Arcane Gazebo

Sundiver: More laser beams than a Dr. Evil plot

While in Houston I happened upon my copy of Sundiver by David Brin, which had been sitting unread in my closet for a few years. I don't really know why I never got around to reading it; maybe it was the godawful cover art. Brin was not only a Techer but a Lloydie (I met him once when he visited the campus), and I've enjoyed his essays but never read his fiction. (For a great Brin essay, try this one on the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek.) Anyway, I tossed the book in my bag for the road.

I read about 90% of it during my interminable travel on Sunday, and finished it on the BART this morning. So, a few comments:

It struck me that Brin writes as if his audience is the Caltech science fiction book club. The prose is frequently dense with scientific terminology which I imagine could be troublesome for less technical readers. I kind of enjoyed it but it's definitely not for everyone. (Since this is his first novel this probably changes over time.) This did, however, result in some awkward dialogue.

As far as plot I was expecting (based on the back cover synopsis) a Ringworld-style exploration where a bunch of humans and aliens go somewhere in a cool ship and find cool stuff. There were elements of this, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book was primarily a mystery novel embedded in a sci-fi novel, a combination I've always found enjoyable. But this, too, was geared to a technical audience; some of the major clues involved physics that might not be as familiar to the average reader as they were to me. I can't decide whether this is a complaint; I do derive a certain amount of enjoyment from solving a mystery based on my knowledge of optics, but it obviously restricts the audience a bit.

I do have one definite complaint: the ending was too neat. Pretty much every conflict, internal and external, was resolved, with a couple of exceptions that are obviously the driving forces for the entire series that begins with this book. It seemed rather unrealistic.

Anyway, not the greatest book I've ever read, but a good companion for hours of plane travel. I'll probably pick up the sequel, Startide Rising, which is supposed to be very good and in a rather different vein from Sundiver. I'm curious where the story will go... Posted by Arcane Gazebo at January 6, 2004 5:11 PM | Tags: