Customer Reviews

The Well of Stars

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

 

 

This book is filled with creative ideas. And not just neat-sounding names tossed around, but well-thought, plausible, yet extraordinary things. The Great Ship and many of its components, for example, the mechanics of immortal human life, and the contents of the Dark Nebula. At its best, this book thrives on Big Things--it reminded me of the first half of Vernor Vinge's _Fire upon the Deep_ . I'm not sure the obvious comparison with Brin or Niven is warranted, though. because I had some problems with the book.

1) The characters all had depth, but never seemed to change during the course of the book. Maybe that was a deliberate choice when dealing with characters 1000's of years old--is there any change after your 10000th birthday? It's an interesting philosophical question, and a plausible answer, but unfortunately, it makes the book less satsifying. BTW, the earlier reviews are right about how strangely detached the characters are--their world and 10000-year existence are about to end and none of them seem particularly upset about it.

2) The ending is profoundly disappointing. Without spoiling it, let me just say that the ship goes into a Dark Nebula and faces a Threat. I expected something standard--the Threat is dangerous, almost does them all in, but somehow they beat it. Then the author adds in a second strand--maybe the good guys can convince the Threat not to kill them in a creative way (the book's dust jacket mentions this plot)--and I thought, sure, sounds good. The characters work hard at both of these strategies and book is going along well. But them, suddenly, we learn that actually neither of these are right--in the last 25-50 pages a new and badder Threat^2 suddenly appears, and a new Deus ex Machina appears and deals with the threat^2 without any intervention by the characters. The reader is left wondering "Huh? Why did I read the first 280 pages?" This leads to the next point...

3) My point #2 is somewhat overstated. There _are_ clues to point to the emergence of both Threat^2 and the Deus ex Machina. But the author's style is something like "Then, Mere suddenly understood the real threat. -cut jump to a totally different topic so the reader is left wondering "Huh? What did she understand?-" My PhD isn't in physics or psychology, but I don't think I'm much dumber than the average reader, and frankly, while the author may think he foreshadows events satisfactorily with this style, he doesn't.

The disappointing thing is that if he had just dropped both Threat^2 and the DeM, it would have been a really enjoyable book--my point about characters aside, the book is wonderfully imagined and (until the last 50 pages) the action moves along at an exciting pace. But the ending left me feeling so let down that it spoiled the experience for me. I might go to the library to read his other books, but not right away.

MARROW was an excellent stand-alone novel that left open the possibility of a sequel. WELL OF STARS is that sequel, but it is only the second chapter of what is now planned as a trilogy. It does not stand by itself anymore that The Empire Strikes Back does, and I think that accounts for a lot of the reader dissatisfaction with the book's ending. This should probably have been made clear on the book's dust jacket, but TOR has done this with other series books as well, downplaying or disguising the fact that they are merely installments.

Even taking into account the fact that Well of Stars is not supposed to clear everything up, I found it an unsatisfying read. Human (or alien or AI) characterization has never been Reed's strong point. What made Marrow a success were the worlds of Marrow and the Great Ship. It was sense-of-wonder sf with a vengeance.

That sense of wonder is lacking in this sequel. Readers do become somewhat more familiar with the Great Ship, but that cannot carry a novel for 300+ pages. Marrow itself is talked about, but the world is not actually on stage. The new world to be explored here is one external to the ship, a nebula called the Inkwell. The Inkwell and its inhabitants are somewhat intriguing, but not nearly to the extent that Marrow was in the prior book.

The Great Ship is headed into the Inkwell, and returning characters Pamir and Washen mount a scouting program to determine the true nature of the nebula. Other returning characters from Marrow include Washen's son Locke, whose interest is in unraveling the origin and purpose of the Great Ship and its cargo. This was to me the most interesting part of the whole novel, but Locke's conclusions occupy only a couple of pages total.

During the course of Marrow, some of Reed's better characters such as Diu, Miocene, and Till were lost. Characters new to Well of Stars are not nearly as compelling as the lost ones. The most important new character is a human with a strange (even by Great Ship standards) past named Mere. The character of Mere kind of undercuts that of Washen as her strength is what Washen's was in Marrow: sizing up new species. This is an important ability in Well of Stars, as the Inkwell is inhabited by an enigmatic collection of species.

