ISBN: 0812553624 Order from: Amazon.com
A classical tale of space adventure, replete with a corrupt captain, mysterious alien artifact, predictable romantic subplot and a couple of kids; reads like an updated 50s juvenile.
Reviewed by David on May 10, 1998
Genre: Science Fiction (Juvenile, Space Exploration)
Synopsis: The last of the quantum seed ships is launched in the near future. The colonists, who include a couple of stowaways, end up on a frozen planet, without enough resources to re-launch their ship. Struggling with despair, they encounter the remains of a mysterious alien civilization.
Full Review: Jack Williamson has been writing science fiction for 70 years. This is certainly a remarkable record, considering that his books are still competent and entertaining in the closing years of this millenium.
The book begins with the struggle to launch the last ship of a projected series of seed ships, able to travel across the stars as a quantum wave, hopefully stopping and re-materializing thousand or millions of light-years away when the wave hits a gravity well. Needless to say, since this event is also thousands or millions of years in the future, this is a one-way trip. It is a heroic (or foolish) attempt to scatter the seeds of human life far enough to insure extinction does not claim mankind.
There are protests against the launch program, and outright sabotage. Some see it as a waste of precious resources thrown away on a wild gamble, others as a chance to pollute foreign worlds and cultures as we did the Earth. Finally, there is resentment against those that have gone away and left the rest.
So, there are somewhat predictable sub-plots of attempted sabotage, a corrupt and incompetent captain, a brave stowaway, and a couple of sympathetic kids, one of which is used heavily for a point of view.
The plot gets thicker when the ship materializes near a dead star with a long-frozen planet circling it. With no means to start another journey, the colonists start arguing whether to dig into the frozen ground and start a colony, explore the alien ruins seen from the orbit, or try to build a ship launch facility.
At this point, the alien remains prove to be less dead than originally anticipated, and the investigation of the ancient frozen civilization accounts for much of the book.
The plot is fairly predictable; the characters develop in standard ways. The pseudo-science is relatively modern, with genetic engineering and so on. However, this plot could have come almost directly from a book 40 years old, perhaps a Heinlein juvenile.
This novel is classical science fiction, heavy on the sense of wonder and exploration of mystery, and light on character development.
Overall: 4; Plot: 4; Characters: 4; Style: 4; World-building: 5; Originality: 4;
Tom Doherty Associates, May 1998, Mass-market
ISBN: 0812553624 Order from: Amazon.com