Stephen Tuck > Recent Status Updates

Positives: still easy to read. The story told by flashbacks is capably handled.

Negatives: the Stratt plot device (plus the alien we just met) is a constant source of dei ex machina. Hence, schoolboy quality plotting. Also, zero tension because there’ll be a plot device to rescue the hero at every turn.

I don’t think I’m going to finish this one.

The curtain coming down on the Republic. How many opportunities were wasted.

On p. 68 our hero describes the ‘apocalyptic nightmare’ his school pupils will be thrown into. I can’t help but notice it’s much the same nightmare one can find today in (say) west Africa, or Port Moresby, or Sudan.

Apparently something is only REALLY a crisis when prosperous westerners might suffer.

I’m a lifelong Tory; this sort of thing nearly makes me a firebrand Marxist.

As so often, the most heartbreaking thing is the Chiang government’s incredible ability to squander opportunities.

Still making up my mind about this. The science is done well and it’s propulsively readable. On the other hand, it asks for a LOT of suspension of disbelief. The idea of the US, Russia and China placing all their resources at the disposal of a Dutch bureaucrat is simply silly, as is the idea of spontaneous global unanimity and every academic biologist in the world giving place to a high school science teacher.

Ok so far. The ‘last survivor of suspended animation’ thing has been done (eg HHGTTG). Hero appears to a standard square-jawed space hero. However, the prose fairly rattles along.

It’s heartbreaking to see the opportunities the Chiangs managed to waste