Great Sky River (Galactic Center)

Rating:
Summary: "Benford's Formula"
Review: Books 2,3, and 4 all have characters fighting more against their local bureaucrats than against robots. This formula got boring by book four. The books all begin with a promising fight to ensue. But we have to watch the rebel-leader get ostracized by his community. 400 pages later, he quickly fixes things. In books 2 and 3 his solution was identical too - rocket exhaust as a weapon!
Concise formulas are for math texts, not novels.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre Sky River
Review: "Great Sky River" is hyped as a masterpiece of "hard" science fiction, and undefined term to be sure. I thought that "hard" meant examining true science, but this doesn't fit since the word is applied to everything from Arthur C. Clarke's near-future works to Frank Herbert's far-future "Dune". Reading "Great Sky River", I've come to the conclusion that "hard" means "complicated"; too complicated.

Imagine reading a fantasy novel. Now imagine that you are a person who has been living under a rock, and has no concept whatsoever of magic, dwarves, wizards, elves, or medieval times and settings. Everything would be fresh and new to you, making the novel very complicated to get through. That's a fair assessment of "Great Sky River" applied to a sci-fi world; everything is new, difficult, and challenging to the reader. My tastes are very diverse, and maybe it's been too long since I read a book from the "complicated" sci-fi genre, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as most people who have reviewed it here.

In the far future, a planet colonized by human beings has come under a siege. The machines have taken over, leaving a few bands of humans to run for their lives or face annihilation. The remaining men and women have banded together into clans, and fight back as best they can against impossible odds. These characters oppose the machines, but there's a problem: each person is also fitted with their own performance-enhancing machines embedded into their flesh, and implanted into their minds.

Once I got through the early confusion, "Great Sky River" seemed like it was going to captivate me. There are plenty of ideas from the imagination of Benford to go around. However... it just doesn't click with me. Example: each human is fitted with Aspects, which are microchips containing the memories and thoughts of long dead human beings, and their thoughts are transmitted to their carriers. The Aspects seem to be able to communicate with the enemy, and also come across as more human than their carriers. All good things. Benford, however, drops the ball, and doesn't develop the idea that these Aspects are more human than the living. The reader is left to infer this.

Sometimes, an inference is more satisfying than an over-descriptive dive into ideas like these; not so here. The problem is the author has spent hundreds of pages describing, expanding, and describing again (from a faux-historical perspective) the gadgets and gizmos to such an extent that it envelops the entire novel. The story gets buried beneath a barrage of technical mumbo-jumbo. As a result, the plot ideas are never brought to light. Most authors with complicated subject matter will create the setting early, and let the story flow once the essentials have been grasped by the audience. Benford seems to think that keeping this book difficult to the extreme is his top priority, but he lost me halfway though. I finished this book while waiting for a revelation that never came. I understood the ending, but by then I didn't care.

It is possible that my tastes have turned away from "hard" sci-fi over the years. I almost considered not reviewing this novel for that reason. Then I remembered the joy of reading "Dune" (Frank Herbert) and the "Hyperion" novels (Dan Simmons), which are equal to "Great Sky River" in complexity, but have an important difference: a compelling, human story featuring characters that live and breathe. Benford can be a fine author, as evidenced by "Heart of the Comet" and "Timescape". Try those books instead, and skip this one. I give "Great Sky River" 2 ½ stars, rounding down to 2.

Rating:
Summary: Bottom of The Ten Best SF Books Ever!
Review: One of the best examples of hard sf available. If you'd like an excellent introduction to the genre and/or a great read, this is your book. Benford has, with this novel, attained the success that, until now, we could only hope to find from the Asimov's, Heinlein's and Bradbury's.

Under a "terminator" sun, with a "dune"-like grit in your mouth and a brain manufactured at an Intel laboratory, you'll run futilely from extinction and dare to hope for another tommorrow. Find this book and read it, now.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: The only reason I can't give this book five stars is that the deus ex machina ending was disappointing. Perhaps the communications from beings that live in stars and the existence of a hidden ship that just happens to be awaiting the arrival of our hero wouldn't have seemed so left-field if I had known that this was the third book of a series when I began it. I presume that these are plot elements left over from the first two books. Isn't there some way to let the reader know that before he begins reading?

At any rate, I plan to go back and read the prior books before forging ahead. It looks like I still have a lot of great reading ahead of me!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: The only reason I can't give this book five stars is that the deus ex machina ending was disappointing. Perhaps the communications from beings that live in stars and the existence of a hidden ship that just happens to be awaiting the arrival of our hero wouldn't have seemed so left-field if I had known that this was the third book of a series when I began it. I presume that these are plot elements left over from the first two books. Isn't there some way to let the reader know that before he begins reading?

At any rate, I plan to go back and read the prior books before forging ahead. It looks like I still have a lot of great reading ahead of me!

Rating:
Summary: Great Sky River - the Middle of the Series
Review: This was a great sci-fi book. Keep in mind it is also one book in the middle of a series of books dealing with the conflict between the creator and created. I would not recommend reading this book out of context. The earlier books must be read first to avoid confusion!

In this book Gregory Benford explores the human society that was so dependant on technology, that it became almost a magic art, a mystery to those using it. The basic principles of technology were buried in the distant past. When confronted with disaster, the survivors started looking for a "holy grail" of technology that would enable them to escape. A minor theme could also be how so much alike the mechs and humans were. However, at some point the human population stopped contributing to the goal of all life: survival. They ceased being "players" in the advancement of technololgy and so became prey. The book also explores how in any disaster, someone always "fills the gap" and provides leadership. The book explores the fight against an implacable enemy as well as dispair.

I read this story and straight away went to search for the sequel!