Customer Reviews

Barnard's Planet

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What crap. Technobabble worse than Star Trek about FTL travel ("retrograde Earth time," "reversing the spin of DNA," "electromagnetic bioplasma," "atomic nuclei counter-rotate (when traveling) at vast speeds," the ability to conveniently discover O2 atmosphere planets around other stars with 1975 tech, causality violations and more. Boyd isn't clear on the difference between pulsars and black holes, and his universe has a mechanism whereby gravity can slow tachyons to visible violet. He doesn't explain how.

It turns out said pulsar is heading very rapidly toward Earth, past Barnard's Star. So an exploration mission to Barnard's will divert past the pulsar for some kind of hyperspace slingshot effect. Why and how this pulsar is traveling at a high percentage of luminal velocity isn't explained. What anyone can do to stop it isn't explained.

The exploration mission has as its backup plan an attempt at a viable colony should Earth be damaged. This colony will start with 5 men and 1 woman (given a 10% chance, we're told). They think the human race may depend on it, but 10% is a good enough bet? Good point. They decide on TWO women.

Well, these professional military people and scientists infight, they make up, they stay on the planet around Barnard's (Also called Barnard's for some reason), and never get around to examining the pulsar or heading back to Earth.

In between the story is bad Aldiss, bad Niven and bad Rodenberry shaken and stirred, with screwy time travel, intelligent plants and love affairs in idyllic paradises of carnivorous trees.

Zero stars. Minus stars, if that's possible.