Deepdrive [Mass Market Paperback]

Alexander Jablokov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

In the twenty-first-century, eleven extraterrestrial races have settled our solar system, sometimes interacting with human beings, sometimes ignoring them altogether in pursuit of their own enigmatic ends. They reached human space with faster-than-light drives-deepdrives-designed to self-destruct after use. Without deepdrives of their own, humans have no way to cross the vast, interstellar gulf, or to compete as equals in the galactic community.

But then a renegade alien crashed on Venus and a ragtag group of mercenaries determines to break him out and learn his secrets for themselves-maybe even the secret of the deepdrive. But in a search for the deepdrive, nothing is as it seems, no one exactly who-or what- they appear to be. There are no easy answers, only layer upon layer of secrets and lies. And as events set in motion long ago and far away begin to ripple into human space, it is no longer even clear who are the hunters, and who the hunted.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Alexander Jablokov's new novel, no less than 11 different alien races have visited our solar system, setting up home on the planets and moons most hospitable to them. Humanity would love to join these far-flung adventurers in their travels, but we lack the deepdrive that makes trekking between the stars possible. So far no human has been able to acquire a drive or find a way to create one, and none of the aliens are willing to pass along the secret. But a few years ago, an alien by the name of Ripi crash-landed in our system, and he may have brought an intact drive with him. Since his landing, Ripi has been held on Venus, half exile and half political prisoner, refusing to say anything about the drive. But now Ripi has put the word out that he'd like to be rescued from his enforced vacation, and mercenary Soph Trost is one of many people (and aliens) who want a piece of the action... and the deepdrive. This is a ripping tale by Jablokov, who has no trouble mixing good old-fashioned action with an intricate plot and colorful characters. --Craig E. Engler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In the 21st century, our solar system has been radically transformed by the presence of 11 different alien races. Some have come to colonize, others to trade and still others for reasons too inscrutable for humans to understand. The Bgarth, intelligent, wormlike beings larger than supertankers, tunnel beneath the soil of a terraformed Venus. A race known only as the Gunners has set up shop on Mercury and fires an enormous isotopic cannon at the Sun, possibly for religious reasons. A gigantic commensal being that calls itself Doc Kraken rents itself out as a tourist attraction in order to finance its thousand-year trip around the galaxy. Human beings, however, lacking a deepdrive, the only means of achieving faster-than-light travel, have remained second-class citizens, locked in their solar system and unable to compete on a galactic scale. Now, aging human mercenary Sophonisba Trost has been hired to help break a renegade alien named Ripi out of protective custody on Venus. Ripi may know the whereabouts of a deepdrive, or at least that's what Soph has been told. Of course, Soph's employers haven't given her the whole story. Jablokov (River of Dust) has a talent for creating truly strange aliens, creatures who are much more than just oddly dressed humans with bumpy foreheads. His multispecies future is complex, at times perhaps too much so, as his plot can be hard to follow. Overall, however, this is a sound example of latter-day space opera with some nicely developed characters and just a touch of noir atmospherics.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Eos (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380797151
• ISBN-13: 978-0380797158
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 6.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,928,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alexander Jablokov writes science fiction for readers who won't give up literate writing or vivid characters to get the thrills they demand. He is a natural transition for non-SF readers interested in taking a stroll with a dangerous AI or a neurosurgeon/jazz musician turned detective, while still giving hardcore SF fans speculative flash, incomprehensible aliens, and kitchen appliances with insect wing cases.

From his well-regarded first novel, Carve the Sky, an interplanetary espionage novel set in a culturally complex 25th century, through the obscenely articulate dolphins with military modifications of a Deeper Sea, the hardboiled post-cyberpunk of Nimbus, the subterranean Martian repression of River of Dust, and the perverse space opera of Deepdrive, he has come to Brain Thief, a contemporary high-tech thriller with a class clown attitude.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of neat ideas, doesn't quite cohere, August 9, 2000

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deepdrive (Mass Market Paperback)

I've been a fan of Jablokov's ever since reading his first short stories in Asimov's a few years ago. I really liked his first novel, Carve the Sky, which was "baroque" and artsy, and his third novel, Nimbus, a kind of post-cyberpunk story. And I've liked a lot of his short stories.

Deepdrive is his latest novel. It is set in a busy, well-imagined future. The solar system is occupied (mostly benignly: or at any rate humans have adapted) by several different species of aliens: the Bgarth are burrowing on Venus, assisting with its terraformation; the Gunners are on Mercury, shooting at the Sun; the Ulanyi are on Earth, living in symbiotic relationships with nomadic human tribes. And there are plenty more. But none of the aliens will give humans the secret of the "deepdrive", which allows faster than light travel. An alien from another species, the Vronnans, has showed up, apparently a refugee from his own people, and he is holed up on Venus. Rumor says he wants to be rescued, and he might have something important, even a deepdrive, to trade. Sophonisba Trust assembles a team, somewhat ad hoc, to go after the Vronnan. The novel follows her and the members of her team, as well as the Vronnan, as a series of disasters propels them willy nilly towards learning more than they might want to know about Vronnans, the lost Martian slowship interstellar expedition, their own motivations, and how Ulanyi, Gunners, and other aliens tie into this. And also, maybe, the secrets of the deepdrive.

It's all pretty cool, and well-imagined, distinctly "Bruce Sterling-esque" (particularly reminiscent of some Shaper-Mechanist stuff, like "Swarm"), and certainly exciting, and yet ... It never quite won me over. I dunno why. Maybe it was too hard to follow all the threads. Maybe I didn't quite believe in most of the characters (Soph was well done, also her ex-husband Lightfoot, but I was never convinced by the beautiful lesbian Ambryn Chretien or the big bodyguard Elward Bakst, both of whose motivations and abilities seemed to change to whatever the plot required). But, I'm sort of worried, is my "Sense of Wonder" dulling? What I mean is, I think maybe 20 years ago all the cool stuff, the aliens, the biotech, the plots within plots, would have overwhelmed me and carried me along. And it didn't do that for me now.

On balance, I'd still recommend Deepdrive. But I can't give it full marks.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, but a skewered pace, October 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Deepdrive H (Hardcover)

The first half is wonderfully hyperkinetic, and I REALLY think Jablokov did a great job in world-building. But the latter half felt hurried and, oddly enough, anti-climactic. The last 20 pages are a particularly confusing batch job which left me severely dissapointed. Probably because the beginning of this book had tons of potential.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Alas, not his best., November 24, 1999

By 

CoolerHeads (CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Deepdrive (Mass Market Paperback)

I really wanted to like this book and did enjoy his vision of elaborately symbiotic aliens, but his story is fruitlessly convoluted. Despite much redundant exposition, it ends up reading like a whodunnit in which you don't really know what the crime was. Some judicious editing could have brought this book to the usual magnificence one expects of Jablokov. Still, it's worth a read.