Distant Seas

by Bud Sparhawk

For thousands of years, people have used sailing ships for trade, for exploration, or simply for the pure joy of wind, water, and the feel of the tiller beneath your hand. Humanity will take the arts and sciences of sailing as they venture into distant seas of space.In Distant Seas, science fiction author and sailor Bud Sparhawk spins sea tales spanning the frigid waters off Antarctica, at the cloud tops of Jupiter’s storms, and on the wind-scoured Martian plains.Follow Louella Parsons, a professional, world-class sailor, as she competes—and faces near disaster—in Le Gran Venee, Earth's premier race around the world. Surviving that, she finds herself testing her sailing prowess deep in Jupiter's atmosphere. The wine-red seas of Jupiter make the brutal conditions she faced in the Southern Ocean seem trivial.Louella and her partner then face a new challenge—to sail across the frigid plains in the thin-to-nonexistent Martian atmosphere beneath a cloud of ultra-thin fabric. But in a sailing race, there is nothing Louella will not do for her team to cross the finish line.She is a sailor."Sparhawk has created a riveting and tightly wound interplanetary adventure.… a rousing and thoughtful adventure with roots as deep as the oceans themselves." —Publishers Weekly starred review."Sparhawk's descriptions of future sailing technology are ingenious and persuasive…his depiction of Louella herself is what shines brightest. Intelligent, strong-willed, driven, and heroic—Louella Parsons has all the qualities she needs to triumph over the many obstacles in her path. It's a delight to accompany her on her adventures." —Analog Science Fiction and Fact

Genres: Science Fiction

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 2010

About the author

Bud Sparhawk is the author of the novels Distant Seas, Dreams of Earth, Shattered Dreams, Magician, and Vixen, as well as two print collections: Sam Boone: Front to Back, and Dancing with Dragons. He has three e-Novels available through Amazon and other channels.

Bud has been a three-time novella finalist for the Nebula award: Primrose and Thorn (Analog, May 1996), Magic’s Price (Analog, March 2001), and Clay’s Pride (Analog, July/August 2004). His work has appeared in two Year’s Best anthologies: Year’s Best SF #11 (EOS), David Harwell-Editor) and The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection, (St Martins Press, Garner Dozois – Editor.)

His short stories have appeared frequently in Analog Fact/Fiction, less so in Asimov’s, as well as in five Defending the Future and other anthologies, publications and audio books. He has put out several collections of some of his published works in ebook format. A complete bibliography can be found at: http://budsparhawk.com.

He also writes an occasional blog on the pain of writing at http://budsparhawk.blogspot.com.

Reviews

[Jemima Pett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louella is a professional sailor – single-handed round-the-world races being the sort of thing she does, although there are also four colleagues who occasionally form crews for crewed races. We meet her first in the Southern Ocean, handling high seas and tremendous danger, with all the technical sailing jargon you could wish for and terrific descriptions of the seas, wind, wildlife and isolation. Having overcome adversity on this trip, she’s looking for the next challenge, and new sponsors, when the Jupiter Investment Company come a-calling and make her and three others offers they can’t really refuse to have a sailing race on Jupiter.

Yes, you know there are no seas on Jupiter, and the atmosphere is full of storms and noxious gases. Science fiction takes over, and it’s a really nice bit of scientific fiction. I love the concept of sailing Jupiter’s skies, and to me the difficulties that need to be overcome were spot on. When that race is finally done, the sailors are inveigled into one last race within their contract – this time on Mars. You’re joking. No sailing on Mars, surely? Well, it’s a type of landyacht or sandkart, with huge sails to make the most of the slight winds involved – and it’s very dangerous! Again, the maths behind the sailing is excellent, and the tactical approach to the race more like harbour racing than the endurance aspect involved in Jupiter’s skies.

I couldn’t quite work out whether this was four novellas that had been squished together or whether it really was intended as a novel. Maybe it’s both, but in the new cover they haven’t done enough to squish them – there is a little too much repetition (adrift like a latter day Flying Dutchman came up three times in quick succession), and when I was looking through Goodreads for covers for this post I discovered the blurb for one of the editions simply lists a number of short stories (although they don’t necessarily fit the ones I read). I think the author could streamline it into a single novel to good effect.

Some people may find the level of technical detail on the sailing to be too much for them. I enjoy sailing, although only as a holiday activity, and the detail was okay for me, just – rather like descriptions of baseball games in a good book to be reviewed next week, I could skim the detailed stuff without losing the thread or the action. If you don’t know your bowsprit from your bowline you may find it a bit taxing. Equally the depth of the technical exceeds the characterisation – except that in my experience people who do extreme sports and/or exploration tend to be a bit one-dimensional anyway and only come alive when immersed in their chosen medium. Otherwise the tension between characters and the plotting is good, and I really looked forward to every session reading it (unlike another book I gave up on during this period).

So, overall, an amazingly intricate and exciting sailing science fiction with first class factual groundwork, which I really like in my scifi. Could do with a little polishing, but I still gave it four stars.

[Dave Creek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bud Sparhawk's DISTANT SEAS tests its characters' emotional limits

Bud Sparhawk says he gets some of his best story ideas while sailing. That's apparent in reading his book DISTANT SEAS. It follows a series of characters through four related tales, each of which involves a different form of sailing.

We begin on Earth, as Louella Parsons fights to survive, having capsized her racing craft in the waters near Antarctica while competing in the Super Grand Vendee race. In flashbacks, we see that much of the challenge of entering such a race is finding financial backers willing to take a risk on your skills. Back in the "present time" of the story, Louella is hanging onto the slick bottom of her boat. Exhausted both physically and mentally, she imagines herself having a conversation with a possibly-hungry Orca who speaks to her in a variety of human accents. It's amusing and terrifying at the same time. We follow her desperate attempts to survive even as Pascal, who is sometimes her rival and sometimes her sailing partner, rushes to save her.

The book doesn't remain Earthbound for long. Soon we're introduced to Jake Sands, who mines Jupiter's atmosphere for precious metals. It's a job that frightens his girlfriend Marie, who wishes he'd take a safer job hauling cargo or passengers. He and his only crewman, Rams, head out on a harrowing mission they hope will make their fortune.

Later, Rams is commanding his own ship as he has a fateful encounter with Louella and Pascal as they find themselves in trouble while taking part in a race within Jupiter's atmosphere.

The book closes with Louella and Pascal racing on dry land -- VERY dry land -- across the surface of Mars.

Sparhawk provides just enough hard science to satisfy fans of that form of SF -- think ANALOG readers. But he's also a master at creating characters we can immediately identify with, and he makes sure they take some emotional journeys as harrowing as any of the physical dangers they encounter.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes SF that shows characters who are stretched to their emotional limits and perhaps a little beyond. Also, if you're a sailing enthusiast, Sparhawk certainly dramatizes challenges you'll never encounter here on Earth.

[Susan Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of a woman who competes in the premier sailing race in the world. The races is on the red seas of Jupiter. I thought the book was a bit dull but I am not a futuristic story fan. Not a sailor either so that did not help!