Expendable

Rating:
Summary: Very, very good!
Review: I loved this story about a future in which the expolorers are all slightly deformed, so that they won't be missed when they die. A ridiculous premise, of course! But it makes for a wonderful group of characters. And I loved the thought of universe in which anyone who kills another is labelled "nonsensient" and can no longer travel. This is just a fine old fashioned science fiction yarn. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Good read but its only science fiction
Review: My friend Melvin said that science fiction books may be set in the future but they are always about the present. Thus a science fiction book will have characters who are bus drivers, even if they drive a bus that works more like a helicopter.

This book is basically about disability. People who go through life with some affliction. The premise of the book is that if someone popular in an organisation dies, then it affects the morale of the organisation. Thus in the future those people who become space explorers undertaking dangerous missions will the the ugly the deformed. That way if they keep getting killed no one is to upset.

Of course in the future people will probably only have selected clones as children or the technology will exist to remove things like birthmarks. So really this is a book about being ugly or suffering from a disfigerment and the problems that it brings.

The thrust of the book is that the main character of the book goes through a number of adventures and although in the end she is able to cure the defect that she has ( a large birthmark on her face) she is not concerned about it and feels at peace with herself.

The book of course is written for young people who despite all looking youthfull and attractive go through a period of feeling that they are ugly. A book like this is no doubt a good idea as they can learn the very real message that physical beauty is something which has its advantages but in real life ones sense of self depend on so many things apart from appearance.

The book is very easy to read and it creates a world which is interesting and new, even if in the end it is about a very here and now theme.

Rating:
Summary: great concept, shaky development
Review: ... I do find the idea of whether the League would not figure out the "non-sentient" practice of dumping off people on a hostile planet to get rid of them a bit "off" (if they even know when you intend to kill, wouldn't they know what the Admirality was up to, and want to stop it?) I also am not sure about the practice of picking the unattractive to be expendable-- Festina is genetically engineered to have a big old birthmark that makes her troublesome and therefore expendable. These are potentially interesting ideas that could be explored to great effect-- and at first, I thought Gardner was going to really wow me. But the last half of the book does end with more of a whimper than a bang-- and I don't think that anyone really grows or changes, least of all the Earth folks who don't have to take responsibility for what they've been doing.

It's a good, quick read, and don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it. But what sci fi does best is take an already existing condition and make us think about it in a new way that changes some of us... and I think what this book does more of is reinforce things we already know about ourselves without really questioning the big underlying assumptions. The human race can be big jerks sometimes-- so what does the humble explorer do about it?

Rating:
Summary: EXCUSE ME, BUT CAN I BORROW YOUR UGLY STICK?
Review: It's been scientifically proven that attractive people have more advantages than unattractive people. By that, I mean more superficial advantages. I remember in a psychology class of mine that in a criminal trial, a jury is more likely to believe an attractive witness that an unattractive one. Good looking adolescents, male or female, are treated better by their peers than ones they find ugly. I'm sure everyone has seen an incident in their life where someone was treated a certain way simply because of their appearance, whether it was negative or positive. Whether we like it or not, we base a lot of our opinions simply on appearance. It just makes it easier to process the world around us.

James Alan Gardner takes this and runs with it. In the 25th century, death has become a rare occurence. This has to do with medical techonology and also the fact that murder is outlawed by a race of omnipotent beings called the League of Peoples. They can even sense the intent to murder. If you commit murder you are considered non-sentient and are sentenced to death yourself. I don't know if that quite makes sense? Anyway, death has become so rare that humans are reluctant to be put in dangerous situations such as being the first explorers to a new planet.

It is stumbled upon by the Admiralty (those in charge of space travel) that when people who are seen as outcasts die nobody cares. It's only when an attractive person dies that it's seen as traumatic. I forgot that humans are genetically altered to be perfect. So when babies are born that have physical defects they are considered automatic candidates for the Explorer Corps. Its members call themselves ECMs--Expendable Crew Members.

Explorers Festina Ramos and her partner Yarrun Derigha are ordered to escort an important dignitary named Admiral Chee to a planet called Melaquin. The higher ups think that an Admiral will be able to help them in their exploration. What's really going on is that no Explorer has touched down on Melaquin and returned. Within minutes of their arrival all communication is cut off and they are presumed dead. Rumor has it that the planet is merely a garbage heap where undesirables are sent to die. Admiral Chee happens to be one of those undesirables.

I really liked this book. It's really impressive and more so because it's the first novel by Gardner. The only thing that bugged me sometimes was the Beavis and Butthead attitude towards sex that surfaces in the book, especially in the beginning. The hyperspace field that surrounds spaceships is like a white comet so it is referred to as sperm. When a tunnel is formed for transportation and human beings shoot out of it, you can guess the verb used to describe it. It just struck me as very immature Henry Miller. Once he gets over these little obsessive crudities the author can write quite well. The system based on physical apperance resonates with our generation where young girls starve themselves to look like this months starved looking model on Vogue. We are a nation of idolaters.

