What do you think?
Rate this book
Venus Prime #2
Codename: Sparta - Das Venusrätsel
DAS VENUSRÄTSEL:
Ihr Codename ist Sparta. Sie ist eine schöne junge Frau mit außergewöhnlichen Fähigkeiten, Produkt einer fortgeschrittenen Biotechnologie. Doch über ihrer Vergangenheit liegt ein Schatten, und sie weiß nicht, woher. sie kommt und wer sie wirklich ist.
Als ein Team von Wissenschaftlern in der Gluthölle der Venus gestrandet ist, riskiert Sparta ihr Leben, um sie zu retten. Sie ahnt nicht, daß ihr Einsatz zu einer der größten Entdeckungen in der Geschichte der Menschheit führen wird - einem Beweis für die Existenz fremden Lebens im All.
Und als die Bedeutung des Fundes offenbar wird, stößt Sparta auf eine uralte Verschwörung, die sie auf die Spur ihrer eigenen Identität führt.
Der zweite Band einer neuen SF-Abenteuerserie von PAUL PREUSS nach Geschichten des legendären ARTHUR C. CLARKE.
Ihr Codename ist Sparta. Sie ist eine schöne junge Frau mit außergewöhnlichen Fähigkeiten, Produkt einer fortgeschrittenen Biotechnologie. Doch über ihrer Vergangenheit liegt ein Schatten, und sie weiß nicht, woher. sie kommt und wer sie wirklich ist.
Als ein Team von Wissenschaftlern in der Gluthölle der Venus gestrandet ist, riskiert Sparta ihr Leben, um sie zu retten. Sie ahnt nicht, daß ihr Einsatz zu einer der größten Entdeckungen in der Geschichte der Menschheit führen wird - einem Beweis für die Existenz fremden Lebens im All.
Und als die Bedeutung des Fundes offenbar wird, stößt Sparta auf eine uralte Verschwörung, die sie auf die Spur ihrer eigenen Identität führt.
Der zweite Band einer neuen SF-Abenteuerserie von PAUL PREUSS nach Geschichten des legendären ARTHUR C. CLARKE.
287 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
22 people are currently reading
484 people want to read
About the author
Paul Preuss
33 books21 followersPaul Preuss is an American writer of science fiction and science articles, who also works as science consultant for film companies. He is the author of numerous stand-alone novels as well as novels in Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime series, based upon incidents, characters, and places from Clarke's short stories. (source: wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
March 28, 2013
Maelstrom is the second in a series of six books; each book is an engaging mystery thriller that just happens to be set in a science fiction future.
The Venus Prime series focuses on a tough, female detective (Ellen Troy) who, over the arc of the series is searching for answers to her past: What became of her parents? How did she acquire the superior biotech skills that have become second nature? Why was she locked away in a sanatorium? And, who wanted her dead? Answers to these questions are revealed little by little, over the course of the entire series.
Maelstrom begins with a near-catastrophic accident on Venus that unearths an ancient artifact. As powerful political interests exert their influence to acquire the artifact, Inspector Troy of the Board of Space Control begins to investigate the true nature of the “accident”. Meanwhile on the Moon, a government functionary on his way home to Earth is suddenly fighting for his life after his ship develops an inexplicable malfunction. Once the malfunction is determined to be sabotage, Troy is called in from Venus to investigate.
The two story threads – artifact discovery and ship malfunction – are well-balanced through the book; the mysteries are engaging, play fair with the clues, and build to a satisfying conclusion. The “science” part of the SF is written in an accessible way that keeps the reader interested in the overall story.
Troy acquires a colleague in this book, an old acquaintance named Blake Redfield. As a civilian, he is discretely pursuing his own investigations regarding Troy’s mysterious past. The interplay in their relationship is another enjoyable layer in this thriller.
This series is about a detective, solving murder mysteries. It just so happens that these mysteries are in space and on other planets in our solar system. If you are interested in expanding your mystery-thriller genre horizons, these books would be a great place to start.
There are six books in the series, and I will be actively looking for the rest.
The Venus Prime series focuses on a tough, female detective (Ellen Troy) who, over the arc of the series is searching for answers to her past: What became of her parents? How did she acquire the superior biotech skills that have become second nature? Why was she locked away in a sanatorium? And, who wanted her dead? Answers to these questions are revealed little by little, over the course of the entire series.
