We spent most of the weekend at a local convention called
Consortium. David Weber is the Guest of Honor, so to speak.
Regular readers of this column may remember that I have argued
that there had to be at least one more Honor Harrington book yet
unpublished. Mr. Weber revealed that there are several more to come.
Unfortunately, the next novel won't be out until about this time
next year.
He also revealed a bunch of spoilers which I shan't relate
because he asked nicely that we shouldn't. I'm supposed to get
an interview tomorrow, so tune in next month to see if we managed
to work out our schedules. Meanwhile, I'll review a book by another
fine writer named David.
Despite what my wife says elsewhere in this publication, I
still prefer to read REAL BOOKS. Pay no attention to the
man behind the curtain!
The saga of Nick Seafort continues, this time with the children of all his
old buddies, hence the title. The principle character (other than Nick) this time
is Randy Carr, Derek Carr's son. Derek was killed during an assassination attempt on
Nick's life. His son Randy has been very bitter about this for years. In his mind,
he has demonized Nick Seafort.
But when the chips are down, and Randy gets in trouble with both the
government and the Church, Nick is there to help -- even after Randy has tried to kill
him. Once again, Nick Seafort's stiff-necked sense of duty leads him to defy the
powers-that-be and do the right thing. (How else could the plot of a Seafort novel run?)
Randy's help proves essential to the working out of Hope Nation's destiny. As
usual, Nick and everyone associated with him has to go through Hell before the end
of the book. The trick is to try to guess how things will be worked out (I never can).
If you're a fan of Mr. Feintuch's don't miss this latest.
Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" series was very easy to get
addicted to. The story of the first hundred pioneers on Mars, the attempted
development of the planet, and the consequences of that development ended
way too soon.
Why, then, did it take me so long to pick up this companion book and read
it? I guess I really was afraid that it wouldn't live up to the novels.
The Martians is a collection of short stories related to Red Mars,
Green Mars, and Blue Mars. If you're a fan, you'll really want
this one. It gives you a different perspective on some of the things that happened
in the novels.
In addition, it has stories which show what could have happened
if the original expedition had been cancelled. One of these in particular,
reminded me just why I finally left my job at a NASA contractor. NASA is
no longer involved in human space exploration. Sure, we go into orbit almost
every month. There is now a space station permanently occupied up there. But
that isn't exploration, its development. And that's the way things are going
to remain for the foreseeable future. The story in question involves scientists
at JPL (the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California). Through a robotic
mission to the red planet, they discover microscopic life. Instead of their
work bringing a human mission to Mars closer, it instead kills it. The
scientist involved realizes that he has wasted a decade of his life, neglected
his family . . . has, in fact sacrificed far too much . . . only to achieve
a result directly opposite the one he wanted. Someone's been reading my mail!
All in all, this is a very interesting book. I'm truly sorry it took
me so long to get around to reading it. The last story is about taking the manuscript
for the Mars novels to the mailbox with his son on his shoulders. If you have
children, you'll enjoy that one, too.
