by Frederik Pohl and Jack Willaimson
Strong mix here. By that I don’t mean a mixture of elements that forms a strong book on the whole, rather there’s a type of meld here between quality and less so in the novel. The main premise is interesting and there are a lot of very powerful and creepy moments, and the larger setup of disaster, conflict and survival works well. The representation of underwater life in the Eighteen Cities is also quite good, and brings a bit of Pohl's satirical edge to the Clarke-esque range of technical detail. On the other hand, the main alien force in this work feels rather abruptly written and is given far too many scenes of doing nothing but establishing its nature. Linked to this problem is the excessive buildup to the main event, the first hundred pages really drag. Finally, there's some corporate villains that are generic, shortsighted, wholly malicious evildoers, and the intrigue with them really weakens the book. Worth reading but has some definite cracks involved, and falls pretty far short of greatness.
Better than: The Golden Grove by Nancy Kress
Worse than: King Rat by China Mieville
Showing posts with label pohl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pohl. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The World At the End of Time
Frederik Pohl
A mixed bag. Starts out quite slow and generic--practically a textbook Pohl scenario and a protagonist very similar to what he's offered before. It becomes more engaging about a hundred pages in, showing the gradual transformation of the human settlement and the long-term challenges they have to confront. The frequent interludes with the alien intelligence that's posing all these problems is quite flat, however--far too familiar an archetype and rendered with a preponderance of stylistic humor that grates. It feels after a certain point less like use of sharp character moments and humor as a part of the story and more a way of marking time while we check in with the big science fictional developments that overhaul the setting. Even though I haven’t seen this specific formula of galactica alien civil war and long-term growth of a planetary colony, but in the way events deveop and the style by which change grows it feels like I have. What keeps it grounded to an extent is Pohl’s commitment to humanity, his focus on delivering a story rather than flattering fan sentiment or groving some path that only interests him. Overall one of Pohl's less engaging novels, but it’s worthwhile to look at it and see that even in his weaker aspects the things that prevent Pohl from deliveirng a dull or structurally failed novel. So far I haven’t seen a work that falls into the narrative pit that infected even Clarke and Asimov’s later writing, and that became the stock in trade on a grandiose scale for Heinlein’s later career. Given that, there’s perhaps more reason to regard Pohl as a well balanced science fiction author worth taking seriously as one of the greats. Even when he writes at his most dosjointed and predictible, he’s still not bad, and that’s worth celebrating.
Worse than: The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
Better than: Harbringer by Jack Skillingstead
A mixed bag. Starts out quite slow and generic--practically a textbook Pohl scenario and a protagonist very similar to what he's offered before. It becomes more engaging about a hundred pages in, showing the gradual transformation of the human settlement and the long-term challenges they have to confront. The frequent interludes with the alien intelligence that's posing all these problems is quite flat, however--far too familiar an archetype and rendered with a preponderance of stylistic humor that grates. It feels after a certain point less like use of sharp character moments and humor as a part of the story and more a way of marking time while we check in with the big science fictional developments that overhaul the setting. Even though I haven’t seen this specific formula of galactica alien civil war and long-term growth of a planetary colony, but in the way events deveop and the style by which change grows it feels like I have. What keeps it grounded to an extent is Pohl’s commitment to humanity, his focus on delivering a story rather than flattering fan sentiment or groving some path that only interests him. Overall one of Pohl's less engaging novels, but it’s worthwhile to look at it and see that even in his weaker aspects the things that prevent Pohl from deliveirng a dull or structurally failed novel. So far I haven’t seen a work that falls into the narrative pit that infected even Clarke and Asimov’s later writing, and that became the stock in trade on a grandiose scale for Heinlein’s later career. Given that, there’s perhaps more reason to regard Pohl as a well balanced science fiction author worth taking seriously as one of the greats. Even when he writes at his most dosjointed and predictible, he’s still not bad, and that’s worth celebrating.
Worse than: The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
Better than: Harbringer by Jack Skillingstead
Monday, June 28, 2010
Narabedla Ltd
by Frederik Pohl
This one never really came together for me. The initial set up and main character were interesting enough, but it seemed too much of a stroll through a standard Heinleinesque plot, and there weren't ultimately enough details to make the aliens believable or terribly distinctive. The comedic elements of the book worked better, but overall this felt like a major author kind of puttering about his subject matter. It also reminded me of Vance's Space Opera at several points, without being anywhere near as effective or entertaining. It works best in its representation of aliens as truly different physically, and with a system of power distribution that replicates aspects of big nation hegemony in our own world, and that puts humanity in the position of a powerless small nation. These elements remain aspects in a rather drifting whole, however.
