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A Lever And A Place To Stand
A slow-burning, nonviolent, extremely hard science fiction story about moving the Earth. When a state-of-the-art space telescope discovers a renegade extrasolar object in the Oort Cloud that will hit the Earth in a hundred years and destroy it, many want to evacuate the planet for Mars. Astronaut Peter Olander proposes a different plan of move the Earth. A Lever And A Place to Stand is a century-spanning engineer-'em-up about scientific problem-solving, bold ideas, hard physics calculations, and incremental progress towards a seemingly impossible goal. Written by author Andrew Stanek, who no amount of force can move from his writing desk.
- GenresScience Fiction
624 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2023
142 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
March 9, 2024
This is Most Definitely a Hard SciFi Novel, Covering Many Disciplines
This book is interesting, because it DEFINITELY falls into the “hard” SciFi category, with many, many scientifically based formulae and hypotheses spelled out — so much that The Reader will easily get lost in the details, and I’ll admit I’m not capable of digesting or proving or disproving any of them — but, they look impressive!
So, my first gripe has to do with all of The Author’s references to “the Earth” … would you say “the Mars”? … “the Saturn”? (I think not). [This is a really simple piece of English to get right!]
Then I’d like to point out a simple, philosophical statement that The Author doesn’t present to The Reader … if a car is barreling down a highway towards you, and it’s obviously going to hit you … did you know there are many ways to look at this collision? Either the driver of the car really wants to get to you, or there are ruts in the road directing the vehicle to you, or perhaps you’re just the unlucky person that Mother Nature decided to sh!t upon at this time. Surely other possibilities could pop into your head, can’t they? (For instance, maybe even the car will vier off and not come close to you after all?) Keep these things in mind as you read this book, because The Author wants to lock you into a certain frame of mine for the vast majority of this story.
Next, The Reader has to take a step back and re-examine the scenario that The Author has presented — a catastrophe is threatening Earth, and it’s 100 years away before the destruction will occur. Well, I applaud The Author for giving the book’s characters plenty of time to try and solve this little issue. But, realistically, ANY student of Celestial Mechanics should quickly know The Author’s flaw — NOBODY in today’s world can accurately project a large object’s path through our Solar System, without HUGE error bars (keeping it relative to this book’s problem, we’re talking about hitting Earth with 100-year predictions) … sorry … no … there are far too many observational flaws and gravitational influences based upon sh!tty initial predictions. [Despite one of the main characters insisting her orbit calculations are dead-on (in the literal sense!) — The Author has given me no reason to believe a collision is the likely outcome.]
And, maybe nit-picky of me, but Chapter 11 starts out with a satellite “turning up and away from the Solar System” … looking for Nemesis … but, duh, Nemesis was pretty consistently described in previous Chapters as approaching Earth on an Ascending Trajectory. Maybe I don’t know up from down anymore, but I would look DOWN if I expected to see something coming up from below …
You should DEFINITELY go grab and read this book ASAP, if you are interested in Hard SciFI! This is one of the best examples I’ve come across in years!
This book is interesting, because it DEFINITELY falls into the “hard” SciFi category, with many, many scientifically based formulae and hypotheses spelled out — so much that The Reader will easily get lost in the details, and I’ll admit I’m not capable of digesting or proving or disproving any of them — but, they look impressive!
So, my first gripe has to do with all of The Author’s references to “the Earth” … would you say “the Mars”? … “the Saturn”? (I think not). [This is a really simple piece of English to get right!]
Then I’d like to point out a simple, philosophical statement that The Author doesn’t present to The Reader … if a car is barreling down a highway towards you, and it’s obviously going to hit you … did you know there are many ways to look at this collision? Either the driver of the car really wants to get to you, or there are ruts in the road directing the vehicle to you, or perhaps you’re just the unlucky person that Mother Nature decided to sh!t upon at this time. Surely other possibilities could pop into your head, can’t they? (For instance, maybe even the car will vier off and not come close to you after all?) Keep these things in mind as you read this book, because The Author wants to lock you into a certain frame of mine for the vast majority of this story.
Next, The Reader has to take a step back and re-examine the scenario that The Author has presented — a catastrophe is threatening Earth, and it’s 100 years away before the destruction will occur. Well, I applaud The Author for giving the book’s characters plenty of time to try and solve this little issue. But, realistically, ANY student of Celestial Mechanics should quickly know The Author’s flaw — NOBODY in today’s world can accurately project a large object’s path through our Solar System, without HUGE error bars (keeping it relative to this book’s problem, we’re talking about hitting Earth with 100-year predictions) … sorry … no … there are far too many observational flaws and gravitational influences based upon sh!tty initial predictions. [Despite one of the main characters insisting her orbit calculations are dead-on (in the literal sense!) — The Author has given me no reason to believe a collision is the likely outcome.]
