CV

CV #1

by Damon Knight

Sea Venture, CV for short, is the largest ocean-going vessel ever built by man. It is not a ship but a huge sea habitat housing a scientific research station, an entire city of thousands of permanent residents and passengers. For some, CV is the vacation dream of a lifetime; for others, a vision of man's conquest of the seas; for two men it becomes the arena for a deadly game of cat and mouse. But for one, CV is something a place to stalk its next victim. It is not human, it is not even of Earthly origin. To be touched by it is deadly. What importance are the hopes and dreams, fears and schemes of the people of Sea Venture when they are threatened by a force that could destroy all of human civilization. From Damon Knight, a SFWA Grand Master — step on board CV now!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic.
Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941. He is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was a recipient of the Hugo Award, founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm.

Reviews

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book, there were many things I loved about it. I loved the idea of the huge, windowless enclosed, ocean going sea habitat. Completely enclosed with permanent residents living a life not so different from what you would see in a closed space colony, but also a full complement of rich cruise ship' type passengers. I loved the setting and everything that went into creating it.

The notion of the mysterious 'illness' that starts infecting people, one by one, one at a time. is also fascinating. it is not an illness, it is an intelligent space traveller that kind of takes over the person it rides in And can I just say, in 2021, with the cruise liners going under the hammer in the dozens, having brought Covis-19 to Australia, there is a certain irony to this them. Or do I mean poignancy?

In any case, as always I found myself really enjoying Damon Knight's writing style there is something about the cadence of it that I thoroughly enjoy. I like the way he fashions settings and characters and scenarios. I like the writing. Again as always, I find myself impatient with the 'horror' elements to his writing. Calling the upcoming event 'the horror' all the time is something I find just a little bit cringe, and it is not all that horror either - his books never are. They do have a mild quirk, but this notion that he seemed to have that he was writing horror stories never quite jelled for me.

I have a lot of issues with the plot. They are, I guess, kind of spoilers, but what they all boil down to is that at the best of times, Knight's plots always have so many holes in them. Part of this is that we are more sophisticated readers in the 2020's than people were in the 80's. But that is not all it is, really because even as a teenager in the 80's I found a lot of his plots full of logical holes. For example, no one ever bothered to trace the progression of the alien. They talk about trying to communicate with it, but never actually do so. They do several silly, wishy washy types of attempted isolation, but they never carry the point. And this is a closed vessel it must have monitoring and it must be possible to isolate segments, but no one ever even things of it. The fact it can jump into animals is kind of obvious to them from the first, if anyone had bothered to trace it, but they don't use this fact throughout the novel, though it could have worked numerous times. Instead they save it up as a Deus Ex Machina for the end. I could go on. Extensively.
The funny thing is how much I have always really enjoyed this authors writing. With so many plot holes I would probably have given up on most authors, but I always keep coming back to Knight.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knight, Damon. CV. 1985. CV No. 1. Tor, 2014.
When he was 11 years old, Damon Knight (1922-2002) published a fanzine titled Snide. It was a harbinger. As a member of the Futurians (a group of young writers and editors that included such later luminaries as Isaac Asimov and Frederick Pohl), he wrote a devastating review of A. E. Van Vogt in which said he was a small writer with an oversized typewriter. In 1950 he wrote the short story “To Serve Man” that became a Twilight Zone episode and won him a Retro-Hugo. It is a defining example of snide humor. CV, a novel he wrote in his early 60s, is a subtle piece of satire masquerading as a high-tech thriller and first-contact story. The Sea View (familiarly called CV) is a huge ocean-going habitat capable of running submerged or on the surface. It has two thousand permanent residents and a larger number of tourists. Its owners see it as in competition with a project to build a space habitat at the L5 Lagrange point. When a geologist opens a strange geode, he unwittingly releases an intelligent, mind-invading parasite on board. The story alternates points of view between the alien and the passengers and crew, giving Knight plenty of opportunity for ship-of-fools humor and ingenious hard scifi. Knight is a better short story writer than novelist and some of the plot elements get lost in the shuffle here, but the whole performance is superb. 4 stars.

[Leila P · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first third of the book was very boring, kinda like Loveboat without the comedy. Then when things started to happen and it got slightly more interesting. The alien energy creature started hopping to mind to mind leaving people first comatose and then mentally altered. This was intriguing, and I would have wanted to know more about those changes in people. But the claim that child making is not rational at all was unbelievably stupid (this maybe showed the age of the book), and the final twist at the very end was not scary at all.

[Peter Mullins · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy and relatively quick read, I was entertained from the start. The premise was good (I won't give away any of the plot). Damon Knight does a decent job of building his characters and their motivations, putting them under pressure, and building to a satisfying climax. I'm surprised at some of the negative reviews (this certainly isn't a 1 star book). I'd give it 3.5 stars but I'm ugrading it to 4 stars rather than down to counter some of the unfair criticism.

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

CV (1985) 285 pages by Damon Knight.

This book was like an episode of the TV show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The analogy isn't a slight on the book, I liked that show. Well, Knight had to introduce all of his characters, and CV short for Sea View, wasn't a submarine, but instead more of a floating island. Sea View is a first attempt at trying to use the resources of the pacific ocean as a habitat for the excess population. To make it viable most of its income was coming from passengers/tourism.

The main storyline centered around an alien intelligence that infected a person on the vessel, then transferred itself to another person, incapacitating the person who was left. Soon the sick bay was full of stupefied passengers/crew. So we had a suspense/thriller on our hands. What was going to happen to the people who had been infected? How were we going to stop the alien from infecting more people? How to keep this from getting off Sea View and onto the mainland?

I won't say this one is a classic, or even a must read, but it was exciting and worth the read.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took a chance with reading this book. The story was mediocre. What kind of things to look forward in reading this? There is the chance that our future will have these types of Sea Ventures which would be cool. The characters are well developed, and it’s easy to read plus it’s interesting all the way through this story, keeping the reader involved and to the end of the story.

[colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 06.20.87