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Title: The Boat of A Million Years by Poul Anderson ISBN: 0-8125-3135-3 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 15 June, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.84 (31 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Slightly Disappointing
Comment: This is another one of those books that is hard to review because there are a lot of good parts, and a lot parts that are
not so good, so you're left with a mixed bag.
The Boat of a Million Years follows the lives of several immortals from 310 B.C. through the future. It chronicles
the trials they find themselves in trying to hide or mask their immortality from their communities and even their
families, and the life of wandering, and at times despair, it leads them to. In the end they come together to voyage
into space to make their future -- which makes up the last chapter of the book.
Most of the book is written as short chapters chronicling events in the lives of the immortals -- some who don't even
survive to modern times. The most interesting and well written of the characters is Hanno, who we find in the
opening scenes of the book, and several chapters throughout in different eras and with a different name. There are
other interesting characters as well. But the main problem of the novel is it's overwritten and long winded. It takes a
lot of patience to wade through the slag to get to the good parts. And the prose gets a bit stodgy at times.
The last chapter is almost novella length and is probably the strongest part of the book -- but it also has a bit of a dull
edge. The characters just don't seem that amazing or wise given their longevity.
If all the best parts of the novel were pulled together and the chaff culled out -- this could have been an excellent
piece of work. It really does have some interesting things to say about the prospect and consequences of immortality.
But, as is, this is a slightly disappointing work.
Rating: 4
Summary: False Advertising.. but very good
Comment: If you look at the cover of the book, you would presume that this is a classic science fiction book. There is a futuristic spacecraft gliding amoung the stars.
The book is quite different. I thought of the classic movie "Intolerence" when I read this. It is a lot of disjointed stories that progress through time (the last 2400 years and slightly into the future) about Immortals.
This book is like Anderson's very great (5 + stars) book:
Hrofl Kraki's Saga which he translated and adapted from Scandivian lore. A lot of the characters are Norweigen. Also, a lot takes place in the Holy Land as some characters have to convert religions with the rise of Christianity and of Islam.
I liked the book - it was a good read and one can learn a lot of history in the process. I do not give it 5 stars as it is a little to disjointed and is never quite pooled together. It is
not really science fiction and it is really not fantasy; it is more like a James Mitcher epic (but far shorter). I would recomend Anderson's "Hrolf Kraki's Saga" over this one, if you like Anderson's great writing and want a historical book (not sci fi).
Rating: 5
Summary: A great story, beautifully told
Comment: This is a tale of immortals. The direct ancestor of this book is Robert A. Heinlein's "Methuselah's Children." This is hardly surprising, given the libertarian affinity of Anderson and Heinlein. However, Anderson's work is much more detailed and ambitious. He starts in the Bronze Age and ancient Tyre and travels through our own age into the distant future. As usual, Anderson laces his writing with older words and descriptions not found anywhere except ancient epics. (It just wouldn't be Anderson without a "yonder" in there!) In his treatment of the immortals, Anderson describes the practical problems of memory, learning new languages, avoiding "witch burning," and finally, even our own scientific acquisitiveness. Unlike Heinlein's immortals (like the loquacious Lazarus Long), Anderson's people remain people; a bit wiser than the average, but not immune from their own prejudices, pasts, and proclivities. Indeed, by the end of the book, the immortals become the only "real" people left.
I love this book, and highly recommend it to lovers of science fiction and history.
I found it interesting that Anderson made all of his protagonists into libertarians. He gives a lot of examples of how governments turn against their citizenry as they acquire more power. Anderson describes how immortals would chafe at erosions of personal freedom. He also shows how America's civilization, too, can fall. He particularly takes shots at the IRS.
Much of the book consists of the immortals searching for others like themselves. Our immortals come from all over the world: Phoenician, Syrian, Russian, Gaul, Native American, Chinese, Japanese, and African-American slave. The latter part describes the future, and how the immortals cope with a world where they can at last reveal themselves, but which has passed beyond their understanding. The future Anderson depicts closely resembles the future he describes in the Harvest of Stars series. I just love the way this book ends. It offers hope and closure.
If there is a downside to the book, it is that some of the characters and chapters are not as interesting as others. Hanno, the eldest immortal, is the most opinionated, creative, and paranoid of his kind. Some of the chapters surrounding the other characters do not move as quickly. I found myself skimming past some sections that I'd read before.
Perhaps the least believable immortal in my mind is John Wanderer, the Indian (Native American, or pick your own favorite title). He seems to accept the lot of his people rather too easily. Mind you, I don't have an immortal's viewpoint, but I think I'd become depressed or mad as hell, not so assimilationist, as he comes to be. The rest of the immortals seek and find inner peace in their own ways, and their behaviors seem reasonable from my own limited view.
Also, sometimes Anderson's desire to provide sensory detail can get intrusive. By golly, he puts you into third century Gaul, but enough with the smells already! And oddly enough, just around the time where conjuring up a sense of place is important (the future), this type of sensory detail is replaced by airier discussions of mental states and human-computer mental interactions.
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Title: Harvest the Fire by Poul Anderson ISBN: 0812553756 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 15 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Stars Are Also Fire by Poul Anderson ISBN: 0812530225 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 15 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Tau Zero (SF Collector's Edition) by Poul Anderson ISBN: 0575070994 Publisher: Orion Publishing Group Pub. Date: 2000 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson ISBN: 0671721860 Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1993 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Genesis by Poul Anderson ISBN: 0812580281 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 15 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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