Customer Reviews

The Wellstone

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

 

 

Prince Bascal is frustrated as the heir to the solar system-wide Queendom of Sol because everyone is immortal so he can never become the ruler. Currently the bored royal attends summer camp at a remote locale where "troubled boys" are exiled so that they can gain an appreciation for civilization after time in the wild. However, Bascal has had enough of the confines of Camp Friendly and with several other campers, he uses Fax Technology to escape to Denver on planet Earth.

Bascal and cohorts cause havoc until the Constabulary arrests them. His mother Queen Tamra lectures him on behavior of a future monarch, but Bascal points out he will never be the ruler. Having a taste of revolt and sneaking an earthling female Mary into his entourage, Bascal begins a revolution against the ruling party while the government bungles in their efforts to stop the wild bunch from winning the Fax Wars.

THE WELLSTONE is a wild futuristic satire that entertains while pushing the audience to think through to outcomes of current solutions to problems. The story line hooks the reader the moment Bascal and horde escape camp using Fax technology. Their subsequent adventures are fun to follow as if Wild In the Streets occurred across the Solar System. The key characters seem real enabling fans to believe in Fax Technology and immortality though wonder why we do. Will McCarthy provides a winner that will leave the audience applying his logic to modern day issues in order to estimate the outcome not just the output.

Harriet Klausner

I really liked THE COLLAPSIUM, but this sequel is even more fun and leaves me hoping for more. The ending is open enough for another sequel.

While THE COLLAPSIUM had a "Tom Swift" type quality, this one is a boy's adventure story retold for adults. While satirically light hearted, it does have a disturbing underlying theme reminding me of THE LORD OF THE FLIES.

This adventure is quite independent of THE COLLAPSIUM and just as enjoyable whether or not you've read the earlier book.

The conflict between the main two characters fuels the book. Like THE COLLAPSIUM, the themes of immortality and of cloning duplicate selves are thoroughly examined, especially in light of the psychological effect on human nature. This time, it's the effect on young people being raised with expectations of immortality that's spotlighted.

Highly recommended to all science-fiction fans, and to those periphally interested in the genre.

The Wellstone is the sequel to Wil McCarthy's The Collapsium, set some time later. Tech called fax filters has led to practical immortality (or immorbidity), which is a problem for the children. What will they do when they grow up? Their parents aren't about to vacate their jobs, for the most part. Some of these kids turn delinquent as a result -- or perhaps they would have been that way in any case. A number of kids are being disciplined by confinement to Camp Friendly, a "summer camp" located on a tiny "planette". One of these kids is the POV character, a young engineer named Conrad Mursk. Another is the Crown Prince Bascal, the son of Bruno de Towaji (hero of The Collapsium) and the Queen. Bascal is extremely talented, a noted poet and a born leader, and he is very rebellious, as well as very spoiled. He incites the boys to an act of sabotage -- they escape via fax to Denver and release a dangerous substance that turns programmable matter to junk. They are soon captured, and Bascal's furious parents return them to Camp Friendly, with even stricter confinement (no working Fax gates).

But Bascal is not to be thwarted. With Conrad's sometimes reluctant help, with the help of a semi-accidental recruit, a teenaged girl named Xmary who was arrested by mistake in the earlier incident, and with the continued help of Bascal's less intelligent henchmen, he hatches another audacious plot. They use the properties of programmable matter to create "homemade" solar sailship from the planette, and they head for the nearest working Fax gate. But a surprise awaits them there ...

I thought this even a better book than The Collapsium. It lacks the previous book's almost insouciant inventiveness -- the "Tom Swift" nature I referred to above. But the characters are done better, in particular Conrad himself, and Bascal as seen by onrad. Bascal is an interesting creation -- a nice mixture of admirable and dangerous characteristics. Conrad and Xmary are nicely handled positive characters -- their frustration at heir lot as children in a world with no room for them as dults is well portrayed. The book remains inventive, and often funny, with a dark undertone (reinforced by a downright grim prologue and epilogue) that lends a certain (forgive me!) gravitas to the theme.

