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RigMoves
284 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2011
38 people want to read
About the author
Victor Gibson
7 books5 followersI was a professional shipmaster for ten years mainly in the North Sea, and afterwards became a marine journalist and technical author, and then a marine representative for rig operations, and a safety consultant.
I have written three books, two technical works on the operation of offshore vessels and one novel - RigMoves. RigMoves ticks many b oxes for me - I have been a SF fan since I was a boy, and have enjoyed fictionalising an environment with which I am familiar.
I have written three books, two technical works on the operation of offshore vessels and one novel - RigMoves. RigMoves ticks many b oxes for me - I have been a SF fan since I was a boy, and have enjoyed fictionalising an environment with which I am familiar.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 27, 2012
This novel was free, I won it through a Goodreads Giveaway!
I really had a hard time figuring out how to rate this book. There are aspects of it I just loved, and I'm not exaggerating, I just loved those parts and there are other aspects which, in my opinion, needed much more work to achieve a satisfactory level. Does the author have talent; definitely! I do not have any doubt about it and in fact am in awe faced with some of his skills. Would I recommend this novel; not in it's present state or at least not without a warning (read it in an intellectual approach). Would I read anything else by that author; yes! because he's got great ideas, his ideas have been thought through, every single possible aspect analyzed, and he's full of talent... His potential just hasn't been reached and he needs to work on his characters. I might be wrong but I think he's an experienced non-fiction, technical writer, trying his hand at fiction?! And as far as I'm concerned, I hope he keeps on trying because he's definitely headed somewhere!
Once in a while, reading a novel, I am reminded how difficult it is to write. A great novel is one that is seamless, one that seems whole, one that convinces the reader it was easy to write. A great novel is one where the reader is not aware that the author had to make choices, narrative choices, tenses (past or present, or riskier choices), that the environment in which the characters evolved had to be seamless and that the character themselves had to be credible, humanly flawed, imperfect yet likable so that the reader might identify with them... When one starts writing one is confronted with all those things he's never had to face as a reader. There's much more but what I mentioned gives an idea of what it's like to write... Not that I am writing but I've definitely got the background and the qualifications, although not in English ;).
We all have our strengths and flaws, as readers as well as any other roles we occupy in our lives. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a character reader. What gets me and what I'm most interested in is the human (or dehumanized) factor. So you can imagine that when an author gets me hanging on to his story, not by his characterization, but by his intellectual approach to a universe he's created, it has to be strong, it has to be flawless, it has to be consistent throughout the story and it has to be believable or at least credible in an alternate future! ... Mr Victor Gibson got a hold on my brain and gave it a ride, one I enjoyed!
What was missing? The characters were hardly more than pawns on a checkerboard, being moved without involvement. We skimmed the surfaced but never got deeper... And there was so much to explore! At times, it almost felt as if the author was too shy to meddle into the characters internal feelings, as if he felt he would intrude on the character's life if he when further... Just a step further, that's all he needs to do.
I loved the opening of every chapter which was all theory, excerpts from manuals, theoretical knowledge, professionally vulgarized so that the non initiated will easily understand (believe it or not, that takes an amazing amount of talent). And I haven't even talked about generating interest for something that is so far away from the ordinary of the reader...! Science-fiction is an underated genre because it takes so much talent to created a plausible world that holds together, part of me is amazed at the talent this writer has, another part of me mourns the fact that in all that universe creation he didn't connect with the characters. They fell so distant, a world away, so far that we may perhaps guess at what they fell but we never truly experience it...
I hope he keeps trying fiction because he's almost there, I've decided on 3 stars because part of his work deserves 4 and the characters deserves 2, in my humble opinion.
I really had a hard time figuring out how to rate this book. There are aspects of it I just loved, and I'm not exaggerating, I just loved those parts and there are other aspects which, in my opinion, needed much more work to achieve a satisfactory level. Does the author have talent; definitely! I do not have any doubt about it and in fact am in awe faced with some of his skills. Would I recommend this novel; not in it's present state or at least not without a warning (read it in an intellectual approach). Would I read anything else by that author; yes! because he's got great ideas, his ideas have been thought through, every single possible aspect analyzed, and he's full of talent... His potential just hasn't been reached and he needs to work on his characters. I might be wrong but I think he's an experienced non-fiction, technical writer, trying his hand at fiction?! And as far as I'm concerned, I hope he keeps on trying because he's definitely headed somewhere!
Once in a while, reading a novel, I am reminded how difficult it is to write. A great novel is one that is seamless, one that seems whole, one that convinces the reader it was easy to write. A great novel is one where the reader is not aware that the author had to make choices, narrative choices, tenses (past or present, or riskier choices), that the environment in which the characters evolved had to be seamless and that the character themselves had to be credible, humanly flawed, imperfect yet likable so that the reader might identify with them... When one starts writing one is confronted with all those things he's never had to face as a reader. There's much more but what I mentioned gives an idea of what it's like to write... Not that I am writing but I've definitely got the background and the qualifications, although not in English ;).
We all have our strengths and flaws, as readers as well as any other roles we occupy in our lives. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a character reader. What gets me and what I'm most interested in is the human (or dehumanized) factor. So you can imagine that when an author gets me hanging on to his story, not by his characterization, but by his intellectual approach to a universe he's created, it has to be strong, it has to be flawless, it has to be consistent throughout the story and it has to be believable or at least credible in an alternate future! ... Mr Victor Gibson got a hold on my brain and gave it a ride, one I enjoyed!
What was missing? The characters were hardly more than pawns on a checkerboard, being moved without involvement. We skimmed the surfaced but never got deeper... And there was so much to explore! At times, it almost felt as if the author was too shy to meddle into the characters internal feelings, as if he felt he would intrude on the character's life if he when further... Just a step further, that's all he needs to do.
I loved the opening of every chapter which was all theory, excerpts from manuals, theoretical knowledge, professionally vulgarized so that the non initiated will easily understand (believe it or not, that takes an amazing amount of talent). And I haven't even talked about generating interest for something that is so far away from the ordinary of the reader...! Science-fiction is an underated genre because it takes so much talent to created a plausible world that holds together, part of me is amazed at the talent this writer has, another part of me mourns the fact that in all that universe creation he didn't connect with the characters. They fell so distant, a world away, so far that we may perhaps guess at what they fell but we never truly experience it...
I hope he keeps trying fiction because he's almost there, I've decided on 3 stars because part of his work deserves 4 and the characters deserves 2, in my humble opinion.
March 31, 2012
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
From the cover i didn't know what to expect as there was no blurb alongside it to give any idea. Interesting main characters with some good interplay between them, reminds me of Red Dwarf. So a brief synopsis.
Sulliman Smith is a space tug pilot, moving mining rigs from one rock to another, in a world where the morality police enforce rules that segregate men and woman unless they are married. It's lonely work being a space tug pilot, with just your engineer for company, Sully's only respite is the communication over the commnet he gets with a fellow space tug pilot Nadia, who he is also madly in love with despite never seeing her in person. However on their most recent job something goes wrong on Nadia's tug, forcing both tugs to have to join together to share air, the company didn't like this break in protocol and send both crews to a new job out in the far reaches of their system, no one has done this job before and no one knows what to expect.
Attached to an asteroid that is slowly taking them away from their target station, this time it is Sully's turn to have the ship problem and has lost all maneuverability as their thrusters have gone off, so again both ships have to join together to survive. They will be in trouble when they get back to base again and are settling in for the long boring journey home as they attempt to slingshot around Saturn to get them back on course, only this time they pick up a faint distress beacon...
From the cover i didn't know what to expect as there was no blurb alongside it to give any idea. Interesting main characters with some good interplay between them, reminds me of Red Dwarf. So a brief synopsis.
Sulliman Smith is a space tug pilot, moving mining rigs from one rock to another, in a world where the morality police enforce rules that segregate men and woman unless they are married. It's lonely work being a space tug pilot, with just your engineer for company, Sully's only respite is the communication over the commnet he gets with a fellow space tug pilot Nadia, who he is also madly in love with despite never seeing her in person. However on their most recent job something goes wrong on Nadia's tug, forcing both tugs to have to join together to share air, the company didn't like this break in protocol and send both crews to a new job out in the far reaches of their system, no one has done this job before and no one knows what to expect.
Attached to an asteroid that is slowly taking them away from their target station, this time it is Sully's turn to have the ship problem and has lost all maneuverability as their thrusters have gone off, so again both ships have to join together to survive. They will be in trouble when they get back to base again and are settling in for the long boring journey home as they attempt to slingshot around Saturn to get them back on course, only this time they pick up a faint distress beacon...
April 3, 2012
First-reads - Giveaway
As someone who reads a lot more fantasy than science fiction this book was refreshing. It shows how life has managed to survive the overpopulation of Earth and spread into the solar system. This survival is ensured by the Morality Police - a group that could be the offspring of Orwell's thought police and China's one child policy which ensures a male/female segregation system. The story follows Sully and his friends on their adventures, or rather misadventures, towards trying to find happiness in a highly controlled society.
I enjoyed this book, the ideas and plot in many places was new for me and the characters very likeable. It has a good thread about hypocrisy running through it which was fun to read too. If found the first half of the book proceeded quite slowly and then started rolling quite quickly towards the end, however I don't think I can call this a criticism as the pace seems to fit the storyline itself and the events which begin to happen to the characters, although it did mean that I felt that I reached the end of the book quickly.
There are perhaps one or two spelling/grammar errors e.g. Easan becoming Eason, but this can probably be remedied.
As someone who reads a lot more fantasy than science fiction this book was refreshing. It shows how life has managed to survive the overpopulation of Earth and spread into the solar system. This survival is ensured by the Morality Police - a group that could be the offspring of Orwell's thought police and China's one child policy which ensures a male/female segregation system. The story follows Sully and his friends on their adventures, or rather misadventures, towards trying to find happiness in a highly controlled society.
I enjoyed this book, the ideas and plot in many places was new for me and the characters very likeable. It has a good thread about hypocrisy running through it which was fun to read too. If found the first half of the book proceeded quite slowly and then started rolling quite quickly towards the end, however I don't think I can call this a criticism as the pace seems to fit the storyline itself and the events which begin to happen to the characters, although it did mean that I felt that I reached the end of the book quickly.
There are perhaps one or two spelling/grammar errors e.g. Easan becoming Eason, but this can probably be remedied.
April 1, 2012
A word of warning: the first 10 or so pages of this book are B-rutal, that's brutal with a capital B. However, if you can get through those first 10 pages, you will find a very enjoyable book. It starts off with details on mining operations and zzzz.... But then the book transforms into a sci-fi space adventure. It's set in a future unknown time when a strict religious regime has outlawed contact between the sexes unless properly authorized. The journey takes the mining team to the moons of Jupiter and beyond. I don't like to give details of books in my reviews, but I will say that if you like quirky, adventure-type sci-fi novels, you will probably enjoy this book. I'm glad I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway contest.
The author makes a note that publishing companies will not take a chance on him and publish his novels, so he self-publishes. I would recommend a publishing company taking a chance on him. He has a good imagination and an attention to detail. He has original ideas and could become a success given the chance. And just to be clear, I've never met Victor, nor I had I ever heard of him prior to winning this contest.
The author makes a note that publishing companies will not take a chance on him and publish his novels, so he self-publishes. I would recommend a publishing company taking a chance on him. He has a good imagination and an attention to detail. He has original ideas and could become a success given the chance. And just to be clear, I've never met Victor, nor I had I ever heard of him prior to winning this contest.
May 7, 2012
A pesar de que había muchas cosas en el libro que me llegaban a confundir en verdad llegue a ponerme en sintonia con este libro y me agrado muchísimo.
En primer lugar la historia es muy original y supongo yo que el autor mezclo muy bien lo que era la realidad (gracias a sus trabajos anteriores) y la ficcion (la historia de estos personajes).
Creo que una de las cosas que mas se me dificulto pero que mas me encanto fue el echo de que aunque era dificil de comprender algunas cosas sobre el oficio de Sully (tecnisismos supongo) esto hizo que fuera mas real y que Sully fuera un personaje en el cual podias confiar (porque sabia de lo que hablaba, al menos hasta un punto) y que ademas le podias creer porque le molestaba lo que le molestaba...
Sinceramente fue un libro dificil para mi tanto por las cosas que no entendia del todo y por cosas externas pero lo disfrute mucho!
En primer lugar la historia es muy original y supongo yo que el autor mezclo muy bien lo que era la realidad (gracias a sus trabajos anteriores) y la ficcion (la historia de estos personajes).
Creo que una de las cosas que mas se me dificulto pero que mas me encanto fue el echo de que aunque era dificil de comprender algunas cosas sobre el oficio de Sully (tecnisismos supongo) esto hizo que fuera mas real y que Sully fuera un personaje en el cual podias confiar (porque sabia de lo que hablaba, al menos hasta un punto) y que ademas le podias creer porque le molestaba lo que le molestaba...
Sinceramente fue un libro dificil para mi tanto por las cosas que no entendia del todo y por cosas externas pero lo disfrute mucho!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews