Victoria BC science fiction book club discussion

Discussion for part one: The Crazy Eddie Probe

Now that I'm done the first part (and second, but I won't go into that here), I've decided to post some comments


I must say, 1970's era sci-fi is really optimistic, and I love it. It's cool to imagine a universe where we go from the moon landing to a space-faring civilization in less than 100 years. Also, 70's and even 80's sci-fi never seems to predict the fall of the Soviet union.

The background for the story is really cool, with the empire that has risen and fallen, and has now come together again (and still is - the second empire is only 100 years old). Humanity has been in space for over 1000 years, and so much has happened, but no contact with alien intelligence.

The aliens are interesting themselves, as least what we've learned so far. The asymmetry is really different from everything we know. Their philosophy on technology is also fascinating.

I really like how interstellar travel is instantaneous, but only between specific points, and that travel into the system takes weeks, or even months.

I like the connection between the Church of Him and the beam the Moties sent to help the light sail ship.

I like that the engineer is Scottish. It's a cute nod to Star Trek

I just finished the first section. So far I'm having mixed feelings about the book. I like the universe that's being set-up.

I like the class/royals system, the fragmented control across the galaxy, and the very consuming human struggles. So far the aliens are a little interesting, but nothing much is known.

What I'm struggling with is the writing. I don't find some of the character actions/thoughts to be believable. Often a character is unbelievably ignorant so that the authors can explain a point to the reader. This device feels a bit cheap to me. On the whole I haven't found the character interactions to be that compelling and most of the minor characters are hard for me to distinguish as they don't have many defining traits yet. The written Scottish accents are a bit of a chore.

It's fun to read older sci-fi and see what they try to explain, but we would take for granted now. There have been several mentions of uses of pocket computers for things like accessing information or communication. It feels a bit like it's being sold as an idea that's plausible but futuristic. Of course most people have cell phones (formerly known as smart phones) today and we do these things all the time.

I can understand what you're saying about the writing. I feel like this style of writing is common in that era of sci-fi.

I also find the written accents irritating. I've never liked that device. At least it's not as bad as Wuthering Heights...

I was enjoying the start of Part II a lot more, but then it kinda fell back on the jumpy writing style. It jumps from character to character, with little reason as best as I can tell. Still an interesting book, but I feel like there's a lot of fat that could maybe be trimmed and framed better.

I have read the first chapter and was really not getting into the book at all, so I thought I'd read the comments to see if it was worth my continuing.

Cory, your comments about the writing echo my feelings about some short stories of Larry Niven's that Sam suggested I read. I really did not like the writing style at all. And that is again part of my problem with this book now.

I wonder, should I stick with it? (I'm already way behind in terms of book club discussion.)