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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
creative engaging SF,
This review is from: Orbis (Paperback)
At the height of Rome's power, the Benefactors landed on an alternate Earth and went to War with Julius Caesar's legions. Unable to defeat the Benefactors, the Romans stole their spaceships and flew to a place where they could live. After two millennia, the Romans forget where earth is located, but both the Romans and the humans remain determined to defeat the Benefactors. The Benefactors took the teachings of Christianity and used it to spread their own message. An underground resistance in North America is giving hope to the people who want to cast off the Benefactor's rule. In Europe, the Prussian Empire is openly at war with the Benefactors and is slowly clearing the land of them. There will come a time of reckoning when the Romans and its conquered people as well as the humans must meet, defy the Benefactors, and reach some kind of accommodation with each other. Scott Mackay can always be counted on to create a work that is original in design, yet absorbing and populated with a cast of characters that unite for a common goal. The ethics of the Benefactors is also fascinating because while their plans and battles are malfeasance, their morality is not. They do what they must to survive which is the natural order of a sentient species. If they were not on Earth, would humans be so quick to condemn them. Harriet Klausner
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Didn't quite live up to its beginning,
By WiltDurkey (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Orbis (Paperback)
I loved the start of Orbis and thought that that SF couldn't get much more inventive than a society based on a very different history involving the Benefactors, a species of aliens passing themselves off as angelic beings who rule humanity. The whole embedded within an alternate history where the Romans have gone off to the stars.
As I read further, the book remained readable and enjoyable and the parts involving the Romans and the "Resistance" against the Benefactors were interesting. But the alternate history angle started taking away from the enjoyment instead of adding to it. That's because it is such pure hocus pocus. Put it this way - if the world was changed radically 2000 years ago, in such a way that the colonization of North America was entirely different in nature and geography, would you expect the 20th century to have a Guderian and a Doenitz fighting for Prussia? The world is soooo different, yet, somehow, the same historical figures keep popping up in the altered circumstances everywhere. No butterfly effect here, more like a badly reasoned version of Asimov's psychohistory where events always follow certain threads. Plus, the Romans and the Benefactors have interstellar spaceflight and hyper-advanced cloning, but they don't know how to build A-bombs??? If you accept the somewhat goofy historical premises the book is OK, not great. I've enjoyed other alternate history books and they always require some suspension of disbelief. Orbis' backstory was just too unbelievable though and the plot itself relies too much on its flawed foundation as well. Stripped of the historical angle, the plot is well... not exactly original. Seems to me like MacKay lost the initial brilliance of his idea about 1/3 of the way in and filled in the rest. Bit like 'The Meek' which also tanks near the end.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Are you in Orbit?,
By paul mason "dedarkone" (Barrie On) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Orbis (Paperback)
You may be after reading Orbis by Scott MacKay. Other authors get much praise for their genre-hopping/blending and yet one that has I think been overlooked is MacKay. He started out know as a science fiction writer, and this book was classified as sci-fi, however Orbis is as much alternative history as anything.
The Benefactors are "Angels" or "Guardians" in the author's America. Representations of the great theocratic government. But a Eucheistical(or something like that darn already forgot how to spell it. Minister anyhow) begins having doubts. A once loyal friend/follower of the Benefactors he is even more curious about the truth after being framed for owning contraband. In the Benefactor's St. Lucius Latin is prohibited due to its association with the Romans (a still thriving though exiled society in the book) and radios for the same reason. A cardinal is appointed to St.Lucius and soon recruits the minister for his quest to uncover and destroy the Benefactors before their plan dooms everyone. My apologies that was not as articulate a summation as I would have liked to provide but honestly you have to really read this novel to understand the plot. Also I encourage patience as the first half of the book seems to set the stage for the action that is to come. In fact throughout half the book I planned to give it a three star review as it was interesting in concept, but a little mediocre in execution, it took half the book for me to really realize what was going on. Not exactly a glowing recommendation, but I found the latter half as the plot thickened so to speak redeemed the story. This novel is not Excellent but it is really really good. It contains alternate history as I said, but also has an almost underlying element to myth and legend to it as well and in addition has ode to the western within its pages:P. Not to repudiate my fellow(ess) reviewers, but some make this tome out to be much more controversial than I found it. The portrayal of the Indian savages remarked upon by one is no worse than anything you would find in many a Western and tamer than some. Another person seemed to feel this book bordered on Heretical. I did not find it so, my interpretation was that MacKay wasn't denying God or even encouraging the reader to doubt. Rather his message seemed aimed against blind faith especially when that faith fell into an institution as opposed to a Deity. Enough answering other reviewers that is not what this review is about. its purpose is to merely state that I really enjoyed Orbis and in writing this review hope I point other potential readers to the books charms. Lestat
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