This is not a science fiction novel. It is a screwball comedy. If the content isn't enough to prove it, there's the title--is aSo, first things first:
This is not a science fiction novel. It is a screwball comedy. If the content isn't enough to prove it, there's the title--is anybody old enough, like me, to remember the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby "Road To..." movies? Those were a mad mixture of comedy and adventure and romance with a little music thrown in. (I admit I didn't get this at first, but the title was niggling at me for weeks.)
Connie Willis does some great screwball comedy. There's one in Impossible Things called "Spice Pogrom" that is just hilarious. But she doesn't do it often, and it usually takes a back seat to her more traditionally funny work (To Say Nothing of the Dog) or her serious stuff (Doomsday Book). I was surprised and pleased to discover she'd managed an entire novel in this tradition. There's misunderstandings, secret identities, lack of communication, and ridiculous set pieces. And it all mostly works.
The premise is simple, but contains all the right elements: Francie is set to be her best friend's bridesmaid, but is prepared to talk her out of her wedding because the woman has a long history of choosing weirdos and losers. (Bridesmaid as setup for romantic plot, possibly with a groomsman: check.) The wedding is going to be held at a museum dedicated to aliens and alien encounters. (Zany setting: check.) Francie begins the book with extreme difficulties in even getting a rental car to get to the venue. (Absurdity of real-life intrusions: check.). It all runs along as smoothly as any Willis novel, which is to say there are plenty of strange characters who believe they're normal and Francie herself is the lone spot of sanity in the book.
And then Francie is kidnapped by a real-live honest-to-goodness alien.
This is a major departure for Willis, maybe not so major after Crosstalk, which has a similar issue. In almost all her books and stories, anything strange or in violation of current knowledge is founded on realistic extrapolation. Aliens, though (I don't care what you read in the news these days, guys) are in the realm of speculation, as is the kind of telepathy featured in Crosstalk. To me, this departure fits with the book being screwball comedy. The existence of aliens is no more or less absurd than the fact that nobody in this book knows how to send text messages.
To me, Willis's great strength has always been her characterization, followed closely by how her characters fit into her creative and innovative settings. And here she is at the top of her game because the format of this type of story allows for the most extraordinary and ridiculous characters who nevertheless come across as real. The people Francie and Indy the alien accumulate through their progress through the Southwest, searching for something Indy can't communicate, are funny and odd and unexpected. Except for the alien true believer, who bugged me--but even that, I believe, is intentional.
The romance is a true whirlwind, and again, it only works because of the constraints of the story. Two people can fall believably in love in the course of 400 pages if it's comedy or a Mary Stewart novel. I was deeply impressed by Willis's ability to hit all the right emotional beats over such a short time frame, because I was invested in the romance even though it was, just like everything else about this book, completely unlikely.
The parts that didn't work for me mostly came down to things Willis has increasingly depended on in her writing, things that over the course of many books draw attention to themselves. I can't tell you the number of times people are cut off in the middle of saying something important or revealing a key fact. It started to feel weak rather than funny, as if Willis couldn't figure out a better way to spin the mystery out a few more pages. There are also some stretches of logic that push even my tolerance for screwball comedy: (view spoiler)[The whole thing with the marriage certificate, and manipulating the officiator into performing the wedding, was way contrived. How did Wade know all those details about what was necessary? Why didn't the officiator act more nervous after being essentially threatened by a government official? I really had to reach to grant Willis her premise here. (hide spoiler)]. I think the book rides close to the line in enough cases that it will probably be too much for some readers, but comedy is like that--it either works or it doesn't.
I enjoyed this more than I did Crosstalk, which I didn't hate--I don't think I've ever hated anything Willis wrote--and unlike that book, I anticipate reading this one again someday....more
I read this many months ago (as of writing this review) and I put off reviewing it because it is actually the first part of a single very long story. I read this many months ago (as of writing this review) and I put off reviewing it because it is actually the first part of a single very long story. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to read part two (more on this later) and I've decided I should go ahead and write this one up regardless.
This is beautifully-realized science fiction, with aliens who feel believably alien. It's also deeply religious, as the alien race (technically, as the main character is one of them, it's humans who are alien, but whatever) have a profound and tangible connection to their God and are motivated by prophecy. There is no sideways dig at religious people, either; at no point does Zafiil have her faith broken, nor does she discover that It's All Been A Lie. I love that.
However, this is a very slow-paced story told out of sequence, and I've had trouble thinking who I can recommend it to despite how much I like the story, the characters, the worldbuilding, and the underlying concept. Even with all that, I've had trouble getting through book two because I'm rarely in the mood for what it offers. It's hard for me to convey how odd it is to be both captivated by a story and be disinclined to dive into it.
