Customer Reviews

Cradle

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Having thoroughly enjoyed Clarke's solo works, especially Rendezvous with Rama, I thought I would give Cradle a shot as that story idea looked interesting. I would soon be disappointed however as I began sinking in the quicksand that is Gentry Lee. If you are looking for a really good science fiction book, you should pass on this one and continue your search.

The first few hundred pages are filled with more-or-less pointless character development, clearly written by Lee, that would be perfectly at home in a Harlequin romance novel. A few pages of sci-fi, clearly written by Clarke, are interspersed so that the reader may be reminded that they paid $6 for a Clarke novel and not $2 for a grocery store romance tome. To be fair, I will admit that the general character interaction and background does come into play later on. But it just drags on and on and is littered with unnecessary sex scenes. I fail to understand Lee's obsession with writing about sex in the middle of a science fiction novel. Once would be OK, but after about the 4th time I found myself dropping the book and thinking "again?!" In addition, Lee's obsession with race, with each character being introduced as being black, white, Arab, Mexican, etc. is very annoying. The way that the race is then portrayed in the most cliché way is increasingly so. Lee may be an able and accomplished scientist, but his writing does not belong on the same pages with that of Arthur C. Clarke.

For some reason, probably because I had paid 900 yen for the book, I decided to stick with it and see the story through to the end. Around page 250 (of 408 total) the book got interesting. From that point forward I found myself wanting to continue to see what would happen next. But 250 pages is a lot to plod through before hitting something worth reading. In the end, the book wasn't that bad. The story could have been rather good had Clarke gone at it alone and focused the book on the sci-fi. As is stands, the bulk of this novel has very little to do with! sci-fi. So all-in-all, Cradle disappoints. The back cover says basically that something terrifying lies at the bottom of the ocean and could mean the extinction of the human race. This whole concept lasts maybe a dozen or so pages at the end of the novel and is never terrifying. The "scary" part is introduced and resolved so quickly that there is hardly time to assimilate it. And as the final words were read, I found myself wondering if the duo had just grown tired of the story as it seemed to suddenly end with several issues unresolved.

I remember receiving this book with excitement. Arthur C Clarke was up until then a consistently good read: capturing, like few others, a real sense of wonder without belabouring his points.

This book was his first "collaboration" with Gentry Lee, and from here on his books completely lost me. Lee seems to be obsessed with rubbing our noses in the lesser qualities of humanity while Clarke always made me feel there was something better about us. In this respect I consider that Lee sabotages and subverts Arthur C Clarke's original style and visions. Likewise, he emphasises religious topics where Clarke was always refreshingly free of this.

He did the same thing with Rama, taking something wonderful and piling it up with low-grade human dross. In some respects his writing is realistic, but he is too pessimistic and seems to be fundamentally at odds with the genre he is in; he wants to write basic human drama but for some reason insists on doing it within science fiction trappings.

As others have said he is unfortunately not all that great at human drama anyway. There is a lot of effort expended, but characters somehow fail to convince me.

At the end of Cradle I was left feeling flat and uninterested, and I can't really remember much of the story.

The politest way to view this "collaboration" is that the "marketing department" simply chose to use Arthur C Clarke's name to boost a less-than-average writer. Clearly, Clarke has lost interest in the mechanics of writing, or at least no longer has the time for it. As a result I consider that he stopped writing some time ago and discount Cradle and the Rama sequels entirely.

I generally love Arthur C. Clarke, but I have never felt a book I paid for was so worthless.

This book is far more about character development poorly done than the normal Clarke modus operandus of sci-fi well done.

Spend your dollars elsewhere.

I had a very hard time with this book. I was quite confused, as I had read the whole Rama series as they came out. While perusing lists for something to read, I came across Cradle.

The beginning vignette about the "zoo craft" was, IMHO, written moderately well, but as soon as Carol comes on the scene, it gets very, well, amatuerish. I even went back and reviewed the Rama books, thinking that maybe I had read them so long ago that maybe they [were bad] then, but no, alas, they were (mostly) well constructed plots, with characters with whom I could relate, and relatively few confusing sections. Rama (original) did seem quite different from the others, but that made sense, since Clarke did the original in 1979 (or so, I think), and Lee came on with Rama II.

The opening vignette in Cradle seemed as if it were written by a totally different author, then shipped across the sea to another author who finished the rest of the book.

Then, it dawned on me, Cradle was either a) Written by an amateur author (Gentry Lee), with very little involvement with Clarke, or b) written by an entirely different author than the Rama series, again with little Clarke influence.

The constant switching "mindpoints" (where in one paragraph you hear what Carol is thinking, then the very next sentence you hear what Nick is thinking) is a typical early "learning writer" syndrome. There is a lot of "telling" instead of "showing". The plot points are haphazardly structured throughout, with interesting tidbits thrown in here and there without an uberpurpose. I felt throughout the whole novel that it might not go anywhere, and sho-nuff, it really didn't.

In the Rama II and beyond series, these problems are significantly improved, and show levels of improvement over the evolution of the series. My hypothesis supported conclusion "A" above.

I thought it might just be me, and I was too critical (since I am learning about crafting novels and writing, and checking how well-written novels are crafted), so I looked on Amazon to see what others had said. A majority didn't rate this book well either, for reasons I primarily agree with.

