Customer Reviews

Fool's War

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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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

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.

Definitely a fast-paced plot. A interesting mix of characters. Since the author is a woman, it stands to reason, female characters are better developed. One main character, Al Shei, had a mix of traits I didn't buy. A muslum woman that owns a spaceship and travels extensively without her husband (.i.e very independent), 8 months at a time, yet her beliefs make her wear a veil around male crew and do ridiculous things like adopting her first mate so they can be in the same room together alone because he's male and she's female. That just doesn't fit. A traditional muslum in the future owning a spaceship doesn't make sence. The plot was reasonable, but the exact nature of the threat is unclear as well as the resolution. The descriptions of the network was enjoyable and plausable.

I'm so glad to have belatedly discovered Sarah Zettel. I came across Fool's War when I was in a reading funk: I'd finished a wonderful book three weeks earlier and nothing I picked up after that piqued my interest. Then the little elves at Amazon suggested I might like to read Fool's War and I succumbed and I'm so glad I did. The plot is fascinating, the pace is energetic, the characters are believable and complex, and the visualisation of artificial intelligence is stunning. This one's good from the first page to the last. I've just bought her other books (Reclamation and Playing God) and can't wait to dive into them.

"Fool's War" was Sarah Zettel's second published novel and is one of the best and most original books that a sci-fi author of either sex has written in the last decade.

One of the principal characters in the book is a muslim woman. If you have little or no personal experience of professional muslims and think of them in terms of stereotypes, you may have some difficulty with this book. And if you also have a stereotypical idea of how women write - this point goes for males and females alike - and start projecting your own gender preconceptions onto this book, you may get funny ideas about it.

Judging Sarah Zettel as a writer and not as a woman writer, and speaking as someone with a reasonable number of male and female Muslim friends and colleagues, most of whom are devout but not fundamentalists, I found the book excellent and the Muslim characters perfectly plausible.

The book is set five hundred years in the future, at a time when humans have spread to many stars. One of the greatest dangers to spaceships, habitats and terraformed colonies is that sentient and independent intelligences can develop in their computer systems.

Starship captain Katmer Al Shei is trying to recruit new crew members for her ship the "Pasadena" and signs on Evelyn Dobbs as the ship's professional fool. The cover role for the Fool's Guild members on starships is that their jokes help starship crew stay sane in space.

Although they do perform this role, the members of the Fool's guild are much stranger and more important than they appear and have a vital secret purpose. Soon after Evelyn Dobbs signs on to the Pasadena she has to try to avert a war which could destroy worlds - and meanwhile everyone on the ship is in danger.

This novel is something else - part cyberpunk, part space opera, but mostly sui generis. I strongly recommend it, expecialy to anyone who enjoyed Sarah Zettel's other novels such as "Reclamation" and "The Quiet Invasion."

If you're into computers, especially networking, you'll like this one. Not that it is for geeks or is stuffed with technical lingo but the ideas are based on enough reality to allow it to work. Great concepts folded into a compelling story. A pretty fast read. I'll definetly read her other books. I found the characters refreshing if not totally original.

The characters are interesting, especially how they react to each other. The writing is good, it grabs the reader, and brings them deep into an inovative universe. However, many of the major plot twists were either expected, or lacked the impact they shoudl of had. This book pulled me in strongly, and then failed to live up to that potential. Don't get me wrong, it was still a enjoyable read. I think I'm mostly disappointed because the book had such potential, and never capitalized on it. I'll definitely pick up more by the author.

An intriguing book. SZ keeps getting better and better. I guess I like the "relationship stuff" the male reviewer gripes about. It's certainly better than mindless shoot-em-ups in space. The only gripe I had is that some of the stuff in here is just too unbelievable.

FOOL'S WAR is one of the best scifi books I've read in the last couple of years. No humans with far-fetched mental powers. No apocalyptic ending. Just a good, fast-paced story with some engaging (and generally believable) characters and a plot that keeps you guessing. Not all the plot twists were entirely unforeseen, but there were enough surprises to keep it interesting. Also, the technology was mostly plausible and understandable for the casual (scientifically challenged?) reader. The book is a little hard to get into at first, but this is true of many books. It can be unclear at first how seemingly unconnected people and events relate to each other. A little patience is well worth the effort with FOOL'S WAR.

I had never read anything by Zettel before, but this book kept appearing in my "recommendations" from Amazon, so I gave it a try. I'm definitely not sorry. Kudos to Amazon and I'll be reading more of Ms. Zettel's work in the future.