"Science fiction at its best"
Today's technology is tomorrow's junk. For instance, The
River of Stars was a luxurious passenger liner that used
immense magnetic sails to catch the solar wind. However,
the invention of the Farnsworth fusion drive turned the
sailing ships obsolete. The River of Stars is the last one
still operating as it hauls cargo between Jupiter and the
asteroid belt. However, its sails are never used, as they
are symbols of the past. When Captain Hand dies from an illness, Gorgas becomes in
charge when an emergency occurs. A small meteor hits the
ship destroying two engines and crippling the deceleration
process making a safe landing impossible. The only hope to
walk away resides in the sails, but navigator Corrigan and
sailmaster Satterwaithe know Gorgas and Engineer Bhatterji
would never listen especially since the latter insists he
can fix the malfunctioning engines. Turning to ancient
philosophy of not putting all your eggs in one basket
Corrigan and Satterwaithe serendipitously work with the
crew of misfits to merge the old with the new in a
desperate attempt to survive. This is science fiction at its best as the audience sees
the impact of a radical change in technology on people and
industries as has happened throughout history especially
the twentieth century (horse driven coaches to cars,
etc.). The story line conveys a deep a powerful look at
varying technological changes on a crew without slowing
down the plot. On top of an action-packed yet cerebral
thriller, the cast is fully developed so readers understand
the crisis and how everyone will react to it. Flynn has
written a winner. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted April 6, 2003
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Michael Flynn has written the best SF in the tradition of
Robert A. Heinlein of the last decade. His major work was
the Firestar sequence, a four-book future history. "As
Robert A. Heinlein did and all too few have done since,
Michael Flynn writes about the near future as if he'd been
there and was bringing back reports of what he'd seen,"
said Harry Turtledove. Now, in this sweeping stand-alone
epic of the spaceways, Flynn grows again in stature, with
an SF novel worthy of the master himself. Indeed, if
Heinlein's famous character, the space-faring poet
Rhysling, had ever written a novel, this would be it.This
is a compelling tale of the glory that was. In the days of
the great sailing ships, in the mid-twenty-first century,
when magnetic sails drew cargo and passengers alike to
every corner of the solar system, sailors had the highest
status of all spacemen, and the crew of the luxury liner
the River of Stars, the highest among all sailors. But
development of the Farnsworth fusion drive doomed the
sailing ships, and now the River of Stars is the last of
its kind, retrofitted with engines, her mast vestigial, her
sails unraised for years. An ungainly hybrid, she operates
in the late years of the century as a mere tramp freighter
among the outer planets, and her crew is a motley group of
misfits. Stepan Gorgas is the escapist executive officer
who becomes captain. Ramakrishnan Bhatterji is the chief
engineer who disdains him. Eugenie Satterwaithe, once a
captain herself, is third officer and, for form's sake,
sailing master.When an unlikely and catastrophic engine
failure strikes the River, Bhatterji is confident he can
effect repairs with heroic engineering, but Satterwaithe
and the other sailors among the crew plot to save her with
a glorious last gasp for the old ways, mesmerized by a
vision of arriving at Jupiter proudly under sail. The story
of their doom has the power, the poetry, and the
inevitability of a Greek tragedy. This is a great science
fiction novel, Flynn's best yet.
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