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Reader Quality: Excellent, as always

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I kind of expected some really top notch Sci-Fi from Pohl; though honestly I'd never read one of his books before; he's just got a great reputation. Well, it was a pretty interesting read but just didn't grip me consistently. For one thing, not all of it added up. Early on 'Dopey' explains that the group transported to his planet were transmitted, not transported, because they had to use Tachyon communication to get around the light speed barrier. Well, duh, wouldn't that mean that they prisoners were copies? Evidently not. Or if they are, the transmission mechanism copies them, then destroys the original. None of the characters seem to figure this out and happily think they must be the originals.

The psychology of the whole 'copy' thing isn't handled to me as well as I'd hope, though it is interesting in parts. Ah well. I of course don't think you can copy the soul, but I guess I need to write some Christian Sci-Fi.

I also am not into 'preachy' science fiction that tries to establish a social agenda. There were the 80's "inevitable environmental holocaust" like Timescape. And the Ben Bova "need to involve every ethnicity" Mars books I couldn't stand enough to finish. This book partly falls into that category but not so much as to hamper my enjoyment too much. Thank goodness for great old-school style writers like Timothy Zahn.

Note (and I didn't understand this till after I read the book) this is part 1 of a 3 part series. I've read that part II ("Siege of Eternity") is worse, but that part III ("The Far Shore of Time") is pretty good.

-- MattWalsh - 09 Apr 2002