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Deepdrive
In Alexander Jablokov's new novel, no less than 11 different alien races have visited our solar system, setting up home on the planets and moons most hospitable to them. Humanity would love to join these far-flung adventurers in their travels, but we lack the deepdrive that makes trekking between the stars possible. So far no human has been able to acquire a drive or find a way to create one, and none of the aliens are willing to pass along the secret. But a few years ago, an alien by the name of Ripi crash-landed in our system, and he may have brought an intact drive with him. Since his landing, Ripi has been held on Venus, half exile and half political prisoner, refusing to say anything about the drive. But now Ripi has put the word out that he'd like to be rescued from his enforced vacation, and mercenary Soph Trost is one of many people (and aliens) who want a piece of the action... and the deepdrive. This is a ripping tale by Jablokov, who has no trouble mixing good old-fashioned action with an intricate plot and colorful characters. --Craig E. Engler
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Alexander Jablokov
83 books31 followersAlexander Jablokov writes science fiction for readers who won't give up literate writing or vivid characters to get the thrills they demand. He is a natural transition for non-SF readers interested in taking a stroll with a dangerous AI or a neurosurgeon/jazz musician turned detective, while still giving hardcore SF fans speculative flash, incomprehensible aliens, and kitchen appliances with insect wing cases.
From his well-regarded first novel, Carve the Sky, an interplanetary espionage novel set in a culturally complex 25th century, through the obscenely articulate dolphins with military modifications of a Deeper Sea, the hardboiled post-cyberpunk of Nimbus, the subterranean Martian repression of River of Dust, and the perverse space opera of Deepdrive, he has come to Brain Thief, a contemporary high-tech thriller with a class clown attitude.
From his well-regarded first novel, Carve the Sky, an interplanetary espionage novel set in a culturally complex 25th century, through the obscenely articulate dolphins with military modifications of a Deeper Sea, the hardboiled post-cyberpunk of Nimbus, the subterranean Martian repression of River of Dust, and the perverse space opera of Deepdrive, he has come to Brain Thief, a contemporary high-tech thriller with a class clown attitude.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 23, 2021
Dystopian, space opera in which the machinations of several, starfaring alien races colonizing the solar system twist around the human goal to achieve equality by learning the secret of the Deepdrive.
Vronnan bioship, interstellar Clanship (?)
My dead tree copy was a modest 311 pages. The original US copyright was 1998.
Alexander Jablokov was an American writer of science fiction and short stories. (He's still alive.) He has six (6) novels published, all standalone as well as a story collection. This was also the fifth book I’ve read by the author. The most recent being the Brain Thief .
Full disclosure, I’m a Jablokov fanboi. He wrote literary space opera, mostly. If I could write sf, I would try to write it like his. However, ”Writing is a hard dollar” . He ended his career as a full-time writer at the end of the last Millennium. He opted to use his talents to give his family a better life though a steady paycheck. I respect that, but my imagination has been poorer as a result. This was the last book he wrote before ending his full-time writing career. I serendipitously found this ‘Good’ condition paperback amongst dusty, rough wooden, crowded together shelves during a used bookstore crawl while between waves of the COVID Pandemic.
This was a story with a lot of moving parts. It’s very much a product of the late 1990’s. It’s a noir-ish space opera, or a cyberpunkish space opera, without the lazy Deus Ex Machina reliance on computers. With the exception of the alien star drive McGuffin (Deepdrive), it was also hard-ish science fiction. It starts with a very tropey human story of Hired Guns, and the Kidnapped (Alien) Scientist to attain the secret of the Deepdrive. It quickly becomes a Gambit Pileup with the humans becoming Out-Gambitted by the aliens. This leads to a Quest across the alien colonized solar system for the Deepdrive. I came to think there were likely too many plot lines.
Writing, both dialog and descriptions were very good. I read certain pieces more than once, just to decompose how he did it. Action sequences were likewise well done.
Characters were good, but not exceptional. The majority of them were women. These characters would be familiar to 90’s cyberpunk readers. Although they were riffs to the archetypes that 20-years ago would have been unique. The nominal protagonist was a female, grieving, merc. She was partnered with a lesbian, alien sociologist, huckster and a male "thug with a heart", Tank to round-out the quest party. These three (3) characters provided the POVs. Most interesting were the alien characters of several races. They were exceptional in their description, variety, and enigmatic nature. They were more unique and less anthropomorphic than the aliens found in Adrian Tchaikovsky's stories, a current fave author of mine.