So this probably sounds like damning with faint praise, and it really isn't--I loved this book and I loved being immersed in it. Hogarth has a solid grasp of character and is incredibly inventive with her alien universe. (view spoiler)[Zafiil's people mature physically when they make a connection with their "lifemate" (not what they're called, but it's been long enough I can't remember the word) and she does so without realizing who of all the people she's encountered triggered the change, and I really, really want to see the culmination of that plot. (hide spoiler)] If I haven't finished the story, it's not because the books are flawed. I hope I'm eventually in a place to finish it....more
**spoiler alert** I really wanted to like this book. Turns out I liked parts of it. The idea of millions of Earths branching out from ours--a variatio**spoiler alert** I really wanted to like this book. Turns out I liked parts of it. The idea of millions of Earths branching out from ours--a variation on different choices creating different realities--is pretty cool, as is the mechanism by which people reach them. Pratchett and Baxter gave a lot of thought to how the Earth might have developed differently under different circumstances, such as the lack of a moon altering tides and climate or even failing to deflect large asteroids from the planet. I also liked the vignettes interspersed with the main plot, about how the discovery of Stepping affected ordinary people. The characters were charming and the aliens were interesting, if not particularly original.
Unfortunately, what should have been the high point of the story fell flat. The mystery of who or what they're going to find at the far end of the Long Earth grows increasingly suspenseful--and then the answer is...sort of blah. The reason for the disaster that's driving the aliens inward toward our Earth, the origin Earth, is in fact disastrous, but doesn't feel disastrous--and it's dispensed with too easily, no sacrifice (literally none, as the last sentence of the book proves) and no payoff.
I was more dissatified with the social ramifications the authors believed would arise from this situation:
1. Supposedly, Stepping off to new and untamed wildernesses means the economy of Datum Earth (the main world) would start to collapse. That's sort of true in the sense that if you remove enough of any vital material from an economy, it will destabilize. But the historical example of the depopulation that happened because of the Plague in the 14th century says that not only will the economy restabilize, it can do so in a way that improves the lives of the survivors. Since it's impossible to bring anything made of iron into the other Earths, the people who stay behind get to keep all the resources of civilization. And since the authors also argue that violence and crime are almost entirely caused by overpopulation, wouldn't that mean that Datum Earth would see a similar drop in crime when the poverty-stricken rise out of poverty?
2. Except I don't actually buy the whole "crime is caused by competition for resources" thing. People kill for a lot of reasons that don't have anything to do with theft, and even if you look at one person killing another to take the second person's mate as competition for resources, it only takes three people for that to happen. The utopian settlements of the Long Earth come off, to me, as more of a social statement than a realistic possibility--a given outcome, based on assumptions that they didn't try to prove.
Overall, it was enjoyable once, but not a book I'd want to read again....more
What bugs me about this book is that I read the sequel, Deepsix, first. That pretty much kills the mystery that unfolds in this book. McDevitt's greatWhat bugs me about this book is that I read the sequel, Deepsix, first. That pretty much kills the mystery that unfolds in this book. McDevitt's greatest skill is his ability to weave a mystery into an action novel. The characters aren't stock, but they aren't outstanding either (the main character develops more in later books), and the point is really to experience alien cultures and try to work out what happened to the ones that disappeared or died out. This isn't just space adventure, it's archaeology in space, and as long as you aren't looking for hard SF or character-driven fiction, it's an extremely enjoyable adventure....more
I remember reading this for the first time and being unable to put it down, it was that action-packed and terrifying. Jack McDevitt does for space-ageI remember reading this for the first time and being unable to put it down, it was that action-packed and terrifying. Jack McDevitt does for space-age SF what Michael Crichton did for the earthbound kind: science as the background for what's essentially a thriller. A team goes down to the surface of a planet that's days away from being torn apart and absorbed by a Jupiter-sized rogue world, because naturally this planet turns out to have been inhabited by an alien race, only no one noticed twenty years ago when it was first surveyed, and then naturally they get stranded. This is not an unfamiliar setup, but then it's not supposed to be; thrillers work because they are built from the same set of plot elements that are guaranteed to make you stay up all night, in between going outside to make sure there's not a gas giant looming over the horizon. There are some inconsistencies, especially with Gregory McAllister's character, who is an abrasive and confrontational misogynist, except when he isn't. One minute he's thinking condescending thoughts about Hutch, the (female) team leader, and the next he's deferring to her expertise. His books are well-respected, but he destroyed the career of one of the team members by accusing him of negligence and cowardice, despite having no actual knowledge about the supposed event. By the end of the book, he's become humbler and less of a jerk, but that change comes about primarily by authorial fiat. As annoying as all this is, it's the plot that matters most, so I'm satisfied to accept the end result and see it carried forward into the rest of the series....more
Loading...
