Rating: 
Summary: Author provides more review quotations
Review:
Greeting, readers. Thank you for taking a look at OUTPOST.
Here are a few more review quotations.
"...the novel's strength lies in its characters...a moving...stirring image of humans battling for life and freedom..." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"...absolutely classic...[a plot of] stunning ingenuity..." Spider Robsinson, in THE GLOBE AND MAIL
"...a pretty effective and often intense novel...revelations, as they unfold, are both ingenious and satisfying, and Felicitas turns out to be a complex and winning heroine...OUTPOST wins you over...because of the intensity and texture of its setting, the sheer doggedness of its characters, and the intricate back-story involving genetic engineering, warfare among aliens, and Renaissance history. Mackay delivers on the surprises when he needs to...and writes with impressive grace and clarity. His vision is original..." LOCUS MAGAZINE
With best wishes for a good read,
Scott Mackay, 10 March 1998
Rating: 
Summary: Bland
Review: After reading other reviews I'm glad I never finished the book. I would have liked it even less. Contrary to what most have said here, I didn't care for the 1st 3rd of the book. While I found the premise interesting, I found the way it was handled uninteresting. I didn't believe the characters or their interactions, nor did I believe the prison.
Rating:
Summary: Bland
Review: After reading other reviews I'm glad I never finished the book. I would have liked it even less. Contrary to what most have said here, I didn't care for the 1st 3rd of the book. While I found the premise interesting, I found the way it was handled uninteresting. I didn't believe the characters or their interactions, nor did I believe the prison.
Rating: 
Summary: Ambitious But Unconvincing
Review: Felicitas is a 17-year-old girl imprisoned, for a crime she can't recall having committed, in an automated prison created by aliens on a remote planet. None of the prisoners have seen these aliens for years, except in dreams caused by the implants and the drugs that keep them passive. But the prison's automation, along with the implants, are breaking down, and as the inmates recover from their stupor, they realize they must escape before the food runs out. Eventually Felicitas and a small band of inmates break out of the prison and uncover a plot that stretches through time and space.As solid a premise for a sci-fi novel as this sounds, and as strong as the first third of the book is, the middle third begins to degenerate, and the final third serves to disappoint. Felicitas must travel back in time to 15th century Italy to change history in such a way that a surly Machiavelli will never be compelled to write a treatise called The Prince, which centuries later will be read by a fellow by the name of Reymont, the true protagonist of Outpost, who through his aggression is the reason The New Ones (an alien race) wish to annihilate all of humanity. But to what end she changes history is never fully explored. Surely a change of such magnitude in the timeline must result in a ripple effect that would have been felt for decades and perhaps even centuries. What effect would it have had on Napoleon and his efforts to conquer the world, or on Hitler's desire to create an empire that would last 1,000 years, or on the industrial revolution in England and America, etc., ad infinitum? To change history in the matter Mackay suggests is akin to killing a mosquito with a sledgehammer. Would not traveling back in time to assassinate Reymont's maternal grandmother to be, thereby assuring his mother would never be born, be a more effective, not to mention more believable, means to the end? Mackay is a deft enough writer - his storytelling will keep the reader turning pages - but the characters in Outpost are perhaps a trifle too well defined; the bad guys are definitely bad, and the good guys are good. The protagonist (Felicitas), the lone point of view character, contains no flaws, no frailties, which would have made her a more believable character. Outpost is not a bad book, despite its over elaborate plot, but it could have been far better had Mackay employed the philosophy that sometimes less is better.
Rating:
Summary: Ambitious But Unconvincing
Review: Felicitas is a 17-year-old girl imprisoned, for a crime she can't recall having committed, in an automated prison created by aliens on a remote planet. None of the prisoners have seen these aliens for years, except in dreams caused by the implants and the drugs that keep them passive. But the prison's automation, along with the implants, are breaking down, and as the inmates recover from their stupor, they realize they must escape before the food runs out. Eventually Felicitas and a small band of inmates break out of the prison and uncover a plot that stretches through time and space. As solid a premise for a sci-fi novel as this sounds, and as strong as the first third of the book is, the middle third begins to degenerate, and the final third serves to disappoint. Felicitas must travel back in time to 15th century Italy to change history in such a way that a surly Machiavelli will never be compelled to write a treatise called The Prince, which centuries later will be read by a fellow by the name of Reymont, the true protagonist of Outpost, who through his aggression is the reason The New Ones (an alien race) wish to annihilate all of humanity. But to what end she changes history is never fully explored. Surely a change of such magnitude in the timeline must result in a ripple effect that would have been felt for decades and perhaps even centuries. What effect would it have had on Napoleon and his efforts to conquer the world, or on Hitler's desire to create an empire that would last 1,000 years, or on the industrial revolution in England and America, etc., ad infinitum? To change history in the matter Mackay suggests is akin to killing a mosquito with a sledgehammer. Would not traveling back in time to assassinate Reymont's maternal grandmother to be, thereby assuring his mother would never be born, be a more effective, not to mention more believable, means to the end? Mackay is a deft enough writer - his storytelling will keep the reader turning pages - but the characters in Outpost are perhaps a trifle too well defined; the bad guys are definitely bad, and the good guys are good. The protagonist (Felicitas), the lone point of view character, contains no flaws, no frailties, which would have made her a more believable character. Outpost is not a bad book, despite its over elaborate plot, but it could have been far better had Mackay employed the philosophy that sometimes less is better.