The Wellstone is the second novel in The Queendom of Sol series, following The Collapsium. In the previous volume, Bruno foils a plot to destroy Sol, is crowned King of Sol, and replaces the fragmented and compromised Iscog with the Nescog, based on Sykes' designs for the Solar Collapsiter Ring. Of more importance, that which was lost was found, and he marries the recovered Tamra.

In this novel, a few decades have passed since the marriage; King Bruno and Queen Tamatra have a son, Prince Bascal. A born leader, he is most often found leading his companions into trouble. His parents have sent him to Camp Friendly on a miniature planet in the Kuiper Belt and he takes over the camp, terrifying the director and counselors, and then breaks out to return to Earth.

The prince has come back to Earth to start a revolution (which is a surprise to his fourteen male companions). They gather upstairs in a cafe outside Denver and start partying. The prince gains the confidence of a local girl, Xiomara Li Weng, and aspires to attain access through her to a network of young people in the Denver area. He is planning to trash the Queendom or, at least, the wellstone in it.

As the group is becoming organized, the Constabulary appears and place the escaped youngsters under arrest. At least, the cops think that they have all the escapees, but they fail to notice that one of the arrested boys is really a girl, Xmary, and so Feck is still at large. The revolution continues.

This story is told from the point-of-view of Conrad Mursk, one of the prince's companions. Conrad (as Radmer) is also the protaganist of the framing story, wherein he travels to a miniature planet to retrieve Bruno de Towaji to correct a problem with the "squeezed" Luna. The framing story occurs much later than the central tale, so far in the future that Bruno's thoughts have worn deep paths through his brain. For some reason, the facsimile machines and the collapsiter web no longer function, so Radmer has to fly through space in a brass ball, using chemical explosives to propel the craft and manual navigation to guide it; he almost misses the king's planetoid, whereupon he would have been lost in space forever.

This story is about the generation gap and immorbidity in the Queendom of Sol. The prince is a royal personage who may never reign, for his parents will potentially live forever. Moreover, his parents have been elected to the positions of Queen and King, so he might not be selected as King even if they abdicate.

Like many seventeen year olds, Bascal is trying to find his place in society and in life itself, but he sees no future in it for himself and his friends. Of course, his parents don't fully understand his complaints and the arguments have gone on so long that everybody is frustrated. The prince is ready to just start breaking things.

This novel is not quite dystopian, but it does illustrate the other side of material paradise. The basic premise is much like Heinlein's Beyond This Horizon, that material plenty and long life are not enough. Once mankind's physical needs are met and even luxuries are available to all people, what will each individual do to fill their lives? Most people have a need to achieve, but only a few individuals have the ability to create new things. What do the less talented people do to make their lives meaningful? If they cannot create, do they destroy things? This theme has been used before, but it worth repeating.

The framing story is interesting, yet confusing. Maybe it will lead to the next installment in this series.

Recommended for McCarthy fans and anyone else who enjoys hard science fiction about technologically advanced societies inhabited by realistic characters.

I think this book would stand well on its own, but it is equally amazing as a sequel to The Collapsium, which seemed impossible to top. I rarely have the feeling that I can't put a book down, but this one kept me up all night and home from work the next day. The realism and depth of this society, and its fascinating uses of technology such as programmable matter and solar/laser sails, do not stop the book from being both funny and moving at the same time. What is it really like to be immortal, in an immortal society where every need is fulfilled? McCarthy's answers are surprising but ring true. Wow.

I was first introduced to Wil McCarthy via his book BLOOM. I really enjoyed this and find myself recalling much of the imagery involved. It was a great tale.

