TO THE STARS

Rating:
Summary: A good example of Sci-Fi.
Review: I've just re-read this book (for about the 12th time), and I felt I'd better pitch in my two-cents worth. Now this series is an excellent example of "typical" science fiction. You have the main protagonist who, after living blindly in a world where he was one of the priviledged, realizes what is going on around him and tries to fight the injustices of the world. Of course, he doesn't succeed, gets banished to a backwater planet, gets into trouble, barely survives, but becomes a leader in the "Great Rebellion", becomes a hero and saves the day. Like I said, typical, and predictable.

What makes this series an excellent read is Harrison's ability to create characters with depth, and to weave the plot, predictable as it was, in a way which keeps the reader on the edge of his seat, cheering the good guys on. I keep coming back to this book from time to time just to re-visit the characters, and to enjoy a good old-fashioned adventure. This book is well worth the effort to dig it up.

Rating:
Summary: A good example of Sci-Fi.
Review: I've just re-read this book (for about the 12th time), and I felt I'd better pitch in my two-cents worth. Now this series is an excellent example of "typical" science fiction. You have the main protagonist who, after living blindly in a world where he was one of the priviledged, realizes what is going on around him and tries to fight the injustices of the world. Of course, he doesn't succeed, gets banished to a backwater planet, gets into trouble, barely survives, but becomes a leader in the "Great Rebellion", becomes a hero and saves the day. Like I said, typical, and predictable.

What makes this series an excellent read is Harrison's ability to create characters with depth, and to weave the plot, predictable as it was, in a way which keeps the reader on the edge of his seat, cheering the good guys on. I keep coming back to this book from time to time just to re-visit the characters, and to enjoy a good old-fashioned adventure. This book is well worth the effort to dig it up.

Rating:
Summary: A slightly above average Science Fiction novel
Review: To The Stars is an excellent omnibus colleciton of Homeworld, Wheelworld, and Starworld.

Homeworld is a novel of a single man's personal discovery that the world he has always lived in is a disgusting lie, and his decision that he cannot continue living in that lie, that he must actively fight to change it, and the awful consequences of his decision.

Wheelworld is the delivery of those consquences onto the back of the main character.

Starworld is the culmination of the plots of the first two novels.

Homeworld and Wheelworld were written in the early 80s, and this shows quite clearly. However, this novel is in very little way "dated" in its technological descriptions. What I especially like is the extensive descriptions of the possibilities of surveillence technology, many of which have become widely accetped as either actual technologies or things that are likely to exist in the future. Definitely an idea taken to it's logical extreme. The main character is caught several times by his own inability to fully understand the scope and true extent of serveillence tech.

Starworld was written later, and this shows. The end of Wheelworld seems to have pointed future events in a clear direction, but Starworld seems pick off where Wheelworld ends, and promptly heads off in a new direction. Not that this is wrong, but it is something of a surprise.

The author does not hesitate to use the main character's viewpoint to convey a complete view of what is going on, and then yank that out from under both the main character and the reader to show that in the rest of the world, things beyond his control are going on, most of which are not to his benefit. How to phrase this better? The main character is a brilliant electronic engineer, but in his attempts to play revolutionary, he simply cannot--by professional training or sheer intelligence--compete with or beat the security professionals who are tracking him. This is something I like a great deal, that other people in positions of importance in the universe are clearly shown as competent experts in their field, capable of doing their jobs and not be flim flammed by some johnny come lately.

Overall, I liked this book, and the money I spent on it was well worth it.