Customer Reviews

Noninterference

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

 

 

Turtledove's take on the "Prime Directive" philosophy is well worth reading. Good characters and an interesting story keep this book moving along.

Harry Turtledove is mostly known nowadays for massive Alternative History works, but he has also written some spellbinding science fiction. I'm surprised this doesn't have a lot more five star reveiws: IMHO this is one of his most entertaining SF books.

Set in a future universe in which a human survey service charts the galaxy and the most important principle on which they operate, exactly akin to the "Prime Directive" from Star Trek, is that of non-interference - pre spaceflight civilisations must be left to develop in their own ways. And where Jim Kirk seems to find an excuse to break the Prime Directive every episode, in this book the principle of Noninterference is strictly enforced, at least until David Ware boards a survey ship.

Because the universe is so vast, even a civilisation with faster then light travel only gets around to visiting the more remote planets every few hundred years.

David Ware, an idealist on a survey ship exploring a remote and very backward planet on the fringe of the explored area of space, tries to persuade his shipmates to make a very minor exception to the principle of noninterference. The case becomes a cause celebre back home, but even so it is hundreds of years before a human ship returns to that planet. When they do, they discover that an apparently insignificant action has had consequences vastly beyond what anyone could possibly have imagined ....

Is it possible to love half a book? I realize Turtledove is famous for his alternate history books. Alternate history appeals strongly to me, but I've never been tempted enough to get one of them. I have been tempted enough to buy Noninterference. In fact, I've bought it twice. The second time was after I misplaced the first copy after a move. I know it's around here someplace, but I searched too long wanting to read it again, so I just bought a second copy.

As I alluded earlier, I love half the book. Namely, the half taking place on the planet with low technology. Turtledove's main protagonist is Queen Sabium who has lived to be fifteen hundred years old, although she doesn't look a day over twenty-five. Living so long isn't normal for her race, so she's watched generations of her people grow old and die. I've asked myself how I would write a person with that much accumulated wisdom, and I think it's beyond my abilities. Turtledove pulls it off. Queen Sabium confronts the "leader" of the third expedition to Bilbeis IV, who has the benefit of vastly superior technology. So, who would win in a fight between wisdom and technology? Turtledove handles it masterfully. I can really believe that Queen Sabium is fifteen hundred.

I didn't like the scenes on the high technology planets. It deals mostly with bureaucracy, infighting, and betrayal, and I was left feeling tired. I don't like books that make me feel tired. I want to feel exhilarated. Like I felt reading the other part.

~Loyal

When I read this I kind of got a Foundation meets Star Trek TNG feel, although let it be known that this book was written a couple of years before the beginning of TNG. There's lots of politics, except you never really get to see the effects of interferance on Bilbeis 4. That's why the end is the most interesting. I don't know if Turtledove was trying, ut he has made the best case against noninterference that I have ever seen. Bilbeis 4 was advancing very quickly because of their progressive queen and was probably soon to join man among the stars. I mean how would you like it if you finally got to the stars and all the good planets were already taken? The best thing to do would be to help primitive planets.

The first thing you'll think of reading this minor novel is "Prime Directive," even though it has nothing to do with Star Trek. The Survey Service keeps an eye on pre-technological civilizations, with a strict hands-off policy, but a member of one team takes pity on the personable ruler of a Sumer-like culture and gives her something to cure her cancer. Unfortunately, when the next survey team comes back 1,500 years later, they find the queen is still alive and her kingdom is far ahead of where it reasonably ought to be. The Survey Service has political enemies who would like to see it shut down, and this is all the ammo they would need. And at that point, this turns into a lightweight version of a John Grisham chase story, with a bloodyminded bureaucrat committing mass murder to protect her budget. Speaking as a professional semi-bureaucrat myself, the author is way over the top on this one. I didn't find it believable at all, not even on its own terms.

I enjoyed the concept of this book but the pace was too jumpy, the characters too flat, and the overall story was ultimately rather dull.