![]() It seems odd to say of a series with three full books, but I wish Shaw had taken his time to develop the story a bit more in this first installment, instead of rushing through things. Maybe it’s because the tone is ‘harder’ than I’d normally expect from Shaw, and more military-oriented. We skim past the characters’ emotions without ever stopping to see how they’re affected in the long-term. Here, he sets up some interesting characters, but never really delves into them, and wraps things up fairly superficially. Where the book fell down, for me, was on the character side – usually one of Shaw’s strengths. Shaw tells us that we’re in an alternate universe, and takes full advantage of the leeway given him by different scientific principles, but still with a sciencey feel and a moderate mount of rigour. Taken for what it actually is, this is an interesting, fairly well thought out, exploration of a fantasy-based approach to a binary planet. Through no fault of Shaw’s, I was off balance for the first couple of chapters simply because it differed so much from my memory. In fact, it’s a fairly serious (if light), often political intrigue. ![]() ![]() I recall it (perhaps because of the cover art) as a fun, somewhat lighthearted adventure farce. ![]() On the confusing side, the story has nothing at all to do with what I remember. On the good side, the book is still a fun, fast read. I’m a fan of Bob Shaw, and I recall liking The Ragged Astronauts when I first read it in the ’80s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |