Customer Reviews

Starfire (Bantam Spectra)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book without realizing it is a second part of a series. It gives enough background information to stand on its own - and stand very tall indeed. "Star Fire" is both a good science and a good fiction fiction, with a scientifically plausible yet totally unexpected ending. At least one unexpected ending - I figured out the killer's identity about halfway through the book, but it does require careful attention to details. While it is hard to imagine detectives who would keep their mind on solving a murder while the world is about to end, Sheffield manages to make it believable. The most complex and interesting character in the book is one of two detectives - a Hannibal Lecter type genius serial killer enlisted to catch another serial killer, - but other characters are good also. The weakest point - indeed the reason I am giving the book 4 stars instead of 5, - is one major female character who starts out as an incredibly tough and ruthless "corporate Mata Hari", then suddenly falls in love and comes totally unglued. Considering the nature of organization she works for and the fact that she managed to reach Number 2 in it, this is pathetic.

I am looking forward to the sequel, but I don't think I will bother reading the first book in the series ("Aftermath"). It did not get very good reviews, and "Star Fire" seems to adequately summarize what happened before.

The most striking thing about this book is its exploration of emotional intelligence. Scheffield constantly plays with the stock images of the engineer, the polititian, and the business person, turning them upside down. Nothing is really what it seems...it seems. He takes the reader deeply into the motives, weaknesses and strengths of individuals who happen to have those roles. And that's just one of the threads deftly woven into the story. Scheffield makes a supernova cool (sorry 'bout that!).

Sheffield's work reminds me of the hard-science multi-plot future history works of the writers of the 50s and early 60s. The work has very much the feel of a serialized sci fi mag piece from Astounding or some such. The usual ingredients are there--a collection of disparate characters enmeshed in a handful of subplots, the mildly dystopian but recognizable earth of fifty years hence, a global threat, eccentric yet capable minds that work to solve it, and, finally, not one but two little puzzle mysteries, with punch line endings to both inquiries. Sheffield's plotting is a real strength; the characterization is a bit pat. I recommend this one, though, as the central dilemma is compelling, and the book lacks the gratuitious glandular or violent juvenalia which infects so many more modern sci fis. This is a fun afternoon, rather than an epic voyage, but not every unmanned satellite can discover a new universe....

This is a virtuoso narrative work: the plots and subplots that weave through the massive event of a cataclysmic (and acknowledgedly unlikely) cosmic event make for a real page turner. There are some serious flaws, so let me attend to those:

1) Some characters are marvellous (the noble monster, the detective, the brilliant-but-unrefined australian girl (and is there such thing as a refined australian girl?)); but all characters are over-the-top comic-book caricatures. These are not compellingly believable characters, they are amusing extremes: except where they are actually a detriment to the book (the megalomaniac dwarf, the rediculous secretary) -- then they are not even very amusing.

2) The sexism. Ok, we have a strong woman president, and the scientific genius is a young australian orphan -- how can this be sexist? Well, the sexism is awkwardly evident in that these same strong women reveal themselves to be facades of strength who end up relying on rather shabby looking (morally, socially) males who have an inner iron. It is rather disappointing that one of the main characters, Maddy, turns out to be made of ... nothing. Our woman president ends up doing... nothing. Only the genius comes through.

3) Incredible naivete! We have brilliant scientists and engineers: the other characters marvel at how noble and egoless these communities are. And how they pull together in a crisis, and how they get the job done. Well, engineers need all the glorification they can get, but let me tell you as an insider: it just aint so. Engineers are as petty, as political, as backstabbing as any other human: they just tend not to be very good at it.

4) More naivete! Presidents who travel into the lairs of comic book madmen without secret service; corporations without either beaurocracy or even structure; and did I mention the engineering utopia?

Ok. Those disappointments aside: there are some great characters here, and the counterpoint of the broad historical panorama with the murder mystery plot is marvellous. The murder is compelling throughout (if a little disappointing at the end), while the big picture gains steam throughout, leading to a surprising, satisfying conclusion.

Best of all, the distinct voices that emerge from the various characters, including different, believable senses of humor really make the book. At least among the male characters (and our young australian friend). Too bad the publisher insisted on a different (and annoying) font for the writings of the noble monster -- that was unnecessary.

Overall? Great book for any scifi fan.

Aftermath was certainly as believable as Starfire AND is well worth reading even if you read the latter first. There is some building of the Starfire tale from bits and pieces of Aftermath BUT you have so little of Aftermath presented that reading the first member of this series will not be spoiled. Yes, the change in some characters must be taken in a very laid back fashion (that variation doesn't seem like hard scifi). But it is the ultimate source of the beamed particles that has been left to a sequel that seems like fantasy. I guess we will have to wait for the sequel to discover what the Scientific origins are on this one. The story does move and holds ones attention even if the different major characters are a bit too improbable at times. But in true Sheffield fashion if you will just relax and allow that human nature and Science are not always what we anticipate, then this is a tale you will enjoy. I too had a feeling as to who the murderer must be beyond the books mid point but had not worked it out (other than by elimination within the characters presented in detail - a major assumption!). This reads fast enough that there is no reason to skip to the end unless you just don't want to get the scientific detail that will wait for an explanation in the sequel.

