Customer Reviews

Rogue moon

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The creation of human replicants allows for the study of a mysterious alien artifact on the moon. The humans and their alter ego replicants become one mentally, and both share the experience when one enters the artifact, in which all who enter ultimately die. The remaining human can then describe what the other saw and felt inside, allowing further study of the artifact. When the remaining humans are unable to communicate the information, due to insanity brought on by the memory experience of dying, a search begins for a man who can withstand the experience. That search brings together some fascinating characters, who find that facing the project is less difficult than facing their own demons, brought out fully during participation in the project. The character interactions and development are superb, and ultimately elevate this gripping story to the highest level. Fundamental human issues of life and death are explored effectively, as the characters struggle to define their lives in the face of an uncaring, unyielding and mysterious object.

This is a book you may never have heard of, which is a shame; it's an absolute diamond. First of all it's a book about people, the way they manipulate each other and allow themselves to be manipulated. It has a very worldly outlook for a book, which could easily appear to be a simple piece of pulp sci-fi. Most notable is that it is the first book I ever read which explained that a teleportation device is not a means of transport, but a means of killing someone and building a replacement of them in another location. The fact that it is an instrument of death is a theme that pervades the book. It's not quite Heart of Darkness, but it also offers an insight into the less pleasant motivations that can lead our actions. It won't take a long time to read, but I suspect you will want to read it again and again. It may indeed be pulp sci-fi, but I for one like pulp sci-fi, especially not when it is as engaging as this.

During science fiction's Golden Age, it was almost taken for granted that the characters of sci-fi were the same characters found in fantasy: consummate wizards who could solve any problem, helpless damsels in distress, and intrepid heroes who could slay the toughest dragon. True, the wizard wore a lab coat rather than a pointed hat, and the hero flew a rocket ship instead of riding a white horse, but at essence, they were the same types: flat, flawless, and wholly unbelievable. Budrys explodes the myth in this painfully honest look at what drives the kind of man who would risk his life, and the lives of others, in the name of Science.

Dr Edward Hawks heads a project that, through the miracle of teleportation, puts men on the moon. He does this by transmitting taped copies of human beings across the void, where the men are then reconstructed alive from this data. Communication is handled by an inherent psychic link between the original and his copy. With unique insight, Budrys sees this journey as a one-way trip, since the men so sent are mere duplicates of their earth-side counterparts, with no lives of their very own to come back to. Thus Hawks' machine creates life, but it is life that has no real place in our world.

While exploring the moon, these doomed men have found an inexplicable artifact. Attempts to enter this structure and learn its secrets have always resulted in the demise of the explorer. And staying in constant contact with "themselves" as they die again and again has taken a tragic toll upon even the hardened military men whose avatars are doing the investigating. So Director of Personnel Vincent Connington chooses fearless tough guy adventurer Al Barker for the job. But how will Al react to not just facing death, but actually experiencing it, dying day after day? And what of his beautiful and flirtatious girlfriend Claire, whose coquettish ways threaten to undermine the entire project? If life is this cheap, then how valuable are relationships?

Originally published in the early sixties, perhaps in response to the Nedelin catastrophe in which 126 people were killed on a Soviet launch pad, this short but strangely gripping novel focuses on the people who undertake dangerous ventures, rather than on the science behind this sketchily-drawn quest. The point of view usually lies with Hawks, and his relationships with Al, whom he sends to his death on a daily basis, and Claire, who seems anxious to shatter his inscrutable composure. Fans of whiz-bang science fiction may be disappointed by the fairly weak and dated explanations of the science involved, and the fact that many of the more scientific questions remain unresolved at the end. But despite the outrageousness of the back story, this is a unique, gripping, and very hard-boiled book that takes a hard if somewhat simplistic look at what drives the people who do dangerous work.

Algis Budrys must be on the top-10 list of the most underestimated writers of all times. Not in our beloved SF habitat, where he got two Hugo nominations, but in the mainstream, where he could, and should be compared to the greatest writers of the second part of the 20th century.

Actually, the only flow of Rogue moon is that it dares to surmise that a matter transmitter would be up and running in 1960, which to me sounds equivalent to a Neanderthal coming out of a cave texting on a Blackberry. The writer's attempt to tackle the technology is decent, but it is not the strong point of the novel. The strong point of the novel, the point that gives it 4 stars and a suggestion to go ahead and read it, is the characters. Because, once looked inside, even professional critics outside the SF habitat, would find it hard to point something wrong with the way Algis Budrys presents his complex and fascinating protagonists.

Actually, as was the case with another of Budrys' finest, "Who?" the reader will find that he cares more for the heroes and what happens to them than the science in the stories. Also, for those pondering on philosophical questions regarding death, this is an "on my list" novel.

The "characters first, science second" pattern is so rare in SF that a few purists would even consider it to be a disadvantage. I don't and I highly recommend this obscure gem.

Pre-dating Arthur C Clarke's alien monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey" by almost a decade, "Rogue Moon" tells of an equally bizarre alien construct on the moon called simply "the Formation". Dr Edward Hawks, a ruthless scientist is determined, at any cost, to plum the depths of the Formation and to puzzle out its origin and purpose, by sending a steady stream of hapless volunteers on a deadly one-way mission of exploration to the moon. Dr Hawks' recently built matter transmission device is capable of sending an exact duplicate of someone to the moon and into the Formation. The "original" of these intrepid explorers is held on earth in a type of stasis - a state of deep sensory deprivation - until the duplicate is killed in the maze inside the Formation. This frequently happens within minutes of their arrival on the moon. Although the nature of the process of matter duplication and transmission allows the original to share the experiences of his duplicate, the experience is so powerful as to drive every volunteer to hopeless insanity when they awake after the death of their doppelgänger.