Readers who like definitive endings would probably do best for themselves by waiting until book 3 comes out and reading Well of Stars and it together. Reed was four or five years between Marrow and Well of Stars, and if it takes another four or five years to get us to the story's end, I know I won't remember WOS then nearly as well as I remember Marrow four years after reading it. There's just not much about WOS that sticks with you, unlike with Marrow.

BTW, although I dislike book reviews that comment on other people's reviews instead of the book, I feel it is necessary to set the record straight regarding some very misleading and inaccurate statements made within one review. Readers of Marrow will recall that Mere was not the "hero" of the Marrow incident; in fact she did not appear in that book at all. The Inkwell is a nebula, not a black hole. Many other statements within the review in question are distortions of what is really going on; I don't want to get too specific because of the spoiler factor. Just don't let that very misleading review affect your decision as to whether to read this book or not; I do not believe its author actually read the book.

One of the primary characters in THE WELL OF STARS is "Mere," as you can read from the book's description above. But from what I understand, the book doesn't really tell us who Mere is, and how she came to be on the Great Ship. However, indie publisher Golden Gryphon Press has published a chapbook by Robert Reed that is actually the Mere origin story. It's titled (profoundly) MERE -- very cool story (Mere is actually an immortal being!), great cover art, and a nice collectable -- and is available from goldengryphon.com. Check it out.

After reading Marrow a while back I was thrilled to learn that Robert Reed had actually published a sequel. I bought the book and got straight into it. As with his other books, Robert Reed is a visionary and his ideas and concepts are always mind blowing. In many ways, Robert Reed's style reminds me of books written by Alastair Reynolds with respect to the darkness, mystery and gothic aspect of some of the places.

The story in Well of Stars continues where Marrow ended and transports the reader into the fantastic Great Ship which is nine times bigger than earth and home to thousands of alien species. I think Robert Reed is known for his passion for exaggeration and his 'bigger is better' approach. As with Marrow, the book hints at something of great consequence and importance that is locked away within the centre of the ship (maybe one of the builders of the ship?). Similar to its predecessor, Well of Stars does not elaborate enough on this great mystery and does not provide any further clues. However, I would have preferred a sequel which developed this idea further into something more tangible and interesting. I also found it odd that none of the Great Ship's crew members considered investigating this great mystery, bearing in mind the purpose of the antagonist.

However, what worries me most in this book is the predictability and sterility of some the main characters, such as Pamir and Washen. These characters are not changing at all and threats to the Great Ship are handled with the usual coolness. Also, some of the characters such as Loke would have deserved a greater contribution to the story. After all, Loke's research results are substantial to the understanding of the overall plot. Having said that, Robert Reed introduces interesting characters, such as Mere whose story is fantastic and most intriguing.

Overall, the book is very good, but sometimes a wooden read with a cliff hanger at the end.

At the conclusion of Robert Reed's MARROW, the Great Ship introduced in that novel was thrown far off course as a side-effect of a battle between its captains and a legion of religious fanatics. In THE WELL OF STARS, the Ship's new course is unavoidably taking it towards the Inkwell, a mysterious dark nebula. As the Ship approaches the Inkwell, news about the nebula and its enigmatic inhabitants becomes more and more ominous. Roughly the first half of the book concerns efforts to discern whether, to what degree, and how the Inkwell poses a threat to the Ship; the remainder concerns efforts to understand and deal with the danger that does materialize. The core characters are captains Washen and Pamir with whom we are familiar from MARROW, and new characters O'Layle, a weak and cowardly hustler who inadvertently makes contact with a very consequential alien, and Mere, a woman of uncertain origins whose life experiences prepare her well to liaise between aliens and the crew. As with MARROW, key events hinge on how major actors (the crew, Washen's son Locke, the inhabitants of the Inkwell) understand the origins of the Great Ship and the contents of its core. This makes cosmology a topic of more than academic interest, at least in the final third of the book.

On the plus side, WELL has a compelling central mystery -- Who are the inhabitants of the Inkwell and what are their intentions towards the Ship? -- that dovetails with the unresolved mysteries revealed in MARROW and likely to be resolved (if at all) in the conclusion of the proposed third volume of the trilogy. It also offers us an intriguing new character in Mere. A minor focus on the harum-scarum, a contentious species of Great Ship passengers vaguely reminiscent of Klingons, is welcome.

