Author: Joe Vasicek

I was browsing around in Pioneer Book about a week ago (and Pioneer Book is an awesome place to hang out if you like books–they’re used, but cheap, and it’s really fun just to go and get lost in there!) and I saw a few used Heinlein books for sale. I don’t know too much about anything in particular that he wrote, just that he’s known as one of the best Science Fiction writers of the last century and had a very strong influence on the genre, and so I decided to pick up one of his books to get a taste for his writing. I settled on Citizen of the Galaxy, for no particularly compelling reason except that it seemed a little bit more interesting from the back cover blurb.

It was definitely a good book! I read it very quickly and really loved it! This was one of those books that I would read between classes (and maybe for the first five minutes of class as well), while eating, while walking back to my apartment from on campus, etc.  Basically, any time I had free time.

The story takes place in the far future, when humanity has expanded to many worlds and has diplomatic contact with many alien races.  But because space is so large, all the worlds are only held together in a loose confederation.  Far away from Earth is the Sargony of Nine Worlds, where human trafficking is alive and well.  The main character, Thorby, is a boy who starts out as a slave–but he is bought and befriended by a beggar named Baslim.  However, Baslim is much more than a mere beggar, and there are many people from outside of the Sargony who would like to see slavery abolished.  Soon, Baslim is killed by the Sargony, and Thorby is forced onto the run.  He moves from place to place, among many different people, as he grows from a boy to man.  When he finally finds the true identity of Baslim–and his own true identity–he finds that it provides him an unlikely opportunity to fight the evil slave trade.  But it will require him to once again give up everything that he wants.

It was easy to read and very fast. In fact, it was surprisingly fast.  There were many scenes where I thought to myself “wow, this scene could really be fleshed out more!” The descriptions were minimal, and at times, days, months, and even years passed by in only a couple of pages.  Heinlein definitely wasn’t too wordy, but the things that he did describe and did explain were the important and interesting things.

I think a lot of this was due to the point of view.  It was 3rd person omniscient, like Frank Herbert’s Dune, except that it was even more detached than Herbert.  Herbert would get into the scene enough to give a detailed picture of everything, but for Heinlein, the important thing was the plot of the story–as well as some of the more interesting ideas he had.

One really interesting idea that he had was of a society of space traders that travel the frontiers of known space on long voyages, completely isolated from the rest of humanity, who over time form their own distinct culture and government.  Each ship is like its own country, with a very rigid social structure to keep the friction of long voyages from causing mutiny and disorder.  The onboard community is almost like a tribe of nomads where everyone plays a role.  Every few years, they come together in a giant gathering to intermarry and buy new ships to start new clans.

The way that Heinlein envisioned this society is truly fascinating–he took the conditions that existed on the frontier of the world that he created, combined it with the technology of space travel, and drew it to what he saw as the logical conclusions.  He then humanized it somewhat by telling a story within it.

He did this for more than just the Free Traders: he did it to one degree or another throughout the whole book.  And these ideas and concepts, combined with the story of Thorby’s rise from anonymity and the underworld, made the story really good.  It really got my imagination going, which in my opinion is a sign of greatness in any story.

Oh, and one more thing: one reason why I love reading these old sci fi stories is because it is ALWAYS funny when one of the characters pulls out a slide rule to do some math!  ALWAYS!!!  It happened only once in this story, but it made me LAUGH so hard!  You’ve gotta love old 60s sci fi!

As I’ve become more and more involved in writing Science Fiction, I’ve felt a strong desire to educate myself on the genre and read the major Sci Fi books that have come before me. I want to do this so that I can make my own works stronger, and also because I really enjoy them. When I picked up this book, I did so more because it was one of the more well known books and I felt that I ought to read it than that I really wanted to read it. After all, 2001: A Space Odyssey is known to be really hard sci fi, and most of what I’ve experienced and come to love is more “soft” sci fi.

However, even though this book really is “hard” science fiction, I became totally engrossed and really came to love it. The last 50 pages in particular had a huge impact on me–I literally couldn’t put the book down!

2001: A Space Odyssey kind of reminds me of Asimov’s Foundation series, in that the thing driving the story the most isn’t the characters, the plot, or the conflict, but the idea. In Foundation, it was psychohistory and questions about free will and the ability to predict the future. In 2001, it has to do with the growth and development of humanity and wonder at the universe.

Like Foundation, it really isn’t character based at all–the story starts three million years in the past, when aliens encounter our primate ancestors, and goes forward to 2001, when astronaut David Bowman again contacts these aliens on a mission to Saturn that goes disastrously wrong. But really, it isn’t about David at all–he’s more of a vehicle through which Arthur C. Clarke describes the planets and the aliens.

The thing that really makes this book stand out for me is the writing. When the Discovery was flying by Jupiter, I really felt like I was there. It was almost as if I could feel the same anxiety and wonder that the astronauts felt–and when the probe broke through the first few layers of Jovian clouds to send out a video picture of what lay underneath, my eyes grew wide as if I were there. The writing throughout the book was superb like that.

