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The Shattered Sphere | Rating | |
| B | |||
| Roger MacBride Allen | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| The Hunted Earth | The Ring of Charon, The Shattered Sphere | ||
It's been five years since the Earth was stolen, plunged through a wormhole by the alien Charonians. It now resides in the Multisystem, a dozen stars each with a dozen Earthlike planets around them, all dominated by the Dyson Sphere that tweaks all the orbits to keep them stable. The Solar System, meanwhile, is trying to recover from the assault on their end. But now that the Solar System is safe - if not exactly in good shape - it is the Earth that is in danger. For the Sphere has an enemy, and if the Sphere dies the Multisystem will fly apart in chaos. But it is the Sphere that is Earth's nemesis. So is the enemy of their enemy truly their friend?
Both sides of humanity, the Earth and the Solar System, have seperate plotlines. For the Solar System, it is trying to tap into the Charonian data left in the Lunar Wheel in hopes of finding the information needed to locate the Multisystem. For Earth it is trying to find the control center for the Sphere, and wondering what to do with it if they ever find it. The book definitely emphasizes the Earth side of the story, though, partcularly in the first half. There's only occasional forays back to the Solar System to see some particularly interesting event. The second half is more balanced, but it's clear that the real action is in the Multisystem. Which is a little disappointing, as there are one or two plot threads that go all but unexplored as a result, at least until near the end. It's good they're not forgotten, but more attention could have been given to those elements.
There are, though, some significant flaws in the book. The first is a matter of timing. After several years of humanity gathering data and trying, largely in vain, to make some meaningful headway towards returning Earth to the Solar System, suddenly there is breakthrough after breakthrough, more or less simultaneously on each side of story. It's a pretty big coincidence. And more than one occurs just in time to prevent a disaster, which doesn't help. My suspension of disbelief was straining badly. It would have been more realistic, if less dramatic, if some of those discoveries were made well before they were desperately needed. And some of the information isn't figured out or discovered, but essentially given to them outright, once they figure out how to get to the information. Which in turn leads to a multi-page expository lecture, which definitely lacks the energy and spirit that filled the breakthrough discussions in the last book.
Comparisons with the other book are at the heart of the next problem as well. Unfortunately, it is a much more ambiguous, subjective problem. In essence, I was not as taken by the mood and feel of this book as I was the last. On its own this is a fine piece of work, but it lacks the dramatic tension. In part this is due to the "quotes" at each chapter's start being dated, sometimes decades into the future in relation to the story being told. It doesn't take a great intelligence to realize that any immediate threat to humanity must somehow have been dealt with in the meantime. And in part it is due to Allen sometimes lingering over some scene, thus slowing down the pacing. But part of it I just can't nail down the exact reasons for.
As I said earlier, though, it is still a good book. It's just not as good as the first one. I still recommend that science fiction fans give this one a try. But by all means, read The Ring of Charon first! It's fairly necessary in order to make this book understandable - or at least plausible.
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