Customer Reviews

A Rage for Revenge (War Against the Chtorr, Book 3)

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

Good things come to those who wait.

In response to jdthorn007's diatribe, which he seems to have posted as a "review" with each of David Gerrold's "Chtorr" novels, I present the author's own words. I hope David doesn't mind my reproducing them here; the original link to his posting of September 2002 is at

Here's David:

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In the past ten years, I have

1) adopted a little boy

2) survived a rather harrowing earthquake (we were litterally at the epicenter)
3) had a house fire
4) had a near-fatal case of bilateral pneumonia
5) dealt with the worse-than-usual problems of adolescence in my teenage son
6) dealt with the emotional traumas connected to all of these events.
7) a somewhat milder recurrence of pneumonia this year.
8) and several minor legal matters which necessitated my killing a couple of lawyers....

Several years ago, Bantam Books shut down their science fiction line, which meant that all of my backlist books, including all four of the Chtorr books and The Man Who Folded Himself and When Harlie Was One, went out of print. This also meant that two other completed novels have not yet seen publication.

I am now publishing with Tor Books who have a sizable commitment to science fiction. Before they were willing to invest in the Chtorr series, they wanted something original for their own line of books, hence JUMPING OFF THE PLANET, BOUNCING OFF THE MOON, LEAPING TO THE STARS. (And the story of my son's adoption, THE MARTIAN CHILD.) (I will immodestly mention that THE MARTIAN CHILD and JUMPING OFF THE PLANET are both award winners, and BOUNCING OFF THE MOON is a multiple award nominee. Now that those books are finding an audience, Tor Books has committed themselves to publishing The War Against The Chtorr -- they will reprint the first four books when book five is finished.

The War Against The Chtorr is my life's work, magnum opus, call it what you will. It is the series that I have invested the most energy in. It is the one that I want to do right, more than any other project I have ever worked on. And in that regard, there is no one more impatient and more frustrated than I am.

I have nearly a million words of notes on where the series must go. Plus I have dictated over a dozen hours of additional notes that need to be reviewed. I want to show as much of the Chtorran ecology as I can. The first four books have only been the setup for several MAJOR surprises planned for the fifth book. Much of what we thought was so we now discover that we had it wrong. There are realizations and discoveries that must be carefully and patiently worked out so that they are not inconsistent with what has already been established and at the same time, opens up the series for what is to come next.

At this point in time, there are over 180,000 words finished of the narrative and another 30,000 words of interstitials, the stuff that goes between the chapters. And the book isn't even half done. It will be at least 300,000 words, maybe longer.

During the month of August, I wrote 30,000 new words and I have blocked out 30,000 more. Because of several interesting suggestions made over the past year, I have realized that there are additional places I need to go to make this novel work. Where I had planned only to do one chapter on the infestation of New York city, I now need to expand that to 20 chapters. That takes enormous time and energy.

I remain enormously enthusiastic and committed to the series. And I am equally grateful to the readers who have waited so patiently for so long. I remember my frustration waiting for Jack Vance to finish the Star King series and Roger Zelazny to finish the Amber series. And I do apologize for the length of time this has taken. Certainly I had no idea that there would be so many obstacles thrown in my path. I honestly wish I could write as fast as fans can read, but I move my lips when I write, so we all have to be patient.

Thanks for the opportunity to answer some of these questions.

David Gerrold

As is common in SF novel series (Dune is the classic example), each successive novel becomes progressively slower and more turgid. The War Against the Chtorr series is no exception.

A Matter for Men sets up the series very well. The hero is flawed, but that's OK from a literary standpoint. The milieu Gerrold created is quite rich, and the mystery of the worms (are they intelligent? how did they get here?) is compelling. However, by the time we get to book 3 here, half the novel is wasted sitting in a room getting some whacked-out est training with the hero. Indeed, the supposed "mode" training is just recycled est psychobabble; just look up est on line (you can even use Amazon's A9 engine) and you'll see what I mean, right down to the chair arranging (lovingly detailed in the novel) and the weird assistants. The mode training is simply sophistry and power-playing forced down our throats as some kind of philophical breakthrough. Not only did I not buy it, it bored me to tears.

And let's not overlook the clumsy and inexplicable relationship between Jim and Lizard. There is no basis whatsover for the attraction or relationship, as far as I can tell, and it's written like a high school student imagining what two people in love actually say to each other.

In between fumbling around with his girlfriend and getting brainwashed, Jim hangs out with some renegades (more brainwashing and psychobabble). After an interminable amount of time, the book peters out, thankfully. This novel not only fails to provide any answers to any of the "big mysteries" set out earlier in the series, it just piles on more of them. And by Book 3, we ought to be getting somewhere.

In my opinion, this is the worst of the four novels; A Season for Slaughter actually picks up the pace somewhat and provides some kind of advancement to the story, even if it's still peppered with huge doses of modie "philosophy."

Avoid. Although if you've already read books 1 and 2, you'll end up reading this one out of curiosity no matter what the reviews say.

The War against the Chtorr series of books was first published in the mid eighties. At a later point, the incomplete series was rereleased with a few changes. I first read the first three novels in a single hardback collection that I borrowed from a friend's house, and loved it. At the time, I was unaware that David Gerrold had also written "the Trouble with Tribbles." I later bought what paperbacks(the first 4 novels) were available. This set has been with me through multiple moves, and is the last book I will read this millenium. This series has not become dated--in fact, many of the thoughts remain refreshingly new. David has created a very complete world that is easy to enjoy. The characterizations are complex, the plot engaging, and along with the intense descriptions combine to present a seamless experience. However, the series remains unfinished, so ultimately, you must resolve the fate of the world yourself.

Wow. When I finished reading this book I almost gave up on the series (Book 4 was much better). While I have always found Jim to be a bit whiny, this book took him so far past my annoyance level that I was tempted to put it down after every chapter. While the "est" training was interesting at first, I did not enjoy having it shoved down my throat over the course of half of this book. Gerrold should have had more respect for the intelligence level of his readers. Find a good summary online and then skip to the next one; this book is a tremendous waste of time.

I rank the first two books of this series as being amongst the most engrossing that I have ever read. So I picked up book 3 with a great degree of excitement. Unfortunately, it's not justified.

Big spoilers follow...

A Rage For Revenge is a horrible, horrible book. There's virtually no action in it; instead we are treated to literally hundreds of pages of talking. This is not in and of itself a bad thing; talk can be utterly engrossing, if what the characters are talking about is interesting! Alas, this is not the case here.

What we get, for chapter after endless chapter, is psychobabble, on the part of what might best be termed a cult leader and some sort of self improvement guru. The two stories take place one after the other but they are intertwined in the book. Each is irritating in its own special way.

The guru's "mode training" is by far the most irritating; it's essentially a set of preposterously silly techniques and arguments used to support a mix of simply wrong and true but blindingly obvious conclusions. As an example of how daft it gets, at one point the guru more or less threatens to kill one of his 'trainees'. It's utterly clear to the reader that this isn't going to happen, and I cannot for the life of me understand how we can be expected to think that the trainees would buy it, but buy it they do. Why? Because the author says so. And the end result of all this training? It's along the lines that most people want to stay alive, and it's a pretty good idea to do what you have to do to ensure that. Wow, the mystery of the ages solved!

Stuff like that happens all the way through this book. The Hero falls under the influence of that cult leader, becoming a willing follower. Why? Pretty much because he has nice eyes and a very sincere voice. So he says things and you believe them, no matter how absurd those things might be.

The end result of all that is that the hero (and pretty much everybody else in the book for that matter; virtually every character is under the influence of the guru or the cult leader) is left looking like a weak-minded fool. I liked the McCarthy character of the first two books; he was smart and competent, but also flawed and immature in many ways. By the end of this book I HATED him. He blindly accepts almost all of the idiocy thrown his way; most of it strikes him as so profound that he collapses into a sobbing wreck. And I'm being literal when I say that - for instance, he's the guy threatened with death by the guru, and he faints because of it. A hardened veteran who has survived combat with Chtorran worms, literally falls down in a faint because a man threatens him with a gun. It's not even much of a threat. And this is the kind of reaction he has over and over again - it's virtually his standard response to anything he finds shocking.

I could go on, but I won't. But one last thing; this book begins with an author's note which is, essentially, an apology for the content. It's written like it's NOT an apology; in fact it's written as virtually the exact opposite of an apology. But when an author takes a few pages at the start to say "hey, I've written a book in this way, and I did it for this reason, and I'm not sorry about it!" - well, that is an apology whether you admit it or not.

He also seems worried that somebody might try to make the mode training a reality. I would say that we shouldn't worry about that, because the mode training is so breathtakingly silly that surely nobody would ever go to it. But then the word has never had a shortage of idiots, so he's probably right to worry about that.

Book 4 is sitting on the shelf right now - I bought 3 and 4 together. I honestly don't know as I write this whether I am ever going to pick it up. But at this point, if I do it will not be with the sense of anticipation and excitement that I had at the start of book 3. Right now, the only thing making me look at book 4 is a sense of morbid curiosity - can it possibly be any *worse*?

A final note. I am STILL a fan of David Gerrold's work, taken in total. I respect him as an author; even this effort is certainly way, way better than anything *I* could write on my best day ever. But for all that it's a bad, bad book and I'm not going to sugar-coat that just because it comes from the pen of a good writer.

I read the first two books and loved them. Looked for books 3 and 4 at a Book Sale and found them. How exciting! I regret,however, to report (at least in my view) that A Rage for Revenge is a real BUMMER. The limmericks,although clever,serve no useful purpose and the attempt to develop(?) the sexual orientation of our hero was pointless. With the command Gerrold has for exceptional writing, why did he stoop to this level? Was it for shock value or what?I hope book 4 is better or I will be extremely disappointed.

In the 30 years that I've been reading Science Fiction, This series has been one of the most intersting, exciting, and riveting of anything by any author, ever. It has also been one of the most disapointing reads of all.

I don't understand why the author appears to have lost all interest in finishing it -- or at least continuing it. Is it ego, sadism, or just plain boredom?

Come on Dave! You got me, I'm a fan already, but I'm a little tired of searching for your work. It's wasting our time. If you aren't thrilled about working on the series, finish it...,then get on with -- whatever.

It's not really fair to leave your readers waiting for so long. Perhaps, it not as lucrative as another Star Trek script, but at least the idea is all yours! Give us a break!

How would you have felt if Asimov did this with the third book of the Foundation Trilogy?

You are the only one who can write this thing. You are really good at it. I doubt anyone could follow your lead, and do it so well, but if I have to wait much longer, I'll have to consider writing it myself.

After all that, if you haven't read this series, you don't know what you've missed. If you can stand the frustration of waiting for the author to get around to finishing it...well, you really should read it, regardless.

I originally bought these books after I saw a recommendation on an LGBT sci-fi book list. Most "apocalypse survivor" stories conveniently ignore the existence of LGBT people. The assumption is that we can't contribute because we won't breed. First off, I would be more than happy to make babies for the sake of the human species in the event of Z-Day, Alien Invasion, Armageddon, or whatever the doomsday situation! Then there's the other assumption that if you can't breed, then you're useless. Even if you're sterile, there's plenty to do! Foraging for the community, defending it, caring for children, etc. So I was happy to hear about a sci-fi series with a bi protagonist.

In an earlier version of this review, I was overly harsh. I made some assumptions regarding the author's personal views based on the portrayal of his characters (never the best idea). Gerrold's setting isn't neat, nice, or politically correct. His main character, Jim, isn't meant to be a flag bearer for the LGBT community. He's a complicated individual who has been thrown into extraordinary circumstances. He certainly isn't the hero I expected, but he's still the best chance that Earth has, flaws and all.

The War Against the Chtorr is quite different from most Sci-Fi alien invasion stories. So far there have been no space battles or even any sign of spaceships. The nature of the invasion is ecological. Somehow, an entire alien ecology has taken root on earth, ranging from bacteria to megafauna. The worst of these are the Chtorr worms, so named for their screeching battlecry. Actually, wait, the bacteria would be the worst, since they wipeout nearly 80% of humanity in a wave of plagues.

The scattered remnants of humanity struggle to put their lives back together, all while alien plants and animals begin to outcompete native species. The gigantic Chtorr worms are the most visible symbol of this takeover, with their voracious appetites for human flesh. Is this the precursor to a "real" invasion by an unknown sentient species? Or is this the true invasion itself? Questions like this make the book a great page-turner. Each new revelation of the Chtorran ecological infestation just makes you want to learn more.

In A Rage For Revenge, his third War Against the Chtorr book, David Gerrold increases the amount of homosexual material markedly, and pumps up the pop psychology and pop philosophy content radically. Page after page is devoted to characters speechifying on how to expand your consciousness and get in touch with your feelings, and then we have page after page of the characters weeping with joy or sadness and screaming in rage or ecstasy.

There is some adventure content, with the narrator battling aliens, traitors, and malfunctioning robots with grenade launchers, flamethrowers, and military vehicles, but mostly the narrator is in consciousness-raising seminars or among religious cults or in some kind of commune, listening to lectures or sermons.

In what some will see as a piece of self-indulgence each of the book's seventy chapters starts with an aphorism from fictional philosopher Solomon Short, and ends with a limerick. The aphorisms are often puns ("If this be reason, make the most of it,") or Oscar Wilde-style paradoxical word play ("I've known for years that I have no humility. It's a virtue, to be sure, but I can live with it.") or banal criticisms of religion or traditional mores ("There is no such thing as a holy war.") The limericks are generally puns about genitalia and sex acts.

I won't go so far as to say A Rage For Revenge is bad, but it is a disappointment after the earlier two volumes, which I enjoyed, and has put me off reading the fourth.

If you like Sci-Fi with a psuedo-realistic outlook then this is for you. Not for the squemish / young / or those offended or upset by adult themes.