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Like most of the science fiction from the 1950s I've read, Starship, despite its generic title, contains a really intriguing premise that I had never really encountered before. Unfortunately, it's also like those books in that the plot doesn't live up to the premise, starting to falter around the halfway point before coming to a messy, formulaic, and ultimately unsatisfying conclusion.
Without getting into spoilers (it's a book with a number of twists along the way) the basic premise is this: a small tribe of people inhabit what appears to be a run down spaceship. The interior of the ship is overgrown with rapidly growing hydroponic plants that give it a jungle-like atmosphere. The people live a largely primitive life, though there are remnants of technology, such as laser-like weapons known as "dazers." Throughout the ship there is evidence of some cataclysmic event that happened long ago, but exactly what it was nobody seems to know. The culture of the tribe is incredibly aggressive, the inhabitants adhere to a religion known as the Teaching, a seemingly warped form of psychoanalysis and Jungian thought that encourages acting on (frequently violent) impulses. The main character, Roy Complain, joins with a group of fellow tribesmen to explore far into the ship in an attempt to unravel its mysteries.
So yeah, there's some pretty interesting stuff going on! The setting, at turns primitive and high tech, is very cool. The mystery of what happened is intriguing. I found the religious aspect to be surprisingly well-developed for what is essentially an action book. The major drawback to the setting in the characters it produces. None of them are particularly interesting or sympathetic. The majority of the interactions are guys flying into random rages or sulky silences and scheming against one another. And although by the end Aldiss tries to describe Complain as someone who has grown fundamentally for the better, other than his cliched puppy-love for the main female character, he seems much the same at the end as he is at the beginning.
Speaking of the love plot, my biggest complaint (which will be unsurprising to those who know me or have read my other reviews) is the way that the book treats women. Or, woman, more accurately, as there is really only one of substance in the entire book. Laur Vyann starts off as a promising character. She's a competent person in a position of authority, but as soon as she meets the main male character she pretty much spends the rest of the book either being objectified by Roy or fawning over and rapidly falling in love with him for no apparent reason. Some choice quotes:
It just never ceases to amaze me how so many science fiction writers, then and now, are able to think so complexly about technology or biology or culture, and yet they seem incapable of creating female characters that are more than misogynistic stereotypes.
This, along with the way that the plot pretty much implodes at the end made what was an initially entertaining read to end up as another Golden Age of SF disappointment. Oh, and all that doesn't even take into account the
Without getting into spoilers (it's a book with a number of twists along the way) the basic premise is this: a small tribe of people inhabit what appears to be a run down spaceship. The interior of the ship is overgrown with rapidly growing hydroponic plants that give it a jungle-like atmosphere. The people live a largely primitive life, though there are remnants of technology, such as laser-like weapons known as "dazers." Throughout the ship there is evidence of some cataclysmic event that happened long ago, but exactly what it was nobody seems to know. The culture of the tribe is incredibly aggressive, the inhabitants adhere to a religion known as the Teaching, a seemingly warped form of psychoanalysis and Jungian thought that encourages acting on (frequently violent) impulses. The main character, Roy Complain, joins with a group of fellow tribesmen to explore far into the ship in an attempt to unravel its mysteries.
So yeah, there's some pretty interesting stuff going on! The setting, at turns primitive and high tech, is very cool. The mystery of what happened is intriguing. I found the religious aspect to be surprisingly well-developed for what is essentially an action book. The major drawback to the setting in the characters it produces. None of them are particularly interesting or sympathetic. The majority of the interactions are guys flying into random rages or sulky silences and scheming against one another. And although by the end Aldiss tries to describe Complain as someone who has grown fundamentally for the better, other than his cliched puppy-love for the main female character, he seems much the same at the end as he is at the beginning.
Speaking of the love plot, my biggest complaint (which will be unsurprising to those who know me or have read my other reviews) is the way that the book treats women. Or, woman, more accurately, as there is really only one of substance in the entire book. Laur Vyann starts off as a promising character. She's a competent person in a position of authority, but as soon as she meets the main male character she pretty much spends the rest of the book either being objectified by Roy or fawning over and rapidly falling in love with him for no apparent reason. Some choice quotes:
"Sweat stood out on Complain's face, and he noticed Vyann's blouse sticking to her breasts; for him they were the sweetest fruits aboard the ship."
"She made no answer beyond looking stubbornly at him, knowing, woman-like, that she had an argument superior to reason."
"'No!' Complain roared. It was hell the way everyone had wills of their own, even women."
It just never ceases to amaze me how so many science fiction writers, then and now, are able to think so complexly about technology or biology or culture, and yet they seem incapable of creating female characters that are more than misogynistic stereotypes.
This, along with the way that the plot pretty much implodes at the end made what was an initially entertaining read to end up as another Golden Age of SF disappointment. Oh, and all that doesn't even take into account the