Dykstra'S War

Rating:
Summary: Dykstra's War contains hidden agenda
Review: Anyone, who really loves sci-fi and found the "Left Behind" series of books distasteful for their deceptive nature, will also have problems with "Dykstra's War" by Jeffery Kooistra. While on the surface it appears to be another enjoyable, no-brainer space opera from Baen Books, the plot is simply a vehicle for the author's own religious beliefs. I began to have my doubts about this book shortly after I started reading it. The characters were way too worried about not attending church and the aliens were described as "not having souls" (I'm guessing only humans may possess a soul). But the straw that broke the camels back occurred when, as one of the characters rammed an alien ship, he wanted his wife to remember some passage from John and did a whole "Oh Jesus, take me now" number. It was then that I realized I'd wasted eight bucks of my hard-earned coin. If you want to read religious propaganda, that's your right. But what Kooistra did was deceptive and just plain wrong.

Rating:
Summary: Great ideas, mediocre execution
Review: As literature, this is a poorly-written novel. There's no getting around that. But it has such wonderful concepts in it that I believe it's worth reading anyway. I appologize for various plot spoilers in this review, and I warn you about them now.

The Phinons rank among the most well-conceived aliens I've ever read about. A pet peeve of mine for years has been that I HATE childish nonsense about anthropomorphic "humanoid" aliens. I can pardon the original Star Trek because it was a 1960's TV show with a limited budget, but novelists have no excuse. Not only are the insectoid Phinons not human-shaped, but even their physiology & biochemistry are alien, with a high metal content in their bodies and "muscles" that work more like hydraulic pistons. However, the cleverest thing about them is their psychology, or rather the lack of it: they are hive insects writ large. Their "technology," like bees' construction of a hive or a hermit crab's use of a snail shell, is simply a behavior they evolved over eons, with spaceships full of weird, curvilinear shapes that no one would have deliberately designed. So despite their technology, which combined with their aggressive territoriality makes them incredibly dangerous, they are not merely stupid, they are arguably mindless. There can be no reasoning with them, and outwitting them is more like outwitting an animal than a human being. I thought this was a very clever insight into the nature of consciousness. And their environment! They live out in the Oort comet clouds surrounding solar systems. These stellar clouds overlap one another, allowing the Phinons to slowly leapfrog across the entire galaxy the way the proverbial squirrel could once hop from treetop to treetop from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Brilliant stuff.

Unfortunately, the author's grasp of human psychology is much poorer than his grasp of his aliens'. The novel opens with humanity involved in a solar system-wide civil war which all the participants seem to agree is unjustified and pointless, but are none-the-less eager to engage in to make heroes of themselves. I would think that, at least in a society with a free press, this kind of public attitude would collapse after only a couple of months' worth of real combat and body bags.

The addressing of religion in the novel interests but troubles me. I am a Christian, I've never found any serious conflict between my spiritual and scientific beliefs, and I applaud authors who combine the two skillfully ("Out of the Silent Planet" by C.S. Lewis is my favorite example. "Dragons Can Only Rust" & "Dragon Reforged" by Chris Cymri are wonderful, too.). Unfortunately, Kooistra's efforts, though doubtless well-intentioned, feel forced. It's a difficult subject to write about, and I respect him for trying. The single most glaring flaw in his approach is that nearly all of his characters are Christians of one stripe or another. We meet one agnostic who doesn't do much except say "I'm agnostic" and then walk offstage. Where are all the Jews and Muslims and Hindus and atheists and Moonies? There's nothing in the narrative to imply that there was a huge wave of conversions at some point in future history. The omission of characters who disagree with you is a mistake I used to make when I was first starting to write, and if Kooistra continues to write fiction he may get over it. Diatribes against faith are so common in s.f. that it's nice to see an intelligent writer take a different tack. And anyway, the Phinons' peculiar psychology certainly lends itself to discussion of the soul and its relationship to consciousness (it's almost like a novel about artificial intelligence in that respect), so I think religion had to be brought up one way or another.

Dykstra, the super-scientist main character, is a walking Deus Ex Machina. For every problem that arises, he sits down, thinks real hard about it for a while, and then designs a gizmo to fix it. He is quite likeable, but after a while you can't help but want to see him get stumped by something, and it never happens.

The prose style is amateurish.

So... three stars out of five. Not great, but I'm still glad I read it.

