14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good read, haunting story, sexually explicit, February 22, 2001
This review is from: Void Captain's Tale (Mass Market Paperback)
In an undefinedly distant future, humankind navigates to the stars using alien "Jump" technology aboard each Void Ship, which technology must be controlled by a Pilot, who must be female and who experiences orgasmic ecstasy with each Jump. The ship's captain, ostensibly in charge, is at the mercy of the Pilot.
Our protagonist is Genro Kane Gupta, Void Captain of the Dragon Zephyr. The events of the story are kicked off when he encounters an attractive woman enroute to his ship, a woman whom to his surprise turns out to be Jump Pilot Dominique Alia Wu-surprise because Pilots tend to be wasted, emaciated creatures who live only for their next Jump. He becomes infatuated with her, haunted by the thought of the Jump ecstasy forever denied him, and neglects his duty to his passengers (which includes participating in the sexually charged social rituals used to distract them from the long voyage). And Dominique has a request for him: in his responsibility as Captain, neglect to set the navigation matrix so that the ship Jumps Blind. She believes it will free her soul to join the Void in permanent ecstasy, and of course she doesn't care what happens to the ship. Will he do it? Well, that would be telling.
One of the great aspects of science fiction is that it can put people into situations they would not encounter out of science fiction, and this is an example of that. Spinrad completes a tour-de-force with a masterful futuristic patois that is a hodgepodge of today's major languages and as such can be followed with some slight strain by the attentive reader.
A good read and a haunting story, though not for those who are easily offended by sexual situations.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
All those phallic rocket ships, September 20, 2001
Well, this is a blast from the past. I was very surprised to see this listed as 'new in paperback', but then there does seem to be a swathe of classics being re-released.
Is this a classic? Not sure. It must be around 20 years old now, and certainly when first released it was regarded as prime new wave material - advetised in *Omni* no less! But of course age doesn't make it a classic.
It's certainly original: I can't think of any other tale in the genre predicated on starships propelled across space by the power of orgasm. But that doesn't mean this is a sex fantasy either. Spinrad makes the idea work, and casts the captain of his ship into a credible (at least within this premise) dilemma, and eventually a real bind ... with a very new wave lack-of-ending to boot.
The genre may have moved on from the needs to break through barriers of editorial conservatism that - in part - inspired books like this. In some ways 'The Void Captain's Tale' will seem terribly dated, and I have to say that I think other wirters have since tackled broadly similar ideas and one it better. So this re-release may be of more interest to people who are bona-fide fans of 70's sci-fi than to the general reader.
But if you want some idea of where the genre has come from, it's worth a look.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Spinrad's best, but still worth reading ..., September 30, 2005
"The Void Captain's Tale" is one of those alternately frustrating and rewarding books that leaves you intrigued by the imaginative ideas in the fiction but somewhat disappointed it did not amount to more.
Basically, this is an ingenious narrative with a simple plot twist about what happens when an individual's personal morality clashes with his professional duties and the ethics of society. As such, it works best when Spinrad stays focused on the internal conflict between (and within) Captain Genro Kane Gupta and Void Pilot Dominique Alia Wu, and the latter's attempt to seduce Gupta into betraying his own command for the sake of exploring what they both believe is the destiny of their souls.
The ultimate test comes when Gupta must decide whether to send the starship Dragon Zephyr on a Blind Jump through the universe to learn the secrets of what lies beyond the Great and Only Unknown (and thereby risk the lives of all on board), or to deny Wu and himself the fulfillment of their mutual heart's desire. Because Spinrad cleverly postulates the idea of a stardrive based on the power of female orgasm to complete a Jump Circuit, sex is necessarily an important factor in moving the ship (and the story) forward.
However, this is much more of an intellectual journey than an erotic passage, and the author tends to emphasize the philosophical quest of Gupta and Wu at the expense of examining their emotions or physical chemistry together. A hot and sweaty description of intimate encounters it is not.
Instead, on the one hand, Gupta is confronted with the chance to unravel the mystery of our species' existence in time and space. On the other, he faces the potentially terrifying consequences of placing his ego above his conscience. The conclusion he reaches, and the choice he makes, is the engine that advances the plot. And although Spinrad introduces some interesting secondary characters along the way (most notably Lorenza Kareen Patali, the ship's cultural hostess, and Maddhi Boddhi Clear, a dissolute seeker of truth), "The Void Captain's Tale" is essentially about the dramatic tension between following one's dreams versus mastering one's fate.
This is the sixth Norman Spinrad novel I've read, and if it isn't as creative and finely nuanced as "Little Heroes" or "Pictures At 11," it isn't as dense and dull as "Child of Fortune" or "The Mind Game" either. Spinrad's fondness for metaphysical transcendentalism and polyglot psychobabble is still here, but it isn't as annoying or pretentious, and his storytelling style is far more disciplined. Furthermore, in spite of his occasionally awkward dialogue and tedious exposition, he often manages to produce prose that borders on pure poetry. Take this line, for instance:
"... And so our spirits touch in exile in this shadow realm ... and comfort each other as best they can."
Or this:
"From nothing are we born, to nothing do we go; the universe we know is but the void looped back upon itself, and form is but illusion's final veil."
No, it isn't brilliant, inspired writing, but it does work well enough most of the time to get its point across. Throughout the more prosaic parts of the book, Spinrad drops lots of such tiny literary gems and nuggets that will leave you re-reading them with a serendipitous sense of appreciation for his lovely, lyrical turns of phrase or sudden glimpses of insight. In other words, if you're looking for a suspenseful potboiler or page-turner, "The Void Captain's Tale" is probably not what you want. But if you are in the mood to stretch your concept of science fiction past the genre's typical fascination with technology over humanity, this is a novel that will offer you something different, unexpected, and worthwhile.
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