Customer Reviews

Non-Stop

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Written as response to Robert A. Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky, a novel he felt lacking in emotion, Aldiss' novel is a classic generation starship tale.

The idea that their universe is the inside of a giant spaceship is known but derided in the Greene tribe. They're a barbarous lot. They destroy books whenever they find them. The Teaching, a Freudian inspired religion with its talk of id and ego, values full and immediate expression of fear and anger lest the repression of those emotions curdle into neurosis. A nomadic lot, they seal off the hallway they live in, moving the barricades when they exhaust the "ponics", plants that abound in the ship's corridors. Their power stems from a cache of weapons found two generations ago.

And protagonist Roy Complain is not happy with his life in the tribe. He gets flogged for losing his woman on a hunting expedition into the "deadways" beyond the tribes "Quarters". Chaffing under the Teaching and floggings of his tribe, Complain decides to accompany priest Marapper and three others through the deadways and to the land of the advanced people of Forwards. Marapper expects, somewhere, to find the ship's control room, seize control of the vessel, and end this painful journey through the stars.

In his wanderings, Complain learns the truth behind the other groups -- the mutants, the Outsiders, and the Giants -- rumored to inhabit the ship. Aldiss puts an ironic twist to the generation starship tale, particularly ORPHANS OF THE SKY, when he reveals the exact situation of the ship. By novel's end, Aldiss gives a detailed and ingenious explanation for Complain's world.

It's not necessary to read the Heinlein story, or any other generation starship tale, to appreciate this fine novel. Aldiss gives us believable emotion and, in Complain, a fine portrait of a man growing into a true knowledge of himself and his world.

There is a review on Amazon that says that Aldiss's "Non-Stop" is a SEQUEL to his "Starship". Au Contraire! They are the same book, different editions. Starship was written and copywrited in 1958. Non-Stop was copywrited in 2000, most recently published in 2005.

On the back cover of Non-Stop, it says that "This...[is] Starship...updated for the twenty-first century."

Here is what Brian Aldiss says about the two books:

"For this new edition of an old favorite, I have made some alterations here and there. These occur on 48 pages [193 remain the same]. The adventure remains the same; the characters remain the same; the theme of an idea gobbling up real life remains the same. Only a few words have been changed. But of course a few words make all the difference."

-B.W.A.

So, don't do like I did and get both expecting Non-Stop to be a sequel. My first clue was that the two Table of Contents were exactly the same. Just thought you'd like to know.

For me, Brian Aldiss was one of a number of writers in the late fifties and early sixties who began remaking SF in response to what they correctly regarded as the low literary quality dominating the American SF magazines. Editor John W. Campbell, whose tastes dominated the aesthetics of the genre for decades, felt that strong literary qualities -- strong characterization, strong literary technique, and sophisticated dialogue -- detracted from the ideas that were supposed to be what SF was about, and only what it was about. Writers like John Brunner, Brian Aldiss, Keith Roberts, J. G. Ballard, and Michael Moorcock in Great Britain, Stanislaw Lem in Poland, and Philip K. Dick in the United States helped lift SF to something higher than it had been under the pioneering novels of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. As others have noted, Aldiss wrote this in response to Heinlein's ORPHANS IN THE SKY, but in its ambitions it was a rejection of the entire American school under Campbell's direction.

Not a great deal happens in this novel. The plot is rather simple, but it is a simple tale told well. The story focuses on Complain, who lives in a tribal structure on what we gradually learn is a spaceship. He and others break away from the tribal group to see what else there is outside the decks upon which they live. I won't ruin any of the story for those who have not yet to read it, but it is sufficient that what they discover is not what they anticipated. There are a host of wonderful twists and turns, marred only by an unconvincingly, unnecessary, and probably obligatory love story.

There are a couple of editions of this book, not just with different titles (STARSHIP versus NON-STOP). I've been able to look at both editions and there is actually very little difference between the two. Virtually all the differences between the two are alterations in proper names of minor characters, especially those in the captain's log that is read at one point in the book. I don't think that anyone wanting to read this should worry in the least about which edition they are reading. There are simply no substantive differences between the various versions.

Mystery/suspense are seated comfortably alongside sci-fi in this story of a community of people searching for their lost past. Answers are hidden securely along the way, and are ultimately fascinating. The world Aldiss creates is strange and frightening, and the characters are memorable as each struggles for stability among chaos.

This book is among the top 2 SciFi's I've read. Only Asimov's Foundation series kept me even more locked to the couch. But Non-Stop is different from "Foundation".. Extremely good and a very surprizing and spine-chilling end!

This is a great, undeservedly obscure science fiction novel. A gripping, and frequently moving adventure story. The various mysteries and plot threads are brought together in a breathtaking climax that adds new levels of meaning to everything that comes before.

It was with great joy that I found and read "Non-Stop", which is an author-revised version of the classic work called "Starship" from 1958. I read the original when I was perhaps 12 or 13, and now I am 49. It was, therefore, a real treat to relive this amazing tale, with a slightly different twist, but with a more mature ability to grasp the brilliance of this work.

First, be forwarned that there are, sadly, a few typos and spelling errors in this edition and even some sentences that are incomplete. (If only I had been his copy-editor! It is so sad that such a gifted writer's publishing house could not do a more professional job on the production side!) On one page the author writes about cutting through the masses of hydroponic plants (ponics) on the lower decks of the ship, but the text reads "ponies" rather than "ponics".

