhan Vong are just the Empire in disguise if you ask me). Read this book folks. It ain't great, but it is fun. Besides, it's a necessary opening chapter to the trilogy, which does get better.

Well, this was definitely an improvement over some of the other Star Wars books. While it's no work of art, the writing style is straightforward and entertaining and easy to understand. Plot wise, the book is excellent, and most of the characters are intact also. Anyway, it's now fourteen years after Return of the Jedi, and it is a time of relative peace in the New Republic. Han and Leia decide they need to get away with their kids for a while, and they go to Han's home planet of Corellia. However, once they get there, they discover (of course) that things aren't as tranquil as they thought. Meanwhile, Lando cons Luke into coming with him on his latest money making scheme: find a rich wife, fast. Altogether as a trilogy starter, this book was pretty good. Not the best series out there, but definitely worth reading. However, I thought Luke was portrayed as being just a little too stiff and formal and akward, and Mara Jade (my favorite character I might add) was just awful. Hasn't she learned anything in the last nine years? She is not the Mara Jade we all know and love, but rather an untrusworthy, half-criminal, and altogether unapealing character. If there is one thing that is Mara Jade, even when she was evil, it was honorable and trustworthy. While she doesn't give her trust often, and she will never give it to just anyone, one she does she would stand by that person to the death. I sincerely doubt this author read the Thrawn trilogy. While naturally not trusting Mara at first, Han and Leia eventually came to like her, and we all know Luke was always her friend, even when she really, REALLY tried not to like him, so why are they so wary of her motives now just because nine years ago she happened to have grudge against Luke for destroying something she was brainwashed from a small child to think was right? Luke forgave her, and they have been friends ever since, so what is the problem. Anakin's character was poorly portrayed as well. The kid is seven years ald and he honestly acts like a three year old, talking in broken sentences and such, and the twins, who are nine or ten now I might add, still play with blocks! Anyway, while casual fans might find this series confusing and silly, I liked it and I would recommend it to any fairly serious fan.

I like this book because of the action. The five planets on Korellia on the verge of Civil War reminds me of the separatist movement in Attack Of The Clones. Anyway! This book is cool. It's cool because i like the kids Jason, Jana, and Anakin. I can't believe that Anakin would have the ability to fix things so they worked! even if he didn't know what they were. That sounds almost like Anakin Skywalker. Lando looking for a rich wife? Wow! that's weird. I'm glad I like this book. It's the first book I've gotten since 1996. Anthony Heald does a good job bringing the characters to life in this book. I highly recommend this to future Star Wars readers.

Interesting aliens, realistic space combat, interesting characters. You must remember that the book is two within one, so the second starts slightly overlapping the first book. Its the plot itself that seems to come from a 50's space opera. Wars HAVE been fought because of revenge and greed, but still it feels like a simple battle of good vs evil. A group of evil racist imperialistic humans with superweapons vs a group of good honorable freedom loving humans with old time naval traditions.

The story is complex, intense, and exhilerating. There is plenty of action, romance, mystery, suspense and excitement. You won't be able to put it down and will have to read it twice just to satisfy your craving.

This book was a great read. I couldn't put it down. There is plenty of action, and it is gripping. His writing makes you want to skip ahead to find out what happens. The aliens are really alien for a change, instead of just being intelligent earth animals, like in most Sci-Fi. The aliens also have different subcultures, which is also missing from most sci-fi. Mr. Allen shows great imagination and writing skill with this one and I look forward to all his books.