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sizrobe 's review for:
Oath of Fealty
by Larry Niven
This book rides on the back of its cool central set piece, but is dragged down by a slow plot and terrible politics. The good stuff is mostly the worldbuilding about the Arcology the book is set in, Todos Santos. It's a gargantuan, mostly self-contained city state parked right in the middle of Los Angeles. Most of the characters are the top brass running it.
But oh, lord, the politics. The ecologist group that serves as the central antagonist, the FROMATES (Friends of Man and the Earth) are deplorable, misled thugs and idiots who are depicted as close to pure evil as you're going to get in a book written for adults. The big baddie of the whole book is a conniving sociology professor, for Christ's sake. Without spoiling anything, one of the recurring phrases in the book is "Think of it as Evolution in Action," as in those with opposing viewpoints to the authors aren't just wrong, they're safely ignored or overpowered and left behind by their superiors. The FROMATES' ideology isn't even elaborated in depth. They're pure strawmen.
The book is also dated in amusing ways, being written 40+ years ago. Some of the characters have brain/computer interfaces, but there are no smartphones or portable computers. Also, 24 Megabytes was treated like an astronomical amount of data. Quaint.
But oh, lord, the politics. The ecologist group that serves as the central antagonist, the FROMATES (Friends of Man and the Earth) are deplorable, misled thugs and idiots who are depicted as close to pure evil as you're going to get in a book written for adults. The big baddie of the whole book is a conniving sociology professor, for Christ's sake. Without spoiling anything, one of the recurring phrases in the book is "Think of it as Evolution in Action," as in those with opposing viewpoints to the authors aren't just wrong, they're safely ignored or overpowered and left behind by their superiors. The FROMATES' ideology isn't even elaborated in depth. They're pure strawmen.
The book is also dated in amusing ways, being written 40+ years ago. Some of the characters have brain/computer interfaces, but there are no smartphones or portable computers. Also, 24 Megabytes was treated like an astronomical amount of data. Quaint.