Although we have a limited setting and a small cast of
characters, this isn’t to be mistaken for a diorama. Our characters aren’t very
fleshed out, and we never really get inside their heads – this is a screen on
which to project artificial intelligence. To borrow a metaphor from the book,
this is tossing ink on a spider’s web.
From a hard science fiction point of view, the plot here is
a little silly – a project based on the Moon is sending out ships full of
clones that will be destroyed if they get too close to unleashing something
terrible upon humanity? That’s either a colossal waste of resources, or, if the
resources are as cheap as the book seems to imply, a colossal waste of time,
since if the resources are practically infinite, why bother? One could argue
that the development of AI is so important that the researchers involved are
willing to throw these resources at it even though they themselves, nor anyone
on Earth, will ever benefit, but even that generous reading strains credulity,
given what we see in the prologue.
What Herbert does best (as he does
in Dune) is the contrast between internal and external dialogue –
unfortunately, even with the deception and lies of omission there, there really
isn’t a large amount of tension (and that’s with
one of the crew being a potential traitor). Secondly, the problems the
makeshift crew have with piloting and navigating the ship never seem to rise to
the level of critical – Herbert attempts to convey the stress caused by sitting
at the bridge, and how some problems simply can’t be diagnosed with the
equipment they have on hand, but it never seems quite right, and while the
stakes are represented as high, the behavior is not.
The behavior of the crew isn’t
necessarily what would be expected, either, given the circumstances. The action
begins in media res, with three of the six original crew members dead. They
choose to wake only one replacement from the hibernation tanks, in a decision
that isn’t really too deeply touched on. There’s also a weird thread of sexual
undertone running through the novel, which almost makes it seem as though
Herbert cut a more fully formed romantic subplot when he updated the novel (for
developments in the field of psychiatry, but what author can’t be tempted to
edit what didn’t work?)
I probably would recommend this –
even with the problems above, and an ending that feels tacked on (like Dune),
this is a fun ride. Is it perfect? No. It works better as an adventure story than a parable or a warning, and after Dune, I don't feel compelled to seek out the sequels.
