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Rosinante #1
The Revolution from Rosinante
"Gilliland's quirky mix of eccentric characters, cynical power politics, and old-style hard sf engineering-in-space is fun to read," writes Dani Sweig in Belated Reviews. The odd assortment of refugees who have escaped Earth to the shelter of the asteroid habitat, Rosinante, thought they had won a temporary "hands off" from Earth's major governments. But an unknown foe on Earth has a secret agenda, and for that agenda to succeed Rosinante must be destroyed. That enemy has launched an oh-so polite and intelligent, but utterly incorruptible, missile at Rosinante. To save the colony, its governor Charles Cantrell will have to discover who is behind the attack, and why. Meanwhile, the missile homes in on the fragile colony feeling "gratified to be of use." "The story elements come early, fast, and furious," Dani Sweig writes, "Gilliland's quirky mix of eccentric characters, cynical power politics, and old-style hard sf engineering-in-space is fun to read. Gilliland's novels are about people who, mostly through accident of circumstance, find themselves holding a tiger by the tail, with a choice of hanging on or being eaten."
199 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 1981
12 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
Alexis A. Gilliland
13 books6 followersAlexis Arnaldus Gilliland (born August 10, 1931 in Bangor, Maine) is an American science fiction writer and cartoonist. He resides in Arlington, Virginia.
Gilliland won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1982, notably beating David Brin and Michael Swanwick for the honor. Gilliland also won four Hugo Awards for Best Fan Artist (1980, 1983, 1984, 1985), the Rotsler Award (Lifetime Achievement in Fan Cartooning) in 2006, and the Tucker Award (for Excellence in Partying) in 1988.
He and his first wife, Dolly (died 1991) hosted meetings of science fiction fans in his home approximately once a month from November 1967 until July 2006, and twice monthly since. In 1993 he married Lee Uba (née Elisabeth Swanson).
Gilliland won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1982, notably beating David Brin and Michael Swanwick for the honor. Gilliland also won four Hugo Awards for Best Fan Artist (1980, 1983, 1984, 1985), the Rotsler Award (Lifetime Achievement in Fan Cartooning) in 2006, and the Tucker Award (for Excellence in Partying) in 1988.
He and his first wife, Dolly (died 1991) hosted meetings of science fiction fans in his home approximately once a month from November 1967 until July 2006, and twice monthly since. In 1993 he married Lee Uba (née Elisabeth Swanson).
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 30, 2009
Why I Reread This Book: Fictionwise released non-DRMed ebooks of this series a little while back, and I remembered the book fondly. I also found my paper copy to vet it against.
First a complaint: The Fictionwise ebook is bad--It's got formatting errors on every page, and more typos than is customary even nowadays. The worst problem I noticed is that half the first page from my paper copy is simply missing. At least it's easy to fix it.
I've lived most of my life in my home town, but we spent a couple years in Liberia, West Africa, during my Golden Age of SF (i.e., when I was twelve). We traveled east on our way back and stopped in India. I have a very vivid memory of finding the paperback of this in India, where it was somewhat out of place. (But I take this memory with a grain of salt, given how faulty a number of my other vivid memories are.)
(I also have a vivid--and much more plausible--memory of reading the second book in this series, but I'll talk about that when I reread that book.)
When I read this book as a teenager I found it hugely entertaining, if a bit offbeat, and was impressed by the idea density--it felt like Gilliland took a lot of the speculations from Scientific American of the time and turned them into an SF novel. The politics seemed a little far-fetched--surely no politician could be that dumb, and no vote counting process that suspect. Also, the finances and economics presented seemed complicated and unlikely to happen in the real world.
Today, Gilliland looks prophetic, given the 2000 Presidential elections and the current (2008-2009) non-Depression.
While I can quibble about the fundamental economics of space colonies, and the unlikelihood of getting strong AI as quickly as Gilliland takes for granted, it seems unfair to pick on a book that's so clearly written with its tongue in cheek.
(Finished 2009-11-29 about 23:30ish EST.)
First a complaint: The Fictionwise ebook is bad--It's got formatting errors on every page, and more typos than is customary even nowadays. The worst problem I noticed is that half the first page from my paper copy is simply missing. At least it's easy to fix it.
I've lived most of my life in my home town, but we spent a couple years in Liberia, West Africa, during my Golden Age of SF (i.e., when I was twelve). We traveled east on our way back and stopped in India. I have a very vivid memory of finding the paperback of this in India, where it was somewhat out of place. (But I take this memory with a grain of salt, given how faulty a number of my other vivid memories are.)
(I also have a vivid--and much more plausible--memory of reading the second book in this series, but I'll talk about that when I reread that book.)
When I read this book as a teenager I found it hugely entertaining, if a bit offbeat, and was impressed by the idea density--it felt like Gilliland took a lot of the speculations from Scientific American of the time and turned them into an SF novel. The politics seemed a little far-fetched--surely no politician could be that dumb, and no vote counting process that suspect. Also, the finances and economics presented seemed complicated and unlikely to happen in the real world.
Today, Gilliland looks prophetic, given the 2000 Presidential elections and the current (2008-2009) non-Depression.
While I can quibble about the fundamental economics of space colonies, and the unlikelihood of getting strong AI as quickly as Gilliland takes for granted, it seems unfair to pick on a book that's so clearly written with its tongue in cheek.
(Finished 2009-11-29 about 23:30ish EST.)
February 15, 2018
So. It's come to this. A science fiction novel published in my lifetime feels as antiquated as a Golden Age pulp story.
The problem isn't the lack of Internet or portable computers. Lots of authors missed those.
No, what makes this feel old fashioned is the technology that does exist in it. Microfilm? Slide projectors? Even in the '80s these were becoming antiquated. It feels like the setting is one step removed from punch cards and vacuum tubes.
The problem isn't the lack of Internet or portable computers. Lots of authors missed those.
No, what makes this feel old fashioned is the technology that does exist in it. Microfilm? Slide projectors? Even in the '80s these were becoming antiquated. It feels like the setting is one step removed from punch cards and vacuum tubes.
February 23, 2022
How did this beat David Brin for the Campbell Award?
This book is... Not good. Pretty bad, even. Its one saving grace is that the idea is pretty cool, as is the technical description of the space colony. Also the laughs, in 2022, of reading about the North American Union, or East Germany winning a war against West Germany, or part of the government being ruled by a Christian-Right organization (actually, that last one isn't so funny as it is prophetic).
The writing, however, from characterization to syntax, is atrocious. Not only are all the characters either paper thin stereotypes (especially the military officers and union guys!) or completely empty personalities (like our protagonist), but the language itself feels more like an outline than an actual story. For the most part, we are told things happen. Or characters tell each other things happen. We rarely actually see them happen.
Gilliland wrote this book in 1981, and while I know it was a less enlightened time, I don't think Korean mail-order brides, casual sexism, marrying your secretary, anti-semitism, or casual racism were generally accepted. Maybe the idea is that these all came back into fashion in the 2030s? The union members are also mostly written like 6 year-olds, while the managers are, of course, gracious and fair.
Anyway, the plot and writing are reminiscent of a Heinlein young-adult novel, but without Heinlein's charm, cleverness, or ability to create memorable characters. Some of the plot elements are even there, like unexplained A.I. sidekicks with quirky personalities and general antipathy towards religion, but the execution is botched at every turn.
1.5 stars (because of the lulz in reading this in 2022).
This book is... Not good. Pretty bad, even. Its one saving grace is that the idea is pretty cool, as is the technical description of the space colony. Also the laughs, in 2022, of reading about the North American Union, or East Germany winning a war against West Germany, or part of the government being ruled by a Christian-Right organization (actually, that last one isn't so funny as it is prophetic).
The writing, however, from characterization to syntax, is atrocious. Not only are all the characters either paper thin stereotypes (especially the military officers and union guys!) or completely empty personalities (like our protagonist), but the language itself feels more like an outline than an actual story. For the most part, we are told things happen. Or characters tell each other things happen. We rarely actually see them happen.
Gilliland wrote this book in 1981, and while I know it was a less enlightened time, I don't think Korean mail-order brides, casual sexism, marrying your secretary, anti-semitism, or casual racism were generally accepted. Maybe the idea is that these all came back into fashion in the 2030s? The union members are also mostly written like 6 year-olds, while the managers are, of course, gracious and fair.
Anyway, the plot and writing are reminiscent of a Heinlein young-adult novel, but without Heinlein's charm, cleverness, or ability to create memorable characters. Some of the plot elements are even there, like unexplained A.I. sidekicks with quirky personalities and general antipathy towards religion, but the execution is botched at every turn.
1.5 stars (because of the lulz in reading this in 2022).
September 17, 2014
Things I liked:
The political and economic considerations of life on a worldlet. The Corporate persons. The discussions of labor and management. The details of the worldlet. The varieties of war. The project-manager protagonist.
Things I really, really didn't like:
The mail-order brides. The simultaneous "exaltation" of sex-for-pleasure and the equal-and-opposite denigration of marriage as a utility barely worth five minutes' thought.
Things I didn't care for:
The casual racism. The corruption, cronyism, and other flaws of the governments and other institutions on Earth. I get that both the people and the systems were The Bad Guys over against whom the protagonists were protagonizing, but it wasn't very pleasant to be around.
I shan't go reading the rest of the series, but I wish I could find more SF that had the things I liked without the gratuitous garbage.
The political and economic considerations of life on a worldlet. The Corporate persons. The discussions of labor and management. The details of the worldlet. The varieties of war. The project-manager protagonist.
Things I really, really didn't like:
The mail-order brides. The simultaneous "exaltation" of sex-for-pleasure and the equal-and-opposite denigration of marriage as a utility barely worth five minutes' thought.
Things I didn't care for:
The casual racism. The corruption, cronyism, and other flaws of the governments and other institutions on Earth. I get that both the people and the systems were The Bad Guys over against whom the protagonists were protagonizing, but it wasn't very pleasant to be around.
I shan't go reading the rest of the series, but I wish I could find more SF that had the things I liked without the gratuitous garbage.
September 7, 2008
Engineering, big engineering, and the right people in the right place, trump political turmoil, economic collapse, and sinister political agendas. Sound familiar? Add in a just a smidgen of demented Texas politics. And this trilogy will make you believe that normal people with a dream can win out in the end! Last but by no means least add Independence, big science, tons of ill-gotten booty, and the Imperial Japanese Navy! What more can you ask of a feel-good story for our times.
August 26, 2022
This is an imitation of Heinlein's future history novels that lacks Heinlein's ability to write interesting characters and mostly lacks the weirdness that sometimes let him transcend his boringly reactionary politics. Also, the future history doesn't make sense: the key point is that the USA, and I guess also Mexico and Canada, have been replaced by the North American Union, but the Union's structure seems so similar to that of the USA that it's hard to understand why some people are still loyal to the old regime. On the other hand, I didn't really care, since none of the characters were interesting enough to make me care: the only one that came close to being an exception was the AI, and it didn't play a nearly big enough role. On the plus side, it moves quickly and isn't very long, so if you're looking for something Heinleinesque, there are worse options. Otherwise, it's not recommended.
January 24, 2020
It takes a while to get going but has a satisfying resolution.
Read
October 23, 2025Rosinante, a space colony, is helped by computers.
July 4, 2009
Yeah, so it begins with a now independent texas governed by a bunch of people with mexican surnames who want to destroy the alamo to put in some housing projects. Yeah. The good old boys revolt get arrested and shipped off illegally to a colony on an asteroid. But not before they kill the governor with a cruise missile. Yep. Then our hero, is the manager of said asteroid colony, and he is having a argument with the local union with bosses right out of an anti-efca management snuff film. (I didnt even know you could find anti-union sf) Anyway it eases off drastically on both fronts and becomes reasonable around page 50, but then its just a pile of mildly incomprehensible and non-compelling coporate intrigue and philosophical discussions and sexual relations between a robot and an evengelical missionary which is pain-tastic. Also, getting a bunch of mail order korean wives for the texans, genetic engineering, our manager hero getting head from his secretary, and an unbelievable battle with a naval ship. And some sort of poorly planned revolution to restore the good ol u.s. of a. The characters are all stereotypes, and the plot just petters out with a sigh of lameness, in a word it was miserable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 20, 2013
The settings are unique - a different conception of a space colony, a North America broken into different competing countries of various levels of instability. The people (incl. sentient computers) were believable but could have used more development. It's greatest feature was its realism. I normally enjoy some realistic, 'hard science' scifi, but this novel is more 'hard politics.' If you suspend disbelief to accept artificial intelligence, deep space colonies, a fragmented US&Mexico, then the rest is very believable. What makes the difference in the success of a space colony, by this novel's writing, is not aliens, blasters or telepathy: it is politics, money deals, labor negotiations and manipulating the press. I thought that this approach was SO believable (based on what I know of human organizations, no matter the century), that it felt like I was reading an expose from The Economist rather than a novel. Overall, this made it interesting but not that exciting.
March 18, 2013
At first, I enjoyed the setup, which was all corporate misbehavior that reminded me of the late, lamented Kage Baker, despite some ham-handed infodumps about the construction of the space station. Alas, Gilliland has nothing like Baker's deft plotting, nor her ear for other cultures. Around the halfway point, things really went off the rails. The portrayal of the Texan refugees and the Korean women became seriously unpleasant. There's a bit with the AI seducing a frigid woman to loosen her up that I found icky rather than funny. The protagonist made a move on his secretary instead of his super-smart political advisor. Even making allowances for a 1981 publication, by the time we reached the Big Space Battle, I was so disgusted with all the characters that the humor fell flat. I wanted to shove everyone out an airlock except for the political advisor, and to send her off on an adventure written by someone else.
October 8, 2011
I read twenty pages, and that was more than enough.
To begin with, a book that proclaims FIRST TIME IN PRINT in huge letters on the back cover probably doesn’t have much else going for it.
Second, a book that starts with diagrams of a space mirror is almost certainly written by someone who doesn’t have a real good grasp of what people like to read for fun.
Third, who the hell drafts memos with comments like “Par[agraph]. 1. Medium flowery expressions of esteem”? And don’t say engineers. We skip right past the expressions of esteem and get to the point.
The scene that made me close the book after twenty pages, however, involved a completely gratuitous nonconsensual sex act that convinced me that the author is a pervert.
To begin with, a book that proclaims FIRST TIME IN PRINT in huge letters on the back cover probably doesn’t have much else going for it.
Second, a book that starts with diagrams of a space mirror is almost certainly written by someone who doesn’t have a real good grasp of what people like to read for fun.
Third, who the hell drafts memos with comments like “Par[agraph]. 1. Medium flowery expressions of esteem”? And don’t say engineers. We skip right past the expressions of esteem and get to the point.
The scene that made me close the book after twenty pages, however, involved a completely gratuitous nonconsensual sex act that convinced me that the author is a pervert.
June 17, 2015
I made it 45 regrettable pages in hopes that the over-bearing racism and sexism would abate. I survived the boring operations lecture on bottle necks and process flow. I made it past countless poorly crafted, overly long sentences. I gave up at the villification of lesbianism and promotion of prison rape. Save yourself.
March 30, 2011
Triumphant, Heinlein-esque tale of libertarian capitalism, while insulting, slandering and tricking anyone outside the manager-class.
November 23, 2014
1984 grade B-
Series book R1
Series book R1
dnf
February 8, 2018Lots of characters, none of whom made much impression beyond the Texans
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews