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Dave Bara, Impulse
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lal_truckee
Jun 25, 2015, 7:24:44 PM6/25/15
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Just read Impulse by Dave Bara.
The thing to take away from this volume is Mr. Bara has threatened to
write 11 more volumes, thereby possibly collapsing civilization. Beware.
Impulse is a deliberate pastiche of C.S. Forester/Horatio Hornblower and
O'Brian/Aubrey-Maturin style sailing era sea adventures. In case you
don't "get it" he names his protagonist Cochrane. Subtle.
The problem is Mr. Bara has no original thoughts. His hysterical
"science" makes van Vogt look coherent. His plotting amounts to
shuffling a list of set pieces and scenarios that he thinks would be
cool, adding some flip connecting fabric, but no logical progression.
His writing looks like its been filtered through a "dumb down" engine to
eliminate words of three or more syllables. Most telling, he makes it
clear repeatedly that he thinks his writing is clever, particularly on
those occasions when it most drifts from coherence. But I persevered,
reading half the book before giving up and scanning the rest. It didn't
improve.
(I'm not going to mention he contradicts himself in the very first
paragraph, speaking of the protagonist's walk "never taking so long" and
then saying he'd done the walk once. His editor should have saved him
from that, so he gets a pass. DAW must not employ editors.)
The thing to take away from this volume is Mr. Bara has threatened to
write 11 more volumes, thereby possibly collapsing civilization. Beware.
Impulse is a deliberate pastiche of C.S. Forester/Horatio Hornblower and
O'Brian/Aubrey-Maturin style sailing era sea adventures. In case you
don't "get it" he names his protagonist Cochrane. Subtle.
The problem is Mr. Bara has no original thoughts. His hysterical
"science" makes van Vogt look coherent. His plotting amounts to
shuffling a list of set pieces and scenarios that he thinks would be
cool, adding some flip connecting fabric, but no logical progression.
His writing looks like its been filtered through a "dumb down" engine to
eliminate words of three or more syllables. Most telling, he makes it
clear repeatedly that he thinks his writing is clever, particularly on
those occasions when it most drifts from coherence. But I persevered,
reading half the book before giving up and scanning the rest. It didn't
improve.
(I'm not going to mention he contradicts himself in the very first
paragraph, speaking of the protagonist's walk "never taking so long" and
then saying he'd done the walk once. His editor should have saved him
from that, so he gets a pass. DAW must not employ editors.)
Titus G
Jun 25, 2015, 10:18:51 PM6/25/15
to
On 26/06/2015 11:24 a.m., lal_truckee wrote:
> Just read Impulse by Dave Bara.
snip interesting but very negative review.
> Just read Impulse by Dave Bara.
> (I'm not going to mention he contradicts himself in the very first
At the risk of contradiction, perhaps you should have mentioned that. It
would have been appropriate given the tone and criticism of your review.
Brian M. Scott
Jun 26, 2015, 1:46:06 PM6/26/15
to
On Fri, 26 Jun 2015 14:19:44 +1200, Titus G
<no...@nowhere.com> wrote
in<news:mmicnn$vpo$1...@dont-email.me> in rec.arts.sf.written:
The opening can be read at Amazon. The paragraph in
question could certainly be improved, since ‘The long walk
... had never seemed so endless’ does rather suggest more
than one previous experience with said walk, but there’s no
actual contradiction here: it just says that this second
walk seemed even longer than the first, and we’re
immediately told enough about the first to suspect that it
felt pretty long.
Brian
--
It was the neap tide, when the baga venture out of their
holes to root for sandtatties. The waves whispered
rhythmically over the packed sand: haggisss, haggisss,
haggisss.
<no...@nowhere.com> wrote
in<news:mmicnn$vpo$1...@dont-email.me> in rec.arts.sf.written:
question could certainly be improved, since ‘The long walk
... had never seemed so endless’ does rather suggest more
than one previous experience with said walk, but there’s no
actual contradiction here: it just says that this second
walk seemed even longer than the first, and we’re
immediately told enough about the first to suspect that it
felt pretty long.
Brian
--
It was the neap tide, when the baga venture out of their
holes to root for sandtatties. The waves whispered
rhythmically over the packed sand: haggisss, haggisss,
haggisss.
Robert Carnegie
Jul 13, 2015, 5:57:47 PM7/13/15
to
Oh - you did. Right-o.
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