Al Barker is an adventurer and utterly self-centered thrill-seeker - one might almost say, a sociopathic A-personality suicidally driven to ever greater heights of physical achievement regardless of the potential cost to himself and those around him. Hawks realizes that Barker may be the only person in the world with the physical strength and the ability to negotiate the intractable puzzles of the Formation combined with the mental strength to retain his sanity in the doing. Sure enough, a string of repeat missions ends in the death of Barker's duplicate but each trip finds him delving deeper and deeper into the mysterious path through the Formation. Likewise, against all odds, the original Barker remains sane and when he awakes, he is able to pass on the intelligence of his foray into the Formation to Hawks.

For this reader, it was a matter of some frustration to discover that even at the end of the story, the nature and purpose of the Formation remained undisclosed. While the hypothesized scientific nature of Hawks' matter-transmission device was discussed at considerable length, it became clear by the end of the novel that aliens, the Formation and science were not really the main themes of Budrys' "Rogue Moon" at all. The story was really an extended essay probing the nature of the ethics of scientific discovery and exploration. In addition, Budrys spent considerable effort talking about the philosophy of matter transmission and the possible meaning of a relationship between humanity and an alien species capable of creating a device like the Formation.

While much of this philosophical navel-gazing is delivered via stiff-necked dialogue between characters who would now seem very dated and out of place in this century, "Rogue Moon" does deserve kudos for having the courage to place theme over plot in a genre that is much better known for its guns ablaze space opera approach. I don't think I'd go quite so far as to call it the masterpiece that some have labeled it but "Rogue Moon" is worthy of a sci-fi fan's time and effort and deserves a place in any well-stocked library of classic science fiction.

Recommended.

Paul Weiss

The literary quality of this book is marvelous. Budrys takes the reader deep into the characters to face their internal conflicts. While I enjoy the character-driven narration of Rogue Moon, as opposed to societal conflict or a purely plot-driven narration, the science fiction is limited. The novel deals with the idea of teleportation with wonderful rationale and science, but the moon the novel is so named after is only talked about until the final 17 pages, due to the third-person-limited narration that reports only what the scientist who built the machine experiences. The character who actually steps on to the moon dozens of times throughout the novel only gives one sketchy report to the scientist that the reader is allowed to overhear, and then we are taken back into the earth-bound life and self-analysis of Hawks, the main character. I enjoy a pensive read, but I had picked this book up hoping to find myself in some fantastical world of great imagining, but I was just stuck on earth with a handful of relatively normal people with suicidal and homicidal tendencies.

Rogue Moon is built on a great idea: to explore a newly discovered construct on the moon -- a thing that keeps killing those who enter it -- scientists make a duplicate human who is kept on Earth while the original enters the construct. The original and duplicate stay in a sort of telepathic contact until the original's death, so the duplicate can chart the course up to the moment of death. The duplicate then becomes the new original, is duplicated again, and the new original makes his way a bit further before dying. In this way, a map through the construct can be created.

The execution is less satisfying than the concept. The lead scientist (Hawks), with the help of a rather disreputable personnel guy, finds a daredevil (Barker) who is capable of withstanding the psychological trauma of dying repeatedly. I wish the novel had focused more on that trauma, but the burden of dying over and over, as well as the mystery of the construct's purpose, receive little attention. The well written story instead focuses on the relationships between Hawks, the personnel guy, and Barker's girlfriend. There's nothing wrong with writing about relationships -- indeed, successful novels are about people, not just about ideas -- but I never got a good feel for Barker, for what it would be like to die again and again and again. That disappointed me a bit.

While this book is intriguing and merits the four stars I gave it, I think it is less developed than Budrys' other work, particularly Michaelmas and WHO?, both of which do a better job of combining well developed characters with intriguing ideas.

Very, very interesting book. I like very hardboiled mystery books and got turned on to "Rogue Moon" by an intellectual hb mystery chat group I subscribe to. The SciFi premise of this book is highly original and very interesting...and also somewhat underdeveloped in the book. It's really a character study of a number of very unique and interesting characters. Just because I gave it four stars and not five doesn't mean that I don't recommend that you should read this book if you can find it...you definately should. Maybe you will feel like I did....what could have been one of the best books ever...what was is a really stimulating, mind-boggling and ultimately...a very good book. Find it, read it..and think about what could have been.

"Rogue Moon" may be out of print at times, but someday, an animation genius will see it on every list of the greatest sci-fi novels -- and some lists not so limited. Then we'll see what "2001" and "Solaris" could have been, should have been.

A strange alien artifact is found on the moon. It is fascinating, and very, very lethal. It has been going through men's lives at a frightening rate, so a new technology to use facsimiles of people has been created, so they can go in, explore a little, die, and do it again.

One problem with this is those doing the exploring are very likely to go crazy.

A search is on for a man who can deal with the psychological stress of the project.

It also looks at their lives off this experiment and how they deal with that in the meantime.