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To Fear the Light | Rating | |
| D | |||
| Ben Bova and A. J. Austin | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| N/A | To Save the Sun, To Fear the Light | ||
Two hundred years have changed the Empire of the Hundred Worlds dramatically. Adela de Montgarde has awakened from cryo to find wormhole travel has allowed it to expand tremendously. But the office of the Emperor, her son, is severely weakened, to the point of being barely more than a symbol. Far worse, though, is the influence of the mysterious Jephthah, whose message of xenophobic hatred is finding a welcoming audience. The project to revitalize the Sun is not really in jeopardy, but the Empire may be. If his message isn't countered, Jephtha may inspire the populace to provoke war with the Sarpan. And worst of all, a third race has just been discovered!
The atmosphere of this volume is much, much harder to read through than the last. Whereas before I could understand - if not neccesarily agree with - the villains, here I cannot. They hate for the sake of hating, as far as I can tell. They do ultimately have more planned than just riling up the citizens of the Empire, but is withheld from readers literally until the last dozen pages, by which point it is far too late. It felt almost like an afterthought. In the meantime, reading of this hateful, polarized Empire was distasteful in the extreme.
Furthermore, I found it difficult to imagine things ever getting this bad. Supposedly the creation of instantaneous communication and fast transport between stars somehow made each world more independant. This lessened the Empire's need for a centralized government, which in turn lessened the Emperor's power. Jephthah is using xenophobia as a unifier to fill the power vaccuum. But easier travel and communications would naturally tie groups together. It would increase the role of a centralized government, not reduce it. Just look at how things have evolved since radio and jet flight and you'll see my point.
And even if the worlds of the Empire did draw apart, even if the Eperor is more symbolic than functional, he still has power. So how did this hatemonger manage to thrive for decades? How did his followers manage to become so ubiquitous? How did they manage to infiltrate secure areas of government? Haven't these guys ever heard of security?
Lastly, I don't understand why Adela was sent to the scene of First Contact. Oh, I understand the authors' reasons well enough - though I contend that others could easily have filled her role - but within the story the reason doesn't make sense. Be the Eperor's authority over people who have more knowledge and experience? Be a diplomat when they don't intend to open relations with the new race immediately and a real diplomat would better serve if and when they do? Also irrational to the point of irresponsible is Adela's response to her bodyguards. She feels "smothered" and "repressed" because of four unseen watchers, and demands their removal. This despite being the Eperor's mother and knowing some peoplewish her ill. Her determination to so whatever she wants whenever she wants struck me as almost childish. And a lot of the time, people accede to her demands for little reason I can detect other than the authors' desire to add some dramatic risk.
This does have a few good bits, though. The last quarter of the book is quite interesting, as we see real Contac made at last and all its repercussions. And the story is much more integrated, thanks in large part to the abandonment of sublight interstellar travel, than the last book was.
But it doesn't make up for the flaws, not by half. The villains' motives are left mostly blank, making them into stereotypical black hats. The tone of most of the book is absolutely poisonous, filled with unreasoning hate that makes it very hard to read through. And characters act in a manner that puts lie to their suppsed intelligence. The story barely touches upon the focus of the last book, too, which really raises the question of why the authors carried Adela over at all. Too many things stretched belief, from how people acted to how lax security and training is of the "elite" agents of the Empire. It was all just too much.
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