And, maybe nit-picky of me, but Chapter 11 starts out with a satellite “turning up and away from the Solar System” … looking for Nemesis … but, duh, Nemesis was pretty consistently described in previous Chapters as approaching Earth on an Ascending Trajectory. Maybe I don’t know up from down anymore, but I would look DOWN if I expected to see something coming up from below …
You should DEFINITELY go grab and read this book ASAP, if you are interested in Hard SciFI! This is one of the best examples I’ve come across in years!
December 1, 2024
Ok, the author was 100% correct in that only a few people might read the full book. Lots of math/physics/astronomy. But,
I found it very interesting, and it reminded me of some of my earliest SciFi book where the science was a bit hard to follow, but the story and the writing were very compelling. It is not going to be for everyone, but if you like hard science fiction without all the military soap opera, with fun characters than you'll enjoy this book, especially once you get by the 10 proposals section of the book. That was a bit hard to follow and stay connected, but for all that, it did tie back into the story later in the book.
I did take away one start for all the 10*3(2) blah blah blah, but otherwise a very solid and fun read.
I found it very interesting, and it reminded me of some of my earliest SciFi book where the science was a bit hard to follow, but the story and the writing were very compelling. It is not going to be for everyone, but if you like hard science fiction without all the military soap opera, with fun characters than you'll enjoy this book, especially once you get by the 10 proposals section of the book. That was a bit hard to follow and stay connected, but for all that, it did tie back into the story later in the book.
I did take away one start for all the 10*3(2) blah blah blah, but otherwise a very solid and fun read.
August 3, 2025
I wanted to like this book. I have a degree in Mathematics I don’t mind technical details but this was way over the top. Pages and pages of too much much data detracted from the story making the book entirely too long. The repetition of Bonnie’s bore hole chant was nauseating. The ending was so very predictable from very early on, what Peter had been missing was very obivious. There was a good story here that got lost in the process. The only repetitive bit I liked was Peter picking up Rhee’s trash, although a stoic personality (which I liked) this showed his character. A shorter, less technical, version of this book would have been more approachable for the average reader. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 14, 2025
An ACTUAL hard sci-fi novel, containing real SCIENCE instead of fantasy.
In order to save the earth from destruction, could we move it, over a hundred years?
How?
What would it cost?
What about evacuating everybody to Mars?
As described elsewhere, this book is a slow burn, but OH BOY!! The finale was magnificent. The emotional payoff after such a well considered set-up was HUGE!!
The book is large, and I admit I skimmed quite a number of pages of physics and chemistry, skimmed over a lot of financial considerations.
But IF you have the right stuff to make it to the end (sounding ever so biblical here, ain't I!)...
...IF you have the right stuff to make it to the end, the reward is very, very much worth the investment.
I might even read it again, some day!
In order to save the earth from destruction, could we move it, over a hundred years?
How?
What would it cost?
What about evacuating everybody to Mars?
As described elsewhere, this book is a slow burn, but OH BOY!! The finale was magnificent. The emotional payoff after such a well considered set-up was HUGE!!
The book is large, and I admit I skimmed quite a number of pages of physics and chemistry, skimmed over a lot of financial considerations.
But IF you have the right stuff to make it to the end (sounding ever so biblical here, ain't I!)...
...IF you have the right stuff to make it to the end, the reward is very, very much worth the investment.
I might even read it again, some day!
December 24, 2024
A good bit of hard sci fi in the tradition of Cixin Liu wandering earth with a bit of Arthur C Clark rubbed in. It moved quicker than those authors generally write, but I like that and it appealed to me.
The characters though not deep had good personalities and were appealing. You wanted to root for the team to win.
The true star was the physics and I am absolutely no judge as in regards to accuracy but I wanted to believe it was true. And isn’t that what the true meaning of a good science-fiction story is about?
You should definitely give it a go. You never know you might enjoy it and feel like you learn something. .
The characters though not deep had good personalities and were appealing. You wanted to root for the team to win.
The true star was the physics and I am absolutely no judge as in regards to accuracy but I wanted to believe it was true. And isn’t that what the true meaning of a good science-fiction story is about?
You should definitely give it a go. You never know you might enjoy it and feel like you learn something. .
