Title: Leave this one to the sci-fi devotees. The book is "hard science" fiction, not much of a novel
Review: The problem is an endemic one for sci-fi: the non-hardcore reader often doesn't feel drawn to the characters or the plotlines. That reader, such as myself, often feels that the characters are at the service of some "hard science" idea: they are useful gadgets to help bring life to Mars, peer into alien ships, or--in this case--get going a space elevator. The who and why of the novel become rather forgettable. Of course, the best sci-fi says so very much more, but this book, I'm afraid, is typical of swaths of the genre that serve only to explore a futuristic idea.
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