Customer Reviews

Voices of Hope

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

After reading the series through Patriarch's Hope, I reflected back on them all, and this book is the one that stuck with me. It's been awhile since I read it, but, since it's the one that I remember most, I felt I should write a review.

It is a completely original storyline. The introduction of new characters from Pook and Changman of the trannies, to Seafort's brilliant son, Phillip, really added new dimension to the series. I needed a break from Seafort and his guilt trip, this did it.

Seaforts' son, Phillip, chases after his freind into the streets of NY. The only people living on the streets now are "trannies". These people are the forgotten throwaway's of a society that has since moved onward and upward into the skyscrapers and away from the city. Only heavily armed patrols ever venture into the streets, and then, only if absolutely necessary. Basically, the streets are left alone and ignored, and barred from the rest of the "civilized" world. Once there, your on your own...and don't expect any help, cuz it aint coming.

It's into this world that Phillip now finds himself...and it's a fascinating world. There are gangs, and subcultures that have arisen out of survival instincts. How they exist together, and the society they have developed, knowing that no one gives a damn about them, is remarkable. There is ingenuity, violence, power grabs, treaties, bravery, and a surprisingly large amount of humor...probably not enough love, but, it is there also. It's a darwinian survival of the fittest society...and it's damned interesting.

Phillips obvious genius, coupled with some handy martial arts instruction he had as a child, helps him survive in this environment. He meets up with Changman, a "neutral" trader, who trades with all the gangs equally...so as not to piss of any in particular. Changman is the real interesting character in this story. He has many secrets, and is one of the more multi-dimensional personalities in the HOPE series. Pook, is a child tranny, who Changman tries to look out for the best he can. There is no overt emotion or physical show of love and affection between the two. But, as much as the streets will allow, Changman tries to do his best for the kid.

Pook is a great character also. A typical street "tough" wannabe. Just a child really, but, he wants to be feared and respected. His feelings and emotions can sometimes be hilarious as he's figuring out how to be tough, especially when this "uppie" kid just kicked his butt. He's as street smart a kid as your gonna find in any story tho...and you gotta love him.

As for the "TRANNY LANGUAGE" everyone seems to be lambasting. I think that was as important to the story as any of the characters. The more I read it, the more I followed it. Along with Phillip and other "uppies." We all learned it together. It is an extremely expressive slang. That matches the conditions of the trannies perfectly. They wouldn't be Trannies if they didn't have this language. The book wouldn't have been what it was without it. I had no problem following it, and the more I read, the more descriptive I found the language to be. It's just slang, after all, not French :-). Because of how well this language was used and flushed out, it seemed totally natural and part of this world. I think the TRANNY LANGUAGE is one of Feintuch's best acheivements as an author.

There is a hilarious review using the Tranny language below mine, I think its completely understandable, and the more you read it, the less you have to think about it. I think they key, is to not think too much about it, and just lightly read over it, the meaning becomes clear. Almost every time POOK talks, using Tranny speak...I smile.

Anyway, its a fascinating book, and the best in the series, imho. Those that didn't like it, seemed to have a common problem with it...the Tranny language. I didn't have that problem and thought it was one of the best aspects of the book.

I think this could be a stand alone book. It's been over a year since I read it...but, its so different, and the characters are almost all new, you probably don't need to read the previous Hope books to enjoy it. It's amazing I remember as much of it as I do. I have difficulty remembering the TITLES of the other books in the series, let alone any story line. Yes, I recommend this one.

SF

This book was a major disappointment. As opposed to the other books in the series it was slow moving and had almost none of the classic 'space opera' scenes that defined the earlier books. I would encourage others who have read the earlier books not to waste their time on this one. I can only hope that his next book returns to the classic writing style of the first 4 books.

The Seafort saga would not, by any stretch, be called a romp in the park by anyone. Nick himself is a hard character to warm up to, the future is not a pretty one and bad things happen to good people more often than not. However the previous 4 books were worthwhile reads. Not easy reads all the time, but worth the effort.

This book though as my title proclaims is the weakest, and bleakest of the series. The next book Patriarch of Hope is much better and redeems this one. In this book Nick is removed from his strengths and is landbound as the elected leader of Earth, off and on. He is responsible for his own child as well as a child of a friend.

We get to become all too familiar with the down and dirty slums, and down and dirty politics of the world and Nick's dysfunctional family. All the characters come across as unsympathetic and not likeable. Very little hope, very little redeeming about the plot. Drawn out, depressing and it is really hard to believe you've cared about Nick before, and harder to believe you'll care about his child in the next book.

You could probably skip this one and not miss a beat by heading to Patriarch's Hope. If you must complete the series, be forewarned, this is hard work to get through and there isn't much payoff.

Voices of Hope is quite different from the other books in the Seafort series. It is told from several points of view, including that of Nick's son Philip, Adam Tenere's son Jared, and two members of the transpop culture represented in earlier books by Eddie and Annie. While the differing narratives are occasionally interesting, I found none of them as compelling as Nicholas Seafort's narratives in the other novels. Furthermore, the transpop chapters are written in a dialect I found almost unreadable. There is more violence in this book than in the others, and the transpop setting of most of the novel is bleak and disturbing. This story is gloomy even for a Seafort novel! I don't recommend it. You can skip it and go on to the next book without confusion.

Despite what several reviews here say, this book is not difficult to read. The trannie language is not very complex, and easily understood once you get the hang of the slang. And I'm not even a native english speaker. In fact, once you get used to it, you get to like the way Pook and 'Changman' talk.

The 'P.T. saves Jared' storyline doesn't seem very likely to me (thus 4 stars), but I think Feintuch manages to nicely portray the trannie culture he's invented. Even if there was nothing else to the book, that would justify reading it. But there's more.

This is an "exception" in the series, because the story is not set among the navy, so Nick has no chance to demerit poor cadets, cane others, and shouting his famous 'belay that'. Instead, he's walking the streets of NY looking for his son while his son is busy growing up very fast among the trannies. Very refreshing. However, readers who like the series because it's about the navy, and space ships, and the chain of command, and quoting and interpreting regs, following orders, etc, will not enjoy this book, because that just doesn't surface here.

The telling of the story from several different viewpoints kinda gets on your nerves sometimes, because the viewpoint always switches when something interesting is about to happen, and you have to wait to get back to the storyline, but it does work, and the book gets to be a page turner as the pacing increases.

The ending is neat (and closer to the rest of the series), I liked it. I also liked the way P.T. was portrayed at the end, confronted with the possibility of his death; terrified, but not cowardly. It's not what you usually get. the usual solution is to have a hero who's not afraid. Here we have one that wets his pants.

Worth reading! Get to know the trannie tribes!

I purchased this book mainly because I already had the previous four. However, Voices was a let-down after the others. It was hard to get into - mainly because of the trannie language. It made reading a struggle and not the pleasure it usually is.

I've read the first four in Feintuch's excellent Seafort saga and loved them all. Then I got this one and was bored to tears. It's very different to other's true but the formula of the rest of the series was fine with me.

What you basically have is a dull, story full of teenage kids you do not care about, the world is badly described, the story just poor. I put the book down after 100 pages, maybe it gets better but frankly I don't care.

Get back to space Feintuch.

Voices takes a very different sort of look at Nick Seafort's world and is a much more real and powerful book than the rest of the saga. Warning though, this book is not a big gaudy space opera, like the others. Nothing against space opera, but serious speculative fiction has its place too, and this is definately serious speculative fiction.

What some of the reviewers here do not realize is that this book is not the same as the other four books about Seafort. No longer is he flying through space, this book is focusing on issues. This isn't as much a [part of the series as it is a stand alone, and I feel that it is extremely thought provoking and good. Kudos to David Feintuch

Having enjoyed reading the first novels in this series, I was VERY disappointed that I was unable to get through this one. The pace, the story, the moral? YUCK!