Fountains of Pardise

This book was the 1979 Hugo winner.

This book is really about futuristic engineering, specifically an engineer who is building an elevator that will reach all the way up to orbit. On the way it takes some lovely detours and asks some interesting questions. It's a bit on the dry side but I'd recommend it.
We open in the past, in a thinly fictionalized version of Sri Lanka, the island that Clarke lived on for the last 50 some years of his life. The story is about a king who lives on a mountain and a monastery on the next mountain over. They have an uneasy relationship at best.
Fast forward hundreds of years and the kingdom is long gone but the monastery remains. Which is a problem for our protagonist, Dr Vannevar Morgan, a renowned engineer. He has decided to build a space elevator and the best spot on the globe is occupied by a monastery. He tries various ways of arguing with them and the solution is, well, interesting if not the least bit convincing.
There follows the details of the build itself, which is pretty interesting. And I really mean that. The concept here is an enormous one and Clarke really shows what it can do. He brought the idea to the forefront and it has since caught on in space communities. He is the one that thunk up geosynchronous orbits for satellites and this could be an even bigger deal.
Alas, like other Clarke stories, the characters are fairly cardboard. They exist to do things and mouth ideas but there is no sense of depth. The climax at the end is workmanlike, if less than exciting. But there is a poetry here, especially in the interplay between past and future. As I said, I'd recommend it as a good read. Not a great book but a good one.