Rating: 
Summary: VERY FINE SCIENCE FICTION
Review: ACTS OF CONSCIENCE by William Barton is another great novel by this writer, and I have read several of his, and he pulls no punches in his themes and styles. He is definitely my favorite science fiction author, easily surpassing 'greats' such as A.C. Clarke and his outdated space operas. Barton's novels dwell on the human condition and sexuality is not shortchanged or covered up or glossed over, as with most other authors. My favorite saying is: THE UNIVERSE DOES'NT CARE WHAT YOU THINK" seems to me to be a strong undercurrent in Barton's novels {and in ones he co-authors}. Don't read this book if ideas contrary to what you may have grown up with may offend you!
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing commentary, borderline pornographic
Review: ACTS OF CONSCIENCE has an obvious message that is basically hammered into the reader at every opportunity. Certainly, no mystery there. Does it resonate? Well, not really. The sexual content reinforces the theme, but in a distasteful way. Obviously, that distaste is intended, but it is so blatant that the message becomes muted. Not exactly a bad novel, but not great either.
Rating:
Summary: Simply excellent.
Review: Barton ranks as my favorite all time sci-fi (and sci-fantasy) author
Rating: 
Summary: The filth and the fury
Review: Born loser Gaetan du Cheyne wakes up one day and discovers that he's the owner of an experimental faster-than-light spaceship. He leaves his dead-end job for a tour of known space, visiting the alien worlds he has dreamt of ever since childhood. But things aren't rosy in our galactic neighborhood. Everywhere he goes he sees how mankind has enslaved and cruelly exploited every sentient species it has encountered. On the human-colonized planet of Green Heaven the situation is particularly bad. But wait! The Kapellmeisters, an ancient and powerful star-traveling race, have been observing our atrocities and are debating whether or not the cancer that is homo sapiens should join the company of the dodo and the Tasmanian tiger. They've got just the superweapon for the job, too. Meanwhile, on Green Heaven, Gaetan saves a slumming Kapellmeister from being killed by xenophobic street thugs and slowly realizes that he may be the only thing standing between humanity and extinction.Typical skiffy hokum, right? Wrong. This book has something to say and it isn't polite about it. The picture that Barton paints of human nature and, more importantly, (male) human sexuality is NOT a flattering one. Looking at it will do you a power of good, though. And Gaetan, although not a very pleasant sort of chap, is as complex and contradictory a person as any I've encountered in more 'respectable' literature. So. Four stars. A gritty, thought-provoking book only let down by a somewhat subdued ending.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: I am sitting at my desk with my just finished copy of William Barton's Acts OF Conscience. After completing my first Barton book and I walked from my reading chair to my computer to buy any book I could find from him, been a long time since I have done that! First let me say that I have read a lot of science fiction (a lot of science fiction) and many of the problems that I see brought up by the reviewers here plague science fiction as a whole, poor characters, overt sexuality, plot holes, on and on. To me the idea of science fiction is not to create high art such as Shakespeare or Hemingway but to ask the question "what if". I have seen this question raised by so many poor sci-fi authors again and again, mediocre stories with no point or plot. Acts of Conscience asks "what if" we can get through the next 600 years without imploding?? Will we still face the same problems as individuals? As a society? Will we still have the same flaws and shortcomings, and the same dreams? This is a dirty, gritty, dark, depressing and thought provoking spin on "what if". It is a great look at ourselves and the problems we are facing now. Just as Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451of the 50's, Heinlein with Starship Troopers in the 60's or David Brin's Earth of the early 90's Acts of Conscience looks at where we are now as a race. Is acts of conscience as groundbreaking as the above mentioned classics you ask?? No, it is not that good. But I feel that Barton is heading in the right direction, one of his books someday may be of that caliber. When I wish to read high art I will read Shakespeare or Hemingway not Barton. When I wish to read Good Science Fiction I will definitely include Barton on my list.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, disturbing, and unsatisfying.
