Frank M. RobinsonRecensioni

Fun quick read. Artie is on the run from a dark conspiracy. He faces constant danger as people around him die. He finds there is no one he can trust.

A mutant blessed with the ability to telekinetically destroy people and objects worms his way into the government agency trying to find people like himself. He defends himself, and much destruction ensues. A parable about nuclear war, not very compelling.½

This is a very tricky book to review, because it was published posthumously, and so can't quite be judged by ordinary standards. It's also a gay-themed book, and so has special appeal to me. In both of those regards it's somewhat similar to Timothy Conigrave's Holding the Man. However, the difference is that whereas Holding the Man benefits from the immediacy of a raw, sparingly edited text, this memoir is less emotive and so not as well served by the warts and all prose.

Nevertheless, Robinson's qualities as a writer of page turners are evident in the rapid flow of the events he recounts and he manages to write about a huge number of years with frankness and clarity. The book really captures the essence of each decade it covers, or at least the essence of the part of society Robinson was engaged in during that time, and so is an important artefact of gay history. This seems to have been Robinson's primary intention in writing the book, and one he doubtless achieved, but it is somewhat of a shame that he didn't have time to engage a good editor and turn this into the coherent reflection that it really deserves to be.

Durante dos mil años, la nave estelar Astron ha buscado vida alienígena por toda la galaxia, sin encontrarla. Ahora, con una nave ya algo deteriorada y una tripulación reluctante, la única dirección que queda por explorar exige atravesar la gran Oscuridad, un viaje de cien generaciones a través del espacio vacío. El capitán de la nave, un inmortal, está obsesionado con seguir la búsqueda aun a costa de perder la nave. Sólo Gorrión, un joven que ha olvidado su propio pasado, parece ser la clave del incierto futuro de centenares de personas.

Okay, but not as good as I was hoping.

Robinson, Frank M. The Dark Beyond the Stars. Tor, 1991.
Sparrow, a crewmember on a generation starship, wakes in the medical bay with partial amnesia and vague memories of a serious fall during a planetary exploration. All his crewmates, except the captain, have names drawn from birds, the Bible, or Shakespeare. He has no clear memories of any of them, but they all seem to expect something from him. As his memory slowly returns, he finds himself more and more embroiled in the complex politics onboard. The ship is 100 generations out from Sol on a mission to discover another communicating intelligence. So far, they have found no hint of life of any kind. It seems that the solution to Frank Drake’s 1961 equation identifying the unknowns in estimating the chances of meeting other intelligent life is as uncertain as ever. Every compartment in the ship is a kind of holodeck that allows the crew to ignore the ship’s dilapidated condition. Is the mission a fool’s errand, or is there an alien civilization at the next star along the way? Some readers found the book a bit slow, but the character drama kept me engaged.

The Glass Tower. It’s supposed to be a show-stopper of a building. It is. It’s supposed to be envied by those in the building trade. It is. It’s supposed to be a coveted place to have shops, do business, and live. It is. It’s supposed to be safe. It almost is, but not quite. Though written in 1974, this book shows no signs of being dated. In fact, the portrayal of the characters seems quite current. Most people will be familiar with the tale and have likely seen the movie roughly based on it, but reading novel will give you a new perspective, despite knowing how it will end. The authors do an excellent job of building suspense throughout the novel. The fire itself is a major player in the drama, and they don’t let readers forget that. Many characters are introduced rapidly in the beginning chapters, but readers will soon sort out the major ones. It’s a very well-plotted and and exceedingly well-written story. If you’ve only seen the movie, do yourself a favor and add this book to your reading list.

didn't finish; seemend like shallow writing, couldn't hold my interest

Kniha popisuje v té době aktuální tématiku - ohrožení světa atomovou zbraní.
Členové posádky atomové ponorky jsou vmanipulování do situace, kdy si mají myslet, že každou chvíli vypukne III světová válka. Ovšem hazardní plány generálů přestanou být realitou v okamžiku, kdy se ponorka stává neovladatelnou z pobřežních stanovišť a je řízena zvnitřku ponorky. A sáhnout na knoflík pro odpálení hlavic je tak jednoduché. (Založil/a: Stejro)

A truly excellent sci-fi book in my estimation.

This is a sci-fi novel in the spirit of the best and reminded me in a few ways of Frank Herbert's Dune. The story is good, but the underlying discussion of loneliness, humanity, the mind, morality and evolution make this one of the best books I've read.

I'd seen some reports that this book is full of gay sex. It's not. Not all of the characters are entirely heterosexual, and it is clear that Robinson has created a future where sexuality isn't the issue that it can be today.

It's unforunately not so easy to get hold of this book now. It seems to be out of print, not in many/any libraries and unavailable in eBook form. I bought a used copy from a well known online marketplace.

Lots of intrigue, mystery, which made it a little challenging for me. Def. thought-provoking. And fun hard sf, too. Well-done, and recommended.

An old school paranormal book from back in the 50's. No mythical critters, just some humans, one with an extraordinary ability. Chillingly well done because it was so believable. It has an extra twist at the end to send the message home. Excellent.

A good book, made into a mediocre movie. William Tanner is an anthropologist, working with a team of specialists assembled by the U.S. Navy to determine if there are qualities that make some men more capable, more durable, better able to survive, and if it's possible to develop tests to find people with those qualities. One of the team appears to be going off the rails, declaring that the superman already exists, is on the team, and seeks to rule the world. But when Tanner makes up a quick test to prove that these 'powers' do not exist...it proves the exact opposite. What follows is a suspenseful chase, as Tanner must survive a superman intent on protecting his secrets by eliminating all those who know of his existence. A book of its time, but still a good yarn.

A fantastic read. The whole idea of mult-generational spaceflight has always grabbed me, and this is a doozy of a story. A massive ship launched many generation ago, now steadily breaking down, a crew who have no real idea what their purpose is, performing routine and to them seemingly meaningless actions repeatedly and seeking escape in sex, and a captain reminiscent of Ahab, driven, determined and who will stop at nothing to conceal his darkest secret. Opposed to him is the likeable Sparrow, who is unique among the ships' crew in apparently being as immortal as the captain. How Sparrow breaks the captain's iron grip, reveals the real secret of the Astron, and his own true identity is skilfully handled. The resolution between Kusaka and Sparrow is beautifully done, and the final few pages where Sparrow presides over succeeding generations, who remind him of former crewmen he knew, and then reaches Earth to find that while they were searching for aline life, but alien life has finally discovered them is wisttful, thought-provoking and absorbing. Love this book.

My reactions to reading this book in 1992. Spoilers follow.

Up until the last six paragraphs, I was impressed by how much Robinson got away with in this book. He gives us 408 pages of little physical action or violence bolstered with off the shelf sf elements of dubious plausbility: shadowscreens whose operation is unclear as is how the falsies (virtual reality projections filtered out -- not created -- by eye masks) work; a centuries old scheme to breed traits of empathy, sensitivity, and nonviolence into a "new" crew (delibrate breeding for personality traits seems barely plausible); an obsessed captain whose personality is locked by millennia old "conditioning" (always a pulp favorite -- I remember one review of this book emphasizing Robinson's love of pulp sf and how it shows up here); computers that require great manual dexterity to use effectively.

Yet, it moves, it's thrilling.

The book reminded me, with its central character of Captain Michael Kusaka, of Jack London's The Sea Wolf or Herman Melville's Moby Dick with their mad, obsessed, sometimes violent captains. The starship venturing for eons also reminded me of Poul Anderson's Tau Zero. Robinson gives us a story relying on the quirks and interactions of personalities (an interesting part is how the recombination of genes through the centuries produces, for Sparrow/Raymond Stone, an echo of previous crew members he's known) played out over centuries, long term conspiracies of eugenics and mutiny, the loveliness of being the sole spark of life in the universe, a plausible ship's culture (lots of sex in this book but it's not graphic, contrived, or unnecessary), a starship never intended to voyage for longer than 80 years (40 out, 40 back), an Earth vacant of man (very probably, not definitely), the relations of a near immortal to the crew "mayflies", Sparrow's discovery of his past lives, constant revelations of intrigue, obsession, and personality.

In short, an interesting, very well done story (with some good science on why life would be so rare) that Robinson completley sours with his last 6 paragraphs. One blurb says this is a fine parable on the preciousness of life. That's right. But Robinson spoils his sorrowful, mournful, but hopeful ending mood and theme with an ending that seems contrived, pulpy, and thematically inconsistent: The possibility of a hostile alien life form destroying man on Earth. It's a tonally jarring out of place ending an editor whould have removed.

The main character discovers the existence of Old People, a 35,000-year-old cousin species of man with the ability to share racial memories and control the thoughts and actions of others, living among us and waging a secret war against us, with some of his closest friends numbered among them. An interesting storyline, but a muddled, ill-developed plot and such thinly drawn characters that it's difficult to remember who's who make this novel substandard.½

Casual misogyny, unnecessary and continuous infodumps, preachy tone, lousy wordcraft, and a truly hackneyed, telegraphed plot with stale, one-dimensional characters and foreshadowing you can see from Alpha Centauri.It all adds up to a truly AWFUL book. I only kept reading because it's what I had at the gym, and I was honestly hoping someone would kill the main character in a particularly squishy way.No, really, this book was awful. The women were all either heartless bitches, sex toys, or nags - or a combination of the above - and seemed only to be there to be toys for the men in one way or another. The central mystery was...not a mystery. You could tell exactly what was going to happen starting on page, oh, 35 or so. The writing was slipshod and clumsy. The continual infodumps about ecological problems were poorly integrated, and quite grating. Did I mention the random appearance of a Saviour Figure at the end, with no lead-up and no explanation? Just...random saviour tossed in there, as though to make up for the cliched and/or offensive characterizations elsewhere in the book.Yeah.Simply awful. Save yourself the pain and do not bother reading this.

This is a coffee table sized book, jam packed with wizbang reproductions of zillions, well maybe just hundreds, of covers from the pulp era. If it is possible to bring back memories of an era most of us never knew; then this book succeeds brilliantly. The vibrantly alive, dazzlingly colored, action covers bring these pulps to life much as they did for our parents and grandparents of the 20's and 30's. Highly recommended for the young in spirit and the gray of hair alike, for who knows what evil lurks in these pages.

