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Weapons of Chaos
Weapons of Chaos
- GenresScience Fiction
Paperback
Published March 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 21, 2020
The whole trilogy in one omnibus. Pity I can't see the book cover here because the p/b cover is very nice.
I thought this might be an out-dated read, but in the main, it holds up pretty well for something published in the 80's. A little rambly in places, and the technology is a little abraded by time, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.
I thought this might be an out-dated read, but in the main, it holds up pretty well for something published in the 80's. A little rambly in places, and the technology is a little abraded by time, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.
February 13, 2026
Space-archeology is just a niche subgenre of sf, so I shouldn't be too surprised this book isn't better known. I found this after reading The Engines of God, by Jack McDevitt and longing for similar books to the ones in that series. This trilogy ended up surprising me by how similar it was. Besides the archeology, both series have in common the existence of a mysterious weapon going around the galaxy, wiping out whole civilizations.
Something else these series have in common is that there's a lot of politics going on just to get each expedition started. Not my cup of tea. I guess it makes some kind of sense that getting an archeological expedition on an alien planet started takes a lot of time and money, but it wasn't interesting to read about. Also, after the first expedition was so successful, the subsequent ones should have been easy to get going, without wasting a lot of pages on various shenanigans.
It also got a bit old that every big discovery they made happened just before the nearby sun went nova. I know, it's all to put some urgency into the story, because not everybody enjoys reading about the painfully slow cataloguing of every potshard archeologists usually do. I guess I wouldn't enjoy that either, but I wanted a lot more piecing together of various clues to find out what happened. As it is, they never really learned what happened to the Alpha aliens that escaped their star system, other than that they presumably died out. Also, the protagonists never had a chance to even try to help the Beta aliens or at least learn more about them and their possible interactions with the Alpha aliens. The writer avoided loose ends by just blowing everything up.
I got a bit annoyed at the magical powers ascribed to the chaos equations as well. I don't mind powerful alien technology (isn't that the dream of everybody who likes the space archeology genre?), but when it can do whatever the plot needs it to do (like outmaneuvering a whole fleet), it becomes too convenient and it clearly has no connection to reality anymore.
Having said all that, I realize I use these reviews to rant about things the writer did wrong, but that doesn't mean the book was bad (although I have been on a long and tedious losing streak in that regard). I liked this book. It even has a romantic relationship among two of the characters that doesn't descent into soap opera. It just *is* and that is a breath of fresh air compared to almost all the more recently written books (and movies and tv shows). When did writers start thinking romance and relationships had to be hard won and dramatic?
Something else these series have in common is that there's a lot of politics going on just to get each expedition started. Not my cup of tea. I guess it makes some kind of sense that getting an archeological expedition on an alien planet started takes a lot of time and money, but it wasn't interesting to read about. Also, after the first expedition was so successful, the subsequent ones should have been easy to get going, without wasting a lot of pages on various shenanigans.
It also got a bit old that every big discovery they made happened just before the nearby sun went nova. I know, it's all to put some urgency into the story, because not everybody enjoys reading about the painfully slow cataloguing of every potshard archeologists usually do. I guess I wouldn't enjoy that either, but I wanted a lot more piecing together of various clues to find out what happened. As it is, they never really learned what happened to the Alpha aliens that escaped their star system, other than that they presumably died out. Also, the protagonists never had a chance to even try to help the Beta aliens or at least learn more about them and their possible interactions with the Alpha aliens. The writer avoided loose ends by just blowing everything up.
I got a bit annoyed at the magical powers ascribed to the chaos equations as well. I don't mind powerful alien technology (isn't that the dream of everybody who likes the space archeology genre?), but when it can do whatever the plot needs it to do (like outmaneuvering a whole fleet), it becomes too convenient and it clearly has no connection to reality anymore.
Having said all that, I realize I use these reviews to rant about things the writer did wrong, but that doesn't mean the book was bad (although I have been on a long and tedious losing streak in that regard). I liked this book. It even has a romantic relationship among two of the characters that doesn't descent into soap opera. It just *is* and that is a breath of fresh air compared to almost all the more recently written books (and movies and tv shows). When did writers start thinking romance and relationships had to be hard won and dramatic?
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews