Against Infinity

Rating:
Summary: Coming of age story with sf elements.
Review: I believed this was originally serialized in Aazing Sories magazine. Anyway the majestic otherwordly backdrop added something to this coming of age story. If you don't like science fiction you can just think of it as being like an Alaskan setting instead of a gas giant's moon. (In fact I almost thought it was Alaska except for the weird animals & mammoth alien machine.) Oh there's also bits about terraforming & advanced alien objects if you do like science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: By the award winning author of terrible books
Review: I find that this book is the most terrible book anybody could buy. It is long and boring and doesn't catch the readers attention. Don't buy or read this book!

Rating:
Summary: I kept waiting for something interesting to happen...
Review: I took this book along with me on vacation because it was short and had an interesting premise. Unfortunately, this book left me wanting in many areas.

Pros:
- The Aleph is fascinating and kept me intrigued
- I really did like the inferred moral in the story, which you will find in the ending. It was a satisfying close to the story and left me thinking afterward.

Cons:
- For the most part, this is a boring story in a SciFi setting. For a long time, I kept waiting for something interesting to happen - some big event or unveiling of a great plot twist, but it never came.

- Benford missed the opportunity to add wonder and excitement to the Aleph. He describes it physically when it is encountered, but he doesn't broach deeper issues until near the very end. He briefly mentions potentially interesting plot areas but never explores or develops them.

- Benford's writing leaves much to be desired. He glosses over or even outright skips over descriptions of people and scenes, giving more of a "meat & potatoes" approach to the story. "Just the facts, ma'am." A more engaging and illustrative writing style would make him a *much* better author.

- The "punchline" at the ending wasn't enough to justify the time spent reading the book. Maybe a second edition of this book would be much better, but it seems better suited for a short story.

Rating:
Summary: Tragedy on Ganymede
Review: The book explores man's tendency to do evil, but also his ability to resist it while resigning himself to its permanence; in this way it reaches to the level of a great tragedy. But it's also science fiction, of course, and the book explores Ganymede, where settlers contend with various hardships and hunt overly populous animals genetically engineered and brought along to drink liquid ammonia on the moon, and where they must always try to avoid the constantly churning aleph, an age-old and impossible to describe device left by aliens to wander Ganymede forever. The reader finds himself contemplating the settlement of our solar system, the symbolism of the aleph (ruthless, brutal nature?), and the array of moral characters in the book.

"Against Infinity," indeed. The book shows what we are up against: infinite, brutal nature and permanent evil. In the book's central character, it shows a way to respond to these forces that is worth taking.

Rating:
Summary: Deserves a more perceptive look
Review: This certainly isn't Gregory Benford's best book, nor is it one which I can recommend, at least not without qualification.

The concept is good, and the basic setting is interesting. The combination of a coming-of-age plot in a science-fictional setting is interesting and workable. The issues brought forth here are befitting both genres, those having to do with feeling and respect towards life, even life as remote from our experience as Aleph is shown. And Aleph alone is a worthy concept, the idea of life that exists for no apparant reason than to survive, that has no interest in anything that doesn't sustain that life and being.

And of course, there is Benford's familiar theme, that of man attempting to bend all he encounters to his purposes.

There's some real meat here, but somehow, it just isn't clothed in a sustainedly entertaining mode.

Rating:
Summary: Deserves a more perceptive look
Review: This certainly isn't Gregory Benford's best book, nor is it one which I can recommend, at least not without qualification.

The concept is good, and the basic setting is interesting. The combination of a coming-of-age plot in a science-fictional setting is interesting and workable. The issues brought forth here are befitting both genres, those having to do with feeling and respect towards life, even life as remote from our experience as Aleph is shown. And Aleph alone is a worthy concept, the idea of life that exists for no apparant reason than to survive, that has no interest in anything that doesn't sustain that life and being.

And of course, there is Benford's familiar theme, that of man attempting to bend all he encounters to his purposes.

There's some real meat here, but somehow, it just isn't clothed in a sustainedly entertaining mode.

Rating:
Summary: Men pursue the mysterious aleph across Ganymede.
Review: Very convincing, descriptive environment and entertaining story. A young boy grows up among a group of men assigned to terraform Ganymede's surface. Myths and stories abide concerning the mysterious alien artifact that roams the planet, with no apparent purpose. The object is completely neutral towards men when encountered, not acknowledging their presence in any way. Nothing is known of the object's nature, origin or purpose. A young boy and his father figure set off in pursuit of the elusive artifact, hoping to understand it. Once uncovered, its purpose is surprising and refreshing.