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Mark and Gerry's reviews continued.........
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BOOK REVIEW: Bright Messengers and Double Full Moon Night by Gentry Lee
Review by Mark
Never heard of Gentry Lee? Well, he co-wrote the Rama sequels to science fiction
masterpiece Rendezvous with Rama which was written by Arthur C. Clarke. I always
wondered how much Arthur wrote and how much Gentry wrote and now I know. Gentry
Lee either completely wrote the Rama sequels, or wrote the vast majority of them.
Reading the Rama sequels I always was uncomfortably aware of how
different the styles were with the original "Rendezvous". Well the current twosome,
Bright Messengers and Double Full Moon Night are written in a very very similar style
to the Rama sequels so that question is answered, (Have you ever wondered how two
people can write a novel? I think it's like two people trying to hit a baseball with one
bat , it either doesn't happen or it turns out badly.) Anyway, Gentry Lee has
promising credentials being a former NASA Program Manager and a physicist, but he
just doesn't live up to his potential, or he believes that putting science into science
fiction bores the audience (and cuts down on royalties).
Bright Messengers and Double Full Moon Night are Rama type books in that they
deal with the difficulties of humans when in the omnicient and omnipotent hands of a
far advanced race of beings. A small group of people are kidnapped from a Mars
settlement and taken via a strange and enormous spaceship to another location. This
is basically the Rama sequels in a nutshell. The phenomena the human subjects are
exposed to, and the abiilities and characters of the subjects are also different, but the
story is otherwise similar. Lee has an engaging style and the chapters are short and
end in cliff hangers so you keep on reading, but there is no new SCIENCE in this
fiction. What we have is basically fantasy that happens in space. Just to keep it cute
Lee weaves this story into the end components of the Rama sequels.
Read it on the beach or on an airplane.
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TV Review: Farscape
by Gerry
FARSCAPE is currently the best science fiction series on television. The story takes
place in our present, and centers around an American astronaut, John Crichton, who
accidently entered a worm-hole while testing new flight theories with his Farscape One
space pod. He wound up in a very different part of the universe, in the middle of a
struggle between escaped prisoners and Peace Keepers. He winds up in league with
the ship of escaped prisoners, including a tall Luxon warrior (D'Argo), a totally blue
Delvian priest (Zhaan), a small Hynerean former emperor (Rygel XVI), a four -armed
pilot (Pilot), and a former Peace Keeper (Officer Aeryn Sun). And by the way, they are
on a living ship named Moya, to which the Pilot is connected. The astronaut has
unwittingly made quite a few enemies along the way, including an obsessed Peace
Keeper captain, Capt. Crais, whose brother was accidentally killed in a collision with the Farscape pod. In general, the Peace Keepers (who look a lot like humans, unlike the other alien races seen on the ship and elsewhere) are the bad guys, and keep the peace by nasty means. It a well-written, well-acted and visually impressive production, which combines drama, adventure and humour, and stakes out new territory with its science fiction tales. How many other shows have you seen with a pregnant space ship? Watch it on the SciFi Channel on Friday nights.
Farscape Update, 2/4/00 Some new characters were introduced in the latter part of Season 1. Chiana, a Nebari thief and yet another escaped prisoner, proved to be an asset to the crew in many ways. A new villian, Scorpius, a half-Scarran, half-Sebacean Peace Keeper, is currently consumed by efforts to capture Crichton and obtain wormhole knowledge. The living Leviathan ship, Moya, has given birth to an adorable Baby With Weapons, a Leviathan/Peace Keeper hybid named Talyn. The season ending cliffhanger ends with an entire enemy moon ablaze, Crichton and D'Argo literally hanging in space, Aeryn in a small ship near hostile forces, and with the apparently still evil Capt. Crais hijacking the baby ship, Talyn. The shows leading up to this will be rerun in February and early March, and Season 2 begins on March 17, with a two-part resolution to the cliffhanger. Should be exciting! For more information about the show, go to:
http://www.scifi.com/farscape/
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BOOK REVIEW: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
reviewed by Gerry
This book was the Hugo award winning novel of 1999. The tale is told in the first person by the character Ned Henry, a time-traveling historian, for whom the present is the year 2057. His job is to research all details related to Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed by Nazi bombs in 1940, and is now being rebuilt in Oxford in order to please the wealthy and obsessive Lady Schrapnell. In particular, Ned is charged with finding out what happened to the Bishop's "bird stump"; a large, ugly metal vase which vanished from the altar area during the bombing. His task is complicated by fellow researcher Verity Kindle, who has moved something important from the year 1888 to 2057. Verity's act appears to have caused incongruities in their time-travel, and could alter the entire course of history. Ned and Verity (and the "something") travel to the year 1888, to try to undo the damage. Comedy and mystery ensue, as their efforts appear to make matters worse.
The first six chapters of the book can be very confusing during a first reading. As the story begins, Ned has already made too many trips through time, and he is suffering from a terrible case of time-lag. Symptons include trouble hearing, seeing, and general confusion. Or course, since Ned is telling the story, some of what he reports is unreliable, and the conversations resemble those which Alice experienced in Wonderland. Also, the early part of the book introduces a wide array of characters and several different time periods, and it can be a challenge to follow them. By Chapter 7, Ned's time-lag is waning, and the story has settled into place, primarily in Victorian England in 1888. The story then becomes more enjoyable, and contains many interwoven threads.
The story is light on science for a science fiction novel. The world of 2057 is very similar to that of 2000, except that they have developed time-travel. The theory behind the time-travel device is not described at all, and the machine itself is described only as being like a net (with veils). The people of 2057 believe in a "Grand Design" involving all of history, which makes it impossible to change significant events (such as an assasination), or even to travel close to such a moment (the "net" won't open up at such times). When smaller events are changed, which might lead to serious consequences, the system is "self-correcting"; i.e. other changes take place to fix the problem. No scientific theory is invoked to explain any of this.
Most of the mysteries are wrapped up nicely at the end of the story. The only untied loose end is the hint of a significant event occuring in the year 2678. That leaves room for a sequel. However, Ms. Willis said in a SciFi Chat on 12-14-99 that she has no plans for a sequel (see www.scifi.com/transcripts/ ).
In general, I found this book very enjoyable to read, particularly the second time through it. Ms. Willis did an excellent job of carefully placing clues throughout the interweaving events in this well constructed story, all of which point clearly to the solution when viewed together. The characters are likeable, and there is plenty of humor scattered throughout the story. Fans of mystery stories and historical fiction will like this book. The only readers who might be disappointed are those looking for more science in their science fiction reading.
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