I vacillated between quite liking this book and being unimpressed, but it failed to elicit a strong reaction either way. While it has some good ideas I vacillated between quite liking this book and being unimpressed, but it failed to elicit a strong reaction either way. While it has some good ideas it is very flawed. One of these flaws is the first chapter. The weakness of the opening is that I just didn't believe that this community were settlers on another world; at best, they seemed frontier inhabitants. While there is the feeling of hardship there is no sense of alienness, and the group seem frankly unprepared. I'm sure this is a deliberate choice but, for me, it really didn't work. We do find out that Pax has not been settled by a government or organisation, but simply a group of like-minded individuals. This isn’t the only time when information is left late that would have been better delivered sooner; most of the foodstuffs grown are referred to by names we recognise - wheat, yams, etc. Being a seasoned scifi reader I assumed these were Earth-terms applied to native flora, as is clearly the case with fauna such as the ‘crabs’ and ‘eagles’, however this is entirely unremarked upon until right at the end when it becomes clear that a grove of “orange trees” are certainly nothing to do with the citrus plant.
While this is the most blatant problem, it is emblematic of a clumsiness and an unevenness of tone throughout. I couldn’t help comparing it to other alien planetary colonisation books, and it fell short. The argument can be made that this is merely the framework on which the author hangs to ideas she wants to explore - and these are indeed intriguing ideas about communication and citizenship, and what it means to be a person - but generally the construction of the tale isn’t strong enough to do this justice.
Part of the problem is that the Pacifists (as the Pax settlers come to call themselves) are a little bit too nice. It isn’t generally a problem, there is enough characterisation to manage some village-level friction and, to be honest, this might have been enough. The issue is that when Burke introduces more serious antagonism late in the book it seems forced. (view spoiler)[The original settlement is split by dissent of the young when they discover they have been lied to, and this is handled tolerably well. I quite liked the later story of the serial killer who turned out to be infected with a parasite causing her psychopathy, although this did require a certain suspension of disbelief. The later conflict with Cedar is so extreme compared to everything that had gone before - and the characterisation not particular well written - that this really jarred for me. (hide spoiler)]
All in all, I would say this is worth a read but unlikely to blow away anyone who has read Speaker for the Dead or Children of Time, or a plethora of Brian W. Aldiss stories on similar themes. I’m not convinced it held my interest enough for me to bother with the second volume. ...more
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