Customer Reviews

The Island Worlds

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

 

 

I read this book back in junior high school. Space colonists residing on the Moon, Mars and hollowed out asteroids rebel against the centralized government of earth. No deep thinking or theorizing along the lines of Heinlein or Asimov, but an enjoyable read.

I picked this book up from the library and read it over the holidays since I didn't have anything else to do. While I do enjoy some science fiction, this one was remarkably boring. The authors simply don't have the talent necessary to create real suspense. In addition, this book doesn't feature any of the scientific creativity that marks any good SF works.

The Island Worlds is set a few hundred years in the future, when some humans have established colonies in the asteroid belt. The Earth, meanwhile, is controlled by one government, and a group of bureaucrats is trying to shut down the space exploration industry, leading to a war between the "good guys" in space and the "bad guys" from Earth. The ending of the book is entirely predictable, and there aren't any major plot events that you can't see coming well in advance. Overall, this book just doesn't stand out from the thousands of other SF titles out there.

The opening scene features exploitation capitalists going to a party, including Taggart (dig at Dagney from Rand's Atlas Shrugged?). Similar mythological/literary references are sprinkled around the novel: characters are named 'Brunhild' and 'Thor,' a guru calls upon Shiva, and the Hall of the Mountain King is the main center of the asteroid-island of Avalon. Is Van Doorn supposed to parallel comic book villain Von Doom? This is lazy writing rather than an homage. Plotting is space colony rebellion against oppressive Earth, low quality and predictable, with a thick helping of politics. The resource problems of 2010 aren't mentioned, no oil peak or global warming, and the science is sensationalist (nukes and anti-matter) instead of exact.

Quote from page 17: "The Soviets are headed for the trashbin of history." --> Probably my favorite line from the book.

Expect more telling than showing, an overuse of expletives involving parentage, hell, and damnation (space cowboy style), and the Texas drawl accent on minor characters. Two and a half stars, rounded down to two.