Check this book out for a good swift read.

Rating:
Summary: EXPENDABLE Is Not Just Another Space Opera Throw Away
Review: James Alan Gardner's EXPENDABLE is a full-bodied SF tale set in a somewhat mysterious but fully developed universe. Hard SF is melded flawlessly with sociological SF to create a lively universe that is not just a rehash of the usual alien or galactic empire setting.

Within a universe ruled and monitored by the shadowy League of Sentient Beings, humans are permitted to expand their dominion as long as they behave in a sentient manner--that is, they don't kill other sentient beings or each other. Other space-faring species have been declared non-sentient and have had their space exploration privledges revoked by the League. But the human Technocracy seems to have found a loophole, a deadly planet called Melaquin. Undesireables, especially undesirable admirals and officials, get assigned to "explore" this death planet. Of course, they must be accompanied by trained Explorers, who are all considered "Expendable" because of their various physical defects.

The heroine of the novel is an Explorer, who, of course, is assigned to accompany a senile admiral to Melaquin. That's when the adventure begins. EXPENDABLE is a refreshing SF novel that blends the broad sweep of Asimov's FOUNDATION series with the philosophical-ethical introspection of Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD.

Vincent Miskell is a SF writer whose short fiction has appeared in ROSEBUD, MILLENIUM, and in the SF anthology, THE AGE OF WONDERS.

Rating:
Summary: An OK Sci Fi Story
Review: An interesting concept proposed in this book, about people who, because of some flaw in their appearence etc. are sent to explore strange new worlds. But at some point they are sent to their doom on a planet where no one has ever reported back. Some interesting plot twists. But the whole premise that people with odd disfigurements are totally expendable doesn't seem plausible.

Rating:
Summary: Nice.
Review: This book surprised me. For being one of Gardner's first books, its a great one. He tosses around tons of different concepts and ideas with ease. He paints a vivid picture of of a universe in which "The Technocracy" regulates lifeform's behavior by eliminating all of the non-sentients. This in it's self makes for some pretty interesting rules. In this story, the main characters must not only deal with these rules, but also bend them. And the way that happens mixes a recipe that isn't your typical sci-fi fare.

Very interesting stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Utterly engrossing
Review: Festina Ramos is an Explorer, one of the ranks of the ECMs (Expendable Crew Members), who are chosen for dangerous missions because they are not physically appealing. The League of Peoples ensures that life is sacred and that there's no war and little crime. Festina, who is also bisexual (although this has nothing to do with her status as an Explorer), finds that she and her partner have been chosen to go to Melaquin, the planet from which no Explorer has ever returned. Festina is not amused and is determined to survive. Melaquin is apparently the dumping ground for undesirable personnel (like crazed Admirals who refuse to retire) and for various Explorers. Upon landing on Melaquin, Festina finds it's not unlike how Earth used to be. And the similarities only get stronger. And weirder. Did the Explorers who arrived before her and her partner survive? If so, where are they? "Expendable" is a captivating story full of whimsical and sarcastic humor, as well as intriguing social commentaries. It's a fascinating adventure for Festina and the reader who's plunging along, fully involved. I wavered rating the book either 4 or 5, and finally settled on 4 because it does end as one would expect, but that didn't disappoint me in any fashion. Instead it made me want to read more and find out what happens in the next book.

Rating:
Summary: An okay first book
Review: This was Gardner's first book. Like a lot of first books, it has some good ideas, some bad ideas and some mediocre execution.

The Technocracy is a good idea. A galaxy wide, fairly informal organization, it encompasses civilizations so advanced as to be omnipotent. Earth is a very junior member. There's only one unalterable rule in the Technocracy: non-sentient species, defined as a species that kills, aren't permitted to travel beyond their system. If they try, they are killed, with no more compunction than we'd swat a mosquito.

Explorers are a good idea, they are brave, intelligent scouts on new planets, with physical defects that make their inescapably high mortality rates politically acceptable. I'm not sure I buy the premise, but at least it's a new idea.

Melaquin, the "dumping ground" for the Earth's political hot potatoes, is a bad idea, and the corruptness, incompetence and stupidity of the Earth's governing body is a genuinely dumb idea.

Still, the good carries the bad, and overall this is a good read. Gardner's later books, featuring much the same cast of characters, are better. Festina Ramos, the protagonist here, is a far more interesting person in "Vigilant" and "Hunted," two of the later books.

Gardner bears watching. If he continues to improve, he could be a genuinely new voice in science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Strong beginning, but..
Review: The first few chapters were original in content and writing style. I was intrigued and reading on in hopes of high "original" adventure. Alas, the author quickly ran out of his promising creativeness and the book turned into an amalgam of other sci-fi books. It felt like reading Ringworld meshed in with some others. My interest was lost and I skimmed through the latter two thirds of the book without losing much.