February 11, 2025
I am a fan of hard scifi (I loved The Martian), and this definitely qualifies. As with The Martian, I love that there is no "evil villain." The antagonist is just reality and science. I readily admit the science was often over my head. But, man, this was a fascinating ride! This is an incredibly well-written (very) hard scifi novel. So, why 4 stars, rather than 5? I didn't love the character development. Each character was one dimensional, in its own way. Again, the story was so good, I could easily overlook that, but if there was a weakness here, for me, that's it. In general, highly recommend.
July 18, 2025
...and I will move the world."
A HARD SCIENCE fiction story. You only really have to accept that celestial mechanics can accurately predict an exoplanet sized object's path within a 100 year time span.
Yeah, I did watch that Chinese film "The Wandering Earth (I & II)" with interest as to how far from reality they would take liberties. So just what type of effort would you need to actually make the earth move? Well, this answers that question in a logical setup and number numbing solution. This book is not for everyone, but it especially rings a bell in my book. Just how much of a geek am I?
Have a GoodReads.
A HARD SCIENCE fiction story. You only really have to accept that celestial mechanics can accurately predict an exoplanet sized object's path within a 100 year time span.
Yeah, I did watch that Chinese film "The Wandering Earth (I & II)" with interest as to how far from reality they would take liberties. So just what type of effort would you need to actually make the earth move? Well, this answers that question in a logical setup and number numbing solution. This book is not for everyone, but it especially rings a bell in my book. Just how much of a geek am I?
Have a GoodReads.
November 15, 2025
amazingly engrossing
The first part of the book was so math-heavy I’ll admit to skimming some of the calculations. But as a nerd, I was happy to see them,to know that if I wanted to I could roll through the calculations before the author summed them up. As a lifelong science fiction reader, I don’t think any other book has so addressed such an extensive range of possibilities mathematically.
Read this book, skim the math if you must, the rest of the book is interesting and flows well. Through the book I imagined several endings, none of which happened. I think that is high praise.
Read it and enjoy it.
The first part of the book was so math-heavy I’ll admit to skimming some of the calculations. But as a nerd, I was happy to see them,to know that if I wanted to I could roll through the calculations before the author summed them up. As a lifelong science fiction reader, I don’t think any other book has so addressed such an extensive range of possibilities mathematically.
Read this book, skim the math if you must, the rest of the book is interesting and flows well. Through the book I imagined several endings, none of which happened. I think that is high praise.
Read it and enjoy it.
Read
January 3, 2025A hard sci-fi about a megaproject to save mother Earth.
A rogue extrasolar object are set to impact Earth and it requires extraordinary methods and ideas to pull it off - which means that this is definitely a hard science fiction novel, not exactly easy read but with enough curiosity and understanding, the concepts it mentions are mind boggling.
Concepts that would be using resources from the depths of both earth and the dark depths of the void. It takes to be literal end of the book to find out if it worked.
A rogue extrasolar object are set to impact Earth and it requires extraordinary methods and ideas to pull it off - which means that this is definitely a hard science fiction novel, not exactly easy read but with enough curiosity and understanding, the concepts it mentions are mind boggling.
Concepts that would be using resources from the depths of both earth and the dark depths of the void. It takes to be literal end of the book to find out if it worked.
December 9, 2024
Great technical Science Fiction
The scientific detail is amazing and well done.
The few times I thought it might be too much, reading on showed that it was necessary for continuity. This book is inventive and inspired. Humanity is elevated by its own efforts and saves by its determination. A long read but worth the wait to see what I hope is a glimpse of what we can accomplish if we don’t give up or give in. Keep striving to be all we can
The scientific detail is amazing and well done.
The few times I thought it might be too much, reading on showed that it was necessary for continuity. This book is inventive and inspired. Humanity is elevated by its own efforts and saves by its determination. A long read but worth the wait to see what I hope is a glimpse of what we can accomplish if we don’t give up or give in. Keep striving to be all we can
January 30, 2025
Pull out your reference books
This book does have a lot of hard science in it. The premise is unique, but the science behind the solution is very interesting. The funding is suspect but you can't have everything. A better solution might have been a stock price skimming AI gone rogue where it skimmed a few cents off of every stock transaction and bought control of several multinational companies. In any case, it is worth the time to read.
This book does have a lot of hard science in it. The premise is unique, but the science behind the solution is very interesting. The funding is suspect but you can't have everything. A better solution might have been a stock price skimming AI gone rogue where it skimmed a few cents off of every stock transaction and bought control of several multinational companies. In any case, it is worth the time to read.
