|
|
Shiva 3000
How do you kill a warrior who can defeat the gods?
 |
Shiva 3000
|
|
By Jan Lars Jensen
|
|
Harcourt Brace & Co.
|
|
$24.00
|
|
Hardcover, July 1999
|
|
ISBN 0-15-100454-4
|
|
|
Review by J.B. Peck
 n Jan Lars Jensen's future India, the gods of the Hindu pantheon are living,
physical beings. Some are benevolent, like the hundred-armed god who helps
build apartment buildings. Most are not, such as Shiva, who carries a
bloodsucking club called Khatwanga. Worse still is Jagannath, an enormous
mechanized beast with spiked wheels and a devouring maw who rolls through
cities consuming the sinful (which tends to mean everybody). Yet despite
these terrors there is one who opposes the gods. He is the Baboon Warrior, a powerful fighter with
the head of a baboon who battles the gods and often wins.
He is India's national hero.
Enter Rakesh, whose mission is to destroy the Baboon Warrior. Why?
It's his dharma, his holy duty, and he cannot possibly disobey. Just as
the gods are real, other aspects of traditional Indian society like caste
and dharma are actualities in Shiva 3000, defining and
governing the lives of all. As Rakesh begins his quest, he meets Vasant,
formerly the Royal Engineer and a designer of airships. Vasant became
embroiled in a plot by the First Wife and the cult of the Kama Sutra to
depose the Sovereign. Outcast, he clings to his overblown sense of
importance and wants nothing to do with the heretical Rakesh. But Rakesh
won't leave him alone because he's certain that Vasant is tied to his fate.
He's right of course. It's that pesky dharma again.
The travelers' journeys take them to stygian caverns and windswept
citadels. They battle demons, monks, rebels and six-armed warriors. They
destroy towns, challenge a queen, and even explore the interior of a god.
In the process they learn more about their world than perhaps they would
have wished. For Jensen's seeming fantasy has logic and science at its
core, and Rakesh gets a glimpse of a deeper truth about the gods, dharma
and his mission.
Gods and monsters, trains and guns
Despite the heavy philosophical overtones of Shiva 3000,
the novel is an energetic romp of a tale, with action in every chapter.
It reads somewhat like a fantasy quest, with the heroes travelling across
the land, seeing sights and gathering allies. The battles are as original
as the setting, involving inhumanly accurate archers and chemical warfare
based on spices, to mention just two elements. These creative touches help build excitement, since readers never know what Rakesh might have to face next. Jensen is also
a deft writer, and his prose is clean and not overly stylized. He knows that
action can't be the only ingredient, so he leavens the story with
fables, flashbacks and descriptions that create a good old-fashioned sense of wonder.
One thing the novel lacks, however, is a character who is truly warm or loveable.
Vasant is a grumpy curmudgeon, soured by his fall from grace, and Rakesh is
so driven by his one-on-one jihad that he commits cruel and unthinking acts to
get his way. Having readers lose sympathy with Rakesh is all part
of Jensen's plan, but he walks a fine line in pursuit of it.
This book mostly stands out because its setting and ideas are so fresh. Shiva 3000 gives readers a tour of a unique, thoroughly
imagined science/fantasy India that is a steamy, colorful melange of old
and new, including gods, monsters, trains, guns and cars. There's
something startling on practically every page, and anyone looking for a
break from cloned sword & sorcery or space opera worlds should definitely
pick it up. Jensen's science fiction crackles with the same creative rush
that fills fellow Canadian Sean Stewart's fantasy work. The fact that this is his first
novel is a little frightening.
Great story. Cool world. What more could you want?
-- J.B.P.
Back to the top.
Back to The Moon
Taking back the moon by stealing a space shuttle
|
Back to The Moon
|
|
By Homer H. Hickam Jr.
|
|
Delacorte Press
|
|
$23.95/$32.95 Canada
|
|
Hardcover, June 1999
|
|
ISBN 0-385-33422-2
|
|
|
Review by Mark H. Walker
t's been 27 years since humans last walked on the moon. The return of Apollo 17
signaled the end to Earth's extraterrestrial planetary exploration. However,
Jack Medaris, an ex-NASA engineer and owner of the Medaris Engineering Company,
wants to change all that. Make no mistake, he has good reason for doing so. Hired by a multinational conglomeration called the January Group,
Medaris's company has been directed to design a robotic soil excavation unit,
fly it to the moon, and return with a healthy dose of Helium-3--a rare isotope
needed to fuel an experimental fusion reactor that could forever change the way
humans use energy.
Unfortunately, the excavation unit is destroyed and all is
lost. But Jack Medaris is not a man to give up easily. He and his crew hijack the space shuttle
Columbia and point her to the moon. They don't realize, however, that
a stowaway from the original crew--a beautiful American Indian named Penny High Eagle--is onboard.
She rapidly develops a love-hate relationship with Medaris as she debates
whether to help the handsome engineer reach the moon...or whether to sabotage his mission.
Penny High Eagle is not the only fly in the deep-space ointment. Also
in Medaris's way stand the vice president of the United States, a shady security
service, and the remnants of America's Strategic Defense Initiative program.
Medaris must cope with them all, in addition to a serious case of romantic
confusion triggered by Penny High Eagle.
A great book for NASA freaks
Back to the Moon's premise is sound: near-future science fiction based on
today's technology and written by a man who has intimate knowledge of said
technology. Unfortunately, the execution is flawed, and the result is a woeful
conglomeration of thin plot, unresolved tension, and just plain unbelievability.
Author Homer Hickam's attempt to follow up his best-selling book October Sky starts
strongly. The novel's opening pages are both plausible and tense. But the story
line soon turns into a series of easily bested obstacles that do little to
heighten suspense or turn pages. Sorry, but it's a bit tough to accept that the
government hires thugs who can close down NASA's Mission Control, find an
ex-Strategic Defense Initiative project manager working in an arcade, and launch
an assault on a shuttle--all of which is thwarted by a .45 caliber pistol and
some homemade explosives.
The characters aren't much better. Jack Medaris is a decisive man and most
readers will want to see him succeed. It's too bad that he is swamped by both an
unbelievable parade of events and a resolution of his inner conflict that is
weak at best and senseless at worst. Penny High Eagle, and
her crush on Medaris, seems more in tune with Fast Times at Ridgemont High
than a hardcover novel, and although Hickam builds up a believable
conflict between Medaris and Frank Bonner--the former lover of Medaris's dead
wife--he promptly writes Bonner out of the novel. Go figure.
Gripes aside, NASA freaks will enjoy watching the space shuttle put through its
lunar paces, and the Medaris/High Eagle repartee can occasionally amuse. If not
believable, the plot is at least fantastic, and many readers may find themselves
wondering, "Gee, could they really do that?"
Nevertheless, lunar orbiting shuttles and I Love Lucy dialogue are not
enough to plug the leaks in this novel's life support system. Back to The Moon does
not quite make it off the launch pad, let alone
soar to the moon.
Homer Hickam is an incredible man. His views on space exploration (we should go
back to the moon) and personal courage (attempted to rescue drowning paddle boat
passengers in the Tennessee River) are laudable. I truly wish this book had been
as well.
-- Mark
Back to the top.
|
