Spider Robinson's "Very Hard Choices" -- rigorous, science fictional look at telepathy's problems
Spider Robinson's Very Hard Choices delivers exactly the kind of snappy sf yarn that Robinson fans have come to expect over a career that has spanned decades. Robinson tells stories in the mold of the classic writers -- particularly his mentor and idol, Robert A Heinlein -- stories that rocket along on greased rails, moving so fast that you hardly even notice when the author slides in all kinds of grace-notes, tidbits about politics, spycraft and the oversimplification of the mythology of the 1960s.
Very Hard Choices is the sequel to Very Bad Deaths, a similarly rip-snorting tale that sets up the action: the narrator, Russell, was college roommies with a mysterious geek everyone called "Smelly." Smelly wouldn't bathe and did everything he could to keep people at arm's length. Turns out Smelly is telepathic, and is thrown into increasing agony by proximity to others (his telepathy has no off-switch). He "died" in the 1960s, but he resurfaces for his old roomie in the 2000s, filled with the dreadful knowledge that a savage murderer is plotting a terrible series of deaths in his back-yard.
Very Hard Choices can be read and enjoyed without reading Very Bad Deaths (though it is rife with spoilers of course!), and it continues Deaths's rigorous and thoroughgoing exploration of the special problems of telepathy, diving deep into its premise in a way that is quintessentially science fictional.
In Choices, Robinson takes up the story where he left off, turning the piece into a tense spy-thriller that pits Russell, his son, and the plucky lady cop against a relentless, aging Cold War super-spy who is hunting them as a means of getting to Smelly, for purposes that they can only guess at. Robinson dips in and out of the 1960s throughout the story, presenting us with a more nuanced, complex picture of campus life during the Vietnam War than is common in literature, all the while vividly capturing the flavor of the era in the manner of books like Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis.
This is science fiction in my favorite mode, the "What if?" and "What then?" mode of storybuilding, and Robinson's folksy, punny, style is the sure voice of a lifelong entertainer, the kind of folk-singer mode that gave us Alice's Restaurant and other improbable tales spun by a man with a guitar.
I've been a gigantic Robinson fan since I was a teenager and I've since been privileged to call him a colleague and friend. Among his many virtues, Robinson is also a stupendous reader, and produces DRM-free readings of his books through Blackstone Audio.
Very Hard Choices
the latest
latest episodes
oh sounds cool.
wait, are you seriously using this public domain for promotion of your friend's work!??
didn't you know, you can get fined for that?
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/23/librarian-fined-500.html
public?
I wondered where the magic happened (three quarters down)
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/community/archivedrooms
Oooh, thanks for the head's-up. I could do with something to cool down after Anathem.
And to go with the DRM-free audio recording, you can also buy DRM-free eBook versions of this volume (and the earlier one) at Baen. See, it's more than MilSF! They have quite a few of Robinson's books at Baen, including my all-time favorite, Stardance.
I have loved Spider's stuff since Marc "Starwolf" Gerin-Lajoie handed me Telempath. And for many years I enjoyed his books...until he started to try and consciously write like Heinlein. I like Heinlein's stuff too, owning most of his published output as well...but for the past decade when I hear that Spider has a new book, I pray to Great Ghu that he has gone back to writing like himself again...and I am disappointed.
I don't want someone who writes just like Heinlein, I want someone who writes as good as Heinlein...and Spider used to...but not anymore, IMOHO.
ttyl
Farrell