I then looked at when the books came out, and realized that Cradle came out in 1989, Rama II in 1990, Garden in 1992, and Revealed in 1995.

So, my conclusion is that this is the work of an early, learning writer. I gave it a mercy 2 stars, not 1, because it is an early work, and (presumably) Lee has improved significantly, but I've certainly read better.

Years ago I eagerly purchased a copy of CRADLE by Arthur C. Clark and Gentry Lee. I had really enjoyed the books Clarke wrote just before CRADLE. I also enjoyed the books written later. But somehow I didn't get around to reading CRADLE until now. I must say that I was disappointed. I had been expecting Clarke's style as I had read in such books as THE HAMMER OF GOD and GHOST FROM THE GRAND BANKS. But the Clarke-Gentry mix just didn't do it for me.

The book could be easily described as RAMA doing the work of the Overlords from CHILDHOOD'S END. An unmanned probe comes to Earth to elevate the human species and restore a number of others. This plan is stumbled across by a reporter looking into the alleged disappearance of a secret Navy missile. The probe is making a journey to a dozen planet. At each planet it will assemble life forms based on specimens collected on an earlier visit. In CRADLE, a couple of humans get a chance to tell the aliens that we don't want humans to be elevated. That's pretty much it.

I had a hard time getting through this book. I normally fly through Clarke's books but this one was just bogged down in unnecessary details. This book also contained a large number of sexual scenes that I have to assume were the work of Lee as I have not encountered their like in Clarke's work. I really cannot recommend this book to anyone, so if you haven't read it and were considering it I have to give you fair warning.

This book does not do justice to Clarke

I don't recommend this book I thought it was boring. The content of science fiction was so low it can hardly be classified as science fiction. If you want to read good science fiction I recommend: 2001 (Clarke), Rendezvous with Rama (Clarke), and The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury).

If you like Clarke, do not buy this book or you will be disappointed. If you have not read Clarke before, do not buy the book or you will think that all his novels are like this. There is very little of sci-fi; most of the book delves in the past life of the characters, trying to demonstrate that all of them have some sort of childhood trauma. The Sci-fi part lacks punch, and there is nothing "scary" about the world menace. Do not waste your money; buy something else (Rendezvous with Rama and Songs of Distant Earth for example).

There is a piece Star Trek lore that states a race of beings called the Preservers went through the galaxy picking up semi-intellegent life and planting them around the galaxy to protect them from extinction/war/meteors. Spielberg's ET is essentially this same idea, and it's the idea behind this novel, Cradle. In fact, these same authors explore the same territory to better effect in their Rama series. So why read this book?

Frankly, it is inferior to the Rama series. The plot mostly focusses on a reporter trying to find a test missile she suspects was lost on a test flight. The navy, naturally, wants to prevent word of this leaking out, so are also searching for the missile. One of the absurdities of the book is that the reporter finds the missile site so easily when the navy has been looking for weeks (?) with more resources and information. There are similar absurdities throughout the book. In addition, the characters are laughably 2-dimensional, all defined by some life-altering mental or physical trauma that took place years before. Thirdly and most annoyingly, great detail is taken to explain the details of alien manufacture without telling the reader what they are assembling, so the reader must wade through 4 pages of alien automatons attaching sticks together to discover that they are building an antenna. It's really trying on the reader's patience!

And yet I couldn't help but enjoy the book. The pacing is quick, the writing is usually loose and flowing (with the exception noted above), and it's an easy read. It's not nearly as good as the Rama series, but more enjoyable than much of what's out there in science fiction.

I thought the book would have been wonderful except for the sex scenes! They didn't do anything for the book! Like Troy's stupid computer game, Gretta swimsuit, and that young man's problems with controlling his urges. How did that add to the plot?

The whole plott seemed juvenile. Like a child's book.

I don't think Clarke and Lee are compatable. They don't produce good quality books!

DON'T BUY A BOOK WITH GENTRY LEE'S NAME ON IT!!

Ugh!

It's ever so rare to come across a book of this caliber - that caliber being the poo you have to scrap off the bottom of your shoe. Remarkably terrible in many dimensions - all dimensions. No forgiving factor whatsoever. Please, read on...

It's not every book you see the phrase "mind's eye." Well, in Cradle, the phrase is annoyingly used 8 times. What kind of author allows for that kind of repetition? Well, the same author who keeps putting [...], unnecessary graphic sex which will leave you scratching your head - graphic terminology that will make your cringe even though you may not be a prude. Reading about a 43 year old man's thoughts of a 17 year old girl will make your cringe into a full fledged facial convulsion. The author writes in a monologue on page 182 from the 43 y/o man, "And that little girl. My God. She knows for sure. She must have felt it when she was on top of me... My God, what am I? I'm a dirty old man." This is true for the character and supremely lecherous author.

The chapters are tediously long and rambling - sometimes I had no idea why the author continued, and continued and never seemed to reach a point (like the entire book all together - no point!) This is a wholly pointless book with a pointless plot and pointlessly long.

The author says it best on page 293 when the author states in another monologue, "How could I have forgotten how repulsive this man is?" By the end of the book, Gentry Lee's reoccurring lecherousness will pop onto the pages at seemingly random times. You won't be allowed to forget how perverse he can be.

Ugh!