Raymond's Reviews #2

%S The Mechanical Sky
%T Crescent In The Sky
%V I
%A Donald Moffitt
%I Del Rey
%D Jan-Feb 1990
%O paperback, $3.95 each
%P 282
%G 0-345-34477-4

%S The Mechanical Sky
%T A Gathering Of Stars
%V II
%A Donald Moffitt
%I Del Rey
%D Jan-Feb 1990
%O paperback, $3.95 each
%P 281
%G 0-345-36574-7

Donald Moffit proved in The Genesis Quest and Second Genesis that he is one of the gifted few who can write sense-of-wonder hard SF that both satisfies and gets the details right. These books aren't quite the riveting epics his last two were, but they are a damn sight better than most writers ever do -- and, arguably, his aims were different this time around.

We start with Abdul Hamid-Jones, a cloning technician in an Islam-dominated high-technology culture spanning the Solar System and a few nearby stars. In the first volume, our unwilling hero finds himself caught up in a deadly whirl of politico-religious intrigue when the despotic Emir of Mars's scheduled body transplant is disrupted by a terrorist attack. Eventually he is forced to flee to the Martian deserts, where the Bedouin ride gene-adapted Marscamels between tented and domed `oases'. While on raid with them he is recaptured by the black hats, rescued in turn by another underground group and eventually packed off (in disguise) to Alpha Centauri on a wooden starship.

The second volume more than satisfies the expectations set up by the first. What can you say about a writer with enough chutzpah and a slick enough line in speculative engineering to make you believe in wood-and-cloth starships and a scheme to sling entire solar systems around at relativistic velocities without rattling teacups on their inhabited planets? (I know what I can say... MORE! MORE!).

The atmosphere of these two novels veers from thrillingly dramatic to near slapstick, with Moffitt never quite losing control of the narrative. Jones's giddy pursuit of an overblown, mercenary `beauty' (the boss's daughter) and his frantic everything-I-do-gets-me-in-deeper attempts to untangle himself from several vicious but incompetent underground groups provide plenty of chuckles.

But don't get the idea that Moffit sacrifices any world-building precision to get cheap yucks. Except for one eminently pardonable and necessary McGuffin (the Harun Drive) the physics and biology are all quite conservative (no FTL drives or antigravity in this universe). One precise dissection of the energy requirements of starships in the second volume (which demonstates, among other things, why Bussard ramscoops are unworkable) is worth the price of admission by itself.

And, oh, does Moffitt have fun with it all. You will too -- this book is definitely a good read in the classic SF sense. May the beneficient Allah rain his blessings on Donald Moffitt, so that we see many more from this major and too-little-recognized talent!