One thing that surprised me a bit was that I didn’t mind how Arthur C. Clarke treated the man-apes at the beginning of the book. I’m a fairly religious person, and even though I accept most of evolution, there are some things about the Darwinist worldview that clash with my theology and can sometimes irk me. It’s not that I think I’ve got it figured out–because really, like every reasonable person I have to admit that I haven’t–it’s that there are certain things about the Darwinist worldview that I feel leave no space for the kind of stuff that I believe in. However, even though 2001: A Space Odyssey adhered very close to the Darwinist view of human pre-history, I didn’t feel all that upset or thrown off by it. I think this was because Clarke wasn’t preachy about it, or tried to use it as a way to downplay religion. Indeed, Clarke didn’t seem to have much to say either for or against religion–just that this was one aspect of where we came from.

And I think this gets onto something much bigger that I really liked about this book–Clarke didn’t try to explain everything. Indeed, there was a lot more left unexplained than explained, and that helped to preserve the supreme sense of wonder that the book conveyed. This wasn’t like the Star Wars prequels when they tried to do something as lame as explain the force–this book really showed that there are a lot of unanswered questions and fascinating possibilities in the universe. And I really think that that helped to strengthen the book as Science Fiction.

By far the strangest and most fascinating part of the book was the last fifty pages, when David Bowman gets to Saturn aboard the now partly derelict Discovery and finds the stargate. Once he goes through it, ALL KINDS of crazy stuff happen! And it was really thrilling to read! I won’t give away any spoilers, but it was really crazy–and really good as well! The thing that made it good was that even though it was really psychedelic and mysterious, I didn’t feel lost as I was reading it. I felt that I could visualize it very well, even if I didn’t know what “it” was, and every once and a while, Clarke dropped in a short explanation or two without breaking the action. Indeed, since the point of view was not really limited to David, there was room for the narrator to talk with the reader and explain some of the stuff that was going on. But Clarke really did a good job balancing the information he gave so that he preserved a sense of mystery without losing the reader. That, I feel, takes skill and practice, and can really strengthen a good story.

2001: A Space Odyssey is definitely hard sci fi, so if you like reading about characters or stories, you won’t get much from this–but if you have a sense of wonder about the universe and you like pondering scientific ideas, this is a really excellent book to read!

Alright, here are the two ideas I have right now.  I’m not really at a good stopping point for The Lost Colony yet, but I think I can slow down enough to divide my attention.

The first one I got when I finished 2001: A Space Odyssey just last week.  I was thinking about dating and relationships, and also thinking about the last 50 pages of 2001 (which, let me tell you, are psychedelically crazy!), and the thought came into my mind that a guy and a girl getting to the point where they start up a relationship is kind of like a first contact situation with an alien species. In both situations, both sides are trying to put their best selves forward; in both situations, communication is awkward and neither side quite knows what to expect; in both situations, each side is driven to figure out what the other side is thinking, and to predict what they will do; in both situations, the stakes are very high.  So, I thought I’d write a story which is actually two stories–a first contact story that parallels an awkward dtr, where it’s unclear whether the first contact story is real or is just happening inside the guy’s head.  Yes, I know it’s a really nerdy story.  Yes, I embraced my geekdom long ago.  And…to make it more geeky, I’m probably going to need a little bit of help with this one.  So I talked with my good friend Steve, and we’re going to collaborate on this one.  I think it could be really funny–just like Decision LZ150207! (speaking of which, I need to send out that story to some publishers)

The other idea I have is a bit darker.  I got the idea of it from Joe Haldeman’s Forever War.  I thought that the space combat in that book was very intriguing, about space battles fought across solar systems at relativistic speeds, and how the soldiers return after every combat to a very different world.  For a few months, I toyed around in my head what a spaceship would look like that fought at such speeds, and I came up with this idea of a one man spaceship that was equipped to defend a planetary system from attack.  And then, I thought “what would it be like if one of the pilots blacked out, was thrown out of the solar system at relativistic speeds, and by the time he came back, it was nearly a hundred years later and a peace treaty had been signed?” So now, I just need to come up with an idea for this pilot’s character, and to figure out a few more of the military details.  And…I need to figure out what this guy is going to do after his life loses its meaning.  He basically forsakes everything to go and become one of these pilots (since he knows that he will be flung far into the future), and the thing that compels him to do that is the urgency of this terrible war, but when something goes wrong in this battle (which he thinks is the final battle for his world) he comes back to find that the enemy that he has dedicated his life to destroy has made peace with his people, and they are now in an age of prosperity.  He becomes a relic.  What does he do about it?  That’s the key issue–and I don’t know exactly how to solve it.  I’m not exactly the person to do so, either, since I’m not a soldier and not a veteran of any war.  But…maybe I can come up with something.  I hope that something in my personal experience can help to suggest an answer to this soldier’s problem.  Because I don’t want this to be a lame story where the whole point is to destroy the hero.  I want it to be realistic, but worth reading as well.

So, those are some of the ideas I have in my head now.  I hope that more will soon come!  And really, the thing I need to focus on now is submitting the two stories that I’ve already finished.  I’ve been lazy on that end–too lazy.