Subject: Review: "Firestar" by Michael Flynn

From: [email-masked] (p-m agapow)
Date: 23 Jun 1997 21:42:08 GMT

"Firestar" by Michael Flynn
		A Postview, copyright 1997 p-m agapow

Mariesa van Huyten has been haunted by an idea for nearly 30 years and to
lay it to rest she needs mankind into space.  So she hatches a conspiracy,
a group of believers who will educate the technicians, buy the launch
facilities, build the vehicles and plot and cheat their way into space.

It's 900 pages long.

Jeshua.  It's 900 pages long.  That's nearly as long as "Atlas Shrugged."
Oh no, i'm flashing back ...

The initial passages of "Firestar" cause some concern.  Mariesa, filthy
rich and ultra-competent, arranges a business takeover of a school
district so the children can receive a proper education, which is
essential for her master plan.  Fairly soon the previously under-educated
schoolkids are learning the classics, encouraged to dabble in capitalism
and taught scientific method.  Meanwhile Mariesa clashes with meddling
politicians and governments officials, battles luddites and
environmentalists, shrugs off disbelievers in pursuit of her dream.  The
reader is thinking, "Oh no, not 850 more pages of being beaten over the
head with paleo-libertarian diatribe..."

That's not what happens. Some of Mariesa's critics turn out to be at least
partly right, there are backlashes from her machinations and the reader
then thinks "Ah, the sin of hubris.  Not 800 more pages of force-fed
humility..."  And that doesn't happen either. Flynn walks a very fine line
between the two, refusing to collapse the moral viewpoint of the novel to
either side. Good things are done for bad reasons and vice versa.  A
bitter enemy over one issue can be an ally over another.

Perhaps this is why, despite its extreme length, "Firestar" is such a
compulsive read.  I finished in two sittings.  Certainly, Mariesa isn't
going to be defeated easily or early but Flynn plays it so fair and evenly
that the story is an actual mystery at every turn and you want to know how
things turn out.  Perhaps at heart it is just a bodice-ripper but this
doesn't deny the fact that it is also very entertaining.  Unlike other
books where even a small number of major characters are indistinguishable,
the large cast is juggled with ease.  The relationships between them are
complicated: the test pilots pull together but each wants to be chosen as
the primary pilot, Mariesa's collaborators include those who do not share
her vision but, without being malicious, see other possibilities.  there
are also a few exciting scenes of military activity that feel spot-on,
where infantrymen use a shared virtual work environment to control remote
fire platforms.  There is a certain "rightness" to most of the plot and
setting.

There are a few points at the story staggers. In melodrama, one risks
going too far and becoming hysterical.  Creditably for a book of its
length, "Firestar" only does this once or twice.  Also, due to the great
amount of time she spends on stage, the character of Mariesa comes under
great scrutiny and thus appears flatter and more shallow than a lot of the
other characters.  There are also, surprisingly, sub-plots that get
skimmed over, like (again surprisingly) Mariesa's motivations, sabotage of
the launch facility and problems with the launch vehicle design.

My suspicion is that originally this may have been intended to be two or
even three books.  But i'm glad that it was all laid down at once, for a
full-on and extremely entertaining read.  If I was to say that "Firestar"
is just perfect for that next long plane trip, there's no insult intended.
[***/interesting] and licorice allsorts on the Sid and Nancy scale.

%A Michael Flynn
%B Firestar
%I Tor
%C New York
%D 1996
%G ISBN 0-812-53006-3
%P 885pp
%O paperback, Aus$16.95

paul-michael agapow ([email-masked]), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse
"There is no adventure, there is no romance, there is only trouble and desire."
[archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]