🚀 go-pugleaf

ubte30e@ucl.ac.uk (Mr R Burton-west) writes:

>Um... this may seem kind of obvious, but what about giving them some Bob
>Forward to chew over?  At least you can be reasonably sure _his_ science is
>plausible :)

And kkobayas@husc8.harvard.edu (Ken Kobayashi) writes:

>   You forgot _Rocheworld_!  Great book.  Based on _Flight of the
>Dragonfly_.  Most of his boks rely too heavily on the science, but they
>would make excellent teaching tools I think.  Gregory Benford is very
>scientific too.  He's an astronomer himself.  _Heart of the Comet_ has
>almost everything, from orbital mechanics (even has diagrams) to biology. 


   The trouble with _Rocheworld_ is that Forward spends TOO much time on 
developing plausible science. He has overlong, contrived scenes where some 
character feels the need to explain the science behind something in 
EXCRUCIATING detail. On a literary level, I found the book silly and shallow,
with cardboard characters. It's perhaps on an acceptable level for Jr. High 
students. But then, they might not get the science...which IS quite good.
One scene I really liked in _Rocheworld_ was when the commander of the 
expidition is chewing out one of the astronauts for playing politics. She 
says something to the effect of, "...do you think you're in some pot-boiler
SF novel where intrigue takes the place of plot development?"
Well, YEAH. Now that you mention it...
Couldn't figure out if Forward was making a self-referential joke, or what.

I seem to recall _Heart of the Comet_ started out a tad silly (seemed like
every character was a stereotype), but turned into a decent read. Then again,
I was in London at the time going through the death rites of another love
affair, so my judgement may have been clouded. London has become the
elephant's graveyard of my love life. But THAT'S another story...



-- 
              Dave Palmer             dpalmer@csulb.edu

********************I finally found the perfect woman,*********************** 
*****************but she was looking for the perfect man*********************