Worse than: The Pawns of Null-A by A. E. Van Vogt
Better than: Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein
This one never really came together for me. The initial set up and main character were interesting enough, but it seemed too much of a stroll through a standard Heinleinesque plot, and there weren't ultimately enough details to make the aliens believable or terribly distinctive. The comedic elements of the book worked better, but overall this felt like a major author kind of puttering about his subject matter. It also reminded me of Vance's Space Opera at several points, without being anywhere near as effective or entertaining. It works best in its representation of aliens as truly different physically, and with a system of power distribution that replicates aspects of big nation hegemony in our own world, and that puts humanity in the position of a powerless small nation. These elements remain aspects in a rather drifting whole, however.
Worse than: The Pawns of Null-A by A. E. Van Vogt
Better than: Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Syzygy
by Frederik Pohl, 248 pages
This one wasn't quite as good as the last Pohl good, and suffered most in both credibility and engagement for its main premise. To an extent it felt like Pohl puttering about with his story, setting up a skeleton plot and then a lot of character quirks and entertaining incidents to relate. The story works by the measure of being consistently engaging, having a great deal of energy that push one to feel with the characters and then follow them through to the end.
The main SF device only got real resolution too late in the story, but the characters were strong enough to carry through that. The main picture of a society in internal tension and with fear of complete collapse was convincing, but felt a bit too close to the present day (as of time of publication) to be truly effective. This misses being great by a considerable margin and there are things about the conclusion and the main plot that I found frustrating. In the end, though, I read it with fairly rapt attention, and on the ultimate perceptual level this book succeeded.
Better than: The Years of the City by Frederik Pohl
Worse than: Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven
This one wasn't quite as good as the last Pohl good, and suffered most in both credibility and engagement for its main premise. To an extent it felt like Pohl puttering about with his story, setting up a skeleton plot and then a lot of character quirks and entertaining incidents to relate. The story works by the measure of being consistently engaging, having a great deal of energy that push one to feel with the characters and then follow them through to the end.
The main SF device only got real resolution too late in the story, but the characters were strong enough to carry through that. The main picture of a society in internal tension and with fear of complete collapse was convincing, but felt a bit too close to the present day (as of time of publication) to be truly effective. This misses being great by a considerable margin and there are things about the conclusion and the main plot that I found frustrating. In the end, though, I read it with fairly rapt attention, and on the ultimate perceptual level this book succeeded.
Better than: The Years of the City by Frederik Pohl
Worse than: Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Jem
by Frederik Pohl, 312 pages.
Great work, feels like it should be a lot more famous than it seems to be nowadays. Darkly amusing storyline, for one, with some very intensely depicted humans that are just the right touch of not psychologically right to be engaging without alienating interest. The book also possesses strange aliens, a fast plot, and powerful ideas. It's perhaps most engaging as the study of deeply dysfunctional characters and wider systems, while the eventual grounds of the nationalist tensions are unique and coherent enough to be intriguing in their own right. The contrast between all the hopes of utopia in the new world and the colonial agendas that get dragged along, and then in the end (possibly) achieving something like utopia after all makes for an interesting dynamic.
With some gap, the thing that's stayed with me the most is the nationalist major, and her particularly potent form of insanity. Plus that after all the chaos and violence at the very end all major factions hold back and avoid Armageddon. The book works as an analogy for colonialism on several levels, and if at the end humanity is shown as second-class citiziens absorbed into an alien polity and loosing their own cultural characteristics--well, that’s the way the dice roll. The events of the story are intense, they feel plausible within the defined terms of the setting and narrative, and they work the trite scenario of interplanetary invasion of an alien planet in a rather distinctive fashion.
No major complaints in terms of the story. It lacks the scale or ultimately deftness of story to be one of the truly great alien stories, but it is highly recommended, and one of best Pohl novels I’ve read.
Better than: The Years of the City by Frederik Pohl
Worse than: Manifold Space by Stephen Baxter
Great work, feels like it should be a lot more famous than it seems to be nowadays. Darkly amusing storyline, for one, with some very intensely depicted humans that are just the right touch of not psychologically right to be engaging without alienating interest. The book also possesses strange aliens, a fast plot, and powerful ideas. It's perhaps most engaging as the study of deeply dysfunctional characters and wider systems, while the eventual grounds of the nationalist tensions are unique and coherent enough to be intriguing in their own right. The contrast between all the hopes of utopia in the new world and the colonial agendas that get dragged along, and then in the end (possibly) achieving something like utopia after all makes for an interesting dynamic.