The best of this story was the worldbuilding. As mentioned above, this was a hard-ish, space opera. It had: surprisingly interesting tech; good, albeit dated space science; and mostly, adheres to the laws of physics. I have a keen interest in Imperialist history. I was terribly interested in Jablokov's application of Colonialist Theory to the story's humans. In particular, the consequences of the control and exploitation of the star drive-less, second-class humanity and the solar system’s planets, asteroids, and moons by the aliens with superior technology.
However, Jabolkov had too much worldbuilding, too many plot lines, and too few pages. There was an inappropriate bum’s rush to the end of the story. The last 50-something pages were only a shadow of the immersive previous 250.
This was one of the two books of Jablokov’s I had not read. It’s not his best book, or maybe I’m not the slavish, fanboi I once was? I’m glad I eye-read this book and not ear-read it, due to its complexity. Also, being more than 20-years old, it was somewhat old-fashioned sf. However, the worldbuilding, particularly the aliens, the futuristic noir, and the Colonialist theme were excellent. For a short while, I was Reading like it's 1999 . I just wish there had been another 100-pages to end the story with the same deep-texturing as its majority.
I encourage folks interested in the author to read, Carve the Sky , the author’s first book and (I think) best space opera.
Vronnan bioship, interstellar Clanship (?)
My dead tree copy was a modest 311 pages. The original US copyright was 1998.
Alexander Jablokov was an American writer of science fiction and short stories. (He's still alive.) He has six (6) novels published, all standalone as well as a story collection. This was also the fifth book I’ve read by the author. The most recent being the Brain Thief .
Full disclosure, I’m a Jablokov fanboi. He wrote literary space opera, mostly. If I could write sf, I would try to write it like his. However, ”Writing is a hard dollar” . He ended his career as a full-time writer at the end of the last Millennium. He opted to use his talents to give his family a better life though a steady paycheck. I respect that, but my imagination has been poorer as a result. This was the last book he wrote before ending his full-time writing career. I serendipitously found this ‘Good’ condition paperback amongst dusty, rough wooden, crowded together shelves during a used bookstore crawl while between waves of the COVID Pandemic.
This was a story with a lot of moving parts. It’s very much a product of the late 1990’s. It’s a noir-ish space opera, or a cyberpunkish space opera, without the lazy Deus Ex Machina reliance on computers. With the exception of the alien star drive McGuffin (Deepdrive), it was also hard-ish science fiction. It starts with a very tropey human story of Hired Guns, and the Kidnapped (Alien) Scientist to attain the secret of the Deepdrive. It quickly becomes a Gambit Pileup with the humans becoming Out-Gambitted by the aliens. This leads to a Quest across the alien colonized solar system for the Deepdrive. I came to think there were likely too many plot lines.
Writing, both dialog and descriptions were very good. I read certain pieces more than once, just to decompose how he did it. Action sequences were likewise well done.
Characters were good, but not exceptional. The majority of them were women. These characters would be familiar to 90’s cyberpunk readers. Although they were riffs to the archetypes that 20-years ago would have been unique. The nominal protagonist was a female, grieving, merc. She was partnered with a lesbian, alien sociologist, huckster and a male "thug with a heart", Tank to round-out the quest party. These three (3) characters provided the POVs. Most interesting were the alien characters of several races. They were exceptional in their description, variety, and enigmatic nature. They were more unique and less anthropomorphic than the aliens found in Adrian Tchaikovsky's stories, a current fave author of mine.
The best of this story was the worldbuilding. As mentioned above, this was a hard-ish, space opera. It had: surprisingly interesting tech; good, albeit dated space science; and mostly, adheres to the laws of physics. I have a keen interest in Imperialist history. I was terribly interested in Jablokov's application of Colonialist Theory to the story's humans. In particular, the consequences of the control and exploitation of the star drive-less, second-class humanity and the solar system’s planets, asteroids, and moons by the aliens with superior technology.
However, Jabolkov had too much worldbuilding, too many plot lines, and too few pages. There was an inappropriate bum’s rush to the end of the story. The last 50-something pages were only a shadow of the immersive previous 250.
This was one of the two books of Jablokov’s I had not read. It’s not his best book, or maybe I’m not the slavish, fanboi I once was? I’m glad I eye-read this book and not ear-read it, due to its complexity. Also, being more than 20-years old, it was somewhat old-fashioned sf. However, the worldbuilding, particularly the aliens, the futuristic noir, and the Colonialist theme were excellent. For a short while, I was Reading like it's 1999 . I just wish there had been another 100-pages to end the story with the same deep-texturing as its majority.
I encourage folks interested in the author to read, Carve the Sky , the author’s first book and (I think) best space opera.
September 9, 2015
The ending really falls apart comparatively to the rest of the book. Most of the story felt like a good noir that happened to take place in a sci-fi universe that's never fully fleshed out or explained, but then the final 50 pages or so build up to a climax that it didn't quite promise. Some time gaps and a few instances of telling old history that break up the current action hold it back from being something really good. There are flashes of greatness in the idea and execution, and the flaws are magnified because of that.
December 22, 2018
Truly a bizarre book in a kinda good way. Lots of interesting aliens have been co-existing in the solar system for years, evolving co-dependent relationships with humanity. Humans do not have FTL drives, however, and are restricted to the solar system. An eclectic group of people try to rescue an alien from Venus to get information/tech and things do not go as planned. Lots of humor, but it took a while to get into.
May 15, 2024
I gave up. I had AI summarize the last half of the book in 10-page chunks. It still frustrated me. I hate (most) of this book.
Let's get the good parts out of the way: The sci-fi concepts involved prevented a one-star rating from me. There is alot here and it's mostly very cool and amazing. BUT... it doesn't go into the technology at all. Sometimes it's just a mention of mind-blowing technology then it gets back to the main "story."
Crappy parts: This book is soooo choppy. The pacing, the character's relationships, the character's locations!! The book has 5 main characters, and literally half the book is them searching for 1 or 2 of the others that ran off!! It's not exactly clear why they ran off, and even less clear why the others are compelled to look for them! Over and over I said to myself, "why did they run off? why are they going after them? why am I reading this?"
This book feels unfinished and unembellished. It feels half-baked and rushed, like the author wanted to throw some sci-fi concepts into a book and the story and characters were an afterthought. That is what lead me to stop reading, really, if the author didn't devote time into writing it, I wasn't going to put time into reading it. Boo!
Let's get the good parts out of the way: The sci-fi concepts involved prevented a one-star rating from me. There is alot here and it's mostly very cool and amazing. BUT... it doesn't go into the technology at all. Sometimes it's just a mention of mind-blowing technology then it gets back to the main "story."
Crappy parts: This book is soooo choppy. The pacing, the character's relationships, the character's locations!! The book has 5 main characters, and literally half the book is them searching for 1 or 2 of the others that ran off!! It's not exactly clear why they ran off, and even less clear why the others are compelled to look for them! Over and over I said to myself, "why did they run off? why are they going after them? why am I reading this?"
This book feels unfinished and unembellished. It feels half-baked and rushed, like the author wanted to throw some sci-fi concepts into a book and the story and characters were an afterthought. That is what lead me to stop reading, really, if the author didn't devote time into writing it, I wasn't going to put time into reading it. Boo!
March 21, 2009
Interesting universe and some touching scenes are not enough to redeem this novel that never settles on a proper tone and instead goes whimsically swashbuckling around with flat characters. Probably was meant as sophisticated and updated spin on sense-of-wonder pulp.
March 27, 2012
Couldn't finish it, I have only done that to a handful of books over the years. Just was very disjointed and could not keep my interest. Interesting concept but was not fleshed out enough to draw me in.
September 12, 2020
An excellent ET invasion tale, with really freaky aliens.
December 16, 2019
The story is set centuries in the future. Humans have interplanetary travel, but lack knowledge to make interstellar ships. Several odd alien species have come to the Solar System over the years - some settling on Mercury, Venus or Earth. Humans don't seem to be subjugated in general, but at least one species uses some humans for their purposes.
The main characters are trying to get to an alien on Venus who is a sort of fugitive from his species. The humans hope to get an interstellar drive from him. What follows is a complex interaction of human and alien forces and schemes, with twists and turns, and ups and downs for the humans.
The main characters are trying to get to an alien on Venus who is a sort of fugitive from his species. The humans hope to get an interstellar drive from him. What follows is a complex interaction of human and alien forces and schemes, with twists and turns, and ups and downs for the humans.
September 9, 2010
2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews