Customer Reviews

The Stars Are Also Fire

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

 

 

I struggled with this book for about 75 pages, then I got it, then I lost it again, then I didn't understand what all the commotion was about at the end. I thought all the flip-flopping between centuries and all the technical jargon made this novel taxing for me. It's not a bad novel, it's just not what I expected from the great sci-fi writer, Poul Anderson. The idea that the Human Race could be controlled by a cybercosm ( an network of artificial intelligences ) is not new, but it's motives are. The idea that a A.I. system would care if we explored the heavens, or got along with each other is doubtful.

The novel switches back and forth between the early days of moon occupation and the drama of moon/ earth tension centuries later. It seems that Lunarians want absolute sovereignty from the World Federation and Peace Authority, which are now the chief honchos on Earth. The Lunarians are genetically altered humans that were honed for survival in low gravity.

The early part of the story mainly concerns Dagny Beynac, her children, Anson Guthrie and his company Fireball Enterprises. They control the moon's activities and provide Earth with many minerals and innovations. Dagny's children find a new planet, but keep it a family and Fireball secret. Why a secret? What's to be learned from it? The Beynac family die off as the centuries go by with the secret intact. Later Anson Guthrie, now a downloaded robot, and some Lunarians depart for Alpha Centauri for eternity.

The other part of the story is about a powerful Lunarian, Lilisaire; and her agents, Ian and Aleka chasing down the concealment from the Beynac family centuries past. They believe the secret will hold off Earth's invasion of people and give the moon it's independence. They are pursued by the Cybercosm and it's agent, Venator. Will the mystery of the Beynac's be solved? Will the information gain the Moon's freedom? Is the secret about the unknown planet, or something completely different?

I thought the novel was well written with good character development, but was filled with too much nonsensical technical language. Since it's a Poul Anderson book, I still recommend this work.

This second installment in Anderson's H.O.S. universe takes place about hundreds of years after the first one. Now the world is controlled by benevolent and caring but stifling machine intelligences. Dagney Beynac, a descendent of Anson Guthrie's, and others go on a round the solar system jaunt searching for an elusive secret that she believes is the key to reigniting the passion for exploration that the majority of now-pacified humans had lost in their centuries of being coddled by AI beings. A secret that the AIs and their conglomerated consciousness, the Teramind, will do anything to protect. Really on par with Harvest Of Stars, which means a lot, unless you haven't read HOS in which case you shouldn't be trying to buy this book, because it is a sequel to an equal or better novel.

I gave it two stars, reluctantly, because despite the libertarian politico-economic spouting of some of the characters, and the tired back and forth across centuries, the first half or so of the book at least had some suspense and (slow and creaky) character development, and an expectation of an exciting and interesting denouement. But by the end I was left sitting there thinking, "That's it? That's it?!"

All along I kept thinking that there had to be something about the object of the search other than its simple existence. Why otherwise would one side try so valiantly to find it, and the other side so desperately to keep it hidden. Why, indeed? I'm still wondering...

Pass this one up. I've been a fan of Poul Anderson's for a long time, but some of his latter-day stuff just isn't up to it. This is one fine example.

This book was twice as long as it needed to be. As he got older, Poul Anderson seemed to need more words to say less. This book is like that. Still a good book for those who like science fiction and who like to think.

Late in his career, Anderson seemed to conclude that it is inevitable that eventually humans would become subordinate to man-made creations of artificial intelligence. Many of his books lead to this common conclusion. Anderson plainly views this as depressing, which makes this book a dark and unhappy vision of humanity's destiny. He may be right, but he seemed to be stuck in this groove and unable to think outside of this particular box, at least towards the end.

This book epitomizes another Anderson staple: distrust of government. It compares feudal society (the Lunarians) with the ultimate State (the machine-dominated Earth government or, alternatively, the Avantist government that supplants America's present republican form of government.).

Despite the above, this book is worth reading, especially if (like me) you are a big Poul Anderson fan. This book is entertaining and imaginative, and worth more than just a look.

This book should have been split into two stories rather than relating both at the same time in alternating chapters. In such a case, I would have read one book and thrown away the other. The story of Ian Kenmuir and Aleka Kame was mildly enjoyable (if one ignores how improbable it is that humans would create artificial intelligence that they cannot control), but the story of Dagny Beynac infuriated me.

Her Lunarian children grow up completely alienated from her, form a feudalistic society and perpetrate several murders to rebel against their roots. Despite their lack of ethics, Beynac helps her kids rebel against Earth's government (a benevolent democracy) so that they may rule themselves as kings and queens. Whatever motivates her to do this is beyond my comprehension.

Overall, Anderson is unable to move beyond a shallow distrust of government and love for old-fashioned entrepreneurship to find any greater, revelatory truth. There comes a time when political meanderings grow old and a science fiction reader asks for some transcendant meaning or greater message. There is no such message to be found in "The Stars Are Also Fire."

This was my first foray into Poul Anderson's work, and could well be my last. From other reviews it sounds as though his earlier works are much better, though. Well, this book is the subject at hand...

For about the first two hundred pages, I felt as though I was wading through background and would soon get to the meat of the conflict, but eventually found that the minor element of conflict mentioned early in the story really was the only point of contention. Then by page 500 I was looking for a major revelation to provide a suitable climax. And then the "story" ended.

This kind of seemed like an (excruciatingly) extended "what if?" sci-fi novel, but rather than reach any interesting conclusions, Anderson leaves you wondering why you had to read nearly 600 pages to discover absolutely nothing more than what was provided in the prologue. I was disappointed on so many levels, it's difficult to focus on any one aspect of the book.

The characters were flat, but stretched out to seem larger than life... the story is really just future history, and not even remotely plausible... many actions are taken without any apparent motivation -- or consequences... most ideas in the novel are based on the fad science topics of the time: chaos theory and quantum physics...only Anderson didn't seem to understand chaos theory (it simply must have sounded too cool not to tie it into some aspect of the story every 20 or so pages).

In short, avoid this waste of time at all costs (even the 50 cents I paid for a used copy was too much). Anderson combines the worst trait of bad sci-fi (flat, contrived characters) with that of bad fiction (highly questionable and/or misunderstood science).

The book is twice the length it should have been.

There are also jarring things like the gratuitious use of
common Spanish phrases, as if they would replace English
ones in common use but nothing else, and the gratuitous
use of Hawaiian (which far fewer of us know).

And then there are the undefined neologisms

Anderson has written a fine space opera and a wonderful paean to the human spirit. The characters make the book - they are people that you care about and sympathize with as they struggle with each other and the nature of freedom. The author interleaves two distinct, but ultimately related, plot lines in a story that covers several hundred years and the creation of a new type of Human. The relationship between the competing societies is well done and very credible. The writing style is some of the best I've read in this or any other genre. The ending is somewhat disappointing as the story ends with a whimper, not a bang but is still well worth the read. Recommended

Poul Anderson's, "The Stars Are Also Fire," is a relatively good book. It's very difficult to give a summary of this book. It covers centuries and jumps back and forth every other chapter. The reason i gave it only 3 stars is because after reading through 600 pages you get to a climax that's not really a climax. It's more of a let down. The Stars Are Also Fire seems less like a science fiction book and more like a book on future sociology. The book is very entertaining- the characters come to life, the story is engrossing, and Anderson's future is intriguing. However, it was not what i thought it would be.