The Wellstone series (Collapsium, Wellstone, Lost in Transmission, To Crush the Moon) are proving to be a bit more effort to get through, but they are worth it. I recommend you start from the beginning, certainly, as the world that Wil McCarthy creates is pretty darn incredible. Like any good tale what makes it most compelling is not the high-tech gadgetry and such, but the reflections on the human condition. For example, if you could make copies of yourself at will, what rights would those copies have? Or if everyone were virtually immortal, what would this do to the ability of our children to mature? If we could genetically modify ourselves (even radically), what would the definition of human actually mean? These may seem like easily answered questions, or like questions that other authors have already explored, but Wil McCarthy puts his own unique perspective into these books and points out some valid and disturbing probable results.

My only criticism would be that at times some subjects, some threads in the story, seem to be dragged out a bit more than is called for. I get a sense of sluggishness that hints at the likes of Terry Brooks (endless description...ugh) or Stephen R. Donaldson (endless character introspection...mercy). Fortunately, Wil McCarthy never quite succumbs to such digressions, but he skirts the territory a bit too close for my complete comfort.

If you liked Bloom (and who wouldn't?), then take on the deeper more relevant topics in the Wellstone series.

This is a very interesting sequal to Collaspsium, continuing Mr. McArthy's well thought out "science-magic" witha good dose of Lord of the Flies. He has moved the series in a quantum direction and I'll reserve further judgement until I finish book 3.

If you enjoy hard science fiction with high brow humor then you should certainly like this novel.

I was perhaps expecting something...different after reading the first book of the series (COLLAPSIUM). It was a tale of adult intrigue, romance, science fiction and an exploration of how longevity affects our society. The totally inappropriate title (WELLSTONE) suggest a foray into the wondrous possibilities of this miraculous material but alas we are left with a young male coming of age story.

This is not to say that the plot is bad or that the action is not authentic. As the father of two teenage boys, the author nails it on the head with his descriptions of group rivalry, efforts to be liked, the innner thoughts of teenagers, their moods and quick jealousies and inability to control their mouth or their actions. But it needed to be more than this. The one outstanding device was the use of Conrad, the reflective lad who never tried to fool himself although he did manage to fool others. The opening and the closing featuring the matured young man (who for some reason changed his name) are like bookends, enclosing a wild tale of rides to the heavens, group pranks and enough angst to build a wellstone cathedral.

Perhaps this was only a preliminary tale for the next in the series. Hopefully the boys will have matured and their actions will be more attuned to adult conduct. This is a good - though not great - read.

How can this book be a sequel when it: 1) the main characters in Collapsium only make a cameo appearances, 2) when the Collapsium storyline jumps 80 years into the future doesn't even follow a natural flow and 3) when the basic formula from Collapsium isn't adhered to?

The majority of characters in Wellstone are teenagers, one of whom is Bruno's son, the prince. Bruno himself makes a simple cameo as the king of the Queendom and plays no major role. The teenagers are cookie cutter material compared to the invention of Bruno from Collapsium. Bruno was a driving force in Collapsium and really complimented McCarty's mix of hard science and wry wit. However, without Bruno the plot from Collapsium doesn't flow into Wellstone nor are the key ingredients adhered to. Wellstone reads NOTHING like Collapsium and if you enjoyed Collapsium, be happy that you did and stop the series where it started. The problem-solution progressive method of writing in Collapsium heralded back to George O. Smith's Venus Equilateral and proved to be an effective writing style for McCarthy. In Wellstone, this method was, again, used but not as obvious as it was in Collapsium. The teenagers needed use their intelligence to find ways of thwarting their captors, their elders and even each other.

All in all, it was a semi-interesting book but calling it a sequel to Collapsium simply because it uses the same science and uses a few characters in cameo doesn't mesh well.

The obvious SF instance is DUNE. Same here.

Collapsium was a fun SuperScience romp, with some rather nice tongue-in-cheek social comedy.

The rest of the series is disappointing: it's as if McCarthy, having invented his world and its technology, felt he had to keep writing in that universe.

The result is a sort of grim plod... rather like a sociology text set as a novel. With none of the joyful dance of ideas and language of "Collapsium".

As with Dune: read the first, then stop.