Molecularbear's Blog

Winner of the 1972 Nebula and the 1973 Hugo, Isaac Asimov’s The Gods Themselves does not rank very high on my list of all-time science fiction greats. I think that I have trouble with Asimov’s novels because he tends to draw his characters using a magic marker the size of a telephone pole. I find his characters to be plain, obvious, and lacking in whatever magic is needed to make them seem alive. I almost had to stop reading The Gods Themselves when Asmiov introduced four or five additional characters two-thirds of the way through; as it was I had to set the book aside for a few days to steel myself against this new onslaught. Ironically, the most “human” characters in the novel are the aliens from a parallel universe.

The Gods Themselves centers around a piece of technology that appears to provide limitless energy at no cost. Problems arise when a few people realize that the limitless energy does indeed have a cost – a very high one at that. Leaving out the details, the technology works via an interaction between our universe and a parallel universe. Aliens in the parallel universe are the creators of this technology and mankind has decided to go along for the ride. Asimov divides his book into three parts which are set on Earth, the parallel universe, and the Moon, respectively. For me, the most engaging of these parts was the parallel universe and its fascinating inhabitants. Rather than make the aliens a mystery, Asimov dives right in and gives you a first-person view of these creatures. Again, I’ll leave out the details because I’d rather not spoil anything.

Once you finish the alien section of the book, you are left with Part III which is a shoddy ripoff of Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Well, perhaps that is being a bit extreme. But I did find the descriptions of life on the Moon, politics between Earth and the Moon, and the empty characters to be tedious. The diamonds to mine out of this rough are the bits where Asimov provides more detail on the technology that is core to his story, as well additional grand ideas about similar technology. The book ends with Part III’s main character getting laid. I hope that doesn’t spoil anything for you.

I’ve been railing this book a little bit, but The Gods Themselves is worth a read for the sci-fi connoisseur. Asimov’s creativity and intellect outshine his robotic characters and give you something to ponder, even thirty years after the book was first published. Asimov is a sci-fi legend and this book is one of the many that helped cement his place in the genre’s history.

For some reason the Nebula Award committee does not seem to like Vernor Vinge. The author is all over the Hugo Awards, but he is completely absent from the Nebulas. Anyway, A Deepness in the Sky, first published in 1999, won the 2000 Hugo Award. The book is something of a prequel to Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep which won the Hugo in 1993. I say “something” of a prequel because the events in A Deepness in the Sky take place thirty thousand years prior to the events of A Fire Upon the Deep. In the latter, we get references to the ancient Qeng Ho trading culture and their iconic leader Pham Nuwen; in the former we are set in the time when the Qeng Ho are near the height of their power and Pham Nuwen is still an influencial force.

The plot of A Deepness in the Sky is quite extensive. Humanity is limited to sub-light travel, travelling the stars in ramscoop ships, spending most of their journeys in frozen hibernation. The Qeng Ho are traders known throughout human space, making huge profits by getting in on the ground floor of blossoming civilizations. A small Qeng Ho fleet has decided to travel to the mysterious “OnOff” star, a sun that shines for about forty years, turns off for about two hundred, then repeats the cycle. Astronomers have detected radio signals from a planet around the OnOff star, indicating that a sentient race has just entered the age of technology. By reaching these aliens just as they begin to establish themselves, the Qeng Ho intend to insert their influence at the lowest levels. Imagine the money and power one could have by controlling Microsoft at the beginning of the digital age. Unfortunately for the Qeng Ho, another group of humans known as the “Emergents” have a similar goal. The two groups reach the OnOff star at the same time, resulting in a power struggle that spans decades.

Summarizing this book is difficult as there is so much content in its six hundred pages. You have the epic history of Pham Nuwen, the strange (yet familiar) spider-like race on the planet orbiting the OnOff star, the legendary Qeng Ho and the methods they use to gain permanence in an ever-changing galaxy, and the devious Emergents with their vile but powerful “Focus” technology. Vinge shows you plots and plans that span hundreds of years, along with intriguing ideas about technology and society. In some ways the book is very similar to A Fire Upon the Deep – you find yourself being taken back and forth between the high-technology humans and the low-technology spiders. Vinge doesn’t shy away from jumping into the minds of a completely alien race and trying to describe how they would think and act.

In the end, I did not enjoy this book as much as A Fire Upon the Deep. I guess I felt that A Deepness in the Sky was a bit meandering in places, perhaps too slowly paced. On the other hand, the main chunk of storyline spans about 50 years so maybe the pacing is supposed to reflect that. One thing that is refreshing about Vinge is that his future society does not contain the constant orgies and free love that you see in so much sci-fi. Niven, Clarke, Haldeman… all these guys are like, “And see, in the future, you’ll get to have all the sex you want with any woman you want, all the time!” I’m neither condemning nor condoning that societal vision, I’m just saying that it was nice to see Vinge breaking the mold. Overall, A Deepness in the Sky is some really great sci-fi and one has to be impressed with Vinge’s display of intelligence and creativity.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman won the 1976 Hugo Award and the 1975 Nebula Award. As an aside, why are the Hugos always one year greater than the Nebulas? Anyway, the book was first published in 1974 shortly after the end of the Vietnam War. I mention Vietnam because Haldeman wrote this book with that war in mind. According to the author’s note that was written around the year 2000:

“Twenty-five years later, most young readers don’t even see the parallels between The Forever War and the seemingly endless one we were involved in at the time, and that’s okay. It’s about Vietnam because that’s the war the author was in. But it’s mainly about war, about soldiers, and about the reasons we think we need them.”

In 1996, humanity enters an interstellar conflict with a race known as the Taurans. Ships are limited by the speed of light, but can instantly transport huge distances by going through linked collapsars. The book follows the life of a soldier named William Mandella from the start of the war to over 1000 years into the future. Mandella actually only spends a few years in the army, but hundreds of years pass on Earth during his travels at lightspeed.

Haldeman does a great job expressing all the various issues, both military and social, that arise when hundreds of years of “real” time pass during a campaign that feels like only a few months to you. Soldiers from Vietnam had a hard time readjusting to civilian life after a few years in the army; imagine if they came back to find society had advanced one hundred years. Technology, language, morality… these things all change over the course of time.

I tore through this book’s 275-some-odd pages in a day or two. The book is full of action, fascinating sci-fi, and intriguing social scenarios. The Forever War certainly has its share of sex and violence… perhaps more than its share. But the messages, ideas, and solid writing raise it high above the level of pulp.