Rating:
Summary: This isn't fine literature, but it's decent space opera
Review: I read this few years ago and liked it. I was disappointed when Mr. Kooistra didn't write any more books, but such is the nature of the publishing industry or the author's whimsy. Some of the critics difficulties stem from their not agreeing with the incredible mind powes of Dykstra. The counter to their argument is that this is a novel and thereby normal rules of reality can be bent or ignored and super genisues may be created. Another criticsm stems from the Christian element to the book. Since most sci-fi tends to display Christians as people who are well intentioned morons or backwards yokels who need to be taught the basic rudiments of modern society like electric lighting, forks, and houses that aren't shacks, this book is sort of a counterbalance--and a welcome one at that. Despite its faults, which to me were ignorable and this novel comes out a winner.

Rating:
Summary: golden-age sf in bright new ring
Review: If you liked science fiction from the 1950s -- Ace doubles, Heinlein's twins into space, the heady mix of innovative science and derring-do -- then Jeffery Kooistra's first novel is for you. Kooistra, who writes one of the science columns for Analog Magazine, takes his physics very seriously. When he describes new kinds of weapons and new kinds of speeds, you believe him. But he also has a human touch -- his characters are life-size, real, everyday in the best sense of the word -- even when one of them lives twice today's lifespan. Romance, space battles, intrigue -- Dykstra's War has it all. Read it and feel 13 again; wonder anew at the magic of science and the stars. Or, if you're 13 now, read Dykstra's War and feel 10 times your age...

Rating:
Summary: Good old-fashioned space opera -- 3.5 stars
Review: James Dykstra is the greatest scientific genius of the 21st century, but at 126 years of age, he's starting to slow down. Until the mysterious Phinons attack a human ship out in the Oort cloud. And a wrecked alien ship hints at a possible FTL drive....

Dykstra's an engaging character, as is gorgeous genano engineer Samantha "Sunshine" MacTavish. Aside from an autistic idiot-savant who loves squirrels, Kooistra's other characters are straight stock, but they carry spears adequately. I did wince at some of the dialog:

"She reminds me of someone, Bob. Someone who was very special to me." Or: "Our duty is to survive, Luke. Not to give you a chance to be a hero."

Dykstra's War has some interesting ideas, including a new explanation for Fermi's Paradox ("where is everyone?"), inside a conventional, competently-written SF thriller. The plot moves briskly, and while there are few surprises, I had fun reading it. Recommended for fans of this sort of thing.

This is Kooistra's first novel. Analog readers may recognize parts of a couple of 1993 stories here. Kooistra is presently a science columnist for Analog, and delights in stirring up trouble by advocating fringe-science ideas, some of which show up here.

Rating:
Summary: Just plain escapism
Review: Much as I hate to discourage an author's first book, this is just poorly written. The plot is weak, the prose is mediocre and, worst of all, the characters were cardboard cut-outs who never behaved in believable ways. Never once in the book did I reach the point of voluntary suspension of disbelief. Hard as I tried, I could not empathize with these characters. They just did not behave like real people. The attempt to portrayal of a military mindset failed utterly. In a book about a war, you'd expect at least one example of professionalism, competence or teamwork. Instead, Kooistra served up isolated examples of suicidal "heroism" - always with much posturing about the nobility of their sacrifice. The "love interests" were soppy, undirected and completely pointless. They neither advanced the plot nor interested me as a reader. The author also appeared to forget about his most promising plot thread (the prophecy about Dykstra's friend, Jamie). I was very disappointed in the book.

Rating:
Summary: Kooistra - start writting!
Review: Science Fiction isn't necessarily rocket science. Maybe since I am such a prolific reader my standards are a little lower, but I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and easy to read. The author's style is somewhere between Robert Heinlein and Rick Shelley. You cared about the characters and the aliens were believable and not just your usual humans with skull ridges or antennas.
The last gauge of whether I really enjoyed a book: I came looking for other books by the same author. Since its his first book, I guess I have to wait.

Rating:
Summary: Kooistra - start writting!
Review: Science Fiction isn't necessarily rocket science. Maybe since I am such a prolific reader my standards are a little lower, but I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and easy to read. The author's style is somewhere between Robert Heinlein and Rick Shelley. You cared about the characters and the aliens were believable and not just your usual humans with skull ridges or antennas.
The last gauge of whether I really enjoyed a book: I came looking for other books by the same author. Since its his first book, I guess I have to wait.

Rating:
Summary: A very find read with many appealing ideas.
Review: The aliens are the most unique I've seen. Very good lead in, this keep me interested in the story and the characters.

Rating:
Summary: Shallow and dull
Review: What do you do when you have a problem? You ask Dykstra, the old, kindly, unimaginatively brilliant genius to solve it for you. And solve it he does, usually with little or no effort on his part.

Thus runs this book. Step one, there's a problem. Step two, Dykstra considers the problem. Step three, Dykstra solves the problem. The characters are shallow and the plot fairly uninteresting. I don't recommend this book.