Maelstrom begins with a near-catastrophic accident on Venus that unearths an ancient artifact. As powerful political interests exert their influence to acquire the artifact, Inspector Troy of the Board of Space Control begins to investigate the true nature of the “accident”. Meanwhile on the Moon, a government functionary on his way home to Earth is suddenly fighting for his life after his ship develops an inexplicable malfunction. Once the malfunction is determined to be sabotage, Troy is called in from Venus to investigate.
The two story threads – artifact discovery and ship malfunction – are well-balanced through the book; the mysteries are engaging, play fair with the clues, and build to a satisfying conclusion. The “science” part of the SF is written in an accessible way that keeps the reader interested in the overall story.
Troy acquires a colleague in this book, an old acquaintance named Blake Redfield. As a civilian, he is discretely pursuing his own investigations regarding Troy’s mysterious past. The interplay in their relationship is another enjoyable layer in this thriller.
This series is about a detective, solving murder mysteries. It just so happens that these mysteries are in space and on other planets in our solar system. If you are interested in expanding your mystery-thriller genre horizons, these books would be a great place to start.
There are six books in the series, and I will be actively looking for the rest.
April 19, 2017
Kind of fun - not sure if I want to continue the series, but I appreciate the direction.
Read
July 3, 2010A Great Story: I found this book to be a really excellent story. There were many places where I did not want to put the book down, so I made time to finish the section I was reading. Several times I exclaimed, "wow" aloud while reading on the Metro. It is easy to image-in what the author was writing, so I felt as though I was right there. I am looking forward to finding and reading venus prime 1 thru 5!
At first I felt put off by two things. First, the picture of the woman on the cover, while appealing, did cause me to refrain from leaving the book lying around for my 8-year old daughter to see. This book does not need sex to sell. Second, I was put off by the fact that Arthur Clarke was not authoring it. But I gave it a shot anyway, and I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised.
January 25, 2015
A superb sequel. There are so many threads to follow. This is not a book to read passively. Another mystery for Sparta / Ellen / Linda to solve and another snippet of her past is uncovered. A good cross genre story. If you like your sci-fi with real world physics or you like detective novels, this has both. Read it.
December 14, 2020
As the plot thickens in the second novel, I became even more invested in the main charachters. If you like Indiana Jones type adventure novels, you'll love this as it's action packed but with a sci-fi twist.
March 5, 2009
Excellent Clarke scifi read. Stimulating and imaginitive. What happened to dreaming of science and space? Oh yeah, TV.
June 5, 2017
Intriguing. The uber-plot has my interest, and I'm enjoying the embedding of the Clarke stories. I'll be reading more.
August 23, 2023
The Short Answer
A fun and over the top sci-fi mystery that manages to be an enjoyable ride most of the time. While definitely not quite as smart as it thinks it is, it's a marked improvement over the first book, and an enjoyably mindless sci-fi mystery. Non essential, but a fun read.
Recommended to anyone who liked the first book, or anyone who didn't like the first book but liked what it was trying to be.
The Long Answer
This is the second book in the series, and like all the other books in the series part of the plot involves a slightly reworked short story originally written by Arthur C. Clarke. So far the stories have been used to build the central core of a mystery that Ellen Troy (Sparta) has to solve. The format actually works fairly well, but has one key drawback.
The main problem is that Clarke is a much better author than Preuss. So much so that I immediately knew when I had reached the part originally written by Clarke despite not being familiar with the original work. Preuss has reworked it to fit the book, so the writing style matches, but the situations become far more creative and interesting than what has been previously written.
Clarke is primarily an intellectual writer, while Preuss is a much more visual writer. Clarke's shorts are the only times in the books that hard science matters at all, and the difference is noticeable. I think if Clarke had been more involved in coming up with the rest of the story this series could have been amazing. Their writing styles work well together as Preuss can inject an energy that is sometimes lacking in Clarke's work. Unfortunately Preuss wrote the rest of the book himself, which is serviceable, and thankfully becomes a lot of fun near the end, but is very formulaic and pedestrian.
Thankfully however, most of the pacing problems from the first book are solved. We actually get to solve the mystery alongside Sparta instead of enduring a whole third of the book without her. She is by far the most interesting part of the book, so the book benefits heavily from spending more time with her. I wish Preuss could have figured out that Blake Redfield, her love interest, is significantly less interesting. But so far he hasn't dragged the book down a lot.
Definitely worth reading if you liked the first book. And if you couldn't quite get into the first book but found the ideas intriguing, this is still worth checking out as it is a marked improvement.
A fun and over the top sci-fi mystery that manages to be an enjoyable ride most of the time. While definitely not quite as smart as it thinks it is, it's a marked improvement over the first book, and an enjoyably mindless sci-fi mystery. Non essential, but a fun read.
Recommended to anyone who liked the first book, or anyone who didn't like the first book but liked what it was trying to be.
The Long Answer
This is the second book in the series, and like all the other books in the series part of the plot involves a slightly reworked short story originally written by Arthur C. Clarke. So far the stories have been used to build the central core of a mystery that Ellen Troy (Sparta) has to solve. The format actually works fairly well, but has one key drawback.
The main problem is that Clarke is a much better author than Preuss. So much so that I immediately knew when I had reached the part originally written by Clarke despite not being familiar with the original work. Preuss has reworked it to fit the book, so the writing style matches, but the situations become far more creative and interesting than what has been previously written.
Clarke is primarily an intellectual writer, while Preuss is a much more visual writer. Clarke's shorts are the only times in the books that hard science matters at all, and the difference is noticeable. I think if Clarke had been more involved in coming up with the rest of the story this series could have been amazing. Their writing styles work well together as Preuss can inject an energy that is sometimes lacking in Clarke's work. Unfortunately Preuss wrote the rest of the book himself, which is serviceable, and thankfully becomes a lot of fun near the end, but is very formulaic and pedestrian.
Thankfully however, most of the pacing problems from the first book are solved. We actually get to solve the mystery alongside Sparta instead of enduring a whole third of the book without her. She is by far the most interesting part of the book, so the book benefits heavily from spending more time with her. I wish Preuss could have figured out that Blake Redfield, her love interest, is significantly less interesting. But so far he hasn't dragged the book down a lot.
Definitely worth reading if you liked the first book. And if you couldn't quite get into the first book but found the ideas intriguing, this is still worth checking out as it is a marked improvement.
January 13, 2018
Creo que este libro se podría considerar una novela de transición. Aunque tiene un argumento propio, este es muy débil y se basa sobretodo en los pilares que son el primero y el tercero.
Obtenemos algunos puntos de la historia oculta con los que empezaba el primer libro de la saga, pero en cierta medida es muy poco y, así como va avanzando el libro, vemos que obtendremos mucho más en el siguiente.
El crimen que debe investigar Sparta es más sencillo de lo que uno pensaba, a diferencia del primero, en el que se iba investigando y había más cosas ocultas de las que creíamos.
Aún así, a medida que llegamos al final uno se engancha cada vez más a la historia y antes de terminar el libro ya se tiene preparado el siguiente para descubrir los misterios que se nos presentan aquí.
Obtenemos algunos puntos de la historia oculta con los que empezaba el primer libro de la saga, pero en cierta medida es muy poco y, así como va avanzando el libro, vemos que obtendremos mucho más en el siguiente.
El crimen que debe investigar Sparta es más sencillo de lo que uno pensaba, a diferencia del primero, en el que se iba investigando y había más cosas ocultas de las que creíamos.
Aún así, a medida que llegamos al final uno se engancha cada vez más a la historia y antes de terminar el libro ya se tiene preparado el siguiente para descubrir los misterios que se nos presentan aquí.
June 8, 2019
Fabuloso el segundo libro de la collection Venus Prime. En él aparece de nuevo junto a Sparta el personaje de Blake Redfield, aunque en este libro tiene mucho más protagonismo.
Clarke y Preuss nos proponen sumergirnos en las nubes de Venus y viajar a la Luna para perseguir a los seguidores de la cultura X. Un libro lleno de ciencia e ideas maravillosas sobre cómo podríamos devolvernos en estos dos mundos.
Clarke y Preuss nos proponen sumergirnos en las nubes de Venus y viajar a la Luna para perseguir a los seguidores de la cultura X. Un libro lleno de ciencia e ideas maravillosas sobre cómo podríamos devolvernos en estos dos mundos.
April 24, 2024
The second book in this series isn't as much of a complete story as the first, but it has the same interesting characters, and the plot points that it goes through are very compelling. It introduces more long term plot hooks and things, but the conclusion feels a little more like an intermediate step. Overall it's still a very fun read though, and I do want to read more. A quality sci-fi thriller type story, if not super deep or anything.
October 14, 2020
Un superbo seguito.
Questo non è un libro da leggere passivamente. Un altro mistero da risolvere e un altro frammento del suo passato viene scoperto. Una buona storia trasversale. Se ti piace la fantascienza con la fisica del mondo reale o ti piacciono i romanzi polizieschi... questo li ha entrambi.
Questo non è un libro da leggere passivamente. Un altro mistero da risolvere e un altro frammento del suo passato viene scoperto. Una buona storia trasversale. Se ti piace la fantascienza con la fisica del mondo reale o ti piacciono i romanzi polizieschi... questo li ha entrambi.
May 10, 2019
Entertaining sci-fi crime novel. Elements of the Robert Langdon series (secret societies’ mystical beliefs interacting with hard science/science fiction). Recommended for anyone that enjoyed the Langdon novels.
June 10, 2023
This is rapidly evolving into a Ludlum-in-space-and-(poorly invented)-future, the latter due to the gimmick of wrapping every volume around a story written in the 1950s. Mr. Preuss didn't exactly strain for anything beyond passable prose, either, so, yeah, mostly an extruded cellulose product.
June 9, 2024
"Would you like to tell the other guests how we met you, Bruni?"
"That pimp tried to force me to work for him, but I refused."
"You said, 'No thank you'?"
"I broke his arm."
"And when his big friends tried to help him?"
"I broke their knees."
"That pimp tried to force me to work for him, but I refused."
"You said, 'No thank you'?"
"I broke his arm."
"And when his big friends tried to help him?"
"I broke their knees."
June 5, 2018
Good read, but I found the story seemed to jar when I read the chapter called Maelstrom. That may have been me having a moment.
May 31, 2020
This series is so good.
September 2, 2025
Muy entretenido, aunque a veces se vuelve un tanto liado.
October 6, 2025
Très bon livre, j'ai trouvé l'histoire tellement intéressante que je n'ai presque pas reposé le livre. Un des meilleurs de la série
October 20, 2017
Had to force myself through this one, the all-powerful main character kinda destroyed the book for me and the overlying story does not engage at all. Combined with a rather dull storyline of this book. Liked the ending though...
January 9, 2012
by Paul Preuss, published in 1988.
This is the second book in the Arthur C. Clarke’s Venus Prime series comprised of six books. All six are written by Paul Preuss and not Arthur C Clarke as you could be fooled into believing by quickly looking at the book covers.
But, don’t let any of this stop you from reading the series. It’s actually a very fun and fast read.
Once more we follow Sparta, who calls herself Ellen Troy. She is a genetically enhanced super-woman and is now an inspector for the Space Board.
This time Paul Preuss uses Clarke’s short story “Maelstrom II” as a backdrop to create parts of this novel. “Maelstrom II” is a story exploring the concepts and physics of perturbation theory. Infused into this novel are also one of Preuss’s favourite topics - ciphers. At on point Sparta has to decipher one left for her by Blake Redfield and it gets pretty involved for a few pages while she does so.
Two mysteries are brewing in this, the second volume, as the action starts with Sparta stationed on Port Hesperus, an orbiting space station above Venus. In Clarkian fashion there are some artifacts from and ancient and long dead (at least suspected) visiting alien race dubbed Culture X.
A cave-in on Venus has three people digging for artifacts trapped on Venus and Sparta goes down to the inhospitable world to extract them. This is a fun section and we get to see Sparta in action inside a six legged Venus buggy.
Meanwhile back on Earth, Blake Redfield who is Sparta’s love interest, is digging into Sparta’s past and infiltrates a secret society connected to the ancient alien Culture X in some way. Another cool sequence of events transpires as Blake is initiated into the fold through a series of tests.
This is actually the first half or so of the novel and before Sparta can meet up with Blake she is called to the moon to investigate and “accident” with the electromagnetic accelerator. This accelerator uses rails many kilometers long to accelerate cargo (people or goods) to escape velocity and sling them off of the moon to Lagrange points for interception.
Of course you just know the Culture X secret society is somehow involved and Sparta unravels the mystery.
Overall I am enjoying these books and look forward to finishing the entire thing. At the end we see Sparta and Blake off to another part of the solar system - Mars.
Well worth your effort in finding, this series is fun, fast paced and entertaining.
This is the second book in the Arthur C. Clarke’s Venus Prime series comprised of six books. All six are written by Paul Preuss and not Arthur C Clarke as you could be fooled into believing by quickly looking at the book covers.
But, don’t let any of this stop you from reading the series. It’s actually a very fun and fast read.
Once more we follow Sparta, who calls herself Ellen Troy. She is a genetically enhanced super-woman and is now an inspector for the Space Board.
This time Paul Preuss uses Clarke’s short story “Maelstrom II” as a backdrop to create parts of this novel. “Maelstrom II” is a story exploring the concepts and physics of perturbation theory. Infused into this novel are also one of Preuss’s favourite topics - ciphers. At on point Sparta has to decipher one left for her by Blake Redfield and it gets pretty involved for a few pages while she does so.
Two mysteries are brewing in this, the second volume, as the action starts with Sparta stationed on Port Hesperus, an orbiting space station above Venus. In Clarkian fashion there are some artifacts from and ancient and long dead (at least suspected) visiting alien race dubbed Culture X.
A cave-in on Venus has three people digging for artifacts trapped on Venus and Sparta goes down to the inhospitable world to extract them. This is a fun section and we get to see Sparta in action inside a six legged Venus buggy.
Meanwhile back on Earth, Blake Redfield who is Sparta’s love interest, is digging into Sparta’s past and infiltrates a secret society connected to the ancient alien Culture X in some way. Another cool sequence of events transpires as Blake is initiated into the fold through a series of tests.
This is actually the first half or so of the novel and before Sparta can meet up with Blake she is called to the moon to investigate and “accident” with the electromagnetic accelerator. This accelerator uses rails many kilometers long to accelerate cargo (people or goods) to escape velocity and sling them off of the moon to Lagrange points for interception.
Of course you just know the Culture X secret society is somehow involved and Sparta unravels the mystery.
Overall I am enjoying these books and look forward to finishing the entire thing. At the end we see Sparta and Blake off to another part of the solar system - Mars.
Well worth your effort in finding, this series is fun, fast paced and entertaining.
March 20, 2014
The second book follows the lives of the two characters still intact after the first. Preuss did a competent job of bringing them together by making the activities they were a part of have common motivations. I admit to still being curious about the secret society, but that it is now supposed to be waiting for aliens and that the constellation they are from is now known gives them the same feel one gets in watching shows about crop circles. Ah well, the mysteries that SPARTA clears up continue to be believable, which in itself is a difficult task considering it is all set in the future.
November 4, 2010
I originally bought all the Venus Prime books because they mentioned Arthur C Clarke and I LOVED Jim Burns' cover art. None of the books were really that captivating, including this one. The hard SF here was all a little too dry. At least the artwork inspired me to draw my own versions of Sparta.
November 20, 2010
Didn't like this one as much as the first one in the series.
There's more Blake, which is ok, but less of Sparta as a person and more of Sparta as superwoman. Sparta as a person is more interesting.
The, well 'series plotline' is becoming more clear, and less original too.
Just ok.
There's more Blake, which is ok, but less of Sparta as a person and more of Sparta as superwoman. Sparta as a person is more interesting.
The, well 'series plotline' is becoming more clear, and less original too.
Just ok.
May 9, 2012
Another good book in the series, which I'm re-reading for the third or fourth time. I just had a taste for it lately. Anyway, the e-book version has a lot of typographic errors, which is distracting, so reader beware.
December 2, 2010
awesome series
January 12, 2012
Grade B. Book Vp2, Clarke's Venus Prime series.
March 18, 2012
Moved much slower than the first book. Never finished because, frankly, I lost interest.
September 17, 2012
VENUS PRIME ARTHUR C. CLARKE
TIE-TOGETHER SERIES OF SIX CLARKE STORIES INTO NEW SERIES BY PREUSS.
TIE-TOGETHER SERIES OF SIX CLARKE STORIES INTO NEW SERIES BY PREUSS.
January 18, 2015
Přečíst znovu...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews