Customer Reviews

Hellstar

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Being a big fan of Perry's "Matador" series, I recently picked up a used copy of "Hellstar". While I enjoyed reading it, I can't really recommend it all that highly.

The book is set on a ship about halfway through a 50+-year journey from earth to Alpha Centauri. The ship is coasting at this point, and weight is provided by a rotating toroid. There are several subcultures specializing in things like working at the hub where there's no gravity, or working outside the ship, but there aren't any radical differences between groups. Most of the first generation crew members are still alive, so the ship still runs reasonably well, and the journey seems to be going pretty smoothly.

Then, of course, strange things start happening. There are weird temporary failures of basic laws of physics, escalating from subatomic particle experiments misbehaving, through failures in coriolis effects and eventually, far more serious things. The reasons for these failures are never really satisfactorily explained. There is some pseduo-physics mumbo-jumbo about macroscopic quantum effects and massless singularites, but it contains more than the usual proportion of handwavium[1].

The "science fiction" aspects of this story are, as a result, somewhat unsatisfactory. The description of the ship itself is good, but the "universe gone mad" eastern philosophy fusion bits really don't quite work. I've seen similar themes handled far better in many other works.

The real strength of the book is when it focuses on martial arts sequences or delves into Zen and the martial arts. There are major subplots involving a serial killer and political intrigue that are really the book's saving graces. Steve Perry has handled both far better in other works, however. You really can't beat his "Matador" series on that score.

I think Michael Reaves may be the weak point here. He was also a collaborator on "The Omega Cage", and that book also has some relatively weak science that detracts from the action. It could also be that this book was written fairly early in both authors' careers, and represents a time when they were still forming their respective styles.

I'd recommend this one only if you've already ready everything in the "Matador" series and are looking for something else by Steve Perry.

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[1] Handwavium: n. 1. Any fictional substance or element used to explain how speculative technology might work. Example: "Dilithium crystals are made of pure handwavium." 2. Any argument known to be in contravention of one or more scientific principles, used to explain a technological plot device in a work of fiction.

***Spoilers ahead***

I've read hundreds of sci-fi books and this is one of the very worst
I have ever had the displeasure of plowing through. Utter garbage, populated
throughout with unexplained jargon, pseudoscience, and zen mysticism
horsepuckey.

The only reason why I stuck with it after about the first half of its 326
pages was too see how bad it could possibly get. I was not disappointed.

Spaceship with 9000 aboard is headed to a nearby star, fleeing an Earth that
we have trashed (of course) in some mostly unspecified way. Everyone on board - at
least most of the major characters - are plugged into zen, Kung Fu and a
drug called zanshin (a lovely mixture of mescaline and other fine pharma). When
reality starts going haywire our heroes either end up suiciding for the good
of the disintegrating ship, or survive by finding a new level of
consciousness... which they employ to miraculously fix the problems. (No
remotely scientific explanation for this is given; their powers simply
materialize out of said zen mysticism horsepuckey).

The authors committed the cardinal sin of fiction writing: they created characters
about whom the reader couldn't care less. I literally didn't care if they lived
or died.

There are so many preposterous situations in this book, it's hard to start
listing them. Mind links resulting from the use of drugs known to be highly
destructive to the human brain. A major character on a deep-space mission
with an acute case of agoraphobia. Maybe the best (?) one of all is the
biologist who is so enamored of the (male) dolphin he is studying that he
masturbates to it (I am not making this up).

The dialog is exquisitely stilted, especially when the emergencies start heating
up. The ship is making like a Klein Bottle gone ape, people are croaking all over
the place, and I'm either laughing my ass off over the dialogue or telling
myself, "What GARBAGE!" People simply don't talk that way to each other.

Finally there is the reference to Karl Marx, literally, "From each according to
his ability, to each according to his need." Gives you an idea where the authors
are coming from.

I *never* tell others not to waste their time with any particular book. Tastes
vary widely and what's junk to one reader can be nirvana to another. I'm
just sorry *I* wasted my time on it.

TWICE. I must've bought this book new back in 1984 when it came out. I've been
on a re-reading binge for the last year or so and I'd completely forgotten it.
This time I'll %$&#-can it so I don't make the mistake of pulling the blasted thing
after ANOTHER 26 years.

Bought this book at a local bookstore for $1 from the bargain bin. My expectations were low, wasn't even sure I would ever read it. The premise of the novel actually kept me interested until the end though.

A group of colonists has set out for a very long journey aboard the starship Heaven's Star. The ship's journey has been uneventful for the last thirty years. Suddenly, the ship begins to be bedeviled by unexplained breakdowns, the worst of which is the failure of their powerful central computer. As the corruption of vital systems becomes critical the colonists have to search desperately for a way to bring the out of control ship back under control.

This book has several strengths. First, the premise is interesting. What would life be like on an intergenerational spacecraft? Second, there are numerous subplots including a high-stakes election, a radical political element, and a murder mystery. Third, the book explores the viewpoint of a large number of colonists from the ship.

This novel held my attention until the end but the conclusion didn't wrap things up. The colonists "come to accept the weirdness of space", which somehow facilitated their survival. The action of acceptance grants incredible power over their physical surroundings and they start to make needed repairs. After a strong set up the end fails to wrap up loose ends like: Why is the physical universe suddenly behaving so strangely in this region of space? If accepting the situation grants the observers power over physics, why do they need a ship at all? Who will assume command of the ship and what will its ultimate direction be?