Nostalgia-Driven Sci-Fi Story is Short on Final-Frontier Fun
Posted on: Monday, 5 May 2008, 15:00 CDT
Ah, childhood memories. There's something dear about our early creative discoveries, the literature, TV shows or movies that inspire us and set our path into adolescence and, perhaps, adulthood. We hold a warm place for our early fictitious friends and fellow adventurers, whether Nancy Drew, Captain Kirk or Captain Kangaroo. It's quite possible to honor fragments of our past even as we surpass their simple lessons and move on. But over time our tastes change -- if we're lucky.
So it was for Gary Wolf and Archbishop John Myers, who, in 1953, bonded over Space Hawk, a futuristic adventure novel by Anthony Gilmore, and their introduction to the science-fiction genre. As grown-ups, they looked back on its flowery prose and cardboard characters and found it wanting. But it still sparked enough nostalgic magic within them to attempt to recapture that early wonder in these pages.
For many readers, the result may not be quite so sparkly.
Space Vulture is the galaxy's most fearsome interstellar pirate. Handsome, smart, strong and cruel, he rules his domain with an organized grace. His spaceship, the Talon, is the galaxy's most powerful. His minions, in their dozens, obey his commands with no hesitation. Unfortunately, he puts his talents and genius to use as a kind of galactic strip-miner, stealing, repackaging and selling goods, people and aliens.
His opposite in many ways is the universe's most impressive hero, Galactic Marshal Captain Victor Corsair. Strong and stalwart, a "living sword of justice," he possesses the perfect mix of courage and humility. His optimistic outlook never wanes. He can draw a ray gun more quickly than any living sentient being and uses it with precision and wise discretion.
They orbit each other's reputations for years, until the day Corsair happens to be passing by a planet that Space Vulture is preparing to plunder.
Unfortunately, Corsair is about as bland as a hero can be, like Dudley Do-Right in a spacesuit. And the blandness does not stop with him. There's a certain Sunday-school morality to the story that seems awkwardly imposed on the proceedings. It stiltifies and suffocates what could have been great fun.
Despite our well-defined hero and villain, the actual main characters of the story seem at times to be a hardened con man and mushroom thief, Gil Terry (who might have been at home in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), and two precocious youngsters, Eliot and Regin Russell (who are trying, with Terry's reluctant assistance, to free their mother from Space Vulture's clutches). Too much of the story is spent on their predictable relationship and saccharin exchanges.
The book does have its moments. There is some charm to aliens such as Space Vulture's main henchlizard, One the Lizardo, and sleep-dart-blowing robots guarding ruins on a mysterious planet, not to mention the fun of Flash Gordon-like spaceships that travel light years without a lot of complicated faster-than-light explanations -- but these barely sustain interest during the parts between.
Such a personal project may well have accomplished what its authors intended, but readers should be wary; this book's colorful cover leads to misjudgment. Perhaps crusty old book reviewers who expect moral and character complexity are at fault for not showing the proper appreciation. Maybe a few doses of Astro Boy and John Carter of Mars are in order to provide a little perspective.
But after the self-congratulatory prefaces provided by both authors, and the cover blurbs written by Stan Lee and Nebula-award winner Gene Wolfe, a bit more magic would have been welcome.
Source: Winston-Salem Journal
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