A Million Open Doors

Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: If you enjoy science fiction of any sort, you will enjoy this book. While it is not the "hard" science fiction that I usually enjoy, it is "hard" enough not to include any Wizards, Elves, Halflings, Trolls, Druids,Unicorns or sentient cats.

Read it, you won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: A Meeting of Minds
Review: In its early years, science fiction used to be mostly "nuts and bolts" clearly distinguishing it from "sword and sorcery," but increasingly, we see SF novels that have all but abandoned the hard-science base as a focus. The physics and engineering of space travel, for example, is merely a given; the culture of other planets and species are the focus instead. Thus the "soft" sciences, such as archeology, anthropology and sociology come into play, but these novels are clearly real science fiction.

In this book, two planetary cultures meet. One is terraformed and one is not (but it turns out in an interesting little twist, that both have been terraformed, one anciently, so this segues nicely into the sequel). One is romantic, flamboyant, but violent, while the other is peaceful, but ideologically restrictive. In other words, there is a great deal that is wrong with each culture, but there is also a great deal that is right about each. The coming together of these two cultures and the way both are improved by the contact is the theme of this novel. The parallels between *A Million Open Doors* and Heinlein's *The Moon is a Harsh Mistress* are obvious, but I don't think this author is as heavy-handed and didactic as Heinlein (although the latter is funnier and, it may be argued, more entertaining than Barnes). I am more reminded in this work, because of its subtlety and in-depth psychological observations, of Ursula LeGuin's *The Dispossessed.*

This is the first Barnes novel I've read, and I'm pleased to have discovered him and looking forward to the sequel, *Earth Made of Glass.* A good read.

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Rating:
Summary: A Million Open Doors
Review: John Barnes shows some promise in 'A Million Open Doors', enough that I would recommend it to a friend. He's assembled a moderately original idea and some likeable characters into an enjoyable book, but there are some big flaws that drag it down, especially towards the end.

The main character, named Giraut, leaves his home and moves to a culture known as the Caledons. Caledon society is a distopia based on the idea of rationality. If a group of computers known as 'aintillects' decides that a person is engaged in irrational behavior, such as doing favors for a friend or appreciating the wrong works of art, then they can be dragged off to a mental institution by the government. Upset by this stifling censorship, Giraut decides to open a school and teach dancing and music to some of the Caledon children.

While this concept may sound interesting, Barnes' writing is all over the place. He can't seem to decide whether he wants to be writing a true hard science fiction novel or a parody. Are we really supposed to believe that Giraut could break through generations of conformity and start a revolution just by teaching some kids to play the guitar? Fortunately, he hurries the plot along without giving us too much time to worry about such questions. Also, Barnes is quite skillful at developing his characters. Unlike so many of today's SF writers, he gives them real motivations and allows us to see how their behavior and their thoughts change as they get exposed to new ideas.

However, I would be negligent if I didn't mention some important weaknesses. Barnes' choice of language is pretty bland, and his descriptions don't give you any real sense of what he's trying to illustrate. Also, he needs a decent editor to crack down on sentences such as 'Thorwald started, I could see that his career as a blasphemer would be developing slowly; he seemed to be reacting as if what he had said a minute ago was hanging around in the air like old flatulence.' He view of gender roles is still stuck in the 50's; somebody should politely inform him that women are capable of doing more than just having sex and doing secretarial work. And there's this annoying habit of substituting like-sounding futuristic words in place of common English ones. He writes 'merce' instead of 'mercy', 'nop' instead of 'nope', etc' Finally, the conclusion is too rushed, as if he was working under a deadline and had to cram too much plot into too little space.

Still, if you can look past these problems,, you can find some decent science fiction in 'A Million Open Doors'. While it doesn't rank up there with the masters like Heinlein or Clarke, it's still a decent read.

Rating:
Summary: A Million Open Doors
Review: John Barnes shows some promise in ???A Million Open Doors???, enough that I would recommend it to a friend. He???s assembled a moderately original idea and some likeable characters into an enjoyable book, but there are some big flaws that drag it down, especially towards the end.

The main character, named Giraut, leaves his home and moves to a culture known as the Caledons. Caledon society is a distopia based on the idea of rationality. If a group of computers known as ???aintillects??? decides that a person is engaged in irrational behavior, such as doing favors for a friend or appreciating the wrong works of art, then they can be dragged off to a mental institution by the government. Upset by this stifling censorship, Giraut decides to open a school and teach dancing and music to some of the Caledon children.

