1965: Mission to Universe (Dickson, Gordon R.)

Poor execution after a warmly ominous start (2/5)
From June 29, 2011

Having never read any Dickson before, I did a bit of research on him and found that he's best described as a romanticized sci-fi writer, which told me one thing: he sticks to sci-fi tradition. Being "romantic" is just about the only adjective given to the man, so my initial hopes were low. I know of his Dorsai series but it seems to be hard to find in these here parts. It's a must-buy for me but after reading Mission to Universe, I'm reluctant to pick up another Dickson novel of any sort: classic, relatively unknown, or short story collection.

Rear cover synopsis:

"General Benjamin Shore was heading for the stars under forged orders - and in defiance of the commands of the President. He was leaving Earth in an untested ship with a crew chosen by necessity and with nothing but faith to guide him. His only hope was to find habitable worlds in the unexplored reaches of space ahead. Thus began Man's first mission to the uncharted universe. Shore had no illusions. Before him lay danger, probable disappointment - even death. But nothing had prepared him for the nightmare he would have to face on the planet of the Gray-Furs... for the menace of the Golden People who had driven all other races from Galactic Center--or for what awaited him if he returned to the world he called home!"

The two chapters (of thirteen) of Mission to Universe are ripe with potential: Benjamin Shore quietly assembles his crew in the dead of the night, awaking their prone bodies to congregate in the shift-ship. With presidential orders in hand denying the launch of the ship to orbit, Benjamin alters the order and tells his crew to prepare to embark to earth orbit, to Andromeda and beyond. The mainly narrative text of the first two chapters has a creepy, ominous aura to it. It's a sinister invitation not traditional in any sense.

Thereafter, from chapters three to thirteen, we witness why Dickson has been described as romantic: the ship's air recycler needs repair so they land on a planet with tragic consequences, they land on another planet with tragic consequences... and yet again, and again. It's almost as if Dickson wrote the novel by stream-of-thought, himself thinking, "OK, now that I've written them into this situation, how will I write them OUT of it?" What follows is a ragtag attempt to snare the reader into the adventure and danger of the shift-ship's journey to Andromeda.

Nothing very clever ever surfaces from Mission to Universe. There are many dead ends in the details, like the stowaway cat which plays no part through the novel and only goes to characterize the female love interest as girly and to draw her closer to Benjamin (I had other grander ideas of why the cat was on the ship). When the ship discovers life on two planets, I could quickly draw conclusions as to the state of their civilizations. Dickson may have written Benjamin as a quick thinker, but he never saw me coming.

(And you can't put yourself into orbit around a planet without having any velocity. The shift-ship only shifts and has no means to physically propel itself. Dumb point, but still.)

All in all, it may have been written for the YA age bracket. When the rear cover synopsis reads "A riveting space adventure," that kind of language gives it away. BUT, like I said about the first two chapters, there is potential in Dickson and I've already bought a short story collection In the Bone and another lengthier novel entitled The Forever Man. I won't whitewash Dickson with criticism yet, but he already has negative marks in my book.

1979: Polaris (Perkins, Sheldon)

Dialogue! Characters! Plot! ALL GENERIC (2/5)

The Belmont Tower edition of Sheldon Perkins' Polaris novel is the only publication of the novel. It's also the only novel written by Perkins. Generically titled Polaris, the name of the starship within the novel, the entire book reads as dryly as this introduction paragraph. If Polaris is taken as a sample of the author's writing style, Perkins made a wise choice in finding a different line of work. Though a 208-page novel, the book reads like a choppy collection of seven sequential short stories. So instead of writing a review for a novel, I'll write one which is more geared to a collection.

Rear cover synopsis:
"Captain Alexander Traynor of the United Space Republic only got the tough assignments. And his current task was the roughest of his entire career. He had to overhaul the ailing starship Polaris. The Polaris, once the pride of the U.S.R., was only now in sorry condition. Her weaponry was sadly in need of repair, and her staff divided by internal strife. But these problems were eclipsed by an even greater danger--a danger that came from outer space and threatened not only Traynor and the Polaris, but the entire United Space Republic!"

Chapter I - 3/5 - Alexander Traynor has recently been promoted to captain of a war-stricken vessel near the star Alpha Barnard. The fleet cruiser Polaris and her crew of 250 are under the orders of the outsourced "Earther" captain with stronger "Outworlder" affiliation. When scanning staff records with the ship's doctor, they outline the possible troublemakers and their political affiliations--Earther or Outworlder. 14 pages

Chapter II - 2/5 - Captain Traynor assigns 220cm Ganymedan Lieutenant Harold Nater as his personal security guard. Tension among the crew rises when executive officer Carl Nelson and his fellow Earther extremists conspire to oust the gentle captain through subversive means. 36 pages

Chapter III - 3/5 - After engaging six enemy battlewagons, the captain becomes aware of false rumors being spread about his trust of the Vendran people, native to a planet with 2.65 earth standard gravity. To address this, the captain puts himself in the boxing ring to prove one thing... and another. 23 pages

Chapter IV - 2/5 - The Polaris is called to the rescue of the disabled ship USR Moscow. With mounting tension between Captain Traynor and the extremist Earthers, the captain has difficulty coping with the casualties suffered during the rescue of the crew within the hull of Moscow. 46 pages

Chapter V - 3/5 - The captain and his crew visit the day of declaration of independence of the planet Larandra. The Vice-premier Dravin Pasteur has a short bur fiery on-record dispute with the captain, but his anti-Interplanetary Council agenda won't allow the obvious feud to hamper his barbaric plans. 36 pages

Chapter VI - 3/5 - Twelve orbital stations in the Barnard system have been destroyed and the Polaris has been assigned to assist in recovery. Only when the Polaris approaches does the crew realize that the enemy is fleeing from the scene towards their unknown home system. Banking on the importance of this impromptu mission, the captain follows the enemy fleet at a distance as the Earther party concocts a grand scheme for mutiny. 37 pages

Chapter VII - 2/5 - The outcome of the mutiny and the stealth approach towards the enemy's home star is announced by Captain Traynor. Who is promoted, who is detained, and which party alliance comes out on top? 12 pages

The Interplanetary Council heads the decisions of the United Space Republic which is composed of planetary bodies orbiting extra-solar suns and the planets and moons in Earth's solar system. The Council has promoted and appointed Traynor to the captaincy of the temporarily disabled ship Polaris. Being an outsider and an Earther with Outworlder sympathies, the predominantly Earther staff aboard the Polaris seek to oust the newly appointed captain from his position. Where prior ship climate was simmering with hierarchical disobedience between Earthers and Outworlders, Traynor's new regiment supports the enfranchisement of the suppressed Outworlders and the return to strict respect for one's superiors.

The annoyingly likable and ne'er-do-wrong Captain Traynor assumes the captaincy but the Earthers have a serious problem with this. Executive officer Carl Nelson rallies his Earther cohorts and endlessly conspires to oust Traynor from his post, utilizing both informal ways and formal paths. Traynor easily sees past these slight-of-hand verbal discrepancies and confronts the affected staff with tact and intelligence. This high emotional intelligence wins the respect of the non-Earther crew.

From the sparse data I could gather from online, Polaris was written as a novel rather than a collection of short stories. However, the entire story was terribly choppy and disconnected and read more like a poorly glued together stitch-up rather than a holistically composed novel. The two chapters where the crew (1) speed off to rescue the crew of Moscow, (2) attend the celebration at Larandra are only included to weakly heighten the already established feud between the crude crew. The conspiracy is repetitious and the allegiance to the captain is predictable, given his charming ways and polite disposition.

There is very little attention given to the detail of the starship Polaris. There's no ambiance, no flare, no dramatic or artistic impressions... most of the novel is saturated, deep-fried, and smothering in cheap dialogue: one line commands and -flopping informal and formal approaches. Not only is it dry and predictable, but it also gather little momentum; the speaking carries on with little mass to drive it forward.

The cast themselves are as generic as the title and dialogue. The staff retain superficially diverse surnames such as McMasters, Trovonski, DeGaulle, Goldman, N'goto, and Antonozzi. The predictably stereotype are in place for the simply for the sake for diversity rather than characterization. Even the women are stereotypical: blushing, ditsy, romantic, abiding, meek, weak, and troublesome. They're always either crying, eagerly submitting to a superior, or flirting with th captain. Only Traynor and Nelson have any personality to put forth and ever than is slim to none.

There is very little actually redeemable to this book other than the fact that I did NOT throw it down... and that is what separates this two-star "novel" from a lowly one-star floor-licking, rug-surfing, tile-tickling mere "book." I don't know what a reader would emotionally or mentally retain from reading Polaris, but perhaps if you're an impressionable juvenile, your eagerness for generic detail and droning dialogue will wow you. To reiterate the first paragraph, Sheldon Perkins never wrote another novel... and for that, thank you Mr. Perkins.

2006: Galactic North (Reynolds, Alastair)

Good overview of Revelation Space history (4/5)
From April 19, 2009

A pretty good collection of short stories and novellas taking place in Revelation Space, which includes Chasm City, Yellowstone, the Glitter Band (and Rust Belt), the Melding Plague, the Inhibitors (only mentioned), and all the factions of humans in the future history. Altogether it's a satisfying inclusion to the Revelation Space series. However, I think his stories in Zima Blue were of better quality overall. The eight stories include:

Great Wall of Mars - 4/5: Taking place in Revelation Space when humankind was still inside its' own solar system. The Conjoiners have a Mars base and who are at differences with the Demarchists. Explore the budding relationship between the two human sects and even the relationship between the to-be-famous Conjoiner Galiana and Demarchist Nevil Clavain. Its antiquity is an interest. 51 pages

Glacial - 3/5: In the immediate post-Great Wall of Mars time, Galiana and Clavain descend upon a mysterious frigid planet which already has an American scientific base. The question as to how they got there and why they got there is not satisfyingly answered. But how the one survivor lived while the rest of the crew died proved to be mediocre. 51 pages

A Spy in Europa - 5/5: After the moon of Europa is colonized with underwater cities, word of a Demarchist hyperdiamond shard sparks a back-stabbing spy mission which may put power into the hands of the Gilgamesh Isis. Extreme surgery, rumors of shark/human hybrids and bloodshed follows. 23 pages

Weather - 5/5: In the Yellowstone colonization era, an Ultra reefersleeper craft is pursued by a pirate ship which is left ruined. In the wreck, the Ultra crew plunder the pirate ship and discover a out-of-place Conjoiner woman, who is despised by the Ultra captain. Can the solo Conjoiner survive, appease relations and even serve the ship? 57 page

Dilation Sleeper - 4/5: Takes place during the post-Melding Plague era. A reefersleeper in deep space is woken early to perform surgery on fellow sleeper with the Melding Plague. Reconstruct on his former wife on Yellowstone guides him through his awaking. 16 pages

Grafenwalder's Bestiary - 4/5: A Xenozoological collector in Rust Belt above Yellowstone competes for fame with a new unknown collector after both receiving a rare specimen from Sky's Edge. Each successive oddity must be outdone to draw prestige. 48 pages

Nightingale - 4/5: Three veterans from Sky's Edge's Southland Militia and Northern Coalition are gathered to capture a Colonel Jax, rumored via the Ultras to be hidden away in a wartime hospital ghost ship. With his capture they hope to crucify him, but even finding him in the floating derelict seems hopeless. It's a tad predictable, but maintains nice theme of space horror. 73 pages

Galactic North- 3/5: A multi-millennial plot where a reefersleeper ramliner is boarded by pirates who steal 200 sleepers. The ramliner captain seeks here long revenge and retrieval of the sleepers across the galactic north plane. I reread the story but I still don't know what a greenfly is and how it did what it did. 41 pages

2012: Blue Remembered Earth (Reynolds, Alastair)

Optimistic tale of humanity's collective potential (4/5)

Reynolds has always set himself apart from other science fiction authors by widening the scope of the plot to the nth degree, by infusing the setting with richness and depth, and by marbling all of this with awe-inducing science and technology. Akin to Revelation Space and House of Suns, Blue Remembered Earth proves he still has the gift for exhibiting unique ideas, penning an intriguing story, and capturing the imagination of the reader. It's not his best work, but it's definitely the great beginning to a surely great series.

At the end of the year 2161, after sixty years of solitude orbiting the moon, the empress to a solar system-wide company passes away. Her genetic legacy includes one pair of grandchildren, Geoffrey, who studies elephants on the African plains, and Sunday, who pursues sculpture in the Descrutinized Zone on the moon, away from the patrolling omniscient eye of the Mechanism. Controlling the interests in the family company are their cousins Hector and Lucas, who have a frosty relationship with Geoffry and Sunday. Once into 2162, the cousins bribe Geoff into traveling to the moon in order to recover the contents of a safe-deposit box once belonging to their wealthy and reclusive grandmother, Eunice. With agreement not to meet his sister when he's on the moon, Geoff breaks this treaty by visiting her enclave in order to unravel the mystery behind the contents of the box: a antique spacesuit glove which holds yet another mystery... colored gems.

Earth in the year 2162, as stylized by Reynolds, is one of African prosperity born from decline of the unmentioned Western nations and where humanity is recovering from the symptoms of a century of global warming. Pages 148-149 outline a post-warming earth, where sea levels had risen and were combated with seawalls, where the Sahara had extended its arid grip upon the continent, where depopulation had been enforced, where where humanity now derives its energy from deep-penetration geothermal tap and solar arrays spanning the globe, efficient transmission accomplished by superconducting cables. Once ill-weather regions of the earth now harvest grapes and produce fine wines, such as Patagonia, Iceland, and Mongolia. In contrast to this great human revival to calamity, there has been an unheard of decline in crime because of the nearly worldwide Mechanism, which uses algorithms to predict human behavior... each person with an augmentation connected to this incorruptible sentinel:

"Murder isn't impossible, even in 2162... Because the Mechanism wasn't infallible, and even this tirelessly engineered god couldn't be in all places at once. The Mandatory Enhancements were supposed to weed out the worst criminal tendencies from developing minds... it was inevitable that someone... would slip through the mesh." (278)

The plot has a feel similar to Chasm City and The Prefect, where a mystery is unraveled step-by-step in order to find the nexus of "what it all means." Jumping from the shadows of Kilimanjaro, to the lunar cityscapes, to the underwater expanse of the Panspermian Initiative, to the still inhospitable Martian atmosphere, and beyond... the scope of action on these and other settings is enough to please any space opera fan. Chuck in a few wholesome bits of orbital technology, mind transference technology, and a few spaceships - bam, what more could a hard sci-fi fan long for?

Plot aside, there is a core of characters which is tightly woven, numbering around six. It's easy to keep track of the ongoings, but when you start to toss in some far-flung family lineage, some transient personages, some representatives of human sects, and some semi-sentient corporal golem figures... you may need to keep a list if you're going to take more than three days to read this tome. A tome it may be, but it's not without its peppering of poetic prose:

"It was mid-afternoon and cloudless, the sky preposterously blue and infinite, as if it reached all the way to Andromeda rather than being confined within the indigo cusp he had seen from space." (154-155)

Nor it is without its share of humor, if you know your history of Mars in fiction: one character thinks the Martian city of Robinson is named after the novel Robinson Crusoe. The dialogue is less than airy at times, something Reynolds has been guilty of ever since Revelation Space. At times it's dry and recapitalizing. There's more swearing here than in his other novels, which is fine by my. Again, one more fault I found is a similar in fault to Chasm City: the unraveling is too convenient, the timing too auspicious, the clues too quickly understood, the backpedaling too awkward (i.e. the Phoboes Monolith).

It's not as preciously crafty as The Prefect or as expansive as Redemption Ark (my favorite Revelation Space novel), but Reynold's doesn't disappoint with Blue Remembered Earth- an optimistic tale of humanity's collective potential on the earth we live and on the orbiting bodies we will settle, develop, and prosper upon.