RedFred
10-12-2003, 21:04:57
Extremes by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
One of my buddies watches Star Trek primarily for the amusement value of all those gaping plot holes and logic errors. Seems like a strange form of amusement to me.
I have a greater expectation that a book will be more consistant than some TV show that the writers have to crank out a new episode each week. This book doesn't do so well though. In this case poor research seems to be at fault.
The premise behind this science fiction story is that a cop is investigating a murder at the 'moon marathon'. We are told that this race, central to the novel, is open only to the elite of the elite, that a top three finish in another marathon is a requirement. But we are also told that the 'winner is to finish in a half hour, when an hour has passed since the lead runner has passed the five mile mark. 30 + 60 + time to run the first five miles = an unbelievably long time. Current elites are running sub 2:10 with earth's gravity. Under Rusch's reasonably utopian view of the future the current 2:05 WR could reasonably be expected to continue to fall. So the timeframe is not that unreasonable if the race was held on earth. But what about next to no air resistance and one sixth the gravity? Worse still, competitors are still streaming in hours after the start of the race.
I'll only raise one or two more issues with Rusch's 'moon marathon' only because it is central to the novel. Runners are described and depicted as running upright just like on earth. Front cover artwork shows perfectly formed treadmarks just like someone would have walking on a hard packed sandy beach. But try running in hard sand. Toe and possibly heel sections of the print will be deeper and spray will deform the print. But would a runner even stay upright with one sixth gravity? One of the later Apollo missions found a motion more like swimming is more efficient. Run 'four-legged' with most of the thrust coming from the true legs and using your arms for balance and some additional thrust.
An author's feminist agenda is not normally a handicap for me, particularly if the novel is set in the future. I can deal with all the strong dominant women in the story, even all the weak or subservient males. There is but one 'token' strong male, Miles. But to make the winner of the marathon a female is too much of a stretch. An obscure marathon perhaps. But not a race of elites. Not without some background plot to show a gradual future equalization of female and male strength and endurance.
The people depicted in this novel are living in a lunar dome when not running this marathon. Perhaps the most serious flaw is the excessively clumsy police versus the outside-the-dome experienced racers, many of which, including the winner are from earth. A passage on page 66 shows that a young detective is even having trouble standing up outside the dome despite living inside the dome all his life. This comes dangerously close to implying that the dome is under earth gravity while outside the dome is lunar gravity. Even this could be acceptable if there was a brief passage suggesting some hocus pocus like gravity waves was operational inside the dome. Without it, I am worried that stupidity waves are operational inside the author's brain.
I wouldn't be so bitter if it wasn't such a great book otherwise. Good plot, great pacing and interesting characters. Even the males ones. Despite the flaws it is still worth a read. But unlike my Star Trek watching buddy, I feel that every bit of badly researched background to the story grates rather than amuses.
One of my buddies watches Star Trek primarily for the amusement value of all those gaping plot holes and logic errors. Seems like a strange form of amusement to me.
I have a greater expectation that a book will be more consistant than some TV show that the writers have to crank out a new episode each week. This book doesn't do so well though. In this case poor research seems to be at fault.
The premise behind this science fiction story is that a cop is investigating a murder at the 'moon marathon'. We are told that this race, central to the novel, is open only to the elite of the elite, that a top three finish in another marathon is a requirement. But we are also told that the 'winner is to finish in a half hour, when an hour has passed since the lead runner has passed the five mile mark. 30 + 60 + time to run the first five miles = an unbelievably long time. Current elites are running sub 2:10 with earth's gravity. Under Rusch's reasonably utopian view of the future the current 2:05 WR could reasonably be expected to continue to fall. So the timeframe is not that unreasonable if the race was held on earth. But what about next to no air resistance and one sixth the gravity? Worse still, competitors are still streaming in hours after the start of the race.
I'll only raise one or two more issues with Rusch's 'moon marathon' only because it is central to the novel. Runners are described and depicted as running upright just like on earth. Front cover artwork shows perfectly formed treadmarks just like someone would have walking on a hard packed sandy beach. But try running in hard sand. Toe and possibly heel sections of the print will be deeper and spray will deform the print. But would a runner even stay upright with one sixth gravity? One of the later Apollo missions found a motion more like swimming is more efficient. Run 'four-legged' with most of the thrust coming from the true legs and using your arms for balance and some additional thrust.
An author's feminist agenda is not normally a handicap for me, particularly if the novel is set in the future. I can deal with all the strong dominant women in the story, even all the weak or subservient males. There is but one 'token' strong male, Miles. But to make the winner of the marathon a female is too much of a stretch. An obscure marathon perhaps. But not a race of elites. Not without some background plot to show a gradual future equalization of female and male strength and endurance.
The people depicted in this novel are living in a lunar dome when not running this marathon. Perhaps the most serious flaw is the excessively clumsy police versus the outside-the-dome experienced racers, many of which, including the winner are from earth. A passage on page 66 shows that a young detective is even having trouble standing up outside the dome despite living inside the dome all his life. This comes dangerously close to implying that the dome is under earth gravity while outside the dome is lunar gravity. Even this could be acceptable if there was a brief passage suggesting some hocus pocus like gravity waves was operational inside the dome. Without it, I am worried that stupidity waves are operational inside the author's brain.
I wouldn't be so bitter if it wasn't such a great book otherwise. Good plot, great pacing and interesting characters. Even the males ones. Despite the flaws it is still worth a read. But unlike my Star Trek watching buddy, I feel that every bit of badly researched background to the story grates rather than amuses.