Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime: The Diamond Man

With this book, the series is starting to regain the momentum it had during the first two books. Sparta has reconciled with her feelings toward her biotechnical engineering and with those responsible. Preuss spends a good deal of time wrapping up a lot of loose ends from the fouth book. But, he also delves back into the plot of the entire series, reminding the reader why s/he finished the last book. The reader is pulled back into the mystery and intrigue of the alien culture called Culture X. We have reached the fuzzy edge of knowledge that will hopefully crystalize in the last book.

Arthur C. Clarke's component in this series is the inclusion of a number of his interesting short stories as the subplots with very little alteration of the details. (The original book titles were actually the names of the stories, eg. Breaking Strain.) These stories are seamlessly incorporated into the whole work.What is added by Preuss is the style and setting - Sparta, a fragile but superhuman woman who has lost her past, searches for the people who made her what she is. In doing so, she becomes involved in the situations created in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction. The "Venus Prime" series maps out her journey (as well as serving up great stories by Clarke). Preuss peppers the books with nice details of life in the near future (like logical extensions, interesting-but-plausible technology, and so on).If you're looking for the original short stories, several appeared in the out-of-print collection "The Sentinel ; masterworks of science fiction and fantasy" (the title story is also interesting as the origin of Clarke's novel "2001 a Space Odyssey").

I just finished The Diamond Moon. Thoroughly enjoyed this fifth volume. I have always been a huge fan of Arthur C. Clarke and was skeptical when realizing he was a co-author, but have been extremely pleased with the masterful blend of true science fiction with an involving story line using mystery and engaging character development that I assume to be of Paul Preuss' design. This is not a book to be read on it's own, but to be enjoyed from the beginning and read through the end - (I'm going to get Volume 6 now). I have been hooked right from the start - accolades to Paul Preuss and Arthur C. Clarke!