Customer Reviews

Acts of Conscience

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am sitting at my desk with my just finished copy of William Barton's Acts OF Conscience. After completing my first Barton book and I walked from my reading chair to my computer to buy any book I could find from him, been a long time since I have done that!

First let me say that I have read a lot of science fiction (a lot of science fiction) and many of the problems that I see brought up by the reviewers here plague science fiction as a whole, poor characters, overt sexuality, plot holes, on and on. To me the idea of science fiction is not to create high art such as Shakespeare or Hemingway but to ask the question "what if". I have seen this question raised by so many poor sci-fi authors again and again, mediocre stories with no point or plot. Acts of Conscience asks "what if" we can get through the next 600 years without imploding?? Will we still face the same problems as individuals? As a society? Will we still have the same flaws and shortcomings, and the same dreams? This is a dirty, gritty, dark, depressing and thought provoking spin on "what if". It is a great look at ourselves and the problems we are facing now.

Just as Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451of the 50's, Heinlein with Starship Troopers in the 60's or David Brin's Earth of the early 90's Acts of Conscience looks at where we are now as a race. Is acts of conscience as groundbreaking as the above mentioned classics you ask?? No, it is not that good. But I feel that Barton is heading in the right direction, one of his books someday may be of that caliber.

When I wish to read high art I will read Shakespeare or Hemingway not Barton. When I wish to read Good Science Fiction I will definitely include Barton on my list.

This was the first book by William Barton I read -- and the back most definitely did not prepare me for the sexual content. I took a break of a day or two sometimes from the book due to the character of the narrator etc. It wasn't as bad as Alpha Centauri in that respect (I pity Genny of that book) but even so it shocked me.

However, once I got past the amount of erotica in the book, the philosophical notions and Barton's views on the human future got me. Less optimistic than many writers, but maybe more honest that most because of that. Barton created a masterpiece with this book: Gaetan is entirely human, often disturbingly so.

All you really need to know about Barton is that I read MORE of his works after reading this one -- the philosophy, combined with the sense that the characters are real, drew me into his books, even though there are few people I would reccomend them to, sadly enough.

I know it's said that humans think of sex every minute or so, but do the characters in his novels have to THAT often?! Maybe they do in order to be fully "human" (a fact that says a lot about humanity in itself)but the only thing I would wish for would be a little less erotica in his writing.

Though many are 'shocked' at Barton's sexual content and the somewhat unflattering personality of the lead character, any reader who has actually experienced the real world will have to appreciate the stark realism of Barton's portrayal of the human mind. We are not a warm and fuzzy species and no amount of wishing and dreaming changes this fact. Yin and Yang sums it up nicely. Keep up the good work William!

Gaetan du Cheyne is a bit of a loser. A mechanic on starships, he's no randier than many a male, but he can't keep any of his many lovers. In fact, apart from the artificial intelligences inhabiting his spacesuit and work tools, he doesn't have any friends. But he does have a bit of luck when corporate intrigue and technological progress put one of the first faster than light starships in his possession.

He heads out to the colony world of his childhood dreams, Green Heaven. And there he finds a world of great beauty, women he wants to bed, his first friend, and aliens being hunted to extinction and exploited in other ways.

That the threatened aliens turn out to be sentient will come as no surprise given that the book is dedicated to H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy series which dealt with the same topic. The theme of exploitation, especially of a sexual nature, is something of specialty with Barton, so we get the dollies - little "cowgirl" aliens who look like small, velvet covered women, their pheromones and anatomy making them irresistible sexual toys for men. And it is this race, enmeshed in a terrible relationship with another sentient race on Green Heaven, and Gaetan's feelings about it, which are the moral pivots of this novel. Gaetan's alien friend, a rogue member of a race capable of a telepathic-like rapport with other life - including the ones they literally suck the life juices out of, turns out to have secret.