Bill Tanner, Patricia Olson, Karl Grossman, John Olson, Van Zandt, Owen Scott, Marge Hanson, Eddy DeFalco og Arthur Nordlund sidder i møde, da en af dem afslører sig som værende overmenneskelig intelligent og udstyret med ESP kræfter. Desværre er personen også lettere sindsyg, men Tanner ved ikke hvem af de andre det er. Og så går den vilde jagt. Tanner finder ud af at personen tidligere hed Adam Hart, men det hjælper jo ikke meget.

Udmærket spændingsroman

Odd, sort of mystery novel with some twists. Did not fit with me too well for some reason.

This novel starts with the main character losing his memory due to an accident while exploring a planet. As Sparrow struggles to understand his place in the lives of the people around him and on the starship Astron (a generational ship traveling through the galaxy in search of life on other planets), he observes the sometimes suspicious behavior of his enemies and apparent friends, attitudes and reactions towards him sometimes incongruent with what little information Sparrow has been given about his past, and wonders at what is being hidden from him, and if his accident may not have been so accidental. Along with Sparrows personal struggles are the struggles of the Astron crew, always hoping to finally return to earth, dealing with an obsessive captain that may take them on a journey which the ship is incapable of surviving.

The Dark Beyond the Stars starts off very promising. From the moment Sparrow begins interacting with his crew mates, it has you analyzing their behavior and grabbing for what clues, if any, they give in regards to Sparrows identity and relationship with them, and what they may be trying to hide. Supporting characters have realistic personalities and interesting dialog.

But this is a very, VERY character driven novel. At first I was quite happy with this, but after a while, I realized (again? I feel like I've done this before and just keep forgetting) that there's more than one way to be character driven, and it wasn't exactly the kind I like. This novel is about Sparrows struggle and Sparrows feelings and Sparrow's motivation. Other characters are there and he interacts with them, but the bottom line is always how things have affected Sparrow. The crew's psychology as a unit plays a semi-important role in the book, but the others as single characters are not meant to be deeply explored. Now, I don't require huge delving into multiple characters, but what let me down the most was that Sparrow's relationship with others isn't even a huge factor. He has various friendly, romantic, and sexual liaisons that are clearly important to him and affect his attitude, but the novel is one-character driven, not character-relationship driven.

That in and of itself might not be a flaw, but I do think its a semi-dangerous move (on top of the semi-dangerous move of making it so character driven) when there isn't huge amounts of plot or something else to provide a little more tension or momentum. Because while the mystery is intriguing in the beginning, as we find out a little more, it begins to stagnate a little, and even when new revelations are sometimes made I had difficulty reacting with more than vague interest as all it meant was that Sparrow knew a little more. Even when the revelation significantly affected how he saw a friend or other crew member, it wasn't horribly engaging since such things aren't horribly important in this novel, anyway.

Still, while it needs to find some way to make the reader care a little more about its mystery and developments, this is a pretty good read, if just for being a little more intelligent and, yes, character driven than most. Considering it's action-low, interaction-and-inner-musings-heavy style, frankly I'm surprised it turned out as solid as it did. I wouldn't jump to recommend it to anyone in general, but if someone was looking for something a little different and seemed to have the patience, it's worth considering.

(Oh, and a side note for those reading this for this for teh gay. Everyone on the ship is just default bisexual, it seems. But I can't remember any long-term gay relationships mentioned, and certainly none that were important. The most central gay-interest bit was a small section between Sparrow and another man, but it was not exactly a positive experience, and none of it is probably of much interest to a slash fan.)½

The second scifi book I've read in a row about incipient environmental disaster coupled with secret incarnated Buddhas (the first was "Fifty Degrees Below" by Kim Stanley Robinson). Wow, must be something in the air (pun intended). Dr Lawrence Shea is murdered on his way to meet with a group of friends in San Francisco. Two of those friends - Artie Banks, a television newsman, and Mitch Levin, a psychiatrist, decide to investigate. Soon others in their group, "The Suicide Club" get picked off. It turns out that a species of man other than homo sapiens has survived, and is out to re-take the earth, since our species is wrecking it. But these "people" look just like us, so everyone is a suspect. This book was not even as scientifically respectable as Fifty Degrees Below, but compares in terms of environmental breast-beating taking precedence over plot. I'd recommend skipping the book and sending the money saved to the National Wildlife Foundation. (JAF)

A good story, with an early look at the scare-fiction of nuclear reactors.½

Comprehensive and colourful look at horror, sci-fi and fantasy publications. For the casual reader it's an attractive and interesting slice of subcultural history; for comic devotees it's positively droolworthy.

I read this years ago, probably the late 60's, maybe the original paperback version. I have read it a few times since then, and while it is a bit dated now, it is still a fun read, especially when you place it in the context in which it was first written, in the late 1950's. Military interest in ESP, remote viewing and all that stuff. A fun book. It was made into a movie, years ago, I am trying to track that down too.½