Review: I read this book in a couple brief sittings, which gives credit to Barton's ability to grab the reader's attention. Unfortunately, there is no joy in following the unsympathetic protagonist through the multilayered story arc. This book was a combination of a more cynical "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" (without any of Heinlein's skill at conveying the happiness of wish fulfillment) and "Grass" (without Tepper's meticulous crafting of why the complex alien ecosystem is so important to the plot). The aspect of the book that I found most disturbing was that even the Wolfen (I almost wrote Foxen.. the similarities to Grass simply cannot be coincidental!) have personalities far more complex than the shallow two-dimensional women early in the book. After following the sexually fixated protagonist through the plot, I was certain that the course of "enlightenment" would address his pathetically misogynistic side, but instead, we get taken towards a simplistic ecological resolution. What an opportunity missed! If nothing else, the Dollies et al could have been used to turn the book into a splendid morality play, but instead, the protagonist continues thinking with his genitalia right to the end. I'd like to think that the author wanted us to contemplate the inherent conflict between many basic biological needs (i.e. food, sex) and ethics. He did an excellent job setting up the issues. I was prepared for him to knock 'em down. Because he didn't, and went for a simplistic Noah's Ark conclusion, the issues remain unaddressed, and all that remains is a nagging paranoia that the author actually does just view women as sex objects. I don't need a book to "lay it all out", but man, ya gotta at least tie it up neatly!
Rating:
Summary: Difficult, but good
Review: I was impressed with When Heaven Fell, although the brutality in it, while not gratuitous, isn't easy to read. I appreciate the story line and characterization in Acts of Conscience, but there is even more brutality and cruelty than the other Barton book I've read. Again, it's not gratuitous, but I find it a bit painful to get through. Since it's not a film, it's less painful that watching Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer or Reservoir Dogs, but you get the idea. What kept me reading was Barton's plot and his genuinely likeable, if flawed, protagonist. Acts of Conscience describes the book beautifully. This isn't space opera, and although the protagonist is somewhat of a prisoner of his hormones, it isn't one of those teenage boy fantasy-type scifi novels, with lots of pointless sex that's incidental to the plot. Barton's book will actually make you think seriously about what it means to do the right thing. How often can one say this of a science fiction novel? If you can get through the ugly scenes, I recommend it. However, I wouldn't require it of any of my students.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult, but good
Review: I was impressed with When Heaven Fell, although the brutality in it, while not gratuitous, isn't easy to read. I appreciate the story line and characterization in Acts of Conscience, but there is even more brutality and cruelty than the other Barton book I've read. Again, it's not gratuitous, but I find it a bit painful to get through. Since it's not a film, it's less painful that watching Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer or Reservoir Dogs, but you get the idea. What kept me reading was Barton's plot and his genuinely likeable, if flawed, protagonist. Acts of Conscience describes the book beautifully. This isn't space opera, and although the protagonist is somewhat of a prisoner of his hormones, it isn't one of those teenage boy fantasy-type scifi novels, with lots of pointless sex that's incidental to the plot. Barton's book will actually make you think seriously about what it means to do the right thing. How often can one say this of a science fiction novel? If you can get through the ugly scenes, I recommend it. However, I wouldn't require it of any of my students.
Rating: 
Summary: macho and puerile
Review: Other readers have praised the dystopian world painted by Barton and his odious protagonist. Was onyone else repelled by the protagonist's phallocentric narcissism and the general crudity of Barton's rendering of his internal monologues? For me, the imaginative concept was unable to conquer my disgust with the character and the general odor of testosterone. I began to dislike Barton as much as his creation; this has certainly put me off reading anything else by him.
Rating:
Summary: Strong, introspective, technology took a bit-part only.
Review: The character development really intrigued me; a self-absorbed man, entirely captive to his own internal dialogue revolts against his baseness when forced to face the end-game of his dissipated life. Given all he'd ever imagined materially, he's stripped of the pursuits that had enabled him to run from his nature. Not an easy read, but rewarding
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