The Prodigal Sun / Sean Williams & Shane Dix

The Prodigal Sun

category: science fiction, author:

Sean Williams & Shane Dix

book 1 of Evergence
published by Voyager,
original copyright 1999, read in July 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

I think that I am beginning to see a pattern in the Williams & Dix books... Okay, I've only read two (that I remember). Still: galactic in scope, science to the max, characters who snipe. In Echoes of Earth the sniping was a bit too much. In The Prodigal Sun the balance is much better.

In Sun, the characters do snipe. But, as the book progresses, they do the expected: see past surface differences to the nice person beneath. Sure, it's expected -- perhaps cliched -- but it does make for a more enjoyable book. The Sun characters also take more independent action... No bureaucratic stalling, just reasonable discussion followed by relevant action.

The Galaxy is a big place and humankind has filled it. All the alien-type creatures are really just evolved, devolved or changed humans. The many millennia of human expansion have also resulted in scientific advancement but with several gaps yet to be explored. This all adds up to a setting with scope, science, interest and variety... and plenty of humanity.

Many of the main characters are "pristine" humans, based on the original human genetic stock. These characters give us relatively simple associations, people with whom we can associate. For the more extreme amongst us -- we can associate with the "aliens", the modified humans.

In reality, the modified humans are stereotypes given vastly altered shapes. The ESPers are small, cute and hairy. The traders are lean, bald, almost rubbing their hands together as they do a deal. The brown and bear-like Mbata are peaceful lovers of their land who speak Bantu. Stereotypes and, mostly, two dimensional.

Still, this is science fiction: no room here for three-dimensional characters!

There's action a-plenty, great (or do I mean greatly exaggerated) science and good ideas. Here, for example, is a vat-bred super-soldier from a long-extinct culture: why does he help the heroes? There is the super-computer in a box: is it really "just" a computer? And -- as with plenty of good science fiction -- there are big ideas which are fully grounded in today.

What happens when one nation invades another? Do the original citizens -- now second-class citizens on their own world -- have any rights? In a democratic Commonwealth but with limited travel rights, how can they get a fair hearing?

Plus, largely in an appendix, there is an overview of the Commonwealth. Is this just background reading? Or is it the authors' extra emphasis on the way in which they believe that a democracy could be organised... At the very least, it can make the reader think.. and that is the sign of good science fiction.

Science fiction. Human scale. Planetary action. Galactic scope and current relevance. All good.

..o0o..

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