Another thing you must accept with this new edition is that Aldiss didn't change very much, and thus the writing style is still very 50's sci-fi. But that was such a Golden Age for the genre! So, I give him a little slack for that. I'm glad he kept closely to the original theme, style, and character development, since the characters were all very colorful and vivid in the original.

I had always felt that the original title "Starship" gave away the story too soon--that is, being on or about a vessel. When reading the original book, I found it a tad frustrating, as I had assumed that I had picked up a sci-book about a 'starship,' yet the first part of the story seemed to be preoccupied with agriculture and living in tight spaces with ruffians! So, the new title "Non-Stop" very cleverly gets around this issue. The new edition lets the reader piece the puzzle together page by page (and deck by deck) along with the main character, Roy Complain, as he develops an awareness of his "world". You are part of the journy of self-discovery along with Complain, and it resonants so well with this newer title. This is the brilliance of this story: that man does not fully understand his universe, and life is to be spent in the game of figuring this all out.

Really, a fantastic story, and I am hoping this will be made into a movie some day.

Once again, a classic in the genre is out of print. If you can hunt this book down, it is worth the read. I haven't read any other generation ship stories before this one, but I found this one to not only be enjoyable but also emotionally compelling. Brian Aldiss is really trying to tell us about the built-in urge to be free and to discover who you really are. the plot is simple: The characters are on a huge ship hurtling through space but have no idea of that fact and simply know the ship as their world. The story unfolds as we discover the truth behind where and what the characters are. If you are interested at in in classic science fiction, then this is worth hunting down.

A generation ship! Science run amok! A brilliant work from the late 50s which must be read! Brian Aldiss' Non-Stop (published in the U.S. as Starship) is a relentlessly dark science fiction novel written in response to Robert Heinlein's revolutionary yet ultimately unsatisfying Orphans of the Sky. Although I'll read anything with a generation ship, I was completely blown away by Aldiss' first novel. Seldom have I come across anything written in the 50s so dark -- a ship filled with strangely disfigured men, oppressive hallways choked by layers of hydroponic plants, slowly moving primitive tribes who kill their mutated children, regimented rats with their caged partially telepathic animals, disturbing religions spawned from the tenants of various psychologists (Freud and the like), giants scurrying undetected along various hallways and passages stealing children... A nightmare.

A Brief Plot Summary (Limited spoilers)

Owing to the unfolding revelatory nature of this work's plot, I'll divulge only what is necessary to tempt prospective readers. Roy Complain is a member of the Greene tribe that hacks out a semi-nomadic existence in the overgrown hallways of the ship. The tribe knows little of its world. It protects its borders from renegade groups, moves slowly down the hallways, propagating, dying, killing each other in senseless combat, following an unusual religion, exploring the next rooms, burning what could potentially damage the existing power structures... Some members secretly collect shreds of paper, books, odd objects... Roy Complain, after his mate is lost (or killed) out hunting, agrees to head out on a suicidal mission to find the Forward section. This mission, headed by the power hungry priest Marapper, seeks to take over the ship. Complain, doesn't fully believe Marapper (who has found a schematic that proves the ship is a ship), slowly realizes the extent (and contents) of his disturbed world.

Final Thoughts

I really can't tell more of the plot without completely ruining the experience. Non-Stop is a breakneck ride filled with some truly disturbing and chaotic imagery. The ending (besides the last line or two) is well crafted and powerful. There's a strong female character -- sadly introduced around half-way through the novel -- and Roy Complain is pretty convincing as a singleminded primitive who slowly becomes a central figure. Some might find the concept of semi-intelligent rats hokey -- I agree. They only appear briefly in the novel. They are one of the very few minor reasons this is not a perfect 5/5! However, the rats and their caged animals do not detract overly from the Aldiss' fascinating premise and masterful delivery. The plot is fantastic -- however, if you've read other novels about generation ships, it might be somewhat predictable. Remember, this was written in the 50s and had only Heinlein's simplistic Orphans of the Sky to compare to (there might be another novel about a generation ship written between the two works but I haven't come across it yet).

Aldiss' world is visceral and powerful. One of the best works produced in the late 50s... Thankfully, it has been recently reprinted! Read it!

The plot of Non-Stop is ingenious: a generations ship travels on a seemingly non-stop journey through space, its mission long forgotten, carrying descendants of the original crew who now live in warring tribes, some foraging for food in the jungle that has overgrown the ship's aft corridors while guarding against those who live on the more organized "forward" decks. Legends tell them they are on a voyage through space, but lacking windows, they have no understanding of the meaning of space; they picture it as a darkness where distant lanterns burn. The concept of religion perseveres, but it is a religion based on the teachings of "Froyd": they pray for Consciousness to save them from the Subconscious and use "Expansion to your ego" as a ritualized greeting. Aldiss creates a clever and fully realized future for this lost ship: instead of saying "to hell with ...," for instance, inhabitants say "to the hull with ...."

The story follows a small band of explorers who make their way from the aft region known as Quarters to the Forwards, where they hope to learn the truth about their environment. Apart from some "why would they do that?" moments, the novel works not only as a well-written adventure story, but also as sort of a Lord of the Flies commentary on how easily civilization can descend into chaos and superstition.