Aurora
by Kim Stanley Robinson
science fiction
copyright 2015
read in January 2015
rated 5/10: readable, but only if there's nothing else
Really, I blame Herman Melville. Melville started it all. Padding a weak story with facts which add nothing to the plot.
Aurora is a how-to primer for space travel via generation ship. With a weak story to give it some "human interest". Actually the story is not too bad... not embarrassingly bad... just weak.
The main points of this book are to (a) list all the possible problems of spending a long time in a space ship, (b) describe a computer gaining self awareness and (c) show off the supposed cleverness of the author.
There is just soooo much scientific mumbo-jumbo. Look, if you can't write a good story -- go and write a school textbook.
The author does try to justify his use of mumbo-jumbo. Most of the book is supposedly written by the super-intelligent computer. And that, presumably, justifies the long rambles of scientific theory. Ho hum. Just the author showing off, really. Worse yet, he shows off with more than hard science... Clearly, he did a search for "wild and irrelevant factoids" before writing this book.
Worse yet... I'm forced to doubt whether the "science" is at all accurate... Because... There are some obvious bits of nonsense. If one statement is wrong, how can I trust the rest ?!
For example:
That great farewell statement of travellers, "Wherever you go, there we are." No !! A misquote. A misquote which has completely changed the sense of the aphorism !
Then there's the light of Tau Ceti... The settlers walk on the surface of the planet. In the sunlight. Or -- writes the author -- should that be called "taulight" ?! Come on ! Do we ever walk in the Sol-light ? No. We walk in the *sun* light, because Sol is a sun. One of many suns. As is Tau Ceti. *Sun* light. Get it ?!
Then there's the journey home... With not quite enough fuel to stop at the end. But...
The spaceship spends months gathering fuel. Why not spend a few more months ? Years, even ! After all, the journey will take almost two centuries... So why not spend an extra few years gathering enough fuel to ensure that you arrive safely ?! But no. Let's just set off for home with not nearly enough fuel... Absolute stupidity.
Get such simple concepts wrong and all other facts are thrown into doubt.
Out of all the faults with this book there are just two which really drag it down. 1. It is really, really boring. Cut out all the "scientific explanations" -- more than half the book -- and the rest would be just a rather weak novel. But 2. it is unremittingly depressing.
There is a moral to this book: Do not try to go outside the Solar System.
And the main argument is: It will take a long time to terraform an alien planet, so don't bother.
But humans (in the book) have invented suspended animation ! Why not set up terraforming -- then sleep for a few hundred years ?! And send a second spaceship, so new settlers can arrive when a lot of the work has been done.
No.
Just stay at home, says Robinson.
I get to the end of a long and boring book and think, Oh. How miserable. What an absolute bummer.
Earth has a few nice spots. The rest of the universe is beyond our reach.
Rubbish.
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"It's better to have loved and lost than to have loved, married... and then lost"... Beyond the Black Stump
1 comment:
Almost forgot to mention a theory that I developed while reading Aurora:
Kim Stanley Robinson is getting awards for writing boring stories buried deep in scientific "facts". Stephen Baxter gets awards for writing pointless stories wrapped in primer-level science. What's happening to the ability to write a *good story* ?!
Here's my theory:
Science fiction afficionados don't like the popularisation of "fun" science by Star Wars movies. Too many people watch Star Wars -- and enjoy it -- and think, Science fiction is fun !
Robinson and Baxter are part of a movement to take science fiction out of the popular mainstream. Back to the esotoric nerd-world where it languished for many a long year...
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