With some gap, the thing that's stayed with me the most is the nationalist major, and her particularly potent form of insanity. Plus that after all the chaos and violence at the very end all major factions hold back and avoid Armageddon. The book works as an analogy for colonialism on several levels, and if at the end humanity is shown as second-class citiziens absorbed into an alien polity and loosing their own cultural characteristics--well, that’s the way the dice roll. The events of the story are intense, they feel plausible within the defined terms of the setting and narrative, and they work the trite scenario of interplanetary invasion of an alien planet in a rather distinctive fashion.
No major complaints in terms of the story. It lacks the scale or ultimately deftness of story to be one of the truly great alien stories, but it is highly recommended, and one of best Pohl novels I’ve read.
Better than: The Years of the City by Frederik Pohl
Worse than: Manifold Space by Stephen Baxter
The Years of the City
by Frederik Pohl
Decent, but hardly great, and further and further in became underwhelming. The device of linked short stories to show a specific city changing it intriguing, but the actual description provided isn't that satisfying. I think it ends up being too cynical, too focused on organized crime and the moral/dramatic failure of most of the characters.
In the end smaller details stood out, but the wider layout of material and societal change failed to capture me. The issue in part is probably due to my lack of familiarity with New York City, for the book it’s far from incidental that the representation concerns the future of that particular metropole. Perhaps there’s a whole subtext that I’m missing, elements that would ring clear and be either funnier or more interesting if I had actually lived there. As is, such specificity weakened the account. I felt by the end like I was seeing pretty clearly Pohl’s views and musings on the city, but not a real sense of the urban center in itself, or a longer term vision that really captured a sense of invented history and human scale. Instead there were some new technologies, an occasionally compelling societal adaptation, and some fairly engaging narratives that didn’t really carry the full potential of the setting. In that sense it’s failure is precisely as a work of science fiction, which is unusual for Frederik Pohl, but ultimately I have to pronounce myself underwhelmed. It still works as a set of stories by the energy and logic with which events unfold, and the speed at which Pohl establishes a discrete personality.
Coming to this piece not long after Mieville, I’m struck by how New Crozbun, the city that’s far more clearly imaginative, detached from realistic events, baroque and metaphysically extreme--feels ultimately a lot more plausible than the city presented here. A consequence of differying levels of detail and complexity, ultimately. Pohl’s city is ultimately hard to visualize beyond the few dozen people we see interacting amongst the major projects and technology discussions. Mieville’s city can’t be seen except as a densely poupulated, diverse, and complex social environment, ultimately the main character in his books more than any single person. Often the final point of quality of science fiction is it's ability to go out on a limb.
Better than: Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Worse than: Legacy by Greg Bear
Decent, but hardly great, and further and further in became underwhelming. The device of linked short stories to show a specific city changing it intriguing, but the actual description provided isn't that satisfying. I think it ends up being too cynical, too focused on organized crime and the moral/dramatic failure of most of the characters.
In the end smaller details stood out, but the wider layout of material and societal change failed to capture me. The issue in part is probably due to my lack of familiarity with New York City, for the book it’s far from incidental that the representation concerns the future of that particular metropole. Perhaps there’s a whole subtext that I’m missing, elements that would ring clear and be either funnier or more interesting if I had actually lived there. As is, such specificity weakened the account. I felt by the end like I was seeing pretty clearly Pohl’s views and musings on the city, but not a real sense of the urban center in itself, or a longer term vision that really captured a sense of invented history and human scale. Instead there were some new technologies, an occasionally compelling societal adaptation, and some fairly engaging narratives that didn’t really carry the full potential of the setting. In that sense it’s failure is precisely as a work of science fiction, which is unusual for Frederik Pohl, but ultimately I have to pronounce myself underwhelmed. It still works as a set of stories by the energy and logic with which events unfold, and the speed at which Pohl establishes a discrete personality.
Coming to this piece not long after Mieville, I’m struck by how New Crozbun, the city that’s far more clearly imaginative, detached from realistic events, baroque and metaphysically extreme--feels ultimately a lot more plausible than the city presented here. A consequence of differying levels of detail and complexity, ultimately. Pohl’s city is ultimately hard to visualize beyond the few dozen people we see interacting amongst the major projects and technology discussions. Mieville’s city can’t be seen except as a densely poupulated, diverse, and complex social environment, ultimately the main character in his books more than any single person. Often the final point of quality of science fiction is it's ability to go out on a limb.
Better than: Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Worse than: Legacy by Greg Bear
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