Wildside MP3 CD – MP3 Audio, July 19, 2016

by that i mean it was entertaining and well written. this guy knows how to write a sentence! an increasingly rare skill it seems. his world building really shines in the interactions between the the friends. that might be my favorite part.

Wildside is one of my favorite books. Steven Gould creates a believable world where Charlie and his friends embark on a well-planned mission involving flying a small airplane on a journey in an alternate version of Earth. Gould does a great job combining science fiction, action and adventure, and romance. The romance is sweet and clean and addresses issues such as unrequited love, loving an alcoholic, and trust. Wildside has themes about saving the earth and responsibly managing ecosystems. It covers a range of relationship issues including controlling parents and their teens, accepting your friends for who they are, loyalty, and distrust of the government and those in power. One character is gay and I think that's handled sensitively without becoming the focus of the book. Gould's writing in Wildside is not overly-technical (as in some of his other books), yet the world he creates is believable and realistic. I read Wildside every year, just to check in with Charlie to see how he's doing. I'm impressed with his leadership skills and his ability to keep the peace among various people. I think Wildside would appeal to a wide variety of readers.

I enjoy post-cataclysm and "alternate earth" stories, and this is a well-told one. The "kids" discover an version of Earth without people, where they attempt to mine minerals. Their methods of going from "nothing" to "something" are very realistic, much better than in many SF novels in which economics and logistics are assumed away.The characters are well drawn, although the men are somewhat better filled in than the women. There is a low-key story of "coming of age with the opposite sex" handled realistically IMO. (Carnal issues are not explicit; no issues for having kids read it.) There is also a fair amount of "escaping from under the thumb of your parents." Both of these go far beyond what Heinlein did.The last third takes a bit of a detour, with the adversary turning into a secret organization of the US Government. Reading it recently (post Snowden) is a bit more chilling than before.I don't give 5 star reviews due to sock puppet problems. If I did, this one would still be a 4, not a 5.

This has become my favorite book! I love the story and wish for more! Fingers crossed that additional books on this story will come out someday!

This is a great book for anyone that has ever had an idle daydream of 'what if' that involved having their own world to explore.This is really a 'coming of age' story with a dash of sci-fi thrown in and it works. The characters are realistically flawed and human and the relationships are the heart of the story. The reader follows Charlie and friends as they take that scary but exhilarating first step into the future after high school. Except in this story, that first step is onto another world.The friends have history together and it shapes the story as they with deal with the challenges of exploring this new world. Of course, the new world is not the only place that they have to fear sudden, unprovoked attack...I five starred this book and I wish it had been twice the length and followed them throughout many adventures while they started a second Gold Rush. My only complaint is the confrontation at the end. It brought soaring wonder at the discoveries in the 'new' world down to a crash landing. Up to that point, the book was great escapist fantasy. Even with that, the rest of the book was strong enough retain the perfect rating.

All the characters are real, feel real, very well written. Characters that you root for and want to win. Aviation stuff was so cool

This book was all right - probably exciting read for teenagers. It reminded me of a lot of books I read when I was younger, like "My Side of the Mountain" and "Sign of the Beaver" where young people do amazing things with hard work and know-how and self-reliance in a harsh and hostile natural environment. Overlaid on that was modern teenage angst with love triangles and clingy parents and disaffected parents and so forth, as well as big government conspiracy. Plot wise it was ok; decent action and suspense although much of it fell into the category of what they would call "mild peril" in the review of a PG-13 movie. I thought the teenage characters were a lot more competent than most 18-year-olds I've met, and thus a little bit hard to believe, but then nobody bothers to write a book about everyday teenagers that just sit around and text their friends and don't know how to fry an egg let alone build a barn or fly a plane. The "big reveal" at the end about the nature of the gate left me scratching my head - rather came out of nowhere.