Customer Reviews

The Zen Gun

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

 

 

An entertaining and absorbing romp through space aboard a battle class pleasure ship in search of the ultimate weapon. While developing a new space drive, humans have accidentally torn a hole in space, annoying nearby aliens, and inadvertently releasing strange creatures who mold matter indisciminately. As a human-primate chimera and his samurai escort quest for the power of the zen gun, intelligent animals threaten to take control of the empire. Even though the moon is falling from the sky, and the robots are on strike, there is always time for a brief physics lesson or two. Barrington J. Bayley is not only a great storyteller, he is also a master of the English language.

Perhaps not for everyone, but I found this book to be fresh, complex, humorous, and fast-paced. And hidden in with the pure zaniness is some depth, like how old and powerful empires decay, and the dynamics of conflict when one side has polished and perfected tactics, and the other fresh energy but is in a desperate race to learn the rules before being crushed.... It's all thrown together into a giant pile but for me it works.

There's good science fiction and then there's bad science fiction. Unfortunately The Zen Gun belongs in the latter category. The story is a mixture of all sorts of ideas: genetic engineering, an intergalactic empire in decline, talking animals, a strange zen gun with an ominous purpose...

There's plenty of imaginative space opera action and it all moves pretty swiftly, but at the same time the whole story is confusing and bounces from place to place. Parts of The Zen Gun are pertty good, but the most of it doesn't really work that well.

Add to that some very bizarre and boring pseudoscientific lectures on the nature of the universe and you'll end up with a fairly pointless book. I recommend skipping this one; if you decide to read it, fortunately it's very short. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)