posted
I did end up going to the library that night, but their SF section is pitiful (seriously, I think my SF library is larger than theirs) and there were only a few Zhan books to choose from. I ended up getting Manta's Gift. I read it right away, but I just realized that the details were beginning to fade from memory, and thought I should post about it before my memory of it eroded further.
First, was Manta's Gift one of the books you recommended?
I wasn't terribly impressed by it. It was an above average work, and better than anything I'm capable of producing at this point, but it struck me as being more in a class with Brin's more mediocre work than with OSC's or Octavia Butler's. Specific problems that I had with the book included the two dimensionality of a lot of the human characters. Despite being important to the plot, none of Faraday's underlings were in any way memorable. There was a lot of potential there for character development, given the situation they were in with Liadov (I think that's the villan's name, isn't it?), but...nothing. I felt none of their agony at choosing to sacrifice their careers and possibly their freedom by siding with Faraday over Laidov.
Also, it was patently obvious from the moment things started going down that that was the way they would go, simply because the story needed them to. I didn't see any compelling reasons for them to do so, at least that arose from internal motivations.
Liadov herself wasn't particularly convincing either. It seemed like she was just Eeviil, rather than a nuanced character with good internal motivations for behaving as she did.
Also, her plan for coercing the Quanska (that is the name of the aliens, right?) into giving up what she thought might be their *only* stardrive, which she suspected they were technologically incapable of building for themselves, was to kidnap ten of their children and demand the drive in exchange for their release? That's pretty damned silly. Add to that the fact that this is a herding species that is used to loosing members to predation on a regular basis, and it moves from silly to utterly ridiculous.
Finally, the Quanska seemed like the typical humans in alien suits that plague so much SF. Their biology and the ecology of their ecosystem were interesting and well worked out, but their psychology, and the constant use of human cliches with a word or two changed, kept me from believing in them to any real degree. For an example of somebody getting aliens right, look to Octavia Bulter's Xenogenesis trilogy. Now *those* are convincingly alien aliens.
To what degree do you think that Manta's Gift is representative of Zahn's work?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Nope. I found that one too, when I was searching for the thread in question, and thought it was funny that I'd basically had the same conversation it two different threads. And with the same person, and so recently too! But no, this was an even more recent thread, and in it I had a post where I asked Paul who some of his other favorite SF authors were so that I could get a bead on his tastes. It also had a post where I announced that I was going to the library that night, and would be getting a book of his when I went.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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It's on page three in that thread (edit: the Star Wars one):
quote:Paul Goldner:
Heck, Zahn may be the best active sci-fi author.
quote:Noemon:
Man, that's high praise Paul. Who do you consider the other contenders to be? If you were to recommend a single Zhan book to serve as an introduction to his work, what would it be? I've not read his stuff.
quote:Paul Goldner:
I'm not sure who else I'd place in zahn's category. OSC, obviously. Neil Gaiman maybe? Mostly fantasy, though. I haven't found very many good sci-fi authors in the past few years, to be honest. Halperin was extremely good, but only wrote two books, and isn't working on a third, so he's not active.
Angelmass, Manta's Gift, and Icarus Hunt are good places to start with Zahn. Angelmass and Manta's Gift are more serious then Icarus Hunt, but Icarus Hunt is the best representation of his style and method of writing.
quote:Noemon:
I'm going to the library tonight--I'll see if they have any of those titles in.
quote:Paul Goldner:
Hope you find one and enjoy it [Smile]
[ January 12, 2005, 05:19 PM: Message edited by: St. Yogi ]
Posts: 739 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Don't ignore his Star Wars books either. Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy may turn some people off just because it's in the Star Wars universe, but it still has compelling characters and a good plot. Same thing with the Hand of Thrawn Duology.
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Does he do a better job with characterization in that than he does in Manta's Gift? I really thought that the characters he created felt lacking.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Personally, I think Zahn's best characterization is in his first SW trilogy -- including depictions of the already-established characters AND creation of new characters. I've tried other Zahn and haven't liked it as much; I've tried other Star Wars novels and haven't liked 'em as much. Zahn and Star Wars just worked.Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Huh. Well, your taste in fiction is pretty similar to my own, so based on that I'll have to give his Star Wars stuff a try.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Those books are definitely worth it. Moreso than any of the other SW novels, when I read them I thought 'yup, that's what they'd do'. A neat trick as he seemed to also keep in mind the time that passed between ROTJ and his novels, so the characters didn't just seem like rehashes of what you've seen.
I actually made a point of grabbing the Conqueror's trilogy from my parent's house when I went to visit so I could re-read it.
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