Subject: _Clarke County, Space_, a rant

From: [email-masked] (sometimes a Wombat)
Date: 27 Jun 91 13:57:14 GMT

_Clarke County, Space_ by Allen Steele
	Review Copyright (c) 1991 Larry Hammer

R.a.sf-reviews seems a bit tame so far; time for a heavily spoiled rant.

On the Francis Bacon scale (taste, swallow, or digest), this one should be
thrown out.

At least Allen Steele knows how to put sentences together to make a
paragraph.  And there is one character who, by the end of the book, shows
some signs of being interesting and more than just flat (however, we then
leave her, never to see her again).  These are about the only good things I
can say about _Clarke County, Space_.

For one thing, the plot was ridiculous.  Well, the bare bones of it aren't.
A absentee-corperate-owned space station goes through a political and
personal crisis, and decides to declare independence.  However, the details
are just *not* believable.

[Heavy spoilers follow]

In the end of the book, we find out that all the events were orchestrated
the central AI of the space colony, which has gone self-aware.  *Why* it's
self-aware is not explained.  And where are the Turing cops or whatever
they're called in that universe?  Surely if self-awareness can happen,
someone is watching for it?  And if the AI wakes up and decides to have a
personality, why couldn't it have a *believable* one?  Sheesh.

However, this is far from the worst hole in the plot.  The AI has a human
mentor who turns out to be from the future.  He is there to make sure the
future happens.  This totally out of the blue, a ridiculous plot device.
And so much for human free will.  Sheesh.

I think what Steele wanted to do with _CCS_ was to show how, in the right
circumstances, community opinion could polarize overnight, and decide to
revolt.  But Steele shows us how the people of Clarke County feel only once;
we spend the rest of the time with the movers and shakers of this
revolution.  To get me to believe the speed in which it happened (four
days), he needs to *show* me, in detail.  Until then, I'll take _The Moon Is
a Harsh Mistress_ as a much better version of the idea.

And at least Heinlein was good at world-building.  Steele isn't.  In 2050,
society has changed zilch.  Nil.  Nada.  Late 20th century middle America
uprooted and transplanted onto a space station as if nothing had happened in
60 years.  Throw in a weird cult of Elvis and a collective, and you have
Clarke County.  (There is a university but we don't learn of its existence
until the end; students involved in a revolution?  Horrors!  Of course not!)
High technology has continued to develop, but are society or customs
affected?  No.  About the only thing that touches people's lives is the
universal portable computer.  Which they treat like cellular phones.
Language is static, too.  *One* new slang word has been invented.  And it
was used *once* in the entire book.  Sheesh.

If you want to see good world building of the near furture, read _Queen of
Angels_ or _Synners_.  Yes, you have to work to read them; that's the
*point*.  At least Greg Bear and Pat Cadigan know that things, including
language, CHANGE, and that changes lead to changes.  If Allen Steele does,
he doesn't show it.

%T Clarke County, Space
%A Allen Steele
%I Ace Science Fiction
%O paperback US$4.95

	Larry "ranter" Hammer