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Energized Audiobook
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(3.04) - 53 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
No one expected the oil to last forever. How right they were.
A geopolitical miscalculation tainted the world’s major oil fields with radioactivity and plunged the Middle East into chaos. Any oil that remains usable is more prized than ever. No one can build solar farms, wind farms, and electric cars quickly enough to cope. The few countries still able to export petroleum and natural gas—Russia chief among them—have a stranglehold on the world economy.
Then, from the darkness of space, came Phoebe. Rather than deflect the onrushing asteroid, America coaxed it into Earth’s orbit. Solar power satellites—cheaply mass-produced in orbit with resources mined from the new moon to beam vast amounts of power to the ground—offer America its last, best hope of avoiding servitude and economic ruin.
As though building miles-wide structures in space isn’t challenging enough, special interests, from technophobes to eco-extremists to radio astronomers, want to stop the project. And the remaining petro powers will do anything to protect their newfound dominance of world affairs.
NASA engineer Marcus Judson is determined to make the powersat demonstration project a success. And he will—even though nothing in his job description mentions combating an international cabal or going into space to do it.
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"This was the first Ed Lerner book I have read. It was well put together. The science made sense. It was a good story, with characters that were likable, or dislikable, depending on there role. I will read more of Ed Lerner's books."
— Andy (4 out of 5 stars)
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“A taut near-future thriller…Lerner’s vision of the future is both topical and possible in this crisp, fast-paced hard SF adventure.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Lerner’s near-future SF thriller features a plausible scenario that combines concern about the planet’s diminishing energy resources with the current interest in asteroid mining and the potential danger of meteoric impacts.”
— Library Journal
Energized Listener Reviews
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" Pessimistic, depressing, and jingoistic. The first half is mostly made up of meetings. The second half has some action, but too many characters, most of which the reader has no reason to sympathize with. The ending, rather than being climactic, is addressed in an extended epilogue. "
— Steve, 9/4/2013 -
" Read this in Analog -- loved it! "
— theelfqueen, 5/1/2013 -
" Imaginative near future Sci-Fi. The science felt believable and the world that Mr. Lerner created felt real. The characters were thin at times but the story of adventure in space kept me turning the pages. "
— Sabion, 11/20/2012 -
" An enjoyable techno-thriller with some hard science thrown in about astronomy and NASA systems. It was a pretty quick read once I got into it and would recommend it. "
— Jeffrey, 10/2/2012
About Edward M. Lerner
Edward M. Lerner worked in high tech and aerospace for thirty years, as everything from engineer to senior vice president, for much of that time writing science fiction as his hobby. Since 2004 he has written full-time. His novels range from near-future technothrillers, like Small Miracles and Energized, to futuristic mysteries, like The Company Man, to such traditional SF-adventure fare as Dark Secret and his InterstellarNet series. Collaborating with Larry Niven, he also wrote the space-opera epic Fleet of Worlds series of Ringworld companion novels. His 2015 novel, InterstellarNet: Enigma, won the inaugural Canopus Award “honoring excellence in interstellar writing.” His fiction has also been nominated for Locus, Prometheus, and Hugo awards. In shorter forms, his writing has appeared in anthologies, collections, and many science fiction magazines and websites. He also writes about science and technology, most notably including Trope ing the Light Fantastic: The Science behind the Fiction.
About Grover Gardner
Grover Gardner (a.k.a. Tom Parker) is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.