Fool's War [Hardcover]

Sarah Zettel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1997

Katmer Al Shei owns the starship Pasadena. Starships are expensive, so she has a business partner with whom she shares the ship, alternating voyages. All being well, they'll finally make enough money for her husband Asil and children to join her. All's not going quite so well though, because her partner is all too willing to skirt the edge of the law to make a little more money. Still Katmer tries hard to slowly upgrade the rating of her craft to attract a higher quality crew and higher-profit cargos. Mow she's been assigned a ship's Fool, Evelyn Dobbs. A professional Fool is a multi-talented entertainer and functions as an essential pressure valve on long haul flights. She's also got herself a new pilot, highly skilled but perhaps not quite respectable. The pilot is Jemina Yerusha, a Freer, and the Freers believe that sufficiently AIs are self-conscious, thus they seek to nurture and protect them. This is a dangerous belief in a world were rogue AIs have run wild and caused immense damage. The Pasadena sets off Port Oberon, a space station near Uranus, for its next journey. The crew are optimistic, each may have their own secrets but they think these won't interfere with this voyage. What they don't know is that their secrets are going to be uncovered, and that their exposure will not only threaten their own lives, but will rock worlds. This is an exciting, stimulating and imaginative book. Zettel handles her intriguing cast of characters, both human and AI, with style and confidence. She has a knack for including an appropriate level of detail and conversations and procedures she describes are convincing. The more she makes one believe in her future universe, the more exciting the novel becomes, and it is exciting indeed.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 455 pages
• Publisher: Aspect; Book Club Edition edition (1997)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001GFCTY8
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,563,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual twists and turns, August 26, 2003

By 

Michael L. Dennis "mitchdennis" (West Des Moines, IA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fool's War (Mass Market Paperback)

Fool's War is one of the more unusual science fiction books I've read recently. I recommend reading various reviews on Amazon rather than rely on the blurb on the book's back cover since it misleads the reader -- specifically, the book is more about intrigue, shifting alliances, socio-economic warfare, and prejudice rather than merely a hard-core examination of artificial intelligences and viruses.

In fact, Zettel seems driven to put a human face on bigotry and prejudice and is using science fiction imagery to make her case. She describes many types of bigotry:

Religious -- Several of the main characters are Muslim and their faith is an integral part of who they are. Not everyone they meet, however, can separate the individual from terrorist acts that occurred in the past.

Spiritual / philosophical -- A community has arisen that denies that humankind will ever be truly free when trapped on a single planet. Humankind must create its own environments and be master of its own fate rather than rely on the capricious nature of Nature. These individuals are ridiculed and, in essence, reviled for their beliefs and are considered second class citizens. Zettel even makes one of her enlightened characters intolerant of members of this cultural "diversity".

Life-form -- Human vs. artificial intelligence. What does it mean to be human, or alive? Are humans so inherently xenophobic that they cannot accept the possibility of other types of life? Are artificial intelligences so jaundiced that they must instill fear rather than convince?

All in all, this is a very strong book. Strong characterization, strong plot, enough twists and turns to make things interesting.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine & twisty feminista space-opera., January 21, 2004

By 

Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fool's War (Mass Market Paperback)

_____________________________________________
This one sat on my 'to-read' shelf for a long time, after I bounced off her first, Reclamation, which has an excruciatingly slow start. Fool's War was a New York Times Notable Book of 1997 (and Reclamation won a Locus Award for Best First Novel...)

The setup is uncomfortably topical -- the story-now is 500 years after violent religious wars, started by Islamic extremists, almost wrecked Earth. The subsequent diaspora to the colony worlds simply spread out the same old hatreds. Now the ugly chickens are flapping home to roost....

I can't say very much about Fool's War's plot without spoiling things for you, but Zettel spins an impressively twisty tale. She constantly plays with the reader's expectations, and she (mostly) plays fair -- though her storytelling craft still has some rough spots in this sophomore effort. A cover blurb compares her to Heinlein and Asimov, but there's more than a touch of Van Vogt's signature rapidfire scene-changes here.

Fool's War is somethng of a grrrl powr-fantasy -- and I do like a well-done power-fantasy, especially one with a light touch. Here's Pilot Yerusha, in a moment of reflection within the storm of denouement: "I'm saving the human race so I can go on a date..." If you like to see femmes kicking butt that *needs* kicking, you'll like Fool's War.

Zettel's authorial hand does get a bit heavy with her villains, and in pointing characters where they need to go for the next plot-twist. But overall it's good, clean fun, and I'll have to do some Zettel catchup reading soon.

review copyright 2001 by Peter D. Tillman

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and absorbing science-fiction read, October 8, 2001

By 

Tess (MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fool's War (Mass Market Paperback)

I thought Sarah Zettel did a fantastic job with this book. The characters were interesting and compelling, and one really felt for them. (One reason why some of the unhappier portions of the ending nearly made me cry.) The characters were unconventional but realistic, something that is all too rare nowadays. They were all sympathetic and their actions made sense.

Where I think she had some difficulty is with the more "panoramic" parts of the book. The biggest problem I had was with the end, which was very exciting and action-packed, but sort of... out-of-place. It felt rushed, as though she wasn't as interested in it as in the things that had gone on earlier. In consequence, some of the characterization towards the end really suffered... The gloating supervillain, weird motivations, murder and mayhem that wasn't very well thought out.

The hidden purpose of the Fool's Guild was very interesting, but I just didn't buy that for SO LONG they had taken this "wait, watch, don't do anything" view of working towards their purpose. It's hard to say more without destroying some of the surprises, which were some of the most fun parts of the book-- you never knew where she was going, yet she gave you enough clues that after the secret was revealed, you could go back and say, "Oh, I get it." (The one exception was Dobbs. Did anyone else guess her hidden secret fairly quickly?)

All-in-all, a very interesting book, with some thought-provoking ideas and a complex and fascinating future universe.