This was a good brain candy, beach read. The characters were SOOOOO written for a movie. The ending was out of left field, concepts that weren't explored at all (and not earth-shattering ones that i would sit and contemplate either). Both the main and 2ndary endings were pulled out of some hole the universe, I know not where. There is so much better hard sci-fi out there.

Try Larry Niven, Stephen Baxter (Flux was strange but the science was thouroughly explored!) and many others if you want hard sci-fi. If you want a 2nd rate murder mystery where you are told key clues AS they are confronting the culprit w/ a little science thrown in, this is for you.

I bought the book expecting a darn good read of the "hard sci-fi" type. I was delighted to find such creative and imaginative touches in the book.

The hard sci-fi aspect has to do with a focused particle beam heading for earth from a supernova that occurred 27 years earlier. Earth knows it is coming, and is building a great shield out beyond Jupiter that is 24,000 kilometers long. It has drained Earth's resources for decades to pay for it. Well . . . you guessed it folks-- as the book begins, we are just a couple of months from zero hour. The shield will work or fail-- Earth will survive or cook away its oceans.

The pleasant surprises involve some highly inventive and delightful characters. These include US President Celine Tanaka, a very sexy and brave female Pres who tells us part of the story in her own words; electronics genius Gordy Rolfe, a vicious, murderous little dwarf who has accrued such power as "the world's richest man" that he can "get away with murder;" and finally, space engineer John Hyslop, an understated kind of anti-hero who -- for all his self-depreciating ways-- is alone possessed of the engineering genius to complete the shield in time.

My favorite character, and the most fun character in the book, is this remarkable Australian black girl. She never had any formal education, but stole books from an astrophysics library. She is a supergenius-- like a young female Albert Einstein. Her I.Q. must be off the scale. She alone can do the mathematical synthesis to identify grave flaws in the shield -- and make revelations about the TRUE nature of the particle beam. But this little self-educated female is truly a native savage-- combining tensor equations with gutter-coarse language. Combining shocking rudeness with a disarming ingenuousness. She's a little barbaric doll, and I loved her.

So you get more than you paid for-- a great hard sci-fi story, and the most inventive and creative characters one could imagine.

I liked it lots-- hope you do.

This book was one of the most frustrating books I have ever read and enjoyed. Since I did not read Aftermath, it took me a while to get into the story and understand the characters. Sheffield offers too many charachers and it is quite a challenge to determine who is going to be key and who is forgettable. However, by the time I got to the middle of the book I was hooked. I read until 4 AM and had bloodshot eyes and a crick in my neck. But then I got to the end, and hence my frustration, and my criticism.
1. In a hurry, skip "the private diary of Oliver Guest". The Sky City murders were a completely separate story. It seemed they existed simply to reprise a favorite character, but there was no real tie in to the Alpha C story. The motive did not support the crime. The crime did not make any difference to the future of Sky City. The criminal was not publically unmasked so the community was not satisfied. This subplot may have been better resolved in its own book.
2. The main story seemed oddly incomplete. I like a story that is character driven, but I want complete characters. I do not want to wait on a sequel, I want to know now. What happens to the Argos Group? What was Gordy's legacy? Was Nick redeemed? Was Seth redeemed? Did Maddy and John ever hold hands? What happened to other countries and the other world leaders? And who are those people pictured on the book cover?
I have read other novels by Sheffield and this is not the first time that I thought he just stopped writing when the main plot was solved. I would like a little bit more. I need an upbeat ending that is both positive for science and positive for people.

Starfire is ostensibly a sequel to Aftermath, but you don't really need to read Aftermath first. Me, I read them in the wrong order and still enjoyed both.

This book is Sheffield's take on the old Nero Wolfe concept - a brilliant detective who has someone else to do the legwork. In this case, the Wolfe role is filled by the serial killer/Clone King Dr. Oliver Guest, and the Goodwin role by our old friend Seth Parsigian.

The science is, as always for Sheffield, spot on... within the limits of SF. The best definition of Hard SF I ever heard was this: Take or create *one* outlandish but possible theory, assume that it's true, and leave the rest of known science intact. Project how the truth of such a theory would affect humanity, and then write the book. Mr. Sheffield stayed true to this concept throughout his career, with admirable results.

My one real problem from a character perspective in this book is based on the interactions from the prior one: Imagining a Tanaka/Auden ticket forming in the first place seems quite a stretch for both of them. But maybe that's just me.

Charles Shefield, like a jungler, mixes with great talent two stories, two sets of characters. With even more talent, he mixes two different styles of writing, taking you effortlessly from one to the next. Mr Sheffield has always told us that his writing comes from a lot of hard work. It's easy to believe. Starfire is wonderfully written.

So where is that 5th star? The end to one of the two stories disappoints after so much build-up, and the character of Maddy Wheatstone is rather shallow for one so central to the book. Don't let it deter you, though. Starfire makes for a fascinating, yet still an easy read.