There were times when I thought this book would never end, but it did, and then I almost felt like I wanted a little more. I did the audio edition and I was frequently disappointed in the narration. I'd like to find something else he did and try that, to know if it was just this book, or if I need to avoid him, period. Some of the portrayals of the characters were a little too much for me - I don't need huge distinctions from one to another to follow a story as a rule. And it really can impact your feelings about a character if you cringe every time he or she speaks. The story was just great at times, but not wholly consistent. I think I admire it perhaps a little more that I liked it, if that makes sense. This was truly an odd assortment of people, and the author took a lot of time and effort to connect some to the main plot. Some parts I found to be quite unique, especially with regard to Mary's illness and finish to Felix's story. I would recommend it to those who are not put off by things that develop slowly. ( )

In 1928, Clyde Tombaugh ground the lens for his telescope in Kansas, wishing he was anywhere but there. In Arizona, a staff of Harvard trained astronomers prepare to resume the search for Percival Lowell's Planet X. An heir to a big business fortune decides to travel west to search for dinosaur remains. And a woman in Cambridge slowly slips into insanity while her lover watches, wishing he could do something to stop it. When Tombaugh is given the opportunity to join the hunt for Planet X, he jumps at the chance, unaware of the long life of a secret buried in Lowell Observatory, held by the widow of Percival Lowell. This secret could change the course of the journey towards finding the missing planet, and the meaning of the discovery if it is to happen.

Like others I was not particularly interested in a fiction book. It has a great deal of interest in wondering what could be. What else may be out there. The relationships are believable if eccentric. It was an interesting book, but I would probably skip it in favor of a non-fiction book. But that's merely personal preference.

This book was a disappointment to me, but it is not exactly the author's fault -- I requested the book thinking it was nonfiction. As historical fiction it did not work for me -- I could not correlate the fictional Tombaugh with the historical figure. In general, I think it is a mistake to write fiction about recent historical figures, unless is it satire. Too much is known about the protagonist to give the author room for imagination. ( )

Percival's Planet is a fictionalization of the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. This is more historically inspired fiction than historical fiction. This is inevitable, since there is nothing dramatic about spending months flipping through star fields on a blink comparator.

Many of the characters we find in Percival's Planet are thus entirely fictional, although I could imagine that people like them wandered about Flagstaff in the 1930s. Byers says he based Alan and Mary Barber on his grandparents. Although Barber did not actually work at Lowell, I enjoyed the details of Barber's work on the calculation of the orbit of Planet X. It is hard to appreciate the incredible amount of work that went into calculations before the term computer meant a machine instead of a person. The description of the work involved in grinding a lens by hand was also fascinating. It is amazing what you can accomplish with grit and hard work [and incredible attention to detail].

I am a sucker for any book that even features Flagstaff, and here we have one that is largely set in Flagstaff. There are some liberties with the topography as well as with the people, but the gist is pretty good. It is fun to walk around town and imagine what it was like in 1930.

If you want something that sticks closely to the facts, this book is not it. It was not really my style, but I did enjoy the book. And in my heart, Pluto will always be a planet. ( )