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nancylebovI just read _Red Thunder_, and it was remarkably disappointing. Varley's written some sf that I'm very fond of (notably _The Ophiuchi Hotline_ and _The Golden Globe_ and much of the Nine Worlds short fiction), and part of what I've liked has been his inventiveness. I'm very fond of idea-a-minute sf.
_Red Thunder_, on the other hand, has remarkably little going on. There's a force field which supplies handy propulsion for the rocket, and that's about it.
The plot: A small group of Americans build a backyard spaceship and go to Mars. There are a few minor moments of suspence. For a while, i was hoping that even though it was slow-moving, there was a decent novella somewhere in those 411 pages. There isn't.
OK, politics. The book is libertarian (little rants about guns and drug laws) with a strong ambivalence about the US--it's good that Americans get to Mars first, but better that it isn't a government project.
The problem at my end (and not Varley's fault, I suppose) is that Abu Graib has worn the shine off being an American for me. It's just another country, with some people making an effort not to fuck up totally, but with all too many saying that rage and revenge are more important than kindness or good sense. I can't believe that the "real" America is the dream rather than what actual Americans do and believe. I believe that imagination is part of the world, but it's not the whole story.
Let the Europeans or the Chinese or someone else be first on Mars. I don't care.
Some of this is depression--when I think "what sort of a fucking idiot would let part of their happiness be in the hands of something they didn't create or control?", that's depression, but I don't think all of this is. The process that started with hearing about My Lai and thinking "but Americans don't do that--well, one of them did" just got finished. Damn, this does feel like depression, and not just politics.
I expect that the political news is just going to get worse, but can anyone recommend some good recent sf?
_Red Thunder_, on the other hand, has remarkably little going on. There's a force field which supplies handy propulsion for the rocket, and that's about it.
The plot: A small group of Americans build a backyard spaceship and go to Mars. There are a few minor moments of suspence. For a while, i was hoping that even though it was slow-moving, there was a decent novella somewhere in those 411 pages. There isn't.
OK, politics. The book is libertarian (little rants about guns and drug laws) with a strong ambivalence about the US--it's good that Americans get to Mars first, but better that it isn't a government project.
The problem at my end (and not Varley's fault, I suppose) is that Abu Graib has worn the shine off being an American for me. It's just another country, with some people making an effort not to fuck up totally, but with all too many saying that rage and revenge are more important than kindness or good sense. I can't believe that the "real" America is the dream rather than what actual Americans do and believe. I believe that imagination is part of the world, but it's not the whole story.
Let the Europeans or the Chinese or someone else be first on Mars. I don't care.
Some of this is depression--when I think "what sort of a fucking idiot would let part of their happiness be in the hands of something they didn't create or control?", that's depression, but I don't think all of this is. The process that started with hearing about My Lai and thinking "but Americans don't do that--well, one of them did" just got finished. Damn, this does feel like depression, and not just politics.
I expect that the political news is just going to get worse, but can anyone recommend some good recent sf?
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 08:01 am (UTC)Anyway I, too, was annoyed by "Red Thunder". But the good news is that I got so annoyed that I tried to write a novel which is to those of John Varley's eight worlds books as "Red Thunder" is to Heinlein's mid-period. And while I don't think I succeeded perfectly, by ironic coincidence John's editor bought it and it's scheduled for publication in July 2006. So it can't be all that bad.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 08:11 am (UTC)Depression talking
Date: 2004-05-14 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-16 09:51 am (UTC)I've never been an American, and books about Americans making it to Mars first have always had this weirdness for me, though not quite as bad as that. I found it strange, the SFnal Jubal stuff was such nonsense and the rest of it was just... well, also nonsense, but in a different way. And the sexual politics and sex was very disappointing, because that's something Varley's always been really very good at, even at his worst.
Incidentally, I like the same Varley you do, so it's not surprising we had largely the same reaction.
(Oh, and politics and all of it is enough to make anyone want to put their head in a bucket, it doesn't take depression, I'm very sorry if it's making the depression thing worse for you.)
Good recent SF
Date: 2004-05-18 01:16 pm (UTC)