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| Argonaut
by Stanley Schmidt check out website: www.Tor.com
When these three try to investigate further they come
under attack from the owners of this technology and so seeing a possible link
with the destruction of the space shuttle, go to the military to report their
findings. After initially being ignored, they are then roped in to help the government
defend against this alien threat. My main problem with this book is
that the three protagonists are stuck in a bunker for more than half the book.
This would have been fine if it had been a tiny, dirty, constantly under imminent
threat bunker - to ratchet up a bit of 'Das Boot' style tension but large well-appointed
bunkers aren't very tense environments. Also, a retired engineer, a medical technologist
and an entomologist aren't important enough to be fully in the loop or decision-making.
So we are left with over 150 pages of not a hell of a lot happening at all. Other problems include: The way characters would see big neon ringed clues,
note the neon ringed clues, but not think 'Oh perhaps the neon ringed clue could
shed some light on this problem' for another 100 pages of pointless temporising. The attitude to nanotechnology as a cure all. We have no idea how our own
brains work yet, the idea that aliens could figure it all out in a few days just
because they have access to nanotechnology just isn't very believable to me. Finally, it doesn't even end properly. The last couple of chapters are
a set-up for the sequel. The last sentence is, "And she thought, with a mixture
of exhilaration and awe and humility beyond any she had ever known, The adventure
begins." However loads of people do seem to have really liked this book. There's a whole jacket full of good quotes. Maybe they're seeing something I'm not but call me a cynic, I can't help wondering whether Schmidt's position as editor of ANALOG magazine has anything to do with them.
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OTHER REVIEWS - October 2003
More reviews: October 2003 Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson The Dark Path by Walter H. Hunt A Place So Foreign And Eight More by Cory Doctorow The Fifth Sorceress by Robert Newcomb The Gates Of Dawn by Robert Newcomb Stories Of Your Life And Others by Ted Chiang Beyond The Hanging Wall by Sarah Douglass Kingdom River by Mitchell Smith The Year's Best Science Fiction (20th Annual Collection) edited by Gardner Dozois SpyHigh Episode 1: The Frankenstein Factory by A.J. Butcher SpyHigh Episode 2: The Chaos Connection by A.J. Butcher Doctor Illuminatus by Martin Booth Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett Angel: Stranger To The Sun by Jeff Mariotte The Xenocide Mission by Ben Jeapes The Poison Master by Liz Williams The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon Shadowheart (Legends Of The Raven) by James Barclay [Spooks] Confidential: The Official Handbook by Jim Sangster
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This
novel concerns three New Yorkers: Lester Ordway - a retired electrical
engineer, Pilar Ramirez - a medical technologist and Maybelle Terwilliger
- an entomologist.
Two
of the victims of these bug attacks, Lester and Pilar, team up to find out what's
going on. They manage to capture a new bug and take it to Maybelle, who discovers
it is no bug at all but a made object far in advance of what human technology
is capable of.
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