Gravity dreams

______________________________________________Rating: "B-" -- interesting backstory, but a slow, bloated novel.The best thing about Gravity Dreams is the backstory.

This was the first book I'd ever read by Modesitt. Boy, was I glad I'd found him!

Although the summary here and on the jacket say this is a "standalone" book, I'm sure those of you who have read Fall of Angels from Modesitt's Saga of Recluse series will notice a host of similarities in culture and language between the two books. I would put forth that someone in Tor's marketing department got it wrong - this is actually a chronological precursor to the Recluse series and admirably crosses the boundary from hard fiction to the "fantasy" world found in the other texts.