Mighty Good Road

by Melissa Scott

Gwynne Heikki is in the business of salvaging. Her company wins a contract to find and salvage a lighter-than-air craft that had disappeared in the wilds on the planet of Iadara. The craft had been transporting a valuable experimental crystal matrix would make great changes to the interstellar railway currently in place. Although the job seemed "not quite right" from the beginning, Gwynne and her team take the contract.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, LGBT, Fantasy, Queer, Lesbian, Queer Lit

306 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Scott studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, and earned her PhD. in comparative history. She published her first novel in 1984, and has since written some two dozen science fiction and fantasy works, including three co-authored with her partner, Lisa A. Barnett.

Scott's work is known for the elaborate and well-constructed settings. While many of her protagonists are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, this is perfectly integrated into the rest of the story and is rarely a major focus of the story. Shadow Man, alone among Scott's works, focuses explicitly on issues of sexuality and gender.

She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 1986, and has won several Lambda Literary Awards.

In addition to writing, Scott also teaches writing, offering classes via her website and publishing a writing guide.

Scott lived with her partner, author Lisa A. Barnett, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for 27 years, until the latter's death of breast cancer on May 2, 2006.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

A SFF mystery about a salvage company on a dodgy job. Aspects of adventure and a smidge of a f/f romance, and a narrative of estranged siblings teaming up out of necessity. Quite a leisurely pace for all that, very much bringing the reader into the intriguing world.

So weird to read SFF written in the 80s and 90s. This one has faster than light travel, but people still use discs and print stuff out. Still, Scott's work is character-driven, and that stands up.

[Andrea]

A crashed ship and corporate espionage. Not an action-filled story, and no romantic arc (the main character is already in a committed relationship) - simply an engrossing, relaxed-pace mystery about a professional salvage team.

Always interesting to read SF written before the internet and mobile phones really got going. Very funny the number of times people printed things out in this future world.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about space travel, a train that manages to be tedious and terrifying (it opens with the mention of a horrific accident that killed many.) The focus is on a scavenging job--finding a downed flyer, but there's more to it. Family woes, secrets, plots, lies... though it drags in places, an overall enjoyable read.

[Az Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Melissa Scott does it again; gripping sci-fi that'll have you missing your bus stop to read a few more pages. Casual queer romances, human interactions that feel real and emotional without needing to step into the over dramatic and incredibly well thought out variances in cultures and customs that up the realism again and again. The technology and world building is top notch, the reader quickly learning how the universe works and the struggles and tensions in society without having to be spoon fed it directly.

[Eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm having a hard time trying to decide how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I certainly didn't like it, but on the other, it wasn't bad. I think the word I'd use to describe it is mediocre.

I wish that I enjoyed this, I really do. Unfortunately, it just felt like it was severely lacking. For my ease, please allow me to list some of the problems I had:

1. It was really hard to get into at first, especially considering how much that first chapter dragged. It just felt like we were being bombarded with useless information.
2. As an extension of the last point, I really hate how long the chapters were. That is a personal preference though.
3. I had a hard time picturing anything that was going on. Hell, I don't even know what any of the characters look besides some of them being muscly or skinny.
4. All the characters felt incredibly bland, there was nothing to them.
5. The ending was awful. I didn't expect much from it in the first place but c'mon, anything would have been better than that. Spoilers: We didn't get to see the whole point of the book be "resolved". It was just like they figured it out (sorta) and then we faded to black. It felt incredibly lazy and just abrupt. I'm not happy with this result.

On the whole, I can't say I was a fan of this book. It just wasn't to my taste. Also, as a last note, can I just say that one of the reasons I decided to read this was because I heard that the main character was a lesbian and that there'd be a hint of romance; but honestly, if I hadn't been told that beforehand, I really don't think I would have known. Maybe that was me just not picking up hints very well but I would have liked it to be a tad more obvious. Oh well.

