Book 1: A Company of Stars
Book 1: A Company of Stars
Writer: Christopher Stasheff
Genre: Science Fiction/Humor
Number of pages: 313
Pages Read This Year: 313
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B
Short description/summary of the book: from Amazon
In this venture into science fiction, Stasheff mines the same comedic vein that marks his light fantasy Warlock series ( Warlock Rock ). Fleeing the threat of forced matrimony, Ramou Lazarian skips college and heads for New York. His worsening fortunes turn when he rescues Horace Burbage from a gang of street toughs. Horace, an aging actor whose prospects are dwindling, offers Ramou a place in the newly formed Star Company, founded to carry the timeless pleasures of live theater to the outer colonies. But the prudish Elector Rudders, leader of the LORDS party, is campaigning to censor or eradicate live perfomrances, and focuses specifically on the Star Company and its plan to bring the vice to other worlds. The race is on: Can the company assemble, gather supplies, find a ship and a captain, and lift off before Rudders grounds them permanently?
My Thoughts: Being a longtime theatrical participant myself, I found I rather enjoyed this nice science fiction tale, first of the Starship Troupers series. When Ramou Lazarian is fingered as the parent in a pregnancy he knows full well is impossible, he flees to New York City to make his fortune. Ramou stumbles upon Horace Burbage, an aging actor who is helping to establish a new theatrical company to take live theatre to the Terran colonies on other planets. Ramou signs on as assistant technical director and he, Horace and the group's leader, Barry Tallendar, begin to recruit actors and crew. As they work to build their company, however, the Star Company has fallen under the gaze of Elector Rudders, whose disdain of live theatre threatens to shut them down before they even have a chance to lift off.
This was a fun book, with a light comic touch that really made it feel authentic in terms of characterization. Actors have been the same since the dawn of time, and there's no reason to believe they'd be very different 500 years in the future. However, public opinion does change, and that leads to the fundamental weakness of the story, our villain Rudders. The character -- who in this book appears only in television (or "3DT" broadcasts) and interviews -- is a caricature of the Bible-thumping, moral policeman that has been such a cliched villain over the years. It's hard to believe that a man like Rudders would become such a media darling, as even in this day and age such a person gets targeted by the media and Hollywood alike, who stop at nothing to ridicule him into obscurity.
The book also has a slight problem with shifting viewpoints. The story bounces from Ramou's first person viewpoint to Horace's fairly regularly, and without any sort of set transition. Sometimes it's easy to tell a bounce has taken place, but sometimes it isn't, and that leads to confusion.
Still, the book is funny enough and appeals very much to the performer in me. It's a lot of fun, and I look forward to reading the other two volumes in the series.
In the Queue: The Forest King: Woodlark's Shadow by Dan Mishkin, About Time Vol. 1 by Tat Wood & Lawrence Miles
Writer: Christopher Stasheff
Genre: Science Fiction/Humor
Number of pages: 313
Pages Read This Year: 313
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: B
Short description/summary of the book: from Amazon
In this venture into science fiction, Stasheff mines the same comedic vein that marks his light fantasy Warlock series ( Warlock Rock ). Fleeing the threat of forced matrimony, Ramou Lazarian skips college and heads for New York. His worsening fortunes turn when he rescues Horace Burbage from a gang of street toughs. Horace, an aging actor whose prospects are dwindling, offers Ramou a place in the newly formed Star Company, founded to carry the timeless pleasures of live theater to the outer colonies. But the prudish Elector Rudders, leader of the LORDS party, is campaigning to censor or eradicate live perfomrances, and focuses specifically on the Star Company and its plan to bring the vice to other worlds. The race is on: Can the company assemble, gather supplies, find a ship and a captain, and lift off before Rudders grounds them permanently?
My Thoughts: Being a longtime theatrical participant myself, I found I rather enjoyed this nice science fiction tale, first of the Starship Troupers series. When Ramou Lazarian is fingered as the parent in a pregnancy he knows full well is impossible, he flees to New York City to make his fortune. Ramou stumbles upon Horace Burbage, an aging actor who is helping to establish a new theatrical company to take live theatre to the Terran colonies on other planets. Ramou signs on as assistant technical director and he, Horace and the group's leader, Barry Tallendar, begin to recruit actors and crew. As they work to build their company, however, the Star Company has fallen under the gaze of Elector Rudders, whose disdain of live theatre threatens to shut them down before they even have a chance to lift off.
This was a fun book, with a light comic touch that really made it feel authentic in terms of characterization. Actors have been the same since the dawn of time, and there's no reason to believe they'd be very different 500 years in the future. However, public opinion does change, and that leads to the fundamental weakness of the story, our villain Rudders. The character -- who in this book appears only in television (or "3DT" broadcasts) and interviews -- is a caricature of the Bible-thumping, moral policeman that has been such a cliched villain over the years. It's hard to believe that a man like Rudders would become such a media darling, as even in this day and age such a person gets targeted by the media and Hollywood alike, who stop at nothing to ridicule him into obscurity.
The book also has a slight problem with shifting viewpoints. The story bounces from Ramou's first person viewpoint to Horace's fairly regularly, and without any sort of set transition. Sometimes it's easy to tell a bounce has taken place, but sometimes it isn't, and that leads to confusion.
Still, the book is funny enough and appeals very much to the performer in me. It's a lot of fun, and I look forward to reading the other two volumes in the series.
In the Queue: The Forest King: Woodlark's Shadow by Dan Mishkin, About Time Vol. 1 by Tat Wood & Lawrence Miles