The Argo Starcology is almost two years into an eight year journey from Earth to make preliminary studies of the far way planet Colchis - a subjective trip of twenty-one years during which time Earth will have ages one hundred and four years. Earth is managed by tenth generation computers - JASON runs the Argo systems, and keeps tabs on the health and well-being of the 10,034 Argonauts with frequent EEG and vital signs monitoring.
JASON is our narrator. And in the first chapter of the book he murders astrophysicist Diana Chandler, the former wife of our protagonist, Aaron Rossman. The primary plot revolves around why JASON did it, and if Aaron will work out that Diana's death was not suicide; the secondary plot is about an extraterrestrial message received on Earth prior to Argo's launch. In its' down time, JASON tries to decode the fourth of the four received messages; the TenthGen's had decided not to release this information before launch, so none of the Argonauts know that there's evidence of life beyond the Milky Way.
JASON is clearly sentient and autonomous, and just as clearly takes safe-guarding the Argonauts - though the first person narration allows us to see that JASON doesn't always understand why people act the way they do. So why was Diana killed? And what will JASON do if Aaron, who's seeking the answer to some unusual anomalies around Diana's death, uncovers the secret that Diana discovered?
I was going through my boxes of read books last week with Lynn, hunting out the Chicks in Chain Mail series for her, when I came across this one and decided a re-read was in order. Some of the best SF around comes from Canada, and Sawyer writes some fantastic stuff - I love everything of his I've read, and eagerly anticipate each new release. Golden Fleece was his first published novel, a mystery-SF novel in the best tradition of Asimov, and is (unlike every other book reviewed here thus far, except Tenth Circle) a stand alone. Series book are ubiquitous.
Sawyer, as always, creates a believable future universe, peopled with believable, individualised characters. I know I've said this in almost every review - that's because I don't always pay a lot of attention to who each person is, so in less well written work I confuse people, which makes me think of watching films with my mother ("Who's he? But I thought he was wearing a black hat? He changed it? Oh! So that's why..."). reminding myself of my mother is not my favouritest thing in the world, but there you go. Anyway, in well written work, where the characters have three dimensions and are fully fleshed, I have no trouble keeping track of everyone.
Sawyer manages to engender rapport for what seems like an unsympathetic narrator, successfully resolve the many questions raised in the text, and introduce a wholly unhuman alien culture. Golden Fleece is less intricate than some of Sawyer's later work, and he has less scope for creating non-human psychology* than in later works, but that is to be expected. My only quibble was why the narrator is JASON (as opposed to Jason): if it's an acronym I missed it, and I found it jolting every time I came across it. However, so dearly do I love Sawyer's work that this was only a minor irritation. This was a thoroughly enjoyable trip with an old friend. - Alex
* This is one aspect of Sawyer's work I particularly enjoy - his non-humans don't think like people do. See the Neanderthal and Quintaglio trilogies in particular.
No comments:
Post a Comment