Subject: Review: This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman

From: "Aaron M. Renn" <[email-masked]>
Date: 09 Aug 1999 13:34:41 -0400

This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman
	Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn

Conclusion: Worth Reading But Very Uneven

This Alien Shore started off like a house on fire but then flamed out.
There was a lot I liked in there, but also a lot not to like.  I do a
better job of bitching about what I don't like than raving about what I
do, so this review will focus on the negative.  Please keep in mind that I
actually found the book rather balanced between the two.

First an overview.  A young girl named Jasimia is awakened and told to
flee the space station she's always called home.  Mysterious enemies are
after her because she possesses deep, dark secrets they want, of which
Jasimia herself is not aware.  Meanwhile, the Gueran outpilot Guild, which
controls all intersteller travel, is looking for the source of a
mysterious virus that is killing their precious pilots.

If you don't think these two plotlines have much to do with each other
besides the possibility that Jasimia is the source of the virus, you're
right.  These bifurcated plot threads don't converge until the end, and
then in a way that is contrived.  It made me feel like I was reading two
separate books set in the same universe.  Both of them started out in a
way that really piqued my interest, and I kept waiting for them to
connect, but they never really did.  The story's ending was very
anticlimactic.  One thread is resolved in an almost offhand manner, as if
Friedman realized one day, "Gee, it's page 500 and I'm not anywhere closer
to being done than when I started."  The other is never fully completed,
setting us up for a possible sequel.  I was very unhappy.

The other main thing that bothered me was Friedman's description of the
"hackers" in her universe.  These are (mostly) young kids who know the
outernet and computers inside and out and love to break into various nodes
causing mischief, but normally little real damage.  Her impression of the
hacker ethic is something straight out of the pages of 2600 Magazine.  As
a member of the real hacking community - people who program computers to
build things, not to break in or destroy - I find that bothersome.  I'm
not offended, but it did sour the novel for me personally.

On the other hand, the world building was intriguing.  In her universe,
the first generation of FTL ships caused irreversible genetic damage,
turning the human spacefarers into freaks.  I thought this failed the
suspension of disbelief test but was interesting nevertheless.  The
Guerans deserve particular praise.  Instead of physical deformities, they
all suffer from various forms of mental illness.  It was interesting to
try to figure out what disorders these people had.  I recognized people
with autism, obsessive/compulsive disorder, Tourette's Syndrome, and
paranoid schizophrenia.

Friedman also does a good job of world building.  There's a lot more than
what I've described above and you'll enjoy it.  Some of the elements
aren't that original, but insisting that everything in an SF book be that
is simply unreasonable.  Friedman takes her themes and elements and uses
them to very good effect.  The more I saw of this universe she created,
the more I wanted to see.  She also did a good job of creating characters
I could care about and relate to.  The writing was skillful as you might
expect.

I bought In Conquest Born when it came out and I loved it.  I'm not quite
sure why, but I didn't buy any other Friedman books until now.  While I
thought this effort fell far short of ICB, it was still a decent read, if
a bit of a long one.  I'm definitely willing to give her another shot to
wow me, especially in light of posts I've read saying this is an
uncharacteristically weak effort.

%A Friedman, C.S.
%T This Alien Shore
%I DAW
%D 1999-07 (original publication 1998-12)
%G ISBN 0-88677-799-2
%P 564 pp.
%0 mass market paperback, US$6.99

Reviewed on 1999-08-01

-- 
Aaron M. Renn ([email-masked]) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/