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A review by abibliophagist
A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke
3.0
During a break from my Hugo read-through, I found this at a HPB, the 1974 Signet cover is just so great it set my little illustrators heart a flutter and I had to have it.
I had never read Arthur C. Clarke before, it was published the same year as the last book I had read (and nominated the year I'm about to read), and the back sounded interesting and compelling. Add this all up with a love of hard SciFi and it's beautiful cover and you've got yourself a cocktail of excitement.
Unfortunately I hyped myself up a little too much for this book. I feel it really didn't age well, was weirdly paced, and employed a plot device that I really, really dislike. I've read many older science-fiction books, so it was hard for me to write off certain things to when it was written. The interactions of everyone on the Selene didn't feel like the future at all, it felt like his time period. It was like he didn't even try and consider what other options there may be. I found myself thinking " this is Arthur C. Clarke, he's as my BF calls it ' one of the big ones' how could I not be liking this". He split his time between the characters in a way to develop none past a paragraph introduction, and to keep neither interesting cause time was either spent way to long on other things or not enough at all.
But honestly I could forgive most of this, I could look past it and still really enjoy the book if it wasn't for one major, book ruining aspect that drives me crazy. Every potentially exciting thing, every major twist, every time you should feel scared or excited or worried, he warned you. I want to be surprised, I want raw feeling when I don't know what's going to happen. I want to not know until it happens. So when the author says " If only they knew what was about to happen" "If only they knew the the sea of thirst wasn't done with them" and even "Little did they know that this this and this were going to happen and ruin things again" I can't feel anything for the situation. I can't. Maybe it's me but I then brace myself and no longer illicit a proper, raw response. This takes me out of it completely. It makes it not exciting. I feel like I'm watching a movie with someone that whispers "Oh and this blah happens" right before it happens. I can't stand it.
So end of my rant. I feel like all the elements were here, the characters were interesting enough, the concept was solid and had it been paced better and had the author not been spoiling his own book along the way it could have been really really good. I also think it was unfortunate that I read Andy Weir's the Martian this year. He had weak characters but such a good story and delivery they could be forgiven.
I won't lie I'm disappointed, I don't know if it's in this book or in myself for not liking it. I wanted too, " He's one of the greats"
It just didn't do it for me.
I had never read Arthur C. Clarke before, it was published the same year as the last book I had read (and nominated the year I'm about to read), and the back sounded interesting and compelling. Add this all up with a love of hard SciFi and it's beautiful cover and you've got yourself a cocktail of excitement.
Unfortunately I hyped myself up a little too much for this book. I feel it really didn't age well, was weirdly paced, and employed a plot device that I really, really dislike. I've read many older science-fiction books, so it was hard for me to write off certain things to when it was written. The interactions of everyone on the Selene didn't feel like the future at all, it felt like his time period. It was like he didn't even try and consider what other options there may be. I found myself thinking " this is Arthur C. Clarke, he's as my BF calls it ' one of the big ones' how could I not be liking this". He split his time between the characters in a way to develop none past a paragraph introduction, and to keep neither interesting cause time was either spent way to long on other things or not enough at all.
But honestly I could forgive most of this, I could look past it and still really enjoy the book if it wasn't for one major, book ruining aspect that drives me crazy. Every potentially exciting thing, every major twist, every time you should feel scared or excited or worried, he warned you. I want to be surprised, I want raw feeling when I don't know what's going to happen. I want to not know until it happens. So when the author says " If only they knew what was about to happen" "If only they knew the the sea of thirst wasn't done with them" and even "Little did they know that this this and this were going to happen and ruin things again" I can't feel anything for the situation. I can't. Maybe it's me but I then brace myself and no longer illicit a proper, raw response. This takes me out of it completely. It makes it not exciting. I feel like I'm watching a movie with someone that whispers "Oh and this blah happens" right before it happens. I can't stand it.
So end of my rant. I feel like all the elements were here, the characters were interesting enough, the concept was solid and had it been paced better and had the author not been spoiling his own book along the way it could have been really really good. I also think it was unfortunate that I read Andy Weir's the Martian this year. He had weak characters but such a good story and delivery they could be forgiven.
I won't lie I'm disappointed, I don't know if it's in this book or in myself for not liking it. I wanted too, " He's one of the greats"
It just didn't do it for me.