I finished a book today called "Firestar" written by Michael Flynn, published in 1996.  It was in a collection of books given to me after my aunt died.  It's an ambitious book and would have been better served if it were written as a number of volumes rather than a single tome.

As far as the writing goes, it was mediocre. The dialogue didn't exactly compare to Oscar Wilde.  The story was moderately predictable without being tiresome.  I would describe the theme as being a business-opera meets techno-drama.

In "Firestar" a rich heiress witnesses a meteor during the day in Jackson Hole.  This event drives her to get mankind out of the cradle.  All of her wealth and business acumen is directed to create an orbital industrial base and send humanity to the stars.  Meriesa van Huyten's efforts create a sprawling conglomerate of industries from smelting and plastics to MEMS and school administration.

I would have found the book truly riveting had the author focused a bit more on the intrigue and politicking of VHI (van Huyten's Industries).  The plot is more of a backdrop aimed at developing character stories, and thus the plot suffers.  Potentially exciting intrigues and political wranglings are introduced and solved pages or chapters later with a few sentences. This particular technique relieves the reader of any pesky suspense.  It's also a bit of a pie-eyed story, but I don't mind that so much.  Fiction is an exercise of the imagination, and as a techno-optimist I rather enjoy reading feverishly optimistic stories of future tech.

As a bit of an aside, the book is very timely in its treatment of technology.  It got a few things wrong, like voice-actived computers; a few things right, like remote-controlled armed-forces units; a few things not yet realized, like the aerospike.  The timing was a little optimistic since it has only been in the last five odd years that private enterprise has actually begun to pursue a potentially lucrative space industry.  There's also an important sub-plot on education which is a source of some of the other (interesting) characters in the book.

But, as I mentioned the book is primarily character driven and I will discuss that below the fold as I wouldn't want to ruin anything.
Mariesa van Huyten is the main character and the one driving the many projects that are necessary to boot-strap an orbital space industry.  She's born to a wealthy family and granted a plurality interest in the family holdings upon her grandfather's death (meaning she's the boss).  She's a bit of a cold fish, and completely consumed by the Goal.  She is the most compelling character.  She does what she needs to do, even going so far as to use people, burn bridges, and cross ethical and legal boundaries.  It makes her both very human, and a bit of a hero in the American sense of the word.  She's sort of a John Wayne of the business world.

Mariesa's foil is Barry Fast, an English teacher deeply involved in the Mentor program.  He plays an important part, but is not a terribly sympathetic character.  Barry is a bit of a sap, and of weak character.  He allows himself to be blown about by the prevailing winds.  He's perpetually dissatisfied.  He asks why, but doesn't bother to answer himself.  He's disgruntled and on the verge of alcoholism because he doesn't think he controls his life.

Ned duBois is a test-pilot for the program.  He's a fairly boring and predictable character.  I don't think the author knew quite what to do with him.  He tried to give him the star-power of John Glen and Buzz Aldridge, but he came across as cliched.  He tried to make Ned more important to the business/intrigue/engineering plots, but it was very passive.  He created a fairly rich personal life for Ned, but didn't get into the guy's head very well in that regard either.

A more minor character, meant to be The Voice of the program was Styx (Roberta).  She was a high school student with a keen poetic talent.  Part of the Mentor program was to identify intelligent and creative students and give them an opportunity to hone their skills.  To give them hopes and dreams and to feed the Prometheus and Dedelus programs with new recruits.  Styx was part of Mentor and was given opportunities to be expressive and poetical and all that good jazz.  Sadly, her character was too brittle and too smug.  She thought her insights as a poet made her smarter and wiser than those around her.  She does find success, but she never realizes to what she owes her success.  Roberta is also not a sympathetic character.  She is a caricature of Mariesa.  Roberta is an abstraction of what Mariesa would be if she had truly lost her humanity.

The other POV characters aren't well-developed at all.  One becomes a physicist and develops a theoretical framework for superconductivity.  One is involved in a suicid-by-police shooting and funs away, hides his identity and becomes an Army hero.  One becomes a computer security expert (with some boring tropes thrown in for good measure, ala Superman w/ Richard Pryor).  One is provides Mariesa with a conscience. 

There are many other characters, some of them without their own stories(Michaelson), some with stories that simply go nowhere (Matthias), and some that only exist to further the story of the main characters (Redman)(these particular characters can be a bit tedious.  The author dispenses with them by effectively convention; rocks fall, everybody dies.).

By and large, I found it to be a page turner.  In spite of some of the ham-handed plot management, stilted dialogue, and predictability, I was engaged by the characters.  Even the ones I didn't particularly like.  I wanted to know what happened to them.  I doubt it's still in print, but it's worth a read if you find a used copy.

Posted by: roggowj at 06:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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