Starmind

Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading for Robinson Fans
Review: First things first: If you're just discovering Spider Robinson, or this particular trio of books... this ain't the place to start. BUY it now (lest it go out of print, as Spider's books have an inexplicable and depressing tendancy to do), but put it away until you've read _Stardance_ and _Starseed_.

There, now that's out of the way. On with the review.

This book, especially in the context of the series, is a consistently entertaining, rewarding exploration of the themes that dominate the Robinsons' best work. Little stuff, like (in no particular order): love, sex, creativity, art, transcendence, home, commitment, and so forth. It says something about their abilities as a writing team that all this is unfolded through living, breathing characters that you quickly come to care deeply about . . . and want to find happiness (even if it's not at all clear that they will). Likable, intelligent characters have always been Spider's greatest strength, and this story is no exception. Whether or not the plot "works" for you is almost beside the point. Even if it doesn't, the characters and the ways in which they grow and change make the book worth reading.

This is *not* a trilogy in the conventional SF sense. The three books form distinct segments of a long arc, but they have independent casts (for the most part) with their own strengths and weaknesses. It's one of the delights of _Starmind_ that Rhea is clearly *not* a (literary) clone of Rain M'Cloud or Sharra Drummond, and that Rand is *not* just another Charlie Armstead.

One final note: The Robinsons may live in British Columbia, but in the scenes set in Provincetown, MA this Bay State expatriate could hear the surf, smell the salt, and taste the Portuguese sweet bread again. Craftsmanship even in places where most people won't notice it is a glorious thing.

Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading for Robinson Fans
Review: First things first: If you're just discovering Spider Robinson, or this particular trio of books... this ain't the place to start. BUY it now (lest it go out of print, as Spider's books have an inexplicable and depressing tendancy to do), but put it away until you've read _Stardance_ and _Starseed_.

There, now that's out of the way. On with the review.

This book, especially in the context of the series, is a consistently entertaining, rewarding exploration of the themes that dominate the Robinsons' best work. Little stuff, like (in no particular order): love, sex, creativity, art, transcendence, home, commitment, and so forth. It says something about their abilities as a writing team that all this is unfolded through living, breathing characters that you quickly come to care deeply about . . . and want to find happiness (even if it's not at all clear that they will). Likable, intelligent characters have always been Spider's greatest strength, and this story is no exception. Whether or not the plot "works" for you is almost beside the point. Even if it doesn't, the characters and the ways in which they grow and change make the book worth reading.

This is *not* a trilogy in the conventional SF sense. The three books form distinct segments of a long arc, but they have independent casts (for the most part) with their own strengths and weaknesses. It's one of the delights of _Starmind_ that Rhea is clearly *not* a (literary) clone of Rain M'Cloud or Sharra Drummond, and that Rand is *not* just another Charlie Armstead.

One final note: The Robinsons may live in British Columbia, but in the scenes set in Provincetown, MA this Bay State expatriate could hear the surf, smell the salt, and taste the Portuguese sweet bread again. Craftsmanship even in places where most people won't notice it is a glorious thing.

Rating:
Summary: A worthy conclusion to an epic and insightful series.
Review: The conclusion of the Stardance tril-- uh, series of three self-contained stories. The Zen material Spider and Jeanne explored in the first novel is so rich and mesmerizing that they can be forgiven for returning to it again and again. Starmind offers new insights about many different kinds of freedom -- intellectual, spiritual, physical and artistic. Spider and Jeanne also make a very good case against the world-is-going-to-hell pessimism of our ficton, arguing that real enlightenment, or at least a lightening-up, may be just around the corner. Still, as in Starseed, I was disappointed at how many of the previous plotlines seemed recycled from the original story without further exploration. Go buy it anyway -- reading anything Spider produces is like a NordicTrak for the imagination

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Story; Unfortunate Conclusion
Review: This was not a bad book. Well-written, with intriguing new characters and a return to the ever-fascinating Stardancers, it made for pleasant reading and gave me a few new things to think about.

Unfortunately, I'm still almost sorry that I read it.

I have to admit that I think the Robinsons would have been better off ending the Stardancer saga with _Starseed_, a story that has all of the virtues of this one with few of the vices. What are those vices, you may wonder? It's difficult to clarify them without spoiling the book, since many are tied into the ending, but I'll do my best.

Very little time is spent on familiar characters. What time is spent is regrettable, given the ultimate fate of those we see again. Certain elements of the plot did not seem resolved by the ending. (Why did all the miracles of nanotechnology happen? I for one was left wondering.) That ending seemed rushed, almost unbelievable, anticlimactic--I have faith enough in the authors to believe that it wasn't really a 'rabbit out of the hat' resolution (the sort in which something is pulled out of thin air to solve the characters' problems almost by magic, and just in time for the last page too), but it seemed very similar to one. And one of the themes I found most fascinating about the prior two Stardancer novels, the theme of choice and the willful surrender of humanity, was abolished here by the forcing of the issue.

In short, _Starmind_ would have made a far, far better book in my opinion if the ending had been different--or at least handled differently. I would still recommend that fans of the prior two books read it if they are curious about the ultimate destiny of their favorite characters; I would not, however, suggest that anyone begin the trilogy with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Story; Unfortunate Conclusion
Review: This was not a bad book. Well-written, with intriguing new characters and a return to the ever-fascinating Stardancers, it made for pleasant reading and gave me a few new things to think about.

Unfortunately, I'm still almost sorry that I read it.

I have to admit that I think the Robinsons would have been better off ending the Stardancer saga with _Starseed_, a story that has all of the virtues of this one with few of the vices. What are those vices, you may wonder? It's difficult to clarify them without spoiling the book, since many are tied into the ending, but I'll do my best.

Very little time is spent on familiar characters. What time is spent is regrettable, given the ultimate fate of those we see again. Certain elements of the plot did not seem resolved by the ending. (Why did all the miracles of nanotechnology happen? I for one was left wondering.) That ending seemed rushed, almost unbelievable, anticlimactic--I have faith enough in the authors to believe that it wasn't really a 'rabbit out of the hat' resolution (the sort in which something is pulled out of thin air to solve the characters' problems almost by magic, and just in time for the last page too), but it seemed very similar to one. And one of the themes I found most fascinating about the prior two Stardancer novels, the theme of choice and the willful surrender of humanity, was abolished here by the forcing of the issue.

In short, _Starmind_ would have made a far, far better book in my opinion if the ending had been different--or at least handled differently. I would still recommend that fans of the prior two books read it if they are curious about the ultimate destiny of their favorite characters; I would not, however, suggest that anyone begin the trilogy with this one.