Rating:
Summary: Ambitious But Unconvincing
Review: Felicitas is a 17-year-old girl imprisoned, for a crime shecan't recall having committed, in an automated prison created by aliens on a remote planet. None of the prisoners have seen these aliens for years, except in dreams caused by the implants and the drugs that keep them passive. But the prison's automation, along with the implants, are breaking down, and as the inmates recover from their stupor, they realize they must escape before the food runs out. Eventually Felicitas and a small band of inmates break out of the prison and uncover a plot that stretches through time and space. As solid a premise for a sci-fi novel as this sounds, and as strong as the first third of the book is, the middle third begins to degenerate, and the final third serves to disappoint. To sum up, Felicitas must travel back in time to 15th century Italy to prevent the French from conquering Italy so that a surly Machiavelli will never be compelled to write a treatise called The Prince, which centuries later will be read by a fellow by the name of Reymont, the true protagonist of Outpost, who through his aggression is the reason The New Ones (an alien race) wish to annihilate all of humanity. Felicitas naturally succeeds with her mission, but to what end she changes history is never fully explored, other than Reymont is deprived of the seed from which his cosmic tyranny will grow. When the French failed to conquer Italy, surely there must have been a ripple effect that would have been felt for decades and perhaps even centuries. What effect would it have had on Napoleon and his efforts to conquer the world, or on Hitler's desire to create an empire that would last 1,000 years, or on the industrial revolution in England and America, etc., ad infinitum? To change history in the matter Mackay suggests is akin to killing a mosquito with a sledgehammer. Would not traveling back in time to assassinate Reymont's maternal grandmother to be, thereby assuring his mother would never be born, be a more effective means to the end, and without any of the massive changes to the timeline that preventing the French from conquering Italy is sure to inflict? Mackay is a deft enough writer - his storytelling will keep the reader turning pages - but the characters in Outpost are perhaps a trifle too well defined; the bad guys are definitely bad, and the good guys are good. The protagonist (Felicitas), the lone point of view character, contains no flaws, no frailties, which would have made her a more believable character. Outpost is not a bad book, despite its over elaborate plot, but it could have been far better had Mackay employed the philosophy that sometimes less is better.
Rating:
Summary: Ambitious But Unconvincing
Review: Felicitas is a 17-year-old girl imprisoned, for a crime shecan't recall having committed, in an automated prison created by aliens on a remote planet. None of the prisoners have seen these aliens for years, except in dreams caused by the implants and the drugs that keep them passive. But the prison's automation, along with the implants, are breaking down, and as the inmates recover from their stupor, they realize they must escape before the food runs out. Eventually Felicitas and a small band of inmates break out of the prison and uncover a plot that stretches through time and space. As solid a premise for a sci-fi novel as this sounds, and as strong as the first third of the book is, the middle third begins to degenerate, and the final third serves to disappoint. To sum up, Felicitas must travel back in time to 15th century Italy to prevent the French from conquering Italy so that a surly Machiavelli will never be compelled to write a treatise called The Prince, which centuries later will be read by a fellow by the name of Reymont, the true protagonist of Outpost, who through his aggression is the reason The New Ones (an alien race) wish to annihilate all of humanity. Felicitas naturally succeeds with her mission, but to what end she changes history is never fully explored, other than Reymont is deprived of the seed from which his cosmic tyranny will grow. When the French failed to conquer Italy, surely there must have been a ripple effect that would have been felt for decades and perhaps even centuries. What effect would it have had on Napoleon and his efforts to conquer the world, or on Hitler's desire to create an empire that would last 1,000 years, or on the industrial revolution in England and America, etc., ad infinitum? To change history in the matter Mackay suggests is akin to killing a mosquito with a sledgehammer. Would not traveling back in time to assassinate Reymont's maternal grandmother to be, thereby assuring his mother would never be born, be a more effective means to the end, and without any of the massive changes to the timeline that preventing the French from conquering Italy is sure to inflict? Mackay is a deft enough writer - his storytelling will keep the reader turning pages - but the characters in Outpost are perhaps a trifle too well defined; the bad guys are definitely bad, and the good guys are good. The protagonist (Felicitas), the lone point of view character, contains no flaws, no frailties, which would have made her a more believable character. Outpost is not a bad book, despite its over elaborate plot, but it could have been far better had Mackay employed the philosophy that sometimes less is better.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent First Half, but slips up in the second half
Review: I read the whole thing in one sitting. It was definitely a page turner. The way Mackay set up the mystery of the spooky automated prison was aboslutely wonderful. But the story degenerate somewhere in the middle. The human interactions are kinda unconvincing. The plot link to Machivellie is strenous at best and the way he resolved it wasn't a satisfying climax.
Rating: 
Summary: Bending time, and the destruction of all life...
Review: Imagine the perfect prison. It would be completely automated, all of the prisoners would be docile, and it would be on an uninhabited planet. This is exactly where Felicitas, a 17-year-old girl, finds herself one day. She, "wakes up," with no memories of actually committing a crime, and no memories of her childhood. She soon finds that other prisoners are waking up, and that some have been awake for quite awhile. Her prison is breaking down. The equipment which was meant to guard the prisoners and keep them docile is failing. Many of the prisoners who are awake now, are planning on escape. Felicitas is a key to their escape because of certain things she knows. Unfortunately she can't remember those things. Outpost is a very good book. It does have some weak points, but for Scott Mackay's first science fiction novel it is a stellar performance.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent First Half, but slips up in the second half
Review: It's been a while since I read a book in one session. I just couldn't leave "Outpost" untill I was done. The book tells the tale of the great escape from a prison on a distant planet, where the brainwashed inmates' only crime is to be descendents of political prisoners from the past. A very recommendable book, describing how people react on coming out of deep amnesia. The book also deals with as different issues as time- travel and what future impact Machiavelli's "The Prince" might have.
|