While this concept may sound interesting, Barnes??? writing is all over the place. He can???t seem to decide whether he wants to be writing a true hard science fiction novel or a parody. Are we really supposed to believe that Giraut could break through generations of conformity and start a revolution just by teaching some kids to play the guitar? Fortunately, he hurries the plot along without giving us too much time to worry about such questions. Also, Barnes is quite skillful at developing his characters. Unlike so many of today???s SF writers, he gives them real motivations and allows us to see how their behavior and their thoughts change as they get exposed to new ideas.

However, I would be negligent if I didn???t mention some important weaknesses. Barnes??? choice of language is pretty bland, and his descriptions don???t give you any real sense of what he???s trying to illustrate. Also, he needs a decent editor to crack down on sentences such as ???Thorwald started, I could see that his career as a blasphemer would be developing slowly; he seemed to be reacting as if what he had said a minute ago was hanging around in the air like old flatulence.??? He view of gender roles is still stuck in the 50???s; somebody should politely inform him that women are capable of doing more than just having sex and doing secretarial work. And there???s this annoying habit of substituting like-sounding futuristic words in place of common English ones. He writes ???merce??? instead of ???mercy???, ???nop??? instead of ???nope???, etc??? Finally, the conclusion is too rushed, as if he was working under a deadline and had to cram too much plot into too little space.

Still, if you can look past these problems,, you can find some decent science fiction in ???A Million Open Doors???. While it doesn???t rank up there with the masters like Heinlein or Clarke, it???s still a decent read.

Rating:
Summary: Heinlein who?
Review: Much has been made of the similarities between Heinlein and Barnes, at least it seems to me. Most copies of the paperback I've seen have some reviewer or other touting Barnes as the "new Heinlein" which I think can be misleading. Much of what Heinlein did was similar, granted, but Heinlein tended to take more of a . . . shall we say radical bent toward his topics, which put off more than one reader. The difference between Barnes and Heinlein is that while a typical Heinlein book had revolution plastered all over it (and at his best the man was good enough to keep it from being distracting), the work of John Barnes, and especially of A Million Open Doors is more of a quiet, understated revolution. Instead of hitting the reader over the head with it, Barnes takes us through the tale of a boy finally learning to be a man on a world totally unlike his own. In the process he shows us both worlds and shows us what is wrong with those worlds and why. In this way, I think Barnes can make readers think without forcing them to think, which seems more like Ursula K. Le Guin than Heinlein. Either way, from this book it's clear that Barnes, while maintaining some vestiges of both Heinlein and Le Guin, is quickly on his way to becoming neither of them, instead he is becoming the next John Barnes. That's revolution enough.

Rating:
Summary: A superb Sci-Fi achievment!
Review: This excellent novel far exceeds most of the decade's award winners. Strong and bold exploration of many classic SF themes. One of the few books that truly deserves the rare praise: "So good it hurts."

Rating:
Summary: Sci fi that appeals to non-sci fi fans!
Review: This is the first sci fi book I've read probably since I was nine years old. One of the best things about it is Barnes doesn't hit you over the head with the technology existing several centuries in the future, he just throws in casual references to it and lets you figure it out. The subtle commentary present in the simmilarities and differences between the cultures described in A MILLION OPEN DOORS and ours is though-provoking, to say the least. The plot is not as tight toward the end and the romantic plot twists are marginal at best in their importance to the novel as a whole; however, these minor flaws don't take much away from the overall reading experience. I know this novel will appeal to sci fi virgins and I'll bet it will to hard core fans as well

Rating:
Summary: One of Barnes's better efforts
Review: This was the first John Barnes book that I read, and while I agree with other reviewers that it's not perfect, it's an imaginative and enjoyable read, with enough light touches to let you know not to take it too seriously.

It interested me enough to go on to read several of his other works, most of which I've enjoyed (can't win 'em all).

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and boring at the same time
Review: Yes, the theme is interesting, the plot is well constructed, the characters are conceivable. But: most of the positive characteristics of this novel are destroyed by long and boring philosophising. I really am not a friend of action and action only, but Barnes reflects too often and too much. And the whole subject of Occitan culture may be interesting for those who know about the old troubadour tradition, but the ordinary reader is certainly confused by it. His characters are believable in this Occitan context, but most of the readers have never come in touch with even the theoretical basis of a society like this. It may be interesting for the expert to discuss the oppositional viewpoints of a fundamental Protestant society with all its hypocrisy and a society that has its basis in artificial codes of honor and dignity. But both are far away from reality. And that is why they do not reflect any social problem in reality. Both should have been opposed to a realistic society of today, of course alienated from the here and now by science fiction settings. This is what science fiction is about. But here this novel discusses some theoretical problems and never arrives in reality. Some critics call Barnes a descendant of Robert Heinlein. Well, if so, he has still a long way to go.