Stealing Light
(Shoal #1)
by Gary Gibson
science fiction
copyright 2007
read in December 2014
rated 5/10: readable, but only if there's nothing else
Hard science fiction, death and suffering, ultimately pointless. As a mindless piece of science fiction, five out of ten may be a bit harsh. But really, this book is... stupid.
First, it jumps all over the place. Fragmented flashbacks... which contain other flashbacks. Back-flashbacks ?
The key flashback is to "the Port Gabriel incident". The details are scattered throughout the book. Not in sequence, either. Most of the flashback fragments contain their own flash-further-backs.
And look ! It's mind control, right ?! That becomes glaringly obvious, halfway through the book. Doesn't stop the "slow reveal" flashbacks though.
Then there's the heroine. A troubled woman with electronic superpowers. Several times she threatens someone... "If this is a doublecross then you'll be the first to die!" Not only does she never follow through -- she clearly has no ability to follow through ! In terms of physical threat, this woman is at the bottom of the pecking order.
Yet she is the one person who is chosen to save the universe from self-destruction ! Really ? Why ?!
Then there's the driving force behind all the killing and violence... It seems -- to possibly spoil an unbelievable plot -- that one race of aliens is "protecting" all the others by hiding destructive technology. So we can all live in peace and harmony and ignorance.
The worlds that we see, are run by a brutally despotic government. Within that, the religious nutters are fighting to the death with the rule by the knife nutters. There are also the various gangsters and warlords, who are powerful enough to run their own armies and space navies...
This is the peace and love that the aliens are lying and killing to preserve. Puh-lease !
Then there's the final dash to safety... Oh no ! Will they get there in time ?! Good grief ! Why can't the super spaceships just fly a bit closer ?! And what happened to the two spaceships which were also waiting for the heroine ?! Were they -- controlled by artificial intelligences -- also too stupid to avoid destruction ?
There's a lot of action and adventure. Interspersed by even longer -- so it seems -- and pointless -- descriptions of technology.
Hard science fiction. Soft on logic and plot. Easy to read. Not very well written
Disappointing, really.
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