On the other hand, although WELL does not suffer from the major lurches in plotting that were so jarring in MARROW, there are other problems. As in MARROW it's difficult for us to believe that humans more than 100,000 years from now are basically the same as humans today, and it's also hard for us to believe that a 100,000 year old human thinks pretty much the same as a 50 year old human. In MARROW, it was difficult to believe that nobody had bothered to look closely at the core of the ship over a period of 100,000 years, and it is difficult to believe that nobody bothered to try to figure out what the near-fatal compromise of Ship systems at the end of MARROW says about the Ship or the agent(s) who did the compromising. Figuring out what happened and acting to prevent future breaches--something not mentioned at all in WELL--seems pretty obvious not only because of what happened in MARROW, but also because Ship systems are again compromised in WELL (although by whom, for what reason, and to what effect is something you'll have to wait until the end to find out). A lot of obvious things don't happen, and what does happen doesn't always make sense, especially in retrospect. Reed generally plays his cards close to the vest, dealing out revelations only very reluctantly. These revelations are often disappointing. What we eventually learn about the origins and intentions of the inhabitants of the Inkwell, for example, might not be impossible within this universe, but it is implausible and unsatisfying. Furthermore, while Mere is a nice addition to the cast, O'Layle is just annoying.

Like a typical middle volume, WELL does not introduce the core mysteries or conflicts of the trilogy, nor does it resolve them; instead, it develops them. Most of the development, however, occurs in a minor subplot involving Washen's drab son Locke and his attempts to figure out whether the Great Ship is being followed, and in another relatively minor subplot that involves recovering repressed memories about something. (In typical Reed fashion, what the repressed memories concern doesn't get revealed until it's too late for the knowledge to be of any use.)

Recommendation: If you enjoyed MARROW and don't want to wait for another couple of years to find out whether the finale is any good, go ahead and read WELL. If you can wait, do so. If you didn't enjoy MARROW, don't bother.

An extremely well-written, thoughtful novel with fascinating characters. The novel is very well-paced and hard to put down. The breadth of imagination is staggering. The ending could be described as unsatisfying, but I thought it was reasonable (especially if this is really going to be a 3-part series).

This will be a short review of the book. As ususal Robert Reed does not disappoint. It's obvious that this book was not planned, i.e. that Marrow was to be a stand alone novel. Normally when an author decides to expand a story from one book to three, the writing seems weak, almost forced. The same cannot be said about this book. It's very entertaining with enough action to keep the reader interested from beginning to end. I've read almost all of Mr. Reed's books and consider myself a huge fan. What amazes me most is that he is able to describe scientfic terms/concepts almost as if it were poetry. The write is clean, crisp and flows. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Marrow.

After the near disaster at Marrow (see MARROW), The Great Ship continues its journey into space. Inside the millions perhaps even billions of near immortals go about there tedious everyday life regardless of the vessel's path. How else can one live when riding a space ship that contains whole planets inside on a trek that seems forever. The recent calamity has agitated the populace.

The Master Captain is worried not just about the morale of the millions on board; that is a normal concern for her as boredom and post trauma reaction can prove mutinously dangerous. Of immediate concern however are the Polyponds and a seemingly Black Hole that is in their way. She assigns Submaster Captains Washen and Pamir to deal with the Polyponds, gigantic water beings that are attacking the Great Ship. The hero of the Marrow incident Mere investigates the Black Hole. Pamir learns a God-like essence, the Ink Well, perhaps devil might be more descriptive, threatens to "imprison" everyone on board the Great Ship for eternity inside the black hole.

The sequel to the exciting MARROW, THE WELL OF STARS is an action-packed science fiction thriller that never slows down as the crew battle three enemies, the Ink Well, the Polyponds, and internal ennui. The story line is fast-paced, but with the Star Trek like crisis to confront, the key cast members seem unemotionally detached to the predicaments. Especially strange is that the population is allegedly edgy and tired of perhaps living forever yet an eternity within the Ink Well has to exacerbate all that is eating at everyone, but no one seems agitated. Still Robert Reed will have readers pondering living for eternity.

Harriet Klausner