Review: A bunch of engineers change the world and really get themselves in trouble
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2014
B.E. Wilson was not an author I was familiar with. Who is this guy? I wondered. But the concept sounded interesting. A new clean energy technology discovered in a garage by a bunch of engineers. It turns out the story in "Highway to the Stars: The Beginning" is way better than that. The chief protagonist is John Kemp, a auto company engineer who heads up a team trying to get sustainability from diesel fuel. I'm not exactly certain why they were pursuing the challenge other than to potentially boost fuel economy. But that's made quickly irrelevant by the quickly unfolding yarn. Kemp and his team are fired. It's an immediate dismissal. I can totally relate. The only one kept on is the young guy who is a schmuck and doesn't know anything. Again, I can relate. The young guy takes over the project. Kemp goes home in a fugue state, sort of, and finds his wife boffing the next-door neighbor. He punches the guy. His wife dumps him and he's stuck without a home. Kemp gets back with his former co-workers and they proceed to get drunk. The crew is made up of a bunch of characters, who Larson writes with good dimension and personality. Still, they're a bit Stooge-like. I really liked them and their banter. Larson is an excellent dialogue writer. Much of the story is told through conversation. And he moves it along. He injects substantial action and suspense. He introduces some random characters throughout that make it even more interesting. And the technological angle and how the heroes of the book deal with it are superb. One thing to note: The editing is not the best. He's got some serious issues with punctuation. But I just read over that. Quickly. As a former newspaper editor, they didn't bother me. It's not like Larson left any holes in his story. I recommend this and am looking forward to the sequel.