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scottshepard 's review for:
Non-Stop
by Brian W. Aldiss
Aldiss is seriously old-school sci-fi. In Non-Stop he’s tackling one of the classic science fiction problems: interstellar travel. With travel between the stars you can have faster-than-light ships with hyper/warp-drives like Star Wars and Star Trek, or wormholes like the movie Interstellar. If we choose to exist in a world without FTL travel, then how do you get between the stars? In Six Wakes author Mur Lafferty proposes ships manned by clones that live for a generation then wake up a new version of themselves. Or you can put all humans to sleep and have robots drive the ship.
In Non-Stop, written in 1958, Brian Aldiss proposes a generational starship. This is one where humans are born and die on the ship, not reaching its destination for hundreds of years and a dozen generations. In a self-sustaining, self-contained starship the only constraints are time, space, and sanity. What happens if, several generations in, order and civility break down? What if the passengers onboard this immersive and self-sustaining ship forget that they are on a ship at all? Could those people, now trapped in ignorance, make their way home?
While the plot is interesting and fun, the writing style reminds me of early 20th century pulp like A Princess of Mars. The characters remain shallow and undeveloped, occasionally wrecked by displays of emotion for one reason or another, but none of them feel like real people at any point. While I’m sure influential and important in it’s time, this novel has not held up well.
In Non-Stop, written in 1958, Brian Aldiss proposes a generational starship. This is one where humans are born and die on the ship, not reaching its destination for hundreds of years and a dozen generations. In a self-sustaining, self-contained starship the only constraints are time, space, and sanity. What happens if, several generations in, order and civility break down? What if the passengers onboard this immersive and self-sustaining ship forget that they are on a ship at all? Could those people, now trapped in ignorance, make their way home?
While the plot is interesting and fun, the writing style reminds me of early 20th century pulp like A Princess of Mars. The characters remain shallow and undeveloped, occasionally wrecked by displays of emotion for one reason or another, but none of them feel like real people at any point. While I’m sure influential and important in it’s time, this novel has not held up well.