[Maureen E]

If the idea of a salvage operation run by a woman and her business/romantic partner (also a woman) in a far-distant future with FTL trains appeals to you, then HAVE I GOT A BOOK FOR YOU. There is a bit of weird subtext about settlers and immigrants; overall, however, this is one of the strongest titles by Scott that I've read. It's atmospheric, thoughtful, and has an interesting mystery at the heart of it.

[Junior · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book suffers a two star rating for a couple reasons.

First, the speculative science fiction in this book don't stand the test of time. Not only do they not stand up to 25 years of science and technology development, it's as if the author made no real effort to advance anything but just to glue odd meanings and habits on top of technologies from the time the book was written. It ends up feeling cheap and low-effort.

Second, and this may be partially the fault of the first point, the characters are very difficult to become invested in. There is so much time spent explaining their use of far future technology, which frankly pales in comparison to what we can do now on a daily basis, that much of their motives and situations feel forced. Add to that a collection of quirky "polite society" memes that are never explained in any way and you have a book full of characters that are wholly uninteresting.

[CJ Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is an old book. I took it off my shelf because I'm clearing out books I haven't read after 10, 20, or more years. This is about two women in the far future who run a space salvage company. What I liked most about this is that the two women are lovers in a long-tern stable relationship and the author portrays it as just that, a long-term stable relationship. I read many, many books a year and this is the first one concerning lesbians that doesn't rub the readers faces in that relationship, some even going into the explicit detail of sexual activity. I'm a hetero and I hate anatomiacal descriptions of heterosexual sexual activity. Leave that in the anatomy/ biology books. I'd much rather use my imagination that read the author's ideas about sex.
There. Sermon's done for the day.

[Robbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a pretty good mystery with a bit of thrill thrown in for good measure. The protagonist was pretty well drawn, but the secondary characters were rather flat and Heikki's relationships with them were, as well. However, it was very much plot driven and that plot was good. And Scott's writing is really enjoyable. The attention to detail in the world building was excellent. And it was a world people might actually live in, with art installations in transit stations and fashion trends that vary by class and place of origin, rather than the sterile world of steel and plastic that we so often get form science fiction. The ending is a little flat and it's not a great book by any means, but it's definitely good and I'm definitely going to end up reading more by Scott.

[Sam Amos · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book goes nowhere and takes forever to do it.

[Jonathan Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second book by Melissa Scott (the first being Trouble and Her friends), and again I really enjoyed her take on futuristic computing interfaces and idioms.

[Wayne Spiceland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A relatively early work in Scott's career, but still a very strong novel. Excellent, detailed and interesting world building; easily relatable, credible characters, and although protagonist Gwynne Heikki is the only one fully fleshed out and complex, others are still engaging; "info dumps" are neatly blended into the narrative without feeling intrusive; a suspenseful plot centered around corporate intrigue: keen social observation: all these combine for a very enjoyable and worthwhile read. Published in 1990, but, for the most part, it's still quite fresh. Compelling hard SF with a very strong female lead character.

[Aude · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot and characters were interesting, but the world-building was too much for the story! The author spends whole pages describing what's basically a train station in intricate details. I feel like she built this whole detailed world and wanted us to know everything, but this would have been better spread along a whole saga.

[Stelepami · Rating 3 out of 5]

So weird to be reading a Melissa Scott novel I hadn't encountered before! A little sad how quickly her communications and software predictions have become painfully outdated, but the characters and politics are usually the more interesting parts of her books anyway. This one's pacing feels off with an extremely abrupt end, unfortunately.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm trying to think who else has used the idea of an interstellar railroad. Of course the originator was probably Nathaniel Hawthorne with his "The Celestial Railroad." Timothy Zahn did something similar a few years later in "Night Train to Rigel."

[Lizzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was ok. The world creation and technology were good. For me, it is the escape and being able to insert myself into the story either through the character or as an observer floating over his/her shoulder. I don't know why, but I could not connect with the characters.

[Mawgojzeta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice read. Interesting mode of travel and characters easy to visualize. I think I read this years ago because some parts seem vaguely familiar so I would say the book is not terribly memorable.

[Anna]

2nd time I’ve bounced off this in Chapter 1.