Mike Brotherton’s novel Spider Star embodies what I really like and what
I do not like in a story all in one book. The first half of the book
symbolizes what is best about science fiction story telling but the
second half of the book falls apart and is unable to deliver on it’s
opening premise.
The story essentially follows two characters. The first is Commander Manual Rusk who is an archeologist that belongs to organization known as Special Operations. He is routinely sent on dangerous missions to explore and uncover technology from dead alien civilizations. The second main character is Frank Klingtson and he is a just your average ordinary beer maker. Actually, he is a hero from times past as he made first contact with an alien species and was able to procure a dark engine drive which allowed humans to travel further into space. But, he has since retired into family life and resigned himself to running a homemade brewery.
Both live on a human colony planet named Pollux in the system Argo. Pollux used to be the home planet of an alien species known as the Argonauts. The Argonauts are believed to have died out long ago through some kind of devastating event but they left their technology behind. Pollux was settled by humans and they are free to explore the Argo system for the Argonaut’s treasures.
The story begins with Manual Rusk on regular mission searching the moon Charybis. Rusk accidentally discovers some old ruins left by the Argonaut and decides to investigate it to see if it has a cache of technology. When Rusk innocently knocks on the main entrance door it causes horrific consequences. The door has an alarm system that sends out a neutrino signal to the nearest sun which triggers a plasma stream to be shot at the moon base. Eventually, more and more plasma streams are launched at the moon and the planet Pollux. The streams will keep coming until either Pollux is destroyed or they find a way to disable the weapon.
Manual Rusk and Frank Klingtson team up to undertake a mission to locate the power source of this doomsday weapon. Their journey leads them to a dark matter world known as the Spider Star. For me this is where the story began to fall apart. Soon after they begin exploring the interior of the Spider Star both men run into problems that causes one to be captured and the other running from machine like species called the Hydras. There are way too many pages dedicated to description of the characters while in custody that it quickly became uninteresting.
The conclusion of the story ends on an uninspiring whimper. For me, it did not jive with the first half of the book.
What I liked: The first half of the book is excellent. It is built upon imaginative ideas and provides a great set up for the rest of the novel. I am always a sucker for novels that explore the great unknown and involve first contact with alien races. This should have lead into a creative story line that develops into an interesting alien exploration adventure.
What I didn’t like: Unfortunately, the second half runs out of gas quickly and basically delves into page after page of the essentially the same dialogue. The meeting with ancient alien races is uninteresting and cliche with the aliens basically asking, “what can you offer me?” Really? After all the build up, at the critical moment in story it all boiled down to making some kind of trade. It left me feeling indifferent and disappointed with the story telling.
Last word: Like many Hollywood Sci-Fi movies, this novel started out with an awe-inspiring premise and intelligence but the story ran out of ideas and retreated into well worn territories that leave you feeling that an yet another opportunity was missed.
The story essentially follows two characters. The first is Commander Manual Rusk who is an archeologist that belongs to organization known as Special Operations. He is routinely sent on dangerous missions to explore and uncover technology from dead alien civilizations. The second main character is Frank Klingtson and he is a just your average ordinary beer maker. Actually, he is a hero from times past as he made first contact with an alien species and was able to procure a dark engine drive which allowed humans to travel further into space. But, he has since retired into family life and resigned himself to running a homemade brewery.
Both live on a human colony planet named Pollux in the system Argo. Pollux used to be the home planet of an alien species known as the Argonauts. The Argonauts are believed to have died out long ago through some kind of devastating event but they left their technology behind. Pollux was settled by humans and they are free to explore the Argo system for the Argonaut’s treasures.
The story begins with Manual Rusk on regular mission searching the moon Charybis. Rusk accidentally discovers some old ruins left by the Argonaut and decides to investigate it to see if it has a cache of technology. When Rusk innocently knocks on the main entrance door it causes horrific consequences. The door has an alarm system that sends out a neutrino signal to the nearest sun which triggers a plasma stream to be shot at the moon base. Eventually, more and more plasma streams are launched at the moon and the planet Pollux. The streams will keep coming until either Pollux is destroyed or they find a way to disable the weapon.
Manual Rusk and Frank Klingtson team up to undertake a mission to locate the power source of this doomsday weapon. Their journey leads them to a dark matter world known as the Spider Star. For me this is where the story began to fall apart. Soon after they begin exploring the interior of the Spider Star both men run into problems that causes one to be captured and the other running from machine like species called the Hydras. There are way too many pages dedicated to description of the characters while in custody that it quickly became uninteresting.
The conclusion of the story ends on an uninspiring whimper. For me, it did not jive with the first half of the book.
What I liked: The first half of the book is excellent. It is built upon imaginative ideas and provides a great set up for the rest of the novel. I am always a sucker for novels that explore the great unknown and involve first contact with alien races. This should have lead into a creative story line that develops into an interesting alien exploration adventure.
What I didn’t like: Unfortunately, the second half runs out of gas quickly and basically delves into page after page of the essentially the same dialogue. The meeting with ancient alien races is uninteresting and cliche with the aliens basically asking, “what can you offer me?” Really? After all the build up, at the critical moment in story it all boiled down to making some kind of trade. It left me feeling indifferent and disappointed with the story telling.
Last word: Like many Hollywood Sci-Fi movies, this novel started out with an awe-inspiring premise and intelligence but the story ran out of ideas and retreated into well worn territories that leave you feeling that an yet another opportunity was missed.
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