Customer Reviews

Hellspark

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is one of the pleasurable paradoxes of HELLSPARK that the protagonist Tocohl Sosumo's ability to get inside every human (and alien) culture also makes her the ultimate outsider. Hellsparks, the race of traders, diplomats, judges and free-wheeling adventurers from which the title is taken, want to communicate with everybody, no matter what it costs. They usually succeed, and always pay the price. Most teens I know empathize with the desirability of being part of an "in" group and the pains of having to stand outside. The teens with whom I've shared this book are no exception. HELLSPARK resonates with their experience. The characters, especially Tocohl, play with every gradation of belonging. Janet Kagan deftly mixes a fast-paced mystery, exotic, unique and alien cultures, and the fundamentally human question of where and how people fit together. It's well-nigh irresistable. But perhaps best of all is Kagan's authorial voice. Pure and simple, she's fun to read. Even her Star Trek novel (UHURA'S SONG) a type of book (media tie-in) for which I often have little patience, was a treat! Don't miss this one. (This review was excerpted and expanded from my review in The WASHrag, a review journal for Western Washington young adult services' librarians).

Hellspark is quite possibly my single favorite book - and I read an awful lot of books. All of Janet Kagan's books are wonderful, and my only gripe with her as an author is that she's only written three so far (Please Ma'am can I have some more?) Hellspark is a fascinating first contact book, with a crystal clear look at how our culture informs our assumptions, and the huge messes those assumptions can cause. Tocohl Susumo (our Hellspark protagonist) is wonderful as the only good cultural interpreter in a mass of surveyors from vastly different worlds, Maggy, her computer is a delightful mix of rapid thinking and small-child personality, and her aliens (the Sprookje) are truly alien without being unbelievable or trite. If you've already read this one, go on and try Mirabile and Uhura's Song, which are also wonderful reads.

HELLSPARK is a wonderful detective tale that stays true to the detective tradition without letting the Science Fiction setting intrude. A death has occurred on the planet Lasti, or was it murder? Enter Tocohl a Ship's Captain, trader, and native Hell-spark/Hells-park, who has to determine if the death was a murder, and, if so, was it done by the natives, the Sprookjes, who seem to be intelligent & sapient, but have no language.

Tocohl has to walk a thin line, because if the Sprookjes are intelligent, then the people who want the planet for development will lose it. Tocohl is asked to be a by-world judge, and determine if it was murder, and it the Sprookjes are intelligent.

Kagan's HELLSPARK is also a comedy of manners, in which the cultural mores and taboos of several various and diverging cultures are thrown into conflict and confusion. I found Kagan's setting to be wonderful and thrilling, and well worth the reading. I am truly indebted to author Steve Miller for suggesting the book to me, and introducing me to such a captivating author. I had previously only read one book by Kagan, but have determined to find more of her works.

This book is wonderful for the simple fact that it actually makes one think. Kinesthetics is something that most of us react to without thought. Well, Janet Kagan is going to make us THINK about it. I lent this book to a psychologist friend of mine and almost didn't get it back because the communication aspect was so fascinating to her. Not content with that, Ms. Kagan also wrote an incredibly well written and interesting story with likeable characters. Please write more...please!

"Hellspark," by Janet Kagan, is a flat out readable book. It gets everything right, from the science to the psychology to the anthropology -- everything works.

The plot is somewhat difficult to describe. Tocohl Susumo is a ship captain, trader, and bon vivant; her sentient computer Margaret, Lord Lynn is her sole companion.

At the Festival of Saint Veschke on the world of Sheveschkem, Tocohl finds danger, mystery, intrigue . . . and maybe even a hint of scandal. She goes to Lassti to find out whether or not a new race of beings, the sprookjes, are sentient -- or aren't.

There's a whole lot more to it; it's a comedy of manners, a comedy of language, and a hint of romance among Tocohl and Om Im Chadeayne helps to spice the mix. (The romance between Alfvaen and swift-Kalat does even more along these lines.)

I wish I knew how to describe this book better. All I can say is that I enjoy it for the language, the sense of humor, the mystery, the intrigue, the conflict, and everything else besides.

Five stars plus, recommended.

Oh yeah, and if you like this, you'll probably like the other couple of books Ms. Kagan has written -- "Mirabile" and "Uhura's Song" -- as well as works by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee, Lois Bujold, and possibly David Weber.

Barb Caffrey

I very much enjoy this book. It has a flow that pulls you all the way through the story. The author involves several concepts (ecological stewardism?, unwitting miscommunication, religious fanaticism) that flavor without overwhelming the tale as happens in many other books

HELLSPARK is a wonderful prism of shifting words and situations. As in many novels (such as the _Starbridge_ series) the plot is familiar: representatives of a myriad of cultures are brought as a survey team to document a newly discovered planet. A poorly matched team finds itself in the position of having to judge the sapience of another race. The premise of HELLSPARK is the mysterious death of an exploration team physicist during the survey of a new planet, and the need to determine what (or who?) caused his death.

Honestly, the plot is not the important part of the book. Where Ms. Kagan excells is bringing her audience into the world and into the perspective of the main character. We, as readers, are brought up short by our own cultural preconceptions and wrapped into the shifting sands of political politeness conflicting with truth both said and unsaid.

This book came to me by way of the authors Lee and Miller, and I must credit them with a good sense of what I would enjoy. I found the heart of HELLSPARK to be a complex portrait of cultural communication and the limits of going "by the book," which are strong enough topics to support multiple readings. When HELLSPARK arrived, I was too busy to read it and buried it under my mail. A thousand pardons are winging their way back to Ms. Kagan as I type. I *so* regret waiting to read it that I plan to promptly share it out.

I also own an SFBC copy of this book, and I'd given up recommending it to anyone because it was out of print. Now I can go back to exclaiming what an excellent book this is! Where most science fiction focuses on whiz-bang technology, and how it changes a society, the majority of aliens still conveniently speak English. Ms. Kagan's vision of the social and linguistic challenges an interstellar society faces seemed more vivid to me than the classic worlds of Azimov and Heinlein. I'll add my voice to those begging for another novel set in this universe. There's too much potential that's merely hinted at in this book.

I first read this book in the SFBC edition (in fact I got it because I forgot to send in my 'Don't Send' notice, thank god).

The characters were very real, and the premise that humanity would have start colonization, fall out of contact, and create unique cultures that would have problems dealing with each other was great. The question of what qualifies as a sentient/human is profound and well presented in this work.

And it's a gripping story. You have a scientific investigation to determine sentience, with murder mystery, and a fanatic group of exploitive colonists seeking to take the treasures of Flashfever for themselves at any cost.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to other works of the author (especially if they deal with Tocohl Susumo and Lord Lynn Margaret). If you liked Hellspark, then I definitely recommend you find a copy of Mirabile, a collection of stories about the human colonists on the planet Mirabile. These stories first appeared in print in magazines, I believe Analog. They are great.

I've been waiting to read this one for years... was never able to find it until the new printing! And it lives up to the other Kagan books I hold dear to my heart, Uhura's Song and Mirabile! I'm thrilled with the reprinting! This book is a stunning version of the future; the characters so real, so accessible, despite being alien; the turns and twists entertaining as well as puzzling; the anthropology/sociology masterful. Thanks for the treat... it'll be another one I read over and over again, and loan out to friends! I wonder, should I buy two copies now, before they get scarce and my own falls to pieces, as my copy of Mirabile has??