leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (08/15/85)
THE FLIGHT OF THE DRAGONFLY by Robert Forward
Baen, 1985, $3.50.
A book review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: This is a good hard science novel, but several cuts
beneath Forward's DRAGON'S EGG. The book seems inflated and flawed. If you
want the ideas, just read the appendix.
Back in 1980, Robert Forward published a particularly enjoyable first
novel. DRAGON'S EGG was about a race, the Cheela, rapidly evolving on a
neutron star headed for our solar system. The book chronicled the human
expedition to visit the neutron star and the story of the Cheela's entire
history which, with their much faster timescale, covered little more than
days of our time. The elements--hard science, an unusual environment, the
resulting aliens, their contact with humans--all were reminiscent of MISSION
OF GRAVITY by Hal Clement. It was the most enjoyable novel I'd read in a
good while and I was disappointed that it was not even nominated for a Hugo.
THE FLIGHT OF THE DRAGONFLY is Forward's second novel--the one that decides
if he is a writer or a man who had a good idea for one book.
The answer is probably somewhere in between. This book is no DRAGON'S
EGG. It's readable, but no great shakes. In this book he makes the mistake
of having a much less interesting breed of aliens than in the former book,
so Forward concentrates much more on the humans than on the aliens. Well,
the humans are much less interesting than the aliens.
The plot is pretty standard stuff, really. Humans go to alien planet,
humans meet friendly aliens, humans have adventure trying to leave alien
planet. On this well-worn plot Forward hangs some details, usually based on
scientific fact. He has details about the design of his interstellar craft,
about the nature of his aliens, the Flouwen, and about planetary physics.
He even has a few ideas about robotics. Forward, unfortunately, has a
dramatic problem with his ideas for interstellar flight. He does not have a
mechanism for bringing his travelers back to Earth. The very fact undercuts
much of the possible suspense, since his humans don't really have a whole
lot to live for. That being the case, it is difficult for the reader to
make himself care if the humans survive. The limited technology also tends
to make the first part of the book drag since it would take our humans a
while to find the alien lifeform, so Forward has the choice of glossing over
the interstellar flight and the search or of describing it in some detail.
Forward opts for the latter, creating a thicker book which probably pays
better, but making a novel which is less satisfying than the more pithy
DRAGON'S EGG.
The book is further thickened by an extended appendix that recaps all
the interesting ideas of the book, though it adds little to them. The
appendix of DUNE worked very well to ass an air of authenticity to the book
by fleshing out details and making Arrakis more complete and real. However,
there is little in the appendix of THE FLIGHT OF THE DRAGONFLY that is not
in the main body of the book. With an appendix, there is always some
question as to when to read it. If you read it too soon, it can ruin plot
details; if you read it too late, it does not perform the function of
broadening the background.
There are standard Forward touches in THE FLIGHT OF THE DRAGONFLY. One
of them is a curiously forced inclusion of sexual references. In DRAGON'S
EGG the aliens take a special in a female astronaut's breast. In THE FLIGHT
OF THE DRAGONFLY, we have a moon with a tit and sex demonstrations for the
aliens.
And on the subject of strained touches, I enjoyed the allusion to THE
SPACE MERCHANTS and "Chicken Little." That may well be what chicken tissue
culture might be called because that was what it was called in that book.
But references to science fiction go a bit far when one of the characters is
a big fan of DRAGON'S EGG. One doubts that the book will be remembered in
another 90 years.
Some of Forward's ideas either do not make sense or are not properly
explained. The book seems to confuse the concepts of mere unlimited
lifespan and true immortality. The Flouwen have no concept of death in a
world that seems to have obvious physical dangers for them. The double
planet system described might well be physically stable enought to exist,
but more than that is necessary to make the world believable. I do not
remember Forward explaining how the double world came into being. The
Flouwen are supposed to be mathematically far advanced over us. Now this is
not something easy to convey in a work of fiction and Forward does it by
having mathematically immature Flouwen doing familiar proofs, like Cantor's,
in their heads. In fact, he seems to pick out a bunch of well-known
problems and has the Flouwen solve them with ease, as if all races would
look at pretty much the same problems. Actually, in the history of
mathematics--our mathematics--the paths taken have usually been closely
associated with physical problems, problems that the Flouwen would not have
faced. They might never have looked at some of our most interesting
problems, and we might never have considered most of theirs. It seems
unlikely that the Flouwen's environment would challenge them sufficiently to
have the supremely advanced mathematics that Forward claims they have.
(Actually, I had given some though years ago to what really advanced
mathematics would seem like to us and how to credibly portray it in science
fiction, but that is really more of a digression than I can comfortably go
into here. Buttonhole me sometime if you are really interested.)
In any case, THE FLIGHT OF THE DRAGONFLY is readable and diverting, but
a real come-down from DRAGON'S EGG. You are better off re-reading that.
Rate this book a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeperoz@yetti.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) (08/20/85)
I agree with Mark Leeper's review. I have read the book about a month ago, and had almost exactly the same thoughts about it. The characters are two-dimensional at best, and some of them thrown in just to "complete" the crew. Although the gravitational characteristics of "Roche's World" is interesting, the rest of the book displays the "Second Book Syndrome". (I.e. Author tries to pull a similar rabbit out of the hat, except the second rabbit is ... er ... just a mock-up..) My rating is the same as Mark's. There are some interesting tidbits in the book, but it is absolutely no match for "Dragon's Egg". Btw: My sincere thanks to the regulars of this newsgroup, for some of whom were kind enough to recommend "Dragon's Egg" to me, upon my query about some good Hard SF to read. Oz -- Usenet: [decvax|allegra|linus|ihnp4]!utzoo!yetti!oz Bitnet: oz@[yusol|yuyetti] You see things; and you say "WHY?" But I dream things that never were; and say "WHY NOT?" G. Bernard Shaw (Back to Methuselah)