As above, so below. Gaetan's struggle to find the ethics of what to do for the sentients exploited by man turn out to be mirrored, in the novel's last quarter, by others considering man's fate.
Barton has been described as an author of nihilistic space opera. There is certainly, with vast interstellar wars, credible physics jargon, and superweapons aplenty, space opera here. And there is nihilism of a sort in that nothing is forever, all effort and accomplishment is doomed, all sentient life is ensnared by history and biology in a tragedy. But there is no ethical nihilism in that the novel calls for moral choices, acts of conscience.

Barton leaves a lot of external plot elements unresolved at story's end, but the novel isn't about outcomes. It's about whether one flawed man, Gaetan, is going to make a choice and what that choice will be.

I was impressed with When Heaven Fell, although the brutality in it, while not gratuitous, isn't easy to read. I appreciate the story line and characterization in Acts of Conscience, but there is even more brutality and cruelty than the other Barton book I've read. Again, it's not gratuitous, but I find it a bit painful to get through. Since it's not a film, it's less painful that watching Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer or Reservoir Dogs, but you get the idea.

What kept me reading was Barton's plot and his genuinely likeable, if flawed, protagonist. Acts of Conscience describes the book beautifully. This isn't space opera, and although the protagonist is somewhat of a prisoner of his hormones, it isn't one of those teenage boy fantasy-type scifi novels, with lots of pointless sex that's incidental to the plot. Barton's book will actually make you think seriously about what it means to do the right thing. How often can one say this of a science fiction novel? If you can get through the ugly scenes, I recommend it. However, I wouldn't require it of any of my students.

ACTS OF CONSCIENCE by William Barton is another great novel by this writer, and I have read several of his, and he pulls no punches in his themes and styles. He is definitely my favorite science fiction author, easily surpassing 'greats' such as A.C. Clarke and his outdated space operas. Barton's novels dwell on the human condition and sexuality is not shortchanged or covered up or glossed over, as with most other authors. My favorite saying is: THE UNIVERSE DOES'NT CARE WHAT YOU THINK" seems to me to be a strong undercurrent in Barton's novels {and in ones he co-authors}. Don't read this book if ideas contrary to what you may have grown up with may offend you!

Barton ranks as my favorite all time sci-fi (and sci-fantasy) author

The character development really intrigued me; a self-absorbed man, entirely captive to his own internal dialogue revolts against his baseness when forced to face the end-game of his dissipated life. Given all he'd ever imagined materially, he's stripped of the pursuits that had enabled him to run from his nature. Not an easy read, but rewarding

William Barton is quickly positioning himself as one of the most thoughtful and insightful science-fiction writers. Too bad so many have failed to notice. His newest work, which like his previous works and works in collaboration with Michael Cappobianco, plums all of science-fiction as a literary canvass. The protagonist recalls the work of "doc" Smith, the aliens are created as references to some of the best SF of the 1970s and '80s. Barton's skill lies in using references to the SF canon to add a polyphonic understanding of the narrative. He is quickly becoming a "must" read for any student of science-fiction in the late 1990s, being far more "freaky" than most so-called cyberauthors, and maintaining a clearly indepth knowledge of science that they seem to lack. Fantastic stuff, but NOT brain candy.

This is what science fiction is all about. The world is not a very nice place. People are morons. Is this going to change even in the far future? According to William Barton, definately not.

This book shows in typical Barton fashion, the horrific acts that mankind is capable of performing - and performing with trivial abandon. It reminds us that despite all the "technology" we have, we are still responsible for our own actions - the actions that we take deliberately, or the action that we take through in-action, as is the case for our _hero_ in "Acts of Conscience" for much of the book. He frustratingly plays the role of real person with real human needs and drives caught in circumstances beyond what most people are capable of dealing with. In circumstance where your cliche'd, happy fantasy tail would call for a hero, our character shows up and refeshingly behaves like a real person - sometimes even a jerk.

This is a book that grabs you, and throws images into your face from the true heart of humanity. You may not like what you see, but you must applaud Barton for showing it to you.