THE SILENT STARS GO BY by James White
Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070
THE SILENT STARS GO BY by James White
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper
Healer Nolan is about to set forth on a starship to a new world.
Using cold sleep, ten thousand colonists will travel to a new world.
Led by the Kingdom of Hiberia, the voyage is a joint venture with the
Royal Court of Tenochtitlan, the Redmen of the West, and the courts of
Cathay and Nippon. Because of rivalries and intrigues, however, Nolan
is forced into a role he never expected.
Yes, it's an alternate history--but why? (The answer that White
is Irish and wanted to postulate a world in which the Irish are the
super-power is not acceptable.) Because the ship takes off fairly
early, there isn't enough time spent on the alternate Earth to use the
background to its fullest, and the intrigues after the ship takes off
could have been grounded in some future of ours, not in an alternate
past. The space travel adventure story is certainly strong enough to
stand on its own, and the alternate history just necessitates long
expository passages about the history that led to this world. And
the epilogue is the straw that breaks the camel's back for the
alternate history element.
Now what White *should* have done (in my not-so-humble opinion)
would have been to write two novels, one set on the alternate Earth
and stressing that part of the story, and one stressing the story of
the spaceship traveling to a distant star system. They could even have
been issued as a Tor Double.
Because the adventure element, particularly the trek across an
alien planet, is more than enough to make up for the shortcomings of
(or short shrift given to) the alternate history plot. White does a
good job with his many characters and their situation and manages to
provide an enjoyable story that keeps you involved. So I recommend
THE SILENT STARS GO BY as a space adventure novel, even though the
alternate history elements make it drag at times.
%T THE SILENT STARS GO BY
%A James White
%C New York City
%D September 1991
%I Del Rey
%O paperback, US$5.99
%G ISBN 0-345-37110-0
%P 441pp
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or e...@mtgzy.att.com