Fool's War (Mass Market Paperback)

by Sarah Zettel (Author) "Curran watched the man whose life he required settle onto one of the faux leather couches scattered around the station's reception module..." (more)
Key Phrases: hatch cycled, berthing deck, wafer stack, Guild Master, The Gate, Port Oberon (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Sarah Zettel's first novel (Reclamation) showed her to be an up-and-coming author with promise. She delivers on that promise with Fool's War, a book that is never what it seems. The main character--Dobbs--is a modern Fool, someone who serves as both entertainer and psychoanalyst for the ships that ply the stars. When the ship on which Dobbs is serving accidentally delivers a rogue artificial intelligence to an unsuspecting planet, a secret that has held the galaxy together will threaten to tear it apart. This is a grand, fast-moving story with delightful characters and insightful social commentary. And darn fun to read.

From Publishers Weekly
In "alien contact" science fiction, the aliens come from far off, light-years away. But what if the aliens were closer to home? What if the next great life-form with which we must contend isn't from the stars but from our hard drives? In Zettel's second novel (after Reclamation), Katmer Al Shei, owner and engineer of the starship Pasadena, and her crew become pawns in an elaborate scheme to bring human beings and artificially intelligent life-forms into deadly conflict. But the real protagonist ends up being Evelyn Dobbs, the ship's Fool, who, hired to amuse the crew for its long voyage, finds herself trying to contain the threat of war. The influence of Asimov's robot stories and C.J. Cherryh's elaborate, sophisticated spaceship adventures are both evident here. But while Zettel's skills as a teacher of technical writing are very handy when it comes to computer terminology, her human characters are less well developed. Still, Zettel's story has a lively pace and gains more than enough momentum to keep readers from noticing the time.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446602930
• ISBN-13: 978-0446602938
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #703,766 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual twists and turns, August 26, 2003

By	Michael L. Dennis "mitchdennis" (West Des Moines, IA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fool's War is one of the more unusual science fiction books I've read recently. I recommend reading various reviews on Amazon rather than rely on the blurb on the book's back cover since it misleads the reader -- specifically, the book is more about intrigue, shifting alliances, socio-economic warfare, and prejudice rather than merely a hard-core examination of artificial intelligences and viruses.

In fact, Zettel seems driven to put a human face on bigotry and prejudice and is using science fiction imagery to make her case. She describes many types of bigotry:

Religious -- Several of the main characters are Muslim and their faith is an integral part of who they are. Not everyone they meet, however, can separate the individual from terrorist acts that occurred in the past.

Spiritual / philosophical -- A community has arisen that denies that humankind will ever be truly free when trapped on a single planet. Humankind must create its own environments and be master of its own fate rather than rely on the capricious nature of Nature. These individuals are ridiculed and, in essence, reviled for their beliefs and are considered second class citizens. Zettel even makes one of her enlightened characters intolerant of members of this cultural "diversity".

Life-form -- Human vs. artificial intelligence. What does it mean to be human, or alive? Are humans so inherently xenophobic that they cannot accept the possibility of other types of life? Are artificial intelligences so jaundiced that they must instill fear rather than convince?

All in all, this is a very strong book. Strong characterization, strong plot, enough twists and turns to make things interesting.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine & twisty feminista space-opera., January 21, 2004

By	Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This one sat on my 'to-read' shelf for a long time, after I bounced off her first, Reclamation, which has an excruciatingly slow start. Fool's War was a New York Times Notable Book of 1997 (and Reclamation won a Locus Award for Best First Novel...)

The setup is uncomfortably topical -- the story-now is 500 years after violent religious wars, started by Islamic extremists, almost wrecked Earth. The subsequent diaspora to the colony worlds simply spread out the same old hatreds. Now the ugly chickens are flapping home to roost....

I can't say very much about Fool's War's plot without spoiling things for you, but Zettel spins an impressively twisty tale. She constantly plays with the reader's expectations, and she (mostly) plays fair -- though her storytelling craft still has some rough spots in this sophomore effort. A cover blurb compares her to Heinlein and Asimov, but there's more than a touch of Van Vogt's signature rapidfire scene-changes here.

Fool's War is somethng of a grrrl powr-fantasy -- and I do like a well-done power-fantasy, especially one with a light touch. Here's Pilot Yerusha, in a moment of reflection within the storm of denouement: "I'm saving the human race so I can go on a date..." If you like to see femmes kicking butt that *needs* kicking, you'll like Fool's War.

Zettel's authorial hand does get a bit heavy with her villains, and in pointing characters where they need to go for the next plot-twist. But overall it's good, clean fun, and I'll have to do some Zettel catchup reading soon.

review copyright 2001 by Peter D. Tillman

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and absorbing science-fiction read, October 8, 2001

By	Tess (MA) - See all my reviews

I thought Sarah Zettel did a fantastic job with this book. The characters were interesting and compelling, and one really felt for them. (One reason why some of the unhappier portions of the ending nearly made me cry.) The characters were unconventional but realistic, something that is all too rare nowadays. They were all sympathetic and their actions made sense.

Where I think she had some difficulty is with the more "panoramic" parts of the book. The biggest problem I had was with the end, which was very exciting and action-packed, but sort of... out-of-place. It felt rushed, as though she wasn't as interested in it as in the things that had gone on earlier. In consequence, some of the characterization towards the end really suffered... The gloating supervillain, weird motivations, murder and mayhem that wasn't very well thought out.

The hidden purpose of the Fool's Guild was very interesting, but I just didn't buy that for SO LONG they had taken this "wait, watch, don't do anything" view of working towards their purpose. It's hard to say more without destroying some of the surprises, which were some of the most fun parts of the book-- you never knew where she was going, yet she gave you enough clues that after the secret was revealed, you could go back and say, "Oh, I get it." (The one exception was Dobbs. Did anyone else guess her hidden secret fairly quickly?)

All-in-all, a very interesting book, with some thought-provoking ideas and a complex and fascinating future universe.