February 17, 2025
Surprised for sure
I got the impression going in that it was going to be hard sci fi, but it was entirely worth the journey. I don't know if the science is super accurate, I've never been one to say "well he's wrong so this stinks" in books or movies. I'm educated enough to "kind of understand the science" (I recognized several measurements!) I want to be entertained and this book delivered. Well done.
I got the impression going in that it was going to be hard sci fi, but it was entirely worth the journey. I don't know if the science is super accurate, I've never been one to say "well he's wrong so this stinks" in books or movies. I'm educated enough to "kind of understand the science" (I recognized several measurements!) I want to be entertained and this book delivered. Well done.
January 6, 2024
HARD sci-fi...
Definitely for space nerds. I have no idea how much of the physics and such is accurate (probably most, so I'll forgive the handful of grammar errors 😉), but I was completely engrossed in the story. I may have struggled to fully comprehend the details, but overall, I found this a very enjoyable read - much like Drake's Law.
Definitely for space nerds. I have no idea how much of the physics and such is accurate (probably most, so I'll forgive the handful of grammar errors 😉), but I was completely engrossed in the story. I may have struggled to fully comprehend the details, but overall, I found this a very enjoyable read - much like Drake's Law.
November 26, 2024
Way too technical!
The story sounded intriguing but the unending lists of technical specs got in the way. There too many technical terms that weren't defined or explained in plain English. Large parts of this read like an engineering text. I struggled the first 219 pages then gave up.
The story sounded intriguing but the unending lists of technical specs got in the way. There too many technical terms that weren't defined or explained in plain English. Large parts of this read like an engineering text. I struggled the first 219 pages then gave up.
January 6, 2025
Great Hard SciFi
This book takes an unlikely premise and then works out step by step how to make it possible… moving the Earth out of the way of an incoming collision. By breaking down the problem in to very large but possible steps, the team works toward the ultimate conclusion. The author succeeded much as the fictional team did. Not a light read but a worthy one.
This book takes an unlikely premise and then works out step by step how to make it possible… moving the Earth out of the way of an incoming collision. By breaking down the problem in to very large but possible steps, the team works toward the ultimate conclusion. The author succeeded much as the fictional team did. Not a light read but a worthy one.
February 11, 2024
This was an enjoyable sci fi read, and this is coming from someone that doesn't consider himself a sci-fi fan. This book definitely spends much time on very technical details and any physics geek will love that and probably double-check the work presented. But like I said, a good read.
December 3, 2024
A Mystery and a Great Thought-Experiment
This was well worth the effort to plod through. The story kept me interested to the end. It covered physics problems and solutions that were understandable.
This was well worth the effort to plod through. The story kept me interested to the end. It covered physics problems and solutions that were understandable.
December 23, 2024
This was definitely hard going and a lot of mind numbing statistics, many of which I skimmed over as I forgot what the story was about if I spent too much time thinking about them. Anyway AI saved the day.
March 15, 2025
A Good Syfy yarn!
The book started slowly, but after wading through a lot of physics calculations that I really didn't understand, I became engrossed in the storyline. I enjoyed the book and you will too
The book started slowly, but after wading through a lot of physics calculations that I really didn't understand, I became engrossed in the storyline. I enjoyed the book and you will too
November 25, 2024
Could not put it down
I am a sucker for hard SF. Enjoyed this immensely. Please...please do more and I do promise that I'll buy them
I am a sucker for hard SF. Enjoyed this immensely. Please...please do more and I do promise that I'll buy them
November 30, 2024
Satisfying
I'm not a physics need but the physics and engineering nerdiness captured me. Loved the no descriptive paragraphs.
Thank you
I'm not a physics need but the physics and engineering nerdiness captured me. Loved the no descriptive paragraphs.
Thank you
bounced-off
December 4, 2024Oh dear. Got about 20 pages into this before giving up on the dreadfully amateurish prose.
December 6, 2024
Really fun hard sci fi
I don’t know how much of the science is accurate or possible but it all seems believable and makes for a great story. Anxious to see what you right next!
I don’t know how much of the science is accurate or possible but it all seems believable and makes for a great story. Anxious to see what you right next!
March 2, 2025
Weird book
Too much mathematical terminology used so above lots of heads. Could not understand lots of what was referred to in sfory.
Too much mathematical terminology used so above lots of heads. Could not understand lots of what was referred to in sfory.
May 11, 2025
Hard sci fi books are allowed to have interesting characters. This one did not work for me.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews