The 2,000 tonne Prometheus is a joint Soviet-American space station designed
to harness solar energy, to replace the dwindling supply of fossil fuels.
The crew of six live in cramped quarters, but their personal problems soon pale when the satellite's orbit begins to decay. If it hits the Earth, its radioactive power plant will explode with the force of an atom bomb.
Skyfall combines political thriller and a disaster story, with space technology based on designs already planned by scientists. Technical advice for the novel was provided by Gerry Webb, F.B.I.S.
Dedication: This book is for Hilary Rubinstein and Charles Monteith, without whose enthusiasm and encouragement it would never have been written. Particular thanks to Gerald M. Webb, F.B.I.S. for unstinting technical guidance.
"How good this writer is away from those Stainless Steel Rat caperings. Here he concentrates on driving, forceful yarning: a vast space-ship falling upon Earth and the atomic menace anticipated. Atmospherics that crackle with tension."
"Although Skyfall is in one way a space cliffhanger, in another it is satire which sees modern man as a toad under a harrow he is not allowed to understand. In a third it is a democratic "mirror for princes", urging us all to grapple with "academic" questions before they lead to annihilation."
"Skyfall - the story of an abortive attempt to orbit a manned satellite designed to supply Earth with massive quantities of solar energy - is a sloppily constructed piece of science fiction which clearly disproves Kingsley Amis's contention as quoted on the dustjacket, that Harrison is 'incapable of writing a dull sentence.'
"The story itself is good: it is a shame, however, that its author does not seem to have been bothered enough to write it properly. The disasters that befall the crew of the spaceship Prometheus are no less exciting because of their obviousness; just as the mistakes - English gentry drinking whiskey, for example, and listening in the future to something called the Third Programme - are no less irritating because of their triviality."
"The novel is efficiently told, but somehow unstirring, its lack of conviction for some reason exaggerated by its careful straining after authenticity. Perhaps the space programmes, after their apparent failure to touch our imaginations in any real way, are now convincing only when presented as out-and-out fantasy."
" ... a good thriller that is eminently readable and reasonably suspenseful, and you ought to find it quite satisfying... "
"The model here is the best-selling 'disaster novel' in which a carefully assembled cast of stereotypes, together with a faceless mass of extras, are threatened by: earthquake, volcanic eruption, tidal wave, avalanche (check one) ... The plot may be dscribed simply as a 270-page illustration of Murphy's Law ... The trouble with ever-escalating disasters, of course, is that they soon lose their power to move us."
"And pretty good it is too, in the Almost Unbearable Suspense genre ... there are thrills enough, for all that this is an utterly conventional pop SF novel, right down to the unkempt prose ('he had the ability of being able to'), the awful sex ('The waves of the music broke over them') and the toiling toughie dialogue ('you got as much chance as a hound dog winning an elephant farting contest'). At this rate, Mr. Harrison's chances of transcending genre might be similarly computed. I hear of plans for